Car carrier operators are enjoying a strong market, but in first quarter earnings reports, they pointed to one problem: efforts in Australia to prevent stink bugs from entering the country. This week’s episode explains why stringent biosecurity measure are trying to stop invasive species from entering the country on ships.

In this episode, we hear from Wallenius Wilhelmsen chief executive Lasse Kristoffersen, Hoegh Autoliners chief executive Andreas Enger and Flinders University professor Corey Bradshaw.

What’s all the stink about stink bugs in shipping?

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is reminding boaters to clean, drain and dry their vessels and gear when leaving Texas lakes to prevent the spread of invasive species like zebra mussels.

05/15/23 - Zebra mussels infest Coleman County lake

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) reports progress in the fight against invasive plants on Texas lakes. 

TPWD says giant salvinia weevils feed on giant salvinia and can help curb the spread of the plant.

07/04/23 - Weevils helpful in fight against giant salvinia on Texas lakes

Dr. Floyd Shockley-Waging War on Hammerhead Worms

The Not Old Better Show, Inside Science Interview Series


Welcome to The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast.  I’m Paul Vogelzang; as part of our Smithsonian Inside Science interview series,  we have the latest buzz…the Spotted Lantern Fly spottings are on the rise throughout the country, potentially causing enormous crop damage and economic loss, and the Hammerhead Worm is another potentially dangerous species you need to be on the lookout for…here to tell us that and more is returning guest Dr. Floyd Shockley, Smithsonian’s Collections Manager for the Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History….Dr. Shockley will join us momentarily as we have much to discuss today.

But quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 734th episode when I spoke with Alan Shayne about his new book, ‘THE STAR DRESSING ROOM: Portrait of An Actor   Alan Shayne's new book, ‘The Star Dressing Room,’ is an affectionate, often uproarious new memoir that takes us back to Broadway's golden age. Two weeks ago I spoke with Forbes 30 Under 30, CEO and co-Founder of Lectric eBike, Levi Conlow.  Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com. You can Google Not Old Better and get everything you need about us!

Smithsonian’s Dr. Floyd Shockley is here to help us understand the Spotted Lantern Fly, Hammerhead Worm, and all other insects. Dr. Floyd Shockley is the Collections Manager for the Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.   In addition, we’ll talk to Dr. Shockley about ways insects are pivotal to our environment and ecosystems, how insects adapt and evolve to survive in rapidly changing environments, and what kind of economic threats or damages spotted lantern flies and hammerhead worms pose, particularly to gardeners and farmers, and bees, because ‘Bee Lives Matter,” a lot more.  

My thanks to Dr. Floyd Shockley, from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  My thanks, as always, to the Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show.  And my thanks always to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience.  Remember, stay safe, everyone, and let’s Talk About Better.  The Not Old Better Show.  Thanks, everybody.

Also, look out for another episode this week featuring Dr. Bridget Cole Williams, where we’ll discuss the future of cannabis in medicine and her book, Courage in Cannabis.

Dr. Floyd Shockley-Waging War on Hammerhead Worms

Interview with Professor Corey Bradshaw of Flinders University about fox control in South Australia (ABC 891 Afternoons with Sonya Feldhoff).

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/adelaide-afternoons/afternoons/102768546

ABC 891 Afternoons interview with Corey Bradshaw about fox control

METAHAEVEN 001.

Songlist :
Pain! - Marco
Eh ahh - nez
タイムアウト - invasivespecies
Sekiro - yayayı x amai
Hi-tech - purple denim
Marvel - shamana
Whip out a stick - nez
G of the jungle - shamana
Blunts - shamana
Run - shyguy
Damage - shyguy
Stranded - sadworldbeats
Fuk dat - iji
Running from my head - shamana
Obeying laws in gta - shamana
Dnmt - invasivespecies

METAHAEVEN 001

In this episode, Kate interviews Dr. Catriona Sandilands about her work with feminist critical plant studies and "loving the difficult" in invasive plant management. Particular plants covered include roses, nettle, mulberry trees, and scotch broom. If you are interested in Sandilands' work, you can find it on her website, https://www.catesandilands.ca/. Also, for more information about her work referenced in this episode, you can find "Plant/s Matter" here (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00497878.2021.1983433), "Mulberry Intimacies" here (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003023319-3/mulberry-intimacies-sweetness-kinship-catriona-sandilands), and "Loving the Difficult" here (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781478022664-003/html?lang=en). Additionally, feel free to check out her co-edited volume of Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture, Environment "Gardening the Anthropocene" (2023).

If you are interested in connecting with Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene, please visit our website networkingwithplants.org or email us at networkingwithplants@gmail.com.

The music piece is kindly offered to us by artist Mileece. You can find her work at: www.mileece.is

Special thanks to steering committee member Joe Culhane for creating the podcast image.

Episode 20 Kate Brelje Interviews Catriona Sandilands

The story of Lantana is one of unintended consequences. A strong-smelling flowering plant with clusters of colourful pink, yellow, and red blossoms that resemble miniature wedding bouquets, Lantana is hard to miss in the Indian countryside. Despite its alluring appearance, the plant has earned the dubious title of an invasive species, which rapidly outcompetes native flora and poses a challenge for conservationists.

European planters, who chanced upon it while exploring its native haunts in Central and South America, introduced Lantana to India about two centuries ago. Today, it is hard to find a part of India that is free from the plant’s influence. Most commonly encountered at the edges of forests that have been burned or cleared for cultivation, it grows roots quickly, spreads aggressively, and chokes out native vegetation by excreting chemicals that stunt their growth. Being toxic to grazing animals makes it even harder to control. Pollinated by bees and butterflies, with birds dispersing its seeds, Lantana has travelled far and wide. Now it is naturalised in more than 50 countries on five continents.  

In Story of Lantana, the third episode in our series Story Of… Richa Govil and Madhuri Ramesh of Azim Premji University ponder the differences between alien and invasive species, mulling over the role that humans have played in altering biodiversity around the world. They reflect on the broader implications of introduced species and confront the complexities of categorising organisms as invasive or desirable. 

While examining how to live with invasive species that are a challenge to manage, Madhuri and Richa applaud the efforts of organisations that have embarked on innovative ventures to repurpose Lantana as a valuable resource. Through craft collectives and artisanal workshops, the sturdy stems of Lantana find new life as furniture and sculptures, offering both economic opportunities for local communities and a sustainable solution to its proliferation.

But the story doesn't end there. By examining how food crops like potatoes and tomatoes were introduced to India by Portuguese traders centuries ago, we embrace the intricate relationships between humans, plants, and ecosystems. Through a thought-provoking exploration of 'novel ecosystems' that challenges conventional dichotomies, the presenters invite us to reconsider our perceptions of native and invasive species. As we navigate these nuanced discussions, we are urged to contemplate the interconnectedness of our natural world and the implications of human intervention.

The story of Lantana prompts us to observe, question, and appreciate the intricate tapestry of life that surrounds us. So, the next time you admire a blooming flower or savour a meal, ponder its origins and the intricate web of relationships that define our natural world.

Credits:
Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Harshit Hillol Gogoi, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar

For a comprehensive list of acknowledgements and resources for further reading and exploration, visit our website: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/crunch-slurp-the-story-of-pani-puri

Story Of Lantana | Story of… with Richa Govil

Hear the story of the seemingly insignificant introduction of the lionfish to a highly interactive and interconnected coral reef ecosystem. The natural strategies of the lionfish within its nonnative environment highlight the species’ ability to alter and reshape a thriving, biodiverse, and economically important ecosystem.

Episode 1: New Pirate of Florida Keys Invades from Pacific

What’s the Climate Record of Kamala Harris? That story and more on H2O Radio’s weekly news report.

Headlines:

More than 350 prominent environmental and climate activists signed a letter endorsing Kamala Harris for president. So, what's her record?

Because of water withdrawals and global warming, the Great Salt Lake in Utah is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions.

We expect records to be broken at the Olympics, but shattering old climate numbers are probably not what athletes and fans had in mind.

Meet Pestina, the way-too-sexy cartoon insect that got canceled by the USDA in the 1960s. (Maybe the Playboy-style centerfold was a bit much?)

This Week in Water for August 4, 2024

This week, we’re rebroadcasting an episode from the Resources Radio archive while the team is on a break through the rest of December. We’ll be back with new episodes in the new year; in the meantime, enjoy this throwback and poke around the archive at Resources.org for more topics you might be interested in.

In this week’s episode rerun, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rebecca Epanchin-Niell, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) who coauthored a journal article with RFF scholars Alexandra Thompson and Tyler Treakle about the role of the public in detecting invasive species. Pointing to a recent incident in which a member of the public spotted an Asian giant hornet in Washington State, Epanchin-Niell describes how more than a quarter of detections of invasive species—and possibly more—stem from these citizen scientists. Recognizing the essential role of the public, policymakers can make it easier to alert authorities about the presence of unusual species.

References and recommendations:

“Public contributions to early detection of new invasive pests” by Rebecca Epanchin-Niell, Alexandra L. Thompson, and Tyler Treakle; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/public-contributions-to-early-detection-of-new-invasive-pests/

“Hidden Brain” podcast; https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain

“The Endangereds” by Philippe Cousteau and Austin Aslan; https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/childrens-the-endangereds

Public Engagement in Invasive Species Detection, with Rebecca Epanchin-Niell (Rebroadcast)

PhD Candidate Peter Hamnett of the Global Ecology Laboratory (http://globalecologyflinders.com) at Flinders University discusses the recent eradication of feral pigs from Kangaroo Island in conjunction with Biosecurity SA, as well as the paper he recently led to determine optimal and cost-effective control options for pig removal (http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70082). This interview was with Brooke Neindorf of ABC Rural (Eyre Peninsula) that aired on SA Country hour last week.

Eradication of feral pigs from Kangaroo Island - interview with Peter Hamnett

No NOAA, No Safety? That story and more on H2O Radio’s weekly news report.

Headlines:
Fears have been raised about how NOAA staff cuts by the Trump administration could affect air traffic safety.

Progress was made at the COP16 biodiversity meeting last week toward its goal to stem extinction and environmental degradation.

Researchers have identified a drink that can help you get the lead out.

If you can’t beat ‘em—eat ‘em.

This Week in Water for March 2, 2025

Functional Ecology author Adam Devenish chats to Amelia Macho about his research article, 'Mutualistic interactions facilitate invasive species spread'

Adam's study explored the impact of invasive Argentine ants on seed dispersal involving both native and invasive plants. Through field experiments comparing invaded and non-invaded areas, he observed shifts in seed dispersal patterns and examined how traits like seed size and chemical composition affected ant-seed preferences. Adam's findings, that in areas invaded by Argentine ants, seeds from invasive plants were three times more likely to be dispersed than native seeds, highlight that impact of invaders may be greater than initially perceived, driving losses in both biological and functional plant diversity.

Read the full research article here:
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14688

You can view images of Adam's research, mentioned in this podcast, in the article's plain language summary:
https://fesummaries.wordpress.com/2024/10/15/how-invasive-argentine-ants-disrupt-native-seed-dispersal-and-promote-plant-invasions/

Functional Ecology | Adam Devenish: Mutualistic interactions facilitate invasive species spread

A haunting track on invasive species and human disruption — from bees to forests, a warning of what happens when balance breaks.

Life

Uninvited

The evolution of plants has been so successful that today they account for the majority of living biomass on Earth. Humans, along with all other animals, exist thanks to plants, and we can continue to exist only in relationship to them. Plants are all around us, but we tend to overlook their importance in our everyday lives. Plants are essential not only to every breath we take, but also to our food, medicine, shelter, and clothing. Still, most of us walk through life and ‘nature’ without recognizing plants as the beings shaping the planet.

The Vegetal Turn
Given the magnitude of challenges facing the Earth, recent years have seen a renewed and growing attention to plant life across the humanities as well as in the social and natural sciences. This Vegetal Turn is generating transdisciplinary conversations within and beyond academia that seek to create awareness of plant lives and stories and that pursue respectful relationships with plant beings by advancing an ethics of care. How can we better understand the role and agency of plants in shaping on Earth? What does respect mean when engaging with a forest, a field, an orchard, or a potted plant? How do we advance a transition from thinking to acting, from research to practice, in our connection with plants?

What actions are now needed?
We believe that the current challenges of the Anthropocene offer a compelling and urgent opportunity to advance a movement for thinking and engaging differently with plants as well as for increased allyship and exchange between researchers, practitioners, educators, and activists. Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene is a newly created network for those involved in research, education, and advocacy for human-plant relationships of care and reciprocity, and a collaboration between the Consortium of Environmental Philosophers, The Plant Initiative, the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network, the Eternal Forest project, and other groups. We invite connections with additional existing and incipient networks and communities concerned with plants and ethical plant-human relationships to carry out multidisciplinary projects. Such a “polyculture of ideas” will bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous science, literature, philosophy, poetry, art, anthropology, education, botany, and environmental activism.

What do we do?
Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene aims to create and offer tools, content, and methods for transdisciplinary and transgenerational environmental education engaging with the Vegetal Turn that isinternational but locally grounded. The network collaborates to advance outreach and education for the general public through books, conferences, videos, podcasts, and other educational materials, both online and in person. Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene is built on a foundation that is respectful of Indigenous and local botanical knowledges, contemporary scientific discoveries, and world philosophies and literatures. We support generative ways to cultivate educational pathways through art, stories, songs, ceremonies, and individual experiences as well as opportunities for collaborative action.

We welcome your support for the goals of better understanding plants and aligning human behavior with plants in more ethical and respectful ways. For more information or to join in this initiative, please contact us: networkingwithplants@gmail.com

Who We Are
Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene’s Steering Committee:

Alice McSherry

Anna Perdibon

Deepta Sateesh

Evgenia Emets

Joela Jacobs

Kate Brelje

Marcello Di Paola

Paul Moss
thinkingintheworld.com/projects/netw…anthropocene/

Green Seas is the podcast on the environment and the business of the ocean. Join TradeWinds reporters Eric Priante Martin and Craig Eason as they explore topics of sustainability in the maritime sector as ocean industries face pressure to clean up their act.

You are listening to Radio Azim Premji University, our campus radio station. Azim Premji University was founded in 2010 with the vision to contribute to the realisation of a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. On our channel, you can tune in to a variety of engrossing shows on themes ranging from democracy and culture, science and mathematics, and more. You can also experience a slice of campus life. If you are a seeking student, an arts aficionado, curious about science, or just passionate about India, subscribe and start listening.

Credits:
Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar

Tracey is a high school science teacher pursuing a Master of Teaching in Biological Sciences from Miami University.

Our music speaks of personal memories, quiet resistance, and the fragile strength of those who keep going, even when the world seems to fall apart. Each song begins with a line, an image, or a feeling. This is not about trends.
It’s about truth in sound. About making people feel what often goes unheard. Because music won’t fix the world, but it can remind us what’s worth saving.
Stories that stay. Songs that move.

To everyone who listens: If our music speaks to you, we’re grateful. We don’t follow a formula. We follow feeling. And every time someone listens, shares, or reflects it shapes what comes next. We let ourselves drift, absorb, and respond to the world around us. But we never let go of honesty. We don’t shy away from uncomfortable truths, we lean into them. If you like what we do, please follow us. Share the songs. Let us know what resonates. You’re not just an audience, you’re part of the current that carries this music forward.

JUMBOBLOCKMUSIC.DE
Enjoy on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer,  SoundCloud and others.

Podcasts from the British Ecological Society

Paul Taylor Vogelzang is an award-winning blogger, podcaster, writer, producer and style fanatic, known for his down to earth accessible reporting and advice for men and women 50 + age, and their families. Paul was one of the founding editors of MommyCast & MommyCast Latina, the wildly popular, very first mom podcasts in audio and video, and its producer from 2004 to 2009. Paul’s current, but also award winning podcast, The Not Old - Better Show launched in 2014. Paul continues to share vibrant, focused, entertaining content on the show, and writes frequently about the subjects of fashion, grooming and the “senior man.”  Paul lives just outside of Washington DC, with his lovely wife, Gretchen (also a MommyCast founder), and where the two of them are active in many arts, business and philanthrophic organizations, love to feed the Northern Wren, and are the parents of two sons.


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Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.

H2O Radio is journalism about water. We follow water wherever it leads us and report on what we find. We interview experts— from engineers and scientists to legislators and politicians in order to get the facts. But we also talk to ordinary folks to ask how water issues affect their lives. Why? Because we're all in this together. This is a conversation about water and our collective water future.

New tracks tagged #INVASIVE SPECIES