Environment
In rural Japan, a closed school becomes a new kind of community hub
Japan’s rural population has been in decline for decades. That’s caused many towns to close schools for lack of students. But residents in the village of Takigahara transformed a former nursery school into a different kind of community gathering place.
Environmental activists jailed in Cambodia
Cambodia lost more than a third of its primary forests to private development in the last two decades. But a movement of young activists have challenged the government to improve its record on the environment. Now, the government is cracking down and arresting activists.
Out of Eden Walk: Northeastern India, by foot
National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek tells Host Marco Werman about his walk through India’s northeastern region, where he traced the steps of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha. He also regales us with tales of a brickyard, where laborers make the building blocks for 21st-century India and of a village where people make everything out of bamboo.
Seafood cultivated in a lab could help mitigate the next pandemic
An Israeli food tech startup, Forsea, is working with Japanese partners to develop artificially grown eel cells, intended to yield edible unagi eventually. Experts hope mass-produced cultivated meat and seafood can help prevent the next pandemic. Host Marco Werman reports.
A look at the impact of pollution on rivers and efforts to keep them clean
The organizers of the Olympic Games in Paris spent $1.5 billion to clean up the River Seine. The World’s host, Carolyn Beeler, speaks with naturalist and author Sy Montgomery about other efforts to keep rivers clean around the planet.