podcast

January 2024

A panel of Dark Sky advocates explains why limiting light pollution is needed to protect migratory birds, as well as its implications for human health, environmental justice, scientific research, and outdoor recreation in PA.

May 2023

Of America’s ten most endangered waterways, as ranked by the group American Rivers, two can be found in Pennsylvania. The Ohio and Lehigh rivers illustrate how intimately connected water issues are with human activity and a changing climate.

April 2023

When people vote to raise their own taxes to fund conservation programs, it’s noteworthy. When it happens in a deeply conservative rural community, it’s unusual. But when the proposal passes by a four-to-one margin, it’s a mandate — and then some.

October 2022

PEC’s 2022 gap analysis of the Circuit Trails network in Philadelphia is more than just a list of priority segments: it proposes a whole new way of thinking about trail projects in terms of social impact.

March 2022

An art exhibition in Philadelphia was the focus for a wide-ranging discussion on local history, racial justice, climate resiliency, and the critical role of water in the life of communities.

In the perennial swing state of Pennsylvania, elections are often decided by voters who don’t identify with either political party – and recent polling shows Independents have swung hard on the issue of climate.

June 2018

Among the most memorable pieces of audio I’ve ever captured, the story beginning at the 7:58 mark creates a powerful emotional impact that integrates seamlessly with the theme of the episode.

March 2017

Departing from the podcast’s usual interview format, I produced this as a public radio-style documentary with natural sound, scripted narration, and interstitial music.

In 2015, while working as a radio host and producer at 90.5 WESA in Pittsburgh, I was approached by University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris about an idea he had for a podcast. I knew Dave as a subject matter expert who had appeared frequently on our local airwaves, and before national audiences, in the months after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri. He proposed to interview people he’d encountered in his scholarly and advocacy work who had valuable perspectives to share on race and law enforcement, including other legal thinkers and researchers, authors and journalists, activists, police officers and prosecutors, and people who had experienced the U.S. criminal justice system from the inside. The goal was to expand and elevate the discussion around race, police violence, and mass incarceration.

We worked together to develop and launch Criminal Injustice in 2016, initially under WESA’s banner, and I continued to produce the show after leaving the station later that same year. Within two years we split off to become an independent production, eventually growing to a monthly audience of around 50,000 listeners. By the time the podcast ended in 2022, I had produced, edited, and published more than 150 long-form interview episodes and many hundreds more timely, news-driven “bonus” episodes.

Between production and promotion duties I enjoyed occasional opportunities to sit in as host, as in this 2020 special when I interviewed Professor Harris about his new book, A City Divided.