Meredith McInturff, manager of the Public Health Emergencies and Environmental Health Unit at the New Orleans Health Department, joins John to discuss how the New Orleans Health Department is evolving to meet the growing threats of extreme heat. She and John explore the public health challenges faced by vulnerable populations, from unsheltered individuals to transit riders and outdoor workers, and how these challenges are shaping new city policies and cross-sector partnerships aimed at heat...

Jesse Keenan, the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning and the Founding Director of the Center for Climate Change and Urbanism at Tulane University, joins John to talk about the second transformation: How extreme heat is moving north due to climate change. Jesse’s work focuses on climate change adaptation and the built environment, including design, engineering, and planning. He and John discuss what this heat transformation means for communities in the...

In this episode of Audacious Water, host John Sabo continues the conversation on the first transformation —the deserts of the west moving eastward—with Brian Smoliak, an entrepreneur and climate scientist at Two Degrees Adapt. Brian shares insights on how climate change is affecting agriculture, and discusses innovative solutions helping farmers adapt. From cutting-edge technologies to evolving farming practices, Brian explains the vital role entrepreneurship and innovation play in addressing...

In this episode, John Sabo speaks with Jonathan Overpeck, a renowned climate scientist and Dean for the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Peck discusses his role in defining critical climate change terms such as “tipping point” and “mega-drought, how climate change is exacerbating drought conditions in the Western U.S. and spreading aridification across the Midwest, and strategies for adaptation, including changes in agricultural practices and the...

In Season 4 of Audacious Water, host John Sabo dives into how climate change is reshaping the Mississippi River Basin. He'll explore five different transformations over ten episodes with experts and people on the front lines to find out what's happening and how we can take action. Join us as we explore a future shaped by climate change. The new season starts next month.

In this special bonus episode, John and his daughter Lilly take a road trip from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the headwaters to get to know this great river, along with some of the people who live along its waters. From a fisherman in Plaquemines to visitors at the headwaters, each person they meet along the journey paints a picture of how they experience life by the Mississippi.

Tulane professors Torbjörn (Tor) Törnqvist, a geologist, and Sönke Dangendorf, a coastal engineer and physical oceanographer, join John to talk about sea level rise and coastal restoration, and what could happen to coastal communities if we pass the Paris Agreement global temperature threshold of 1.5-degree Celsius. Sönke has more than 15 years of experience researching mean and extreme sea levels, ocean tides and storm surges and the impact on coastal flooding, and is a member of the NASA...

Richard Seager, a climate scientist and the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, joins John to talk about changes in aridity in North America around the 100th Meridian, and how climate change is going to affect the heartland of the U.S. and the Mississippi river basin. Richard’s current work is focused on how global hydroclimate will change in the near-term future as a result of rising greenhouse gases, and how...

Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and a Global Futures Professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, joins John to talk about groundwater management and the state of water in the American west. Jay has extensive experience measuring and tracking groundwater and water security issues, including using satellites to help develop advanced computer models to track how freshwater availability changes around the globe.

Cash Daniels is a 13-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who has been cleaning up rivers since he was just seven years old and cofounded the kid-run nonprofit, The Clean Up Kids. He and John talk about plastic waste in waterways and what can be done about it, how it affects human and wildlife health, and his upcoming documentary, The Conservation Kid.

Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Wetland Studies at Louisiana State University and the lead scientist on the recent 2023 dead zone cruise, talks with John about the current state of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, why it matters to the Gulf economy, what it might take to reverse it.

Ed Clark, Director of NOAA’s National Water Center and the Deputy Director of the National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction, talks with John about how data science plays a role in water forecasting, how new tools and technologies can provide better services to all communities, and how the National Water Center might help prepare the nation for the implications of climate change on human health.

Can New Orleans thrive with water? Jessica Dandridge, Executive Director of The Water Collaborative in New Orleans, talks with John about what water justice means, how to engage communities in creating solutions, and why we should think about thriving versus resilience.

Phosphorus and nitrogen are critical for growing food but can be dangerous when they enter our waterways as runoff. Lisa Schulte Moore, a landscape ecologist, Iowa state university professor, and a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, talks with John about how Iowa agriculture practices impact the Mississippi River and how her work integrating prairie vegetation into crop fields led to real results in reducing soil erosion and nitrogen and phosphorus runoff.

The Mississippi river is basically the aorta of the United States, pumping out globally crucial agriculture and commerce to the world. In this new season of Audacious Water, we're exploring the challenges facing the Mississippi and the hundreds of millions of people who depend on it. Hear from experts about everything from how we can reduce the Gulf Dead Zone to how we can stop New Orleans from sinking.

Thomas LaVeist, public health expert and Dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, talks with John about how climate change will impact health, especially for more vulnerable communities, and the role water will play.

John Sabo continues his conversation on the future of water with Morgan Snyder of the Walton Family Foundation, covering aquifers for storage, California vs. Arizona groundwater and whether farmland is natural infrastructure.

In the first of a two-part conversation, John Sabo talks with Morgan Snyder, senior program officer in the Walton Family Foundation's Environment Program, about the future of the Colorado River and how to fix the culture of water use in the US West.

What should a US natural infrastructure strategy look like? John talks with Todd Bridges, the US Army Corps of Engineers' senior research scientist for environmental science and the national lead for the Corps' Engineering with Nature Initiative.

In the final part of our corporate water stewardship series, Glen Low of The Earth Genome talks with John about science-based targets, metrics and the next frontiers for business and water.

John talks with The Nature Conservancy's Kari Vigerstol about the role NGOs have made in changing how corporations think about water stewardship & how that engagement has transformed NGOs.

Todd Reeve, CEO of the Bonneville Water Foundation, tells John about how corporations collaborate (and don't) on water stewardship beyond their own fence lines.

In the first in a four-part series on corporate water stewardship, Nick Martin of the Antea Group and the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable talks with John about how corporations have approached water stewardship inside their own four walls.

Melody Wright, owner and principal of Say/Do Strategies and a former Philadelphia city official, tells John what lack of affordable access looks like in cities, why we don't understand the full extent of the problem, and how a Philadelphia program is providing a model solution for the rest of the nation.