Featured image: How people view climate change depends intimately on its portrayal in the media. How can it be covered well? (Courtesy Reuters and Oxford)

This week we host Margaret Koval, former broadcast news producer and current Princeton Communications Director of Special Projects. Initially a staffer on Capitol Hill with an academic interest in Soviet affairs, Margaret transitioned to broadcast news, cutting tape herself and traveling widely. Eventually she sought longer-form stories, producing documentary films on the World Wars, ancient Rome and more. Here at Princeton, she leads the She Roars podcast, interviewing women alumni from Nobel laureates to community activists, and is planning to start a solution-oriented podcast on climate change.

Before the interview, listen for a Wayfinding book giveaway: Thanks to those that called in and offered their methods of navigation! We heard about getting around with landmarks, compasses, white canes, light pollution, and by memory association.

In other news:

• Sea sponges might be a convenient natural collector of environmental DNA, which helps scientists assess which species exist in a given ocean environment.
• State parks are a hugely appreciated tourist resource, but they may be strapped for resources as climate change increases the length of summertime and local governments let their budgets stagnate.

The playlist can be found at WPRB.com or below.

Featured image: Songline dot art of Aboriginal Australians, which acts as a cultural narrative tool and a map through Australian grasslands and deserts all at once. (courtesy National Geographic)

This week, author Maura O’Connor guides us through her new book Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World. Our modern selves may rely on GPS to get from A to B, but our brains are capable of extreme navigational feats: Inuits in snow, Aboriginal Australians in the bush, and seafarers in Oceania all travel far without the concept of “being lost.” Maura shares how these travelers use natural clues and cultural context to find their way, and how neuroscience shows that wayfinding, memory and storytelling are all intertwined.

In other news:

• Another new book, Supernavigators, details the wondrous worlds of animal navigation.
• Cities are large enough reservoirs of concrete and heat that they create their own clouds, as scientists showed in new satellite and ground-based observations.
• A new database of solar panels in Australia helps engineers pick panel sites, with data on cloud coverage, voltage returns and local grid efficiency.

The playlist can be found below or on WPRB.com.