Common Groundwater | Podcast Guru

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Michigan is defined by the Great Lakes that surround it. But there's a so-called sixth lake that’s critical to our state, too: our groundwater. It flows deeply through every community and to every corner of our peninsulas. Yet, we have so much more to learn about this natural feature. Like groundwater, this podcast shows environmental issues felt deeply, widely and personally across the state. It tells stories around those issues and the solutions to them. It goes beyond the headlines to bring listeners and viewers something grand yet personal to us all.

Recent Episodes

Rising to the Sun

The country roads around the small town of Albion are some of the prettiest you'll see in Michigan. Take it from this podcast host, who would run them with his cross country teammates at Albion College. Now, there are new neighbors out among the corn and soy and old trees, stunning in their own way but undeniably different: solar panels. Over 4,000 acres of them, generating enough electricity to power 60,000 homes. Bonnie Lord noticed these panels, too. She's the editor-in-chief of the A...

33 MIN

Roots Deep & Wide

Michigan's crops are the second-most diverse of any state. We tried to replicate that point of pride that in this episode. We went to two seemingly disparate places to talk about the critical relationship farms have with pollinators. First, we took the train to small-town Dowagiac in southwest Michigan to talk to Merry Clark about the history and benefits of organic and regenerative farming. Then, we drove over to Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood to meet Brittney Rooney of Beaverland Farms t...

33 MIN

The New 'Silent Spring'

In the mid-1900s, governments and industries across the globe were using the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT. Then came Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson that thoroughly documented the harm caused by DDT to waters, to wildlife and to people. It galvanized a movement that ultimately led to the chemical’s large-scale ban. Now some are saying a new Silent Spring movement must happen, because a pesticide 5,000 to 7,000 times more potent than DDT is here: neonicotinoids, w...

35 MIN

Of Swallow-Wort & Celandine

Swallow-wort. A vine with beautiful, star-shaped flowers. It tricks insects into laying eggs on its leaves. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the leaves—and die with a one hundred percent mortality rate. Lesser celandine. A plant with bright, glossy, yellow flowers. It blooms early in the spring, outcompeting other plants only to offer little nutritional value to insects fresh out of hibernation. It then dies and leaves a bare patch of ground for other harmful plants to inhabit. Both these ...

32 MIN

The Pollinators

Yes, the pollinators of Michigan are the animals and insects, like bees and hummingbirds, that help plants grow and reproduce by moving flower to flower. But "The Pollinators" is also the name for Carly and David Cirilli, co-founders of the nonprofit Plymouth Pollinators. Over the past few years, the Cirillis and an ever-growing list of gardeners have created a string of beautiful, functional and even critical gardens just for pollinators in their slice of Metro Detroit. Carly, David and ho...

31 MIN