Environment Nature

Introduces early listeners to environmentalist concepts including urban gardening; locally sourced food options, and the safety of pesticides, and what they can do to help the environment. Features real-life examples like the Houston East End Greenbelt, which have made a difference.

Introduces early listeners to environmentalist concepts including drought, water conservation, and wetlands conservation, and what they can do to help the environment. Features real-life examples of kids who have made a difference.

Introduces early listeners to environmentalist concepts including single-use plastics and upcycling, and what they can do to help the environment. Real-life examples of kids who have made a difference are featured.

All valleys are long, low cuts in the earth, but there is more to these landforms than meets the eye! While rivers form most, glaciers and splits in the Earth's crust can form others. Some are at the bottom of the sea! Give beginning listeners all the need-to-know information about valleys, including their characteristics, how they form, and where they can be found around the world.

All caves are underground, but there is more to these landforms than meets the eye! Water forms some caves, while volcanic lava forms others. Some have waterfalls, while others have huge stalactites and stalagmites. Give beginning listeners all the need-to-know information about canyons, including their characteristics, how they form, and where they can be found around the world.

From snow plows to skyscraper nests and rooftop gardens, life in the city changes from season to season. Discover what animals live in the city. Learn how smog forms in summer.

Soil is the unlikely story of our most maligned resource as swashbuckling hero. A saga of bombs, ice ages and civilisations falling. Of ancient hunger, modern sicknesses and gastronomic delight. It features poison gas, climate collapse and a mind-blowing explanation of how rain is formed. For too long, we've not only neglected the land beneath us, we've squandered and debased it, by over-clearing, over-grazing and over-ploughing.

Our insatiable demand for animals - for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur - is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Rachel Nuwer, an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology, takes listeners on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to 10 countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving the demand.

Earth Day celebrates our beautiful planet and calls us to act on its behalf. Some people spend the day planting flowers or trees. Others organize neighborhood clean-ups, go on nature walks, or make recycled crafts. Listeners will discover how a shared holiday can have multiple traditions and be celebrated in all sorts of ways.

More than 70 percent of Earth is covered in water. Yet only about 3 percent of it is freshwater that people can use. Every year, parts of the world suffer through severe droughts, and millions of people don’t have easy access to clean drinking water. Why is there a shortage of clean and healthy water? Max Axion and the Society of Super Scientists travel around the world to learn the reasons behind the global water crisis. Young listeners can tag along to discover what causes water scarcity and find out ways they can help preserve this precious resource.

Countless animals around the world are in danger of dying out! But why are species going extinct, and what happens when we lose them? Max Axiom and the Society of Super Scientists are on a mission to find out. Using their superpowers and super-smarts, the team will break down this urgent issue into an exciting, fact-filled adventure so young listeners can learn about the causes and effects of animal extinction and endangerment and discover steps we can all take to save Earth’s wildlife.

Spend a day and night in the rain forest! Learn about this lush habitat through the diverse animals that call it home. Start the morning suspended high in the canopy with a colorful toucan. Curl around a branch and bask in the afternoon sun with an emerald boa. At sunset, pace the forest floor for prey alongside a sleek jaguar.

Spend a day and night in the prairie! Learn about this grassy habitat through the exciting animals that call it home. Spot prairie dogs popping aboveground as morning sun floods a field. Join giant bison as they graze on grass. Stir up dust on a sunset sprint with antelope. After dark, stake out prey with a coyote in dense grass.

Spend a day and night in the savanna! Learn about this grassy habitat through the interesting animals that call it home. Nibble a breakfast of sky-high leaves with a giraffe. Then construct towering mounds with termites. At sunset, shriek and prowl for prey with a pack of hyenas. After dark, go on a high-speed hunt with a cheetah.

Spend a day and night in the desert! Learn about this dry habitat through the unique animals that call it home. Stand with meerkats during a watchful hunt for insects. Spot a jackrabbit taking a shaded midday nap. Join a desert tortoise as it dines on colorful cactus fruit. After dark, follow a snake as it slithers in cool, moonlit sand.

Spend a day and night in the tundra! Learn about this cold habitat through the intriguing animals that call it home. Catch breakfast mid-flight with a peregrine falcon. Spend the afternoon snoozing with an Arctic fox. Take an evening trek with a herd of caribou.

Spend a day and night in the forest! Learn about this wooded habitat through the fascinating animals that call it home. Leap from tree to tree with a squirrel searching for breakfast. Pounce with a fox on the forest floor. Soar with a red-tailed hawk as the sun sets.

Some animals live in water. Some animals live on land. The land that animals live on can be very different. What makes a place the right home for an animal? Let’s investigate habitats!

As one of the most beautiful and intriguing birds found in nature, hummingbirds fascinate people around the world. The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backwards, diving at speeds of 61 MPH, and beating their wings more than 60 times a second. Miraculous creatures, they are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. That’s where Brenda Sherburn comes in. With tenderness and patience, she rescues abandoned hummingbirds and nurses them back to health until they can fly away and live in the wild.

We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.