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7 minutes
[ Innovation ]
Wearable Bananas? This Ugandan Company is Giving Textile Waste the Slip
What one material could make placemats, rugs, and hair extensions? This miracle fiber is bananas! Learn about the non-profit transforming this popular plant’s waste into something that is wonderful—in more ways than one!
9 minutes
[ Nature ]
Secrets to Surviving: Lessons from Carnivorous Plants
By Sam Burns
If you think the Venus Flytrap is cool, wait until you meet some if its fellow carnivorous plant friends. From rodent toilets to bat bedrooms, these plants have found some fascinating ways to stay alive! Check out their stories to learn how we can succeed in our own lives—if only we decide to do something a little unexpected!
5 minutes
[ Creativity ]
Embracing the Spice of Life: Why Grow the World’s Hottest Pepper?
By Sam Burns
Can following our passions lead to a world-wide phenomenon? When Smokin’ Ed Currie invented the Carolina Reaper, he was driven by curiosity and creativity, inspired by one question: how hot can a pepper get?
6 minutes
[ Innovation ]
Turning Pineapples into Plantable Plates!
By Sam Burns
Meet the people turning fruit waste into super-sustainable packaging! Their amazing innovations are opening a whole new world of possibility for us all. Prepare never to look at pineapples—or paper plates—the same again.
10 minutes
[ Science ]
Asparagus: A New Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries?
A feeling very familiar to most of us almost kept this life-changing treatment for spinal cord injuries from making it to testing! Here’s how Andrew Pelling and his fellow researchers overcame self-doubt to create this breakthrough innovation.
10 minutes
[ Culture ]
Where There’s a Weevil, There’s a Way!
Here’s a story that shows what’s possible when we use our strengths to solve big problems. When a Texas lake and way of life were threatened by an invasive species, scientists, community members, and weevils teamed up to save their beloved waters!
13 minutes
[ Innovation ]
Become an Instant Backyard Scientist with iNaturalist!
What if you could go on a safari and get up close and personal with hundreds of plants animals, no plane ticket, no fancy guide, and no money required? Now, all of us can experience our own backyards with a little more wonder thanks to this amazing app!
25 minutes
[ Thought Leaders ]
How to Grow Your Own Bowls, Lamps, and Baskets!
By Sam Burns
Can we seriously grow everything we need in our backyard? To explore this question, on this edition of Saturday’s Around the World we’re traveling to an enchanting land to meet a woman who can transform plants into almost any object you desire!
24 minutes
[ Nature ]
Leaf Miners: The Unexpected Conservation Heroes
By Sam Burns
Forget whatever you’ve heard about leaf miners, these common garden pests are little wonders that may be holding up an entire ecosystem! Head over to Hawaii with us to check out how these tiny creatures can have a big impact on conservation.
7 minutes
[ Animals ]
These Bees Make Their Own Perfume!
By Sam Burns
Male orchid bees don’t just look beautiful, they also smell beautiful (well, to female bees anyway). These little guys are the perfumers of the forest, collecting smells in hopes of finding a mate. Here’s how they do it!
4 minutes
[ Culture ]
Sisal! The Plant that Points to Possibilities
This Kenyan farmer has invented machines that help this cactus-like plant give farmers across the world stability in a changing climate.
25 minutes
Are Sea-Greens the New Superfood?
By Sam Burns
The benefits of kelp farming are too extensive to list in full here (but one of the most important may just be that it’s cleaning the ocean—naturally.)
7 minutes
[ Food ]
An Excuse to Not Eat Your Vegetables?
The tastes we’ve come to enjoy from various fruits and vegetables may stem from these plants trying to kill us. Let’s find out who the culprits are, and if salads are truly good for our health or if we’ve all just been blindly following instructions on what to eat.
8 minutes
So… Why Are Plants Green and Not Black?
By Sam Burns
There are a LOT of plants out there and the majority of them seem to be wearing various shades of the same color. So, why is this?
5 minutes
Welcome to the Wood Wide Web, Meet the Internet of Fungus!
Did you know that trees are “talking to each other?” Yes! Forests are connected with an internet of fungus and there is an incredible network growing beneath our feet lovingly called the wood wide web!
6 minutes
Plants Can Talk to Each Other?
It isn’t crazy science fiction, in fact, plants are able to communicate to warn each other of danger. You might not smell a freshly mown lawn the same again! Jump into this lovely TED Ed video and find out just how this works!
