Up From Dust

Mar 04 2025 9 ep. 32 mins 46

Up From Dust Podcast artwork

Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, as seen from the Great Plains and the Midwest. Host Celia Llopis-Jepsen wanders across prairies, farm fields and suburbia to find the folks who are fixing our generational mistakes. From the NPR Network, KCUR Studios, and the Kansas News Service.

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Can we save millions of migrating birds?

Mar 04 2025 25 mins

In 1978, a young scientist “brazenly trespassed” around a Chicago building in search of dead birds. He unwittingly began a 40-year journey that could help save countless warblers, thrushes and more. Most of America’s 10 riskiest cities for migrating birds lie in the middle of the country. We’ll find out why — and how every resident from Texas to the Canadian border can he

The case of the disappearing lake

Oct 14 2024 41 mins

During times of drought, when the rains fail, man-made lakes come to the rescue of our cities and towns. Except the reservoirs we’ve come to depend on for drinking water are filling up with mud instead. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an idea to tackle the problem, and they’ll try it for the first time ever — in Kansas.

What's better for the environment: Tea or coffee?

Sep 09 2024 32 mins

Have you ever wondered about the eco-story behind your daily brew? Join us as we spill the beans on the environmental impact of tea and coffee, from cultivation to consumption. (This episode comes to us from the podcast Living Planet.)

Dry times on the High Plains

Aug 05 2024 44 mins

Ancient waters that lie deep beneath the dry High Plains helped to turn western Kansas into an agricultural powerhouse. But the Ogallala Aquifer’s wells have begun to run dry after decades of tapping it for our corn, wheat and cows. In the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, we’ll learn how farmers are adjusting as the water disappears and hear how some are prodding state leade

Healing the ground we broke

Jul 01 2024 37 mins

After Europeans colonized America, their descendants plowed their way across the continent, seeking prosperity through farming. But breaking up the soil – that had built up over many thousands of years – made it wash away. So some farmers are retiring their tilling equipment. Amble through Kansas prairies and cornfields as we learn how treasuring the ground beneath our feet can

For the love of dung beetles

Jun 03 2024 34 mins

It’s easy to advocate for saving pandas and elephants, but bugs are a harder sell. Look closer, though, and you’ll find tiny superheroes propping up entire ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, predators and prey. We’ll wander the prairie with bison ranchers, in search of the dung beetles that work quiet miracles in huge piles of poop. And we’ll meet people overcoming the

The Green Glacier

Apr 22 2024 42 mins

A vast ocean of grass and wildflowers once covered one-third of North America. But that diverse prairie biome is collapsing, partly due to greenhouse gases and to our obsession with trees. Humans have unleashed an aggressive canopy that’s swallowing the Great Plains. For ranchers, saving the environment means being a tree killer — not a tree hugger.

When good plants turn bad

Apr 17 2024 34 mins

Humans opened a Pandora’s box by moving plants, animals and fungi around the planet where they didn’t live before. Some of those species become so successful in their new surroundings that they crowd out others. Come along on a hunt for rogue Bradford pears, meet the teens turning cityscapes into butterfly havens and learn how to turn invasive plants into delicious food.

Introducing: Up From Dust

Apr 02 2024 1 mins

Trees are swallowing prairies. Bees are starving for food. Farmland is washing away in the rain. Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a new podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, as seen from America’s breadbasket: Kansas. Hosts Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos wander across prairies, farm fields and suburbi