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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.

  • The student scientists identify air pollution as an avoidable sign of climate change in their neighborhoods. So, we start to bring their research and questions to Bridgeport's policymakers to see how the ideas of middle school students can help protect their city.
  • The quality of the water — either what falls from the sky when it rains, floods from the coast when it storms, or bubbles up the tap to drink — is on the minds of our student scientists. So, they build an innovative prototype to reuse water.
  • Our student scientists recognize there is only so much that people can do to protect water quality in their harbors. When it rains, it pours into their streets, flooding into city sewers. They are curious about what flows downstream into their neighborhoods.

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.…