Sea Change

This is part 3 of our three-part series about elements. And today is a biggie: carbon. When we hear about carbon, it's usually about its role in heating up the planet. And while that's an absolutely critical part of the story, the story of this most miraculous of substances is so much larger.  We talk to Peter Brannen, author of The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything, about how carbon has alw...

This is part 2 of our 3-part series about elements.  Last time we met nitrogen, today, it’s partner in crime and in life – phosphorus.   WLRN Environment Editor Jenny Staletovich has gotten to know the main character of this story pretty well after reporting on the environment in South Florida for more than a dozen years. Bone Valley in Central Florida has quietly fed the world’s hunger for phosph...

In this three-part series, we’re giving some of the most misunderstood characters on the periodic table a fuller story. We dive into the fascinating double lives of these elements that are both the makers and unmakers of our world.  In part one, reporter Olga Loginova travels to Cape Cod to meet nitrogen. In this episode: we trudge through the marsh, avoid great white sharks, and find out how we h...

Want to feel better? Get unstuck? Be inspired? Remake the world? Then this episode is for you. We talk with Katherine Wilkinson,  author of the book Climate Wayfinding , and Colette Pichon Battle, lawyer and co-founder of Taproot Earth, about finding our way through the climate crisis. To read more about Climate Wayfinding, or order a copy of the book, click here.   This episode was hosted by Carl...

Why are fishermen being arrested in Louisiana? An epic battle over "Sportsman's Paradise" is being waged on Louisiana's water. This is a story about public rights and private power colliding. As more and more of Louisiana’s coast disappears underwater, the state’s two most powerful and iconic forces – fishing and fossil fuels – are waging war over who owns the drowned land. Check out a print versi...

Carlos Rafael immigrated to the US from Portugal as a teenager, and over the years, built one of the country’s largest commercial fishing operations from scratch. Carlos owned the biggest fleet of boats in the most valuable fishing port in America. He became known as the Codfather. But it all came crashing down in a federal sting.  Who is Carlos Rafael? Depending on who you ask, he's either a vill...

Two years ago, we investigated the Liquified Natural Gas export build out on the Gulf Coast. We followed those exports around the world from Louisiana to Germany to Japan to unravel the story of LNG.  But that story isn’t over. Today, host Carlyle Calhoun returns to LNG with Gulf States Newsroom reporter Drew Hawkins. They talk about how people in Southwest Louisiana are still being impacted by th...

We’re in the beginning of spring bird migration here on the Gulf Coast, which means warblers, vireos, orioles, and thrushes coming through as they make their way up North. Around 2 billion birds make landfall along our coast from March to May after crossing the Gulf of Mexico. But even after the high-stakes crossing of open water, their next leg of the journey is no less perilous. In this episode,...

Sea Change travels to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, for a lively live panel discussion about the future of seafood.  For more than a century, the Gulf seafood industry has shaped towns, cultures, and identities along the coast. Yet, if you talk to almost anyone who works on the water, they’ll tell you the Gulf seafood story has changed more in the last 30 years t...

Artificial reefs have been credited with supporting fisheries, protecting rare species, and attracting tourists that boost the economy. But, of course, like any story about the environment, it gets complicated both here in the Gulf and on Cambodia’s coast.  If you'd like to know more about Alabama's booming artificial reef program, check out this article from Irina Zhorov.   EPISODE CREDITS This e...

For the fourth and final episode of our collaboration with Wetlands Radio, a series about coastal restoration: ways we can all help repair our coast. So...what does a bottle of Two Buck Chuck and slinging back oysters have to do with building land? Find out how one man's trash transforms into coastal treasures. And then, to close out the series on coastal restoration, we learn about the crown jewe...

Oil and gas canals. You’ve likely heard about the canals—tens of thousands of them, ever-widening, shredding the wetlands. The canals are what some scientists say is Louisiana’s major cause of land loss. In Part 3 of our collaboration with Wetlands Radio, we explore the impact of canals, why industry has gotten away with the damage, and what's being done about it now. And then, what does it actual...

The media is full of stories about the coastal land loss crisis in Louisiana, dire predictions of climate change and sea level rise, and polarizing accounts of controversial projects.  What's less known is that Louisiana is really good at something. A world leader, in fact. When it comes to coastal restoration, some say Louisiana is number one. Because project by project, Louisiana is piecing this...

Louisiana is a world leader in coastal restoration. Many would even say number one. The media is full of stories about the coastal land loss crisis in Louisiana, the dire predictions of climate change and sea level rise, and polarizing accounts of controversial projects, but what is also true is that Louisiana is making tremendous strides piecing this ragged shoreline back together little by littl...

The amazing science behind understanding mysterious but critical ocean currents. And specifically, understanding the current in our backyard, the Gulf’s Loop Current. We talk with scientists leading a huge multi-country research collaboration that is going to great lengths and depths to understand the especially unknown Loop Current. We talk about how currents connect us, how they are basically a...

This is part 2 of a 2-part series exploring the future of farming seafood in the Gulf. We know this: demand for seafood is soaring. We won't be able to sustainably meet that demand from wild-caught fisheries. And there’s a growing global movement to farm more and more of our seafood.  The Gulf is one of the LAST places in the world where there is still a major wild oyster harvest. Lately, though,...

This is part 1 of a 2-part series exploring the future of farming seafood in the Gulf. Americans eat a lot of farmed seafood — but the vast majority of it comes from overseas. We just don’t farm fish on a big scale in U.S. waters. Now that might start to change. There are proposals to build massive fish farms in U.S. federal waters. And guess which coast is likely to be the first home for these ne...

The story we are bringing you today is about sea turtles. In fact, it’s about the smallest and most endangered of sea turtles, called the Kemp’s Ridley. It’s a surprising and optimistic tale about a turtle’s return to Louisiana.  We reported this episode back in 2023, but we wanted to revisit it because who doesn’t need more sea turtles in their life right now? And also because there has been some...

What does it take to stay rooted on the Gulf Coast, even as the land and weather change around us? We meet individuals, from a poet to a minister to a computer programmer, each finding their own creative ways to adapt and fight for the future of their communities. From amphibious homes to inland retreats to processing our changing environment through poetry, we hear how people's ingenuity is helpi...

There was a time back in the 1980s when overfishing had decimated popular fish like red snapper and grouper in the Gulf. But then, there was a dramatic turning point, when both fish and fishermen in the Gulf were kind of saved. Today, we hear the remarkable success story of how unlikely partners joined forces to save an industry and an ecosystem. In this episode, Environmental Defense Fund's Execu...

Today, we’re bringing you a wild story. It’s about a covert ocean adventure from back in the Cold War days that inadvertently set off a brand new industry. And it’s an industry that’s been in the news a lot lately: deep-sea mining.  Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order to try to fast-track deep-sea mining, while many countries are calling for more research before any mining...

Today, we bring you three stories exploring what it really takes to be ready for the next big storm. But at their core, these stories are about something deeper: the determination to keep living here on the Gulf Coast, and about the choices we’re making that will decide whether that’s possible. Thanks for listening to Sea Change. This episode was hosted by Carlyle Calhoun, Eva Tesfaye, and Michael...

For the first time since Hurricane Katrina made landfall 20 years ago, you can take a train ride across the Gulf Coast, from Mobile to New Orleans. And all these years later, the cities along that route are still living with the storm's aftermath. In this episode, we hop aboard the train and make four Gulf Coast stops along the way to share that story. About what happened during Katrina. How some...

Two decades after Hurricane Katrina and its devastating aftermath reshaped New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, we gathered to remember all that was lost, reflect on the lessons learned, and pay tribute to all the good that has been done in the two decades since. And, we look to the future: where do we go from here, and how can this region not just survive but thrive? Renowned jazz musician Dr. Michael...

This August marks twenty years since Hurricane Katrina. Today, we are bringing you a story we first aired in 2023. It’s about a word heard everywhere after Hurricane Katrina. And people across the Gulf Coast have strong and complicated feelings about it.  The word is resilient.  A special thanks to Rob Verchick, author of The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience . And, to e...