‘Buzzkill’ Examines the Crisis of Disappearing Honeybees and Other Pollinators
The Central Valley’s almond industry is hosting what some call the Super Bowl of beekeeping. Commercial beekeepers from across the country take an estimated 90% of the nation’s honeybees and load them into trucks in time to make a narrow pollination window for those Central Valley almond trees. But it’s gotten harder and harder to keep those bees alive. All over the world, bees, butterflies, moths and flies are disappearing. Sasha Khokha sat down with Teresa Cotsirilos, host of “Buzzkill,” a new podcast that investigates this pollinator crisis.
Dynamic Duo: How a Composer and Her Bird Came to Make Beautiful Music Together
Composers Lulu and Wendy Reid make music in collaboration with the natural world. Although they don’t speak the same language, composing and performing music together is how they connect. For our series on California Composers, reporter Julia Haney went to one of the duo’s performances in Berkeley.
The Amateur Photographers Documenting Life In the Imperial Valley
Juan Rodelo has spent decades as a firefighter, and he turned to photography to help deal with the stress and exhaustion of his job. He appreciated the spectacular landscape of the Imperial Valley, but he didn’t know any other people who were trying to capture the beauty there. . So in 2024, he started a Facebook group called Imperial Valley Photography to find others documenting the area. The group gained 15,000 followers in less than a year. As part of KPBS’s ongoing series on volunteers, reporter Kori Suzuki caught up with Juan on an evening visit to the Salton Sea.