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Ways & Means Presents: Green Ideas

What motivates people to commute via bus or bike? The Ways & Means podcast aims to answer that question in this episode on climate change.
What motivates people to commute via bus or bike? The Ways & Means podcast aims to answer that question in this episode on climate change.
What motivates people to commute via bus or bike? The Ways & Means podcast aims to answer that question in this episode on climate change.
Credit Courtesy of Ways & Means
What motivates people to commute via bus or bike? The Ways & Means podcast aims to answer that question in this episode on climate change.

North Carolina is home to some of the best public policy minds in the nation. The Ways & Means podcast highlights faculty research at one of the state’s top programs: Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

The State of Things presents The Ways & Means podcast from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Each episode explores how to improve society and find solutions to some of the biggest issues of the day like access to guns, hospice care and early childhood development. The State of Things is pairing up with Ways & Means to bring you four special episodes over the next month. Today’s focus: climate change.

Journalist Emily Hanford introduces us to a special effort to investigate what motivates commuters to leave their cars behind and take a bus or ride a bike to work. Plus, hear about some surprising forces that can get people to change their mind about climate science, and stories of researchers investigating a method of creating power from fast moving streams in Nepal.

Part One: Commuting in Durham

A government innovation team in Durham, North Carolina recently tested several ideas to reduce carbon emissions in commutes with real workers.

Part Two: Parenthood and Climate Change

Former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis talks about his change in attitude toward climate change and Duke professor Megan Mullin and PhD candidate Emily Pechar discuss their research around the topic.

Part Three: Generating Power in Nepal

Researchers are investigating a method of creating power from fast moving streams in Nepal. Sometimes these micro-hydro minigrids work and sometimes they don’t and the researchers want to know why.

Ways & Means music by Blue Dot Sessions./ Creative Commons attribution. Additional music by Kevin MacLeod / Incompetech.com / Creative Commons attribution.

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Carol Jackson has been with WUNC since 2006. As Digital News Editor, she writes stories for wunc.org, and helps reporters and hosts make digital versions of their radio stories. She is also responsible for sharing stories on social media. Previously, Carol spent eight years with WUNC's nationally syndicated show The Story with Dick Gordon, serving as Managing Editor and Interim Senior Producer.
Emily Hanford