Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast BUZZKILL, presented by REAP/SOW

Americans stepped up to do something about dying bees. But what if all those backyard colonies are making the problem worse? In Buzzkill’s premiere episode, we take an in-depth look at whether raising domesticated bees, especially in cities, is harming the wild species we need to preserve biodiversity.

We’re in the middle of a full-blown biodiversity crisis: American honeybee populations have declined by 90 percent in the last two decades. It's not rocket science. How we produce our food is killing off the very pollinators that food relies on. But don't panic, because it is not too late to fix this – and Buzzkill will show you how. Premiering January 28. 2025.

FERN contributor Ted Genoways interviews Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb, two writers taking on popular foods and their fraught cultural history – the racist cultural history of the watermelon, and the Hindu nationalist politics of beef in India. The final installment of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard, a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

FERN Editor-in-chief Theodore Ross interviews Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, co-owner of Owamni, a James-Beard-Award winning restaurant in Minneapolis that is decolonizing food by using only indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques. Part 2 of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard, a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

Top Chef star Tom Colicchio sits down with longtime FERN contributor Ted Genoways for an in-depth conversation with the acclaimed celebrity chef. Part 1 of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard, a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

REAP/SOW: dispatches from the front lines of food, farming, and the environment, is the latest audio project from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, non-profit news organization. Learn about what you can expect and check out the trailer for our upcoming limited series, BUZZKILL!

From our friends at Climavores: The eat local movement is huge. Bumper stickers in liberal towns across the U.S. tell us to “Eat local” or ask “Who’s your farmer?” But eating local food may be wildly overrated when it comes to climate change. 

When we look at how foods are produced, transportation accounts for less than 10% of carbon emissions. So should we abandon farmers’ markets for big grocery store chains? 

In this episode, Mike and Tamar break down the real carbon footprint of local food and ask whether the value of supporting local, small-scale farmers outweighs the climate benefit of not buying local (spoiler alert: Tamar says yes. Mike says no). They also dive into the history of the local food movement and explore why it’s gained such traction.

Have a question about food and climate change for Mike and Tamar? Leave a message on the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at climavores@postscriptaudio.com. We might feature your question on a future episode.

We have a bonus episode from a show called “How to Save a Planet,” a Spotify Original podcast produced by Gimlet Media. This show looks at climate change from the lens of — OK, so what do we do about it? The episode we’re running takes on one of the biggest climate issues in agriculture, Beef. And it asks whether adopting a plant-based diet would fight global warming. So should we all go vegetarian? To answer that question, How to Save a Planet looks at the American food system, regenerative farming, and, well, eating. Hint: it’s complicated.

More than a fourth of our food, including most of our fruits and vegetables, comes from California. But what happens when drought parches the region we depend upon to eat? Producer Travis Lux travels into the Delta region of Arkansas to explore a vision of the future  — a new California.

Modern agriculture has been tweaking the same system for decades, but scientists think we need a new approach for a warmer world — one that involves novel crops. Producer Rachel Yang visits with researchers and explores the challenges of changing what we grow and what we eat.

Most American farmers don’t believe man-made climate change is real. Yet we need those farmers to be part of the climate change solution. So how can we get them on board? Producer Dana Cronin finds a surprising answer in Illinois. Hint: It starts with the soil.

In 1988, a drought made Dave Bishop a different farmer. Back then, he was a freak in farm country. Today, he is the model that we need all farmers to be if we are to have any chance of fighting climate change and continuing to eat.

Here’s a thing you may not know about the Transcontinental Railroad: It helped turn California into an agricultural powerhouse – transforming the food system – and it also galvanized a series of Civil Rights victories. This episode, reported by FERN contributor Lisa Morehouse, was produced in partnership with “California Foodways” and KQED’s alifornia Report” podcast.

Over four episodes, host Eve Abrams and her team travel the Midwest, engaging with farmers who are confronting the difficult reality of climate change—increasingly extreme floods and heat—including those who don’t believe they’re part of the problem. We also meet the scientists who are developing new crops that are better suited to an unpredictable climate, and the people who are trying to convince farmers and consumers to embrace those crops. And we get a detailed look at one possible future for agriculture in America: As California dries out and heats up, people are asking if other regions of the country can take up the slack. Part 1 coming April 12.

Nic Theisen and his wife, Sara, operate a small but bustling farm in northern Michigan, growing flowers and vegetables with the help of a large team of farmworkers. It's backbreaking work, the farm hardly makes a profit… and Nic's a little surprised he’s doing this at all. It’s real life on a small farm. This episode, originally entitled “Labor of Mixed Emotions” is courtesy of the “Points North” podcast, and was originally aired on September 13th.

California transports water to Central Valley farmers through a complex network of reservoirs, aqueducts, and canals. This water system is controversial… and without constant maintenance, it might collapse. For REAP/SOW, reporter Lisa Morehouse, host of the “California Foodways” podcast, profiles California’s irrigation canal divers. This episode was produced in partnership with “California Foodways” and KQED’s “California Report” podcast.

Boyce Upholt's report on the environmental threat to redfish on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana anchors this episode of REAP/SOW. It dives deep into the cultural history of this fish that was made globally famous by Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish dish, while also engaging with the modern-day politics driving how much – if at all – it should be taken from the water. This episode was produced in partnership with WWNO’s “Sea Change” podcast. 

Los Angeles was running out of water in the early 1900s, and Payahuunadü, "land of flowing water" in the Nüümü language, had lots of it. City officials hatched a plan to take the water from what white settlers had renamed the Owens Valley. Today, about a third of L.A.'s water comes from Payahuunadü and other parts of the Eastern Sierra, and many of its streams and lakes are mostly gone. FERN staff writer and REAP/SOW host Teresa Cotsirilos digs into Indigenous efforts to forge a modern resolution of this water conflict. This episode was produced in partnership with KQED’s California Report.

This episode, courtesy of the podcast “What you’re eating,” heads to Maine to investigate PFAS, a category of chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down over time. Found in everything from pizza boxes to rain jackets, PFAS is now being discovered in our farms, our food, and in our bodies. Originally released in September 2023, we hear from family farmers Fred and Laura Stone about how these chemicals got into their ground – and what we have to do to get them out.

David “Mas” Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. This episode of REAP/SOW is a FERN/KQED California Report partnership, telling the story of a Japanese-American farming family that’s survived generations of discrimination. Masumoto’s small organic farm just south of Fresno, California is on land that’s been in his family for decades. In 2012, he uncovered a secret about his family that showed him how truly resilient and strong they were. Reported by longtime FERN contributor Lisa Morehouse as part of her California Foodways project, this episode was originally produced in 2023.

In a small fishing village in Mexico, Belen Delgado made a discovery that would change his life: a massive cache of callo de hacha, a large black scallop that’s one of the most prized species in the Gulf of California. Years of overfishing had depleted the area’s fish and seafood, and Belen knew his discovery could change his village’s economic future. But reaching the scallops was only the first challenge: Belen would also have to protect it. Originally released in 2022, this is a partnership between FERN and Snap Judgment.

In Nebraska, a researcher’s bee colonies kept dying, and the evidence pointed to the ethanol plant next door – and a food system built on pesticides.

White settlers viewed farmland as a resource to be exploited, while Indigenous people saw it as a partnership for mutual benefit. Now, a Native American tribe is solving today’s environmental problems and helping pollinators with ancient techniques.

The Golden State’s annual almond harvest shows what happens when biodiversity collapses and bees become a commodity valuable enough to steal.

Nearly all tequila is made from cloned plants that are vulnerable to species collapse. In Mexico, a small group of people is trying to change that – and protect an endangered, nectar-slurping, agave-pollinating bat that’s only three inches long.

A suburban couple was passionate about pollinators, native plants, and living in harmony with nature. Their neighbors were not impressed. This “battle of the backyard” turned out to have national implications.

This is a story about how a single TikTok video, taped in 2023 outside a meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado would change the lives of hundreds of Haitian immigrants, and embroil JBS – the world’s largest meatpacking company – in a controversy over mistreating workers. Reported by FERN senior producer Ted Genoways and produced in partnership with Reveal, this episode dives deep into a poorly understood part of the food system, which is depended on foreign-born workers the government now seems intent on deporting.

This is an engaging conversation on urban pollinators taped live during the Buzzkill celebration in New York City on March 3, 2025, moderated by Sewell Chan, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, with Buzzkill host Teresa Cotsirilos, Sara Hobel, executive director of the Horticultural Society of New York, and Rebecca Louie, executive director of the Bee Conservancy.