https://thepublicsradio.org/possibly-podcast

Possibly, Providence, RI (2025)

02/20/2025

Wasted food takes up lots of space in landfills and, while getting a compost bin at home is great, it isn’t enough to solve the problem.

This week on Possibly, we take a look at how the RI School Recycling Project is helping schools take big steps towards eliminating food waste.

Listen now:

Wasted food takes up lots of space in landfills and, while getting a compost bin at home is great, it isn’t enough to solve the problem. This week, we investigate how schools are taking big steps towards eliminating food waste.

02/11/2025

You might not realize it, but the time of day you charge an electric car (or use any large amount of electricity) can impact the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted.

On this week's episode of Possibly, our reporters help you make sense of it, and explain the best time to plug in your car.

If you have an electric car, and you want to try to reduce the greenhouse gases that are created in order to power that car, when should you charge it?

02/05/2025

This week on Possibly, a new program in Framingham, MA is leading the transition from gas to geothermal heating and cooling.

Possibly's reporters explain why network geothermal could help natural gas companies get on board with a move *away* from gas.

Listen now on The Public's Radio 89.3FM

A new program in Framingham, Massachusetts is leading the transition from gas to geothermal heating and cooling.

01/29/2025

Hospitals have to use (and throw away) a lot of single-use plastics to deliver care for patients. But on this week’s episode of Possibly, we look at how one hospital came up with a safe way to recycle those plastics.

Listen here:

Hospitals have to use a lot of single-use plastics to deliver care for patients. In today’s episode, we look at how one hospital is cutting down through their medical plastics recycling initiative.

01/21/2025

This week on Possibly, the second Trump administration is underway, so our reporters took a look at a group hoping to shape the US's energy policy: a Republican caucus in the House of Representatives called the Conservative Climate Caucus

Learn about the group in our latest episode:

With the second Trump administration underway, the Possibly team takes a look at a group hoping to shape the country's energy policy: a Republican caucus in the House of Representatives.

01/14/2025

This week on Possibly, with Trump's second term just one week away, we wanted to check in on President Biden's defining climate legislation: the Inflation Reduction Act.

What’s happened since it passed? Who has been implementing it? And what does its future look like under Trump?

Listen to our latest episode, available now:

In the summer of 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. The law was the US’s largest investment in climate and clean energy ever. But what’s happened since then? Who has actually been implementing the bill?

01/07/2025

This week on Possibly we have the third installment of our ⚡️Wacky Climate Solutions 🌎 series!

Listeners asked us if, instead of sending trash to landfills, we could put it on rockets and send it into the sun! 🚀🚀🚀

In our latest episode, Possibly's reporters figure out if this idea will be taking off any time soon.

We asked our listeners to send in their wildest ideas for addressing climate change. And one listener, thinking about all of the trash Americans throw into landfills, asked if we could send it somewhere else: the sun.

12/31/2024

It's New Year's Eve! Which means it's time for a Possibly tradition: our New Year's Resolutions episode. 🪩🎊

Every year the Possibly team looks back at the episodes we reported and thinks about how those episodes can inspire our resolutions for 2025.

Listen to the team's climate-related resolutions and get inspired for your own in our latest episode:

As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes, and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2025. Here’s what some of us had to say.

12/24/2024

🎄This week on Possibly, our reporters explain why Brits won't have any coal in their stockings this year.🎄

In the past few weeks there have been big changes to the way the UK gets its electricity. The country closed its last coal power plant and announced an ambitious new energy policy. Listen to our holiday episode, for some good news about the climate:

Britain recently announced the closure of the country’s last coal-fired power plant, as well as an ambitious new energy plan. This week on Possibly, we break down what happened.

12/17/2024

If you’ve ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows. They look something like this: ♳ ♴ ♵ ♶ ♷

On this week's episode of Possibly we take a look into the meaning behind these numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.

If you've ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows around it. Today we take a look into the meaning behind the numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.

12/03/2024

This week on Possibly, two of our reporters played a game - a game designed to help them make decisions that will affect the climate the most.

Listen to the episode to hear about Choose your own adventure: Climate Action, a game created by professor Kimberly Nicholas, and try the game yourself at the link below:

We played a climate game that is supposed to help you find the highest-impact changes you can make in your life to take effective climate action. Could games like this actually help address the climate crisis?

11/26/2024

Turkeys are more than just a Thanksgiving meal, they're a part of forest ecosystems across the country. In this week's episode of Possibly, we take a look at how they made a major comeback in New England after being driven to local extinction.

Listen now:

Turkeys are more than just a Thanksgiving meal, they're part of forest ecosystems across the country. In this episode of Possibly, we take a look at how they made a major comeback in New England after being driven to local extinction.

11/19/2024

You probably know that coal power plants are bad for the climate and your health. But how much of an impact can one coal power plant have? Where does its pollution go?

Find the answer on this week's episode of Possibly, a crossover episode with Brown University School of Public Health's podcast Humans in Public Health, a monthly podcast about the people behind public health research, hosted by our very own Megan Hall!

Listen to this week's episode of Possibly here:
https://thepublicsradio.org/environment/can-we-count-the-number-of-people-who-die-because-of-coal-powerplants/
And find the full-length episode of Humans in Public Health here:
https://humans-in-public-health.captivate.fm/episode/counting-coals-casualties

Coal plants emit gasses that are harmful to our health: but how many excess deaths have they caused? Cory Zigler tracks particles to find the answer

11/12/2024

Hospitals can be hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions. But the Boston Medical Center is part of a movement of hospitals that have cut their emissions by changing which anesthesia doctors use.

Listen to the latest episode of Possibly to hear how some types of anesthesia are warming the planet more than others:

Hospitals can be hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions. But Boston Medical Center is part of a movement of hospitals changing their anesthesia to cut their footprint.

10/29/2024

Everyone knows that plastic pollutes our environment. But it’s less obvious how plastic creates emissions.

This week on Possibly, we asked chemist Taylor Uekert from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to break down why plastic use is a climate change issue.

Listen to our latest episode:

Everyone knows that plastic pollutes our environment. But it’s less obvious why plastic would create a lot of emissions. Today, we break down why plastic use is a climate change issue.

10/22/2024

To stop climate change we need to use less fossil fuel and that includes cutting down on the gasoline we put in our cars. Does that mean longstanding ideas about what counts as “good gas mileage” are out of date?

This week on Possibly, our reporters try to figure out what "good gas mileage" means these days. 🚙⛽️

Listen now:

There’s an urgent need to use less fossil fuel, and that includes cutting down on how much gasoline we put in our cars. Does that mean longstanding ideas about what counts as “good gas mileage” are out of date?

10/15/2024

Since 1957 URI Graduate School of Oceanography has been surveying plankton in Narragansett Bay, one of the world's longest running plankton studies. New research into this data showed that the level of phytoplankton in the Bay has dropped by half over the past 60 years.

So this week on Possibly, we asked why:

Plankton form the basis of the food web in oceans and new research shows that the level of phytoplankton in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay has dropped by half in the past 60 years. We wondered why.

10/08/2024

If you’ve ever spent time in a library or art museum on a hot summer day, you might have felt much colder than you expected.

This week on Possibly, we break down the counterintuitive reason why some librarians are wearing hats and gloves in July.

If you’ve ever spent time in a library or art museum on a hot summer day, you might have felt way colder than you expected. On this episode of Possibly we break down the science of why libraries get so cold in the summer.

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