July 20, 2026

We begin with Jean-Luc Pierite and Lux Trevelyan from the North American Indian Center of Boston, for a conversation about growing & fostering tree canopies in and around Boston.

Edgar learns about new research on Fit Bit-style plant sensors from Tufts researcher Sameer Sonkusale.

We end our special meeting sound designer and musician Skooby Laposky, who creates compositions using electrical currents in plants.

In this bonus interview, Edgar meets Mass. General Hospital sleep researcher Chenlu Gao, to help answer a listener-submitted curiosity question how it's possible to be totally exhausted and still unable to fall asleep.

If you’ve got something you’re curious about, we'd love to hear from you! Head to The Curiosity Desk landing page at GBHNews.org and fill out the question form.

July 17, 2026

Arun Rath is guest hosting today!

We talk briefly with Mathew Barlow, a Professor of Climate Sciences at Umass Lowell, about this week’s wildfire smoke & why the sky turned yellow.

GBH’s Renuka Balakrishnan joins with Emily Schario from The B-Side for ICYMI. They’ll talk about the best local swimming pools, the 22nd annual Sand Sculpting Festival on Revere Beach, and cyclosporiasis ruining summer salad season.

Why has the vinyl record endured? And what’s the value of physical media in an era of online disinformation? Arun talks with Joan Donovan from the Critical Internet Studies institute, this week with Tony Goddess from Mystery Train Records in Gloucester.

Arun talks Indigenous history with Aquinnah Wampanoag singer/songwriter Thea Hopkins & Cerise Lim Jacobs from White Snake Projects, around a new interactive freedom trail experience for America 250.