Science reporting with Colorado ground truth.
KGNU - How On Earth brings science reporting into a local public-radio frame, moving from headlines into interviews with researchers, journalists, conservation voices, and health specialists. Its recent range runs from chronic pain neuroscience and menopause research to grassland ecology, pollinators, prairie dogs, and consumer behavior.
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KGNU - How On Earth is a community-radio science program built around evidence, explanation, and local consequence. It has the feel of a news magazine, but its strongest recent episodes linger where science touches ordinary decisions and public systems. A segment on Buy Now, Pay Later connects consumer finance to reward pathways, online shopping, and debt risk. A women’s health conversation follows menopause research into childhood adversity, stress, cognition, inflammatory markers, and behavioral-health studies. The neuroscience coverage can get concrete fast. In an episode on chronic pain, Jason Ball describes brain pathways, sensory processing, and experimental methods in plain enough language for a general audience. The environmental side is equally grounded. Recent conversations look at prairie dogs, raptors, burrowing owls, bald eagles, development pressure, agriculture, energy infrastructure, and grassland habitat. Pollinators are treated as more than garden charm; they are linked to food production, cattle forage, biodiversity, pesticides, and planetary health. Climate appears through dryland science and grasslands rather than only through broad policy language. The show also keeps a close eye on science communication itself, including an episode featuring Miles O’Brien and reporting on acetaminophen claims during pregnancy. What holds the range together is method. The program asks what researchers know, how they know it, what remains complicated, and where listeners can find more. Its register is measured and accessible, with public-radio signposting and enough technical vocabulary to respect the subject. The Colorado frame gives the show a practical edge. Local researchers, conservation groups, and Front Range concerns recur across the excerpts. KGNU - How On Earth suits discovery because each episode offers a self-contained doorway into a larger question: health, land, climate, money, evidence, or the living systems nearby.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants science explained through health, ecology, public evidence, and local consequence. It fits people who like careful public-radio pacing more than hot takes.
What sets it apart: The show’s distinction is its blend of science-news framing, researcher interviews, and Colorado-specific environmental reporting. It connects mechanisms to lived effects without turning complex evidence into simple certainty.
How On Earth is a 25-minute news magazine about science, environment, technology, and more. The show is produced by volunteers at KGNU community radio in the Boulder-Denver area. We collect fascinating science headlines from around the world, produce features about the exciting research being done in our region, and interview the many accomplished scientists that make Colorado their home. How On Earth is also broadcast live at 8:35am (Mountain Time) every Tuesday morning in the Boulder-Denver area on KGNU: 88.5 FM / 1390 AM / Streaming on KGNU.org
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Tiny payments hide a bigger psychological bill.
The episode treats Buy Now, Pay Later as a psychological lure assembled from small visual cues: the black arrows, the black capital K, the promise of $10 a month, and the way those tiny steps can make a $300 dress feel almost harmless.
Menopause is framed through brain health, childhood stress, and research on ACEs.
This episode treats menopause as a brain-health story, bringing Dr. Christina Metcalf and the hosts into a discussion of how childhood stress and trauma may shape later symptoms.
A careful look at the circuitry that helps pain become chronic.
How on Earth opens by linking stress, eczema, and chronic pain, then follows recent CU PhD grad and neuroscientist Jason Ball as he explains new work on a brain circuit tied to chronic pain.
A Colorado grassland discussion tying prairie dogs, raptors, and the pressures reshaping their habitat.
How on Earth begins with a quick look back at Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine before turning to Colorado grasslands and the animals that depend on them, including prairie dogs, owls, eagles, and ferrets. Joel Parker and Susan Moran bring in Dr.
Documentary storytelling on ecology and Indigenous land stewardship, hosted by Mendel and Adam.
BBC World Service reporters explain climate mechanisms and policy from the Amazon to Delhi to the Alps.
Books, systems, and the questions that unlock them.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
A conversation with Tim McNary about katydids and other autumn insects, their songs, and their role in the ecosystem.
Boulder journalist Hilary Rosner discusses her debut book about repairing connectivity in a fractured world.
An interview with Dr.
This episode explores the neurological and behavioral factors that make Buy Now, Pay Later services enticing and potentially addictive, especially for younger consumers.
KGNU's How On Earth on April 7, 2026 focuses on menopause and the brain, with Susan Moran, Megan Rabbit, and Dr.
Chronic pain affects as many as one in five Americans, and Jason Ball says a CU Boulder brain circuit can push pain from acute to chronic.
Prairie dogs are down about 95% from historical levels, and Rich Reading says that loss is collapsing habitat for black-footed ferrets, burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, and bald eagles.
KGNU’s How On Earth interviews Amy Yarger of the Butterfly Pavilion about pollinators, food production, ecosystem services, pesticides, and climate-related timing shifts.
Ecologist Brooke Osborne discusses how grasslands and dryland science can help restore snow and rain in the Rocky Mountain West, followed by news on rare blood clots from COVID-19 vaccines.
This episode of How on Earth features a report on the controversy over acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, followed by an interview with science journalist Miles O'Brien.