The Blab Lab

South Kingstown recycling coordinator Charlotte Canner shares tips for composting your kitchen food scraps at home with host and ecoRI News reporter Rob Smith.

ecoRI news reporter Colleen Cronin talks to state Department of Environmental Management Director Terry Gray about a new partnership with the University of Rhode Island to open the W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich.

ecoRI News reporter Rob Smith speaks with Rhode Island Environmental Education Association Executive Director Jeanine Silversmith about environmental education.

Cedric Ye has become a fixture of the Rhode Island transit advocacy scene. He talked to ecoRI's Colleen Cronin about the problems and opportunities he sees in the Ocean State's public transportation system.

In 2023, Quidnessett Country Club in North Kingstown, R.I., built an illegal seawall to protect its 14th hole from coastal erosion. The board of Rhode Island’s coastal regulatory agency (CRMC) ordered the club to take the wall down, but Quidnessett has yet to comply. The battle has exposed inefficiencies of CRMC’s board and its vulnerability to political pressure. ecoRI News reporter and Blab Lab...

After the federal government terminated two grants, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management struggled to align its programs with the administration’s priorities while still maintaining a commitment to initiatives such as environmental justice. ecoRI News reporter and Blab Lab host Colleen Cronin speaks with DEM director Terry Gray.

Blab Lab host and ecoRI News reporter Rob Smith speaks with senior reporter Frank Carini to discuss Carini’s ongoing series on southern New England’s endangered species — many of which are threatened by habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change. Frank also shares some tips for what you can do to help wildlife.

In recent years, Rhode Island has experienced, on average, about 70 wildfires. Ecosystem disruption fueled by climate change is only going to make the state more susceptible to these fires. ecoRI News reporters Rob Smith and Colleen Cronin tackle this hot topic with director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Terry Gray, and his colleague Tee Jay Boudreau.

The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) just evicted someone who really deserved it. Since 2017 a derelict crane-topped barge has been partially sunk in the Province River near Public Street. The barge presented a navigational hazard and ecological concerns — and has been a serious eyesore for the waterfront. Thanks to a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the...

Chris Durand, Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s newly appointed CEO who helped the agency avoid service cuts during a driver shortage answers questions about free transit, future funding sources for Rhode Island's bus system, and reveals his favorite bus line.

ecoRI News reporter and Blab Lab host Colleen Cronin talks with director of Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Terry Gray about how the incoming Trump administration may impact Rhode Island's climate goals and policies.

ecoRI News reporter and Blab Lab host Colleen Cronin speaks with Kate Schapira, teacher, activist and author of " Lessons From the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth." The book to guides readers through personal and general climate anxiety, frustration, helplessness and grief, toward a sense of shared purpose and community care. Kate and Colleen digest the 2024 election results in the context of cli...

ecoRI News reporter and Blab Lab host Colleen Cronin poses listener questions to Department of Environmental Management director Terry Gray. Their wide-ranging discussion covers everything from Aquapalooza to plastics recycling.

Host and ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin sits down with Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management director Terry Gray to understand where the state is in terms of meeting its climate goals and what happens if it falls short.

ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin speaks with Rhode Island’s director of environmental management, Terry Gray, about some new stormwater initiatives. She also gets Terry’s take on what went well — and what didn’t — during the recently concluded 2024 legislative session.

ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin speaks with the team behind the environmental podcast Possibly to discuss the history of the podcast and Possibly's latest episode, which explores whether a giant space umbrella could slow global heating.

ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin sits down with Rhode Island's director of Environmental Management, Terry Gray, to discuss how climate is lengthening beach season, beach renourishment, a recent whale death, open records, and balancing affordable housing with land conservation.

ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin sits down with Terry Gray, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, to talk about his agency's biggest challenges and successes, exclusion of land conservation funding from the latest state green bond, and his favorite hiking spots.

On Aquidneck Island, all of the municipal drinking water sources are impaired. The water is safe to drink, but only thanks to an intense purification process that is getting more and more costly. ecoRI News reporter Colleen Cronin and publisher Joanna Detz discuss the causes of water pollution and how some are working to save the island’s drinking water.

ecoRI News reporters Rob Smith and Colleen Cronin examine why quahogs are vanishing from Narragansett Bay. Some shellfishers are saying the bay is "too clean" to support a robust quahog population.

ecoRI News staffers offer tips on reducing holiday waste without becoming a Scrooge.

ecoRI News reporter Rob Smith interviews Colleen Cronin about her public records journey to requisition data from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for a story she reported on pedestrian fatalities. Two-hundred dollars and nine months later, she's appealed to Rhode Island's attorney general and is still waiting to get information about the location of the intersections where pe...

Beach season may have ended, but conflicts over shoreline access have not. ecoRI News reporters Colleen Cronin and Rob Smith break down pending and settled lawsuits, and explain recent legislation that determines where the public beach begins and where private property ends.

Providence resident Greg Gerritt hasn't driven a car in more than three decades. Reporter Colleen Cronin interviews Greg about hitchhiking to carpentry jobs, walking eight to 10 miles a day, and how living car-free has made him happier, healthier and more financially secure.

Cranston, R.I., is seeing a population boom — but its not human families that are moving in. In this episode, ecoRI News reporters Colleen Cronin and Rob Smith break down some of our recent reporting on why more rats are moving to the 'burbs.