Sand is everywhere. Beaches. Rivers. Deserts full of powdery dunes. How could we possibly run out?

Journalist Vince Beiser has dug deep into the past century — and more — of human construction and found one tiny grain at its foundation: sand. In apartments and eyeglasses, in computer chips and cleaning equipment. The hunt for sand has reshaped coastlines, spawned black markets, and launched beach “heists.” And, some of them, possibly, could have been avoided, if the Romans had bothered to write down their own lost recipe for concrete.

Guest:

Vince Beiser, journalist and author of The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

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Also mentioned this episode:
Are We Going the Way of the Roman Empire?

You have plastic in you. In your lungs, your gut, your blood, maybe your brain. That sounds bad.

But how bad?

Ben Bradford investigates whether microplastics are shaping up to be one of those hazards humanity realizes too late — like lead, asbestos, or air pollution — or whether we’re filling gaps in the science with fear.

Guests:

Tracey Woodruff, environmental health scientist and epidemiologist

Ian Mudway, toxicologist at Imperial College London

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It’s a particularly watery moment, with a hurricane on the Gulf Coast and El Niño-fueled waves flooding California homes. Not helping: The seas are rising, and they’re going to keep rising. How much can we build to stop that? And if we can’t, what will happen to the places in the way of the waves?

Ben Bradford starts in New Orleans, where a flashpoint new study finds rising water will (eventually) overwhelm our best sea walls. But what about those of the Dutch, who have spent a thousand years living dry at submarine elevations?

Then, there are nations already retreating from the rising water’s path. From Lagos to Fiji, we look at the best attempts we can learn from — and the worst.

Jesse Keenan, professor of urban planning at Tulane University and author of North: The Future of Post-Climate America

Jola Ajibade, environmental sciences professor at Emory University

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