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Higher Ground Podcast

This is “Higher Ground” from WSHU Public Radio. We find ways to cope with rising tides and climate change.

Hosted and produced by J.D. Allen and Sabrina Garone.


Season 2: Climate change is the greatest persistent threat to the way of life in coastal cities. Higher Ground puts the microphone in the hands of a classroom of student scientists as they come to grips with the global crisis in Connecticut’s largest city. The students think they know something about global warming, but, together from the classroom to the outdoors, we will brainstorm changes to improve their community.

Support from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator program.

This season was produced in partnership with the Discovery Science Center and Planetarium.

  • We are teaming up with an after-school program for Bridgeport middle schoolers to explore how students perceive the global climate crisis in their neighborhoods.
  • We are headed outdoors to make observations — to see Bridgeport through the eyes of its youngest residents. The eighth-grade student scientists will record what they find, helping them better identify with the global climate crisis in their neighborhoods.
  • The student scientists are still learning how to identify and use reliable information about climate change. These teens are trying to figure out what their role can be in addressing this seemingly overwhelming problem.

Season 1: Climate change is already here. On Long Island, communities must prepare, and people find ways to adapt to rising tides and extreme weather that threatens America's first suburbs. Higher Ground tells the stories of these communities exploring solutions that may or may not give them the best chance at survival and help save the places millions of people call home. Or they may discover that the only way forward for suburban America is retreating from the sea.

Support comes from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and the Kavli Foundation.

  • The historic bay houses of the Great South Bay speak to a long tradition of living by the water. Their designs contain forgotten knowledge for post-storm…
  • Hundred-year storms now topple Long Island's power system every few years. We trace the electric grid to find ways to become more climate resilient.…
  • Climate-resilient infrastructure can help turn the tide against pollution. Baymen also want to keep waterways clean with nature's filters — shellfish.…