Shows / REAP/SOW
REAP/SOW
Dispatches from the frontlines of food, farming, and the environment. From the Food & Environment Reporting Network, the producers of Hot Farm, REAP/SOW brings you narrative and investigative reporting that examines the consequences of what we choose to eat and why. Currently featuring BUZZKILL, a six-part series on the pollinator crisis
Episodes
REAP/SOWBuzzkill: Colonialism and the land
White settlers viewed farmland as a resource to be exploited, while Indigenous people saw it as a partnership for mutual benefit. Now, a Native American tribe…
REAP/SOWBuzzkill: The mystery of the dead bees
In Nebraska, a researcher’s bee colonies kept dying, and the evidence pointed to the ethanol plant next door – and a food system built on pesticides.
REAP/SOWBuzzkill: Save which bees?
Americans stepped up to do something about dying bees. But what if all those backyard colonies are making the problem worse? In Buzzkill’s premiere episode, we…
REAP/SOWIntroducing: Buzzkill, presented by REAP/SOW
We’re in the middle of a full-blown biodiversity crisis: American honeybee populations have declined by 90 percent in the last two decades. It's not rocket…
REAP/SOWThe railroad's surprising impact on food and civil rights in California
Here’s a thing you may not know about the Transcontinental Railroad: It helped turn California into an agricultural powerhouse – transforming the food system –…
REAP/SOW“Farmin’ ain’t easy” from the Points North Podcast
Nic Theisen and his wife, Sara, operate a small but bustling farm in northern Michigan, growing flowers and vegetables with the help of a large team of…
REAP/SOWThe divers keeping the water flowing on California’s farms
California transports water to Central Valley farmers through a complex network of reservoirs, aqueducts, and canals. This water system is controversial… and…
REAP/SOWRedfish blues
Boyce Upholt's report on the environmental threat to redfish on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana anchors this episode of REAP/SOW. It dives deep into the cultural…
REAP/SOWA native people fight for their stolen waters
Los Angeles was running out of water in the early 1900s, and Payahuunadü, "land of flowing water" in the Nüümü language, had lots of it. City officials hatched…
REAP/SOWThe forever chemicals on the farm from What You’re Eating
This episode, courtesy of the podcast “What you’re eating,” heads to Maine to investigate PFAS, a category of chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because…
REAP/SOWFarming with ghosts
David “Mas” Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. This episode of REAP/SOW is a FERN/KQED California Report partnership, telling the story of a Japanese-American…
REAP/SOWWhite gold fever from Snap Judgment
In a small fishing village in Mexico, Belen Delgado made a discovery that would change his life: a massive cache of callo de hacha, a large black scallop…
REAP/SOWWeaponized food from The Switchyard Podcast
FERN contributor Ted Genoways interviews Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb, two writers taking on popular foods and their fraught cultural history – the racist…
REAP/SOWThe Sioux Chef’s decolonized cuisine from The Switchyard Podcast
FERN Editor-in-chief Theodore Ross interviews Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, co-owner of Owamni, a James-Beard-Award winning restaurant in Minneapolis that is…
REAP/SOWTom Colicchio: Finding my voice in food from The Switchyard Podcast
Top Chef star Tom Colicchio sits down with longtime FERN contributor Ted Genoways for an in-depth conversation with the acclaimed celebrity chef. Part 1 of a…
REAP/SOWIntroducing REAP/SOW!
REAP/SOW: dispatches from the front lines of food, farming, and the environment, is the latest audio project from the Food and Environment Reporting Network…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Bonus Episode: Climavores - "Bursting the 'eat local' bubble"
From our friends at Climavores: The eat local movement is huge. Bumper stickers in liberal towns across the U.S. tell us to “Eat local” or ask “Who’s your…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Bonus Episode: "Should I Give up Beef?" from How to Save a Planet
We have a bonus episode from a show called “How to Save a Planet,” a Spotify Original podcast produced by Gimlet Media. This show looks at climate change from…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Part 4. The New California
More than a fourth of our food, including most of our fruits and vegetables, comes from California. But what happens when drought parches the region we depend…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Part 3. Grain of the Future
Modern agriculture has been tweaking the same system for decades, but scientists think we need a new approach for a warmer world — one that involves novel…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Part 2. Enlisting the Unconvinced
Most American farmers don’t believe man-made climate change is real. Yet we need those farmers to be part of the climate change solution. So how can we get…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Part 1. Change Is Hard
In 1988, a drought made Dave Bishop a different farmer. Back then, he was a freak in farm country. Today, he is the model that we need all farmers to be if we…
REAP/SOWHot Farm Trailer
Over four episodes, host Eve Abrams and her team travel the Midwest, engaging with farmers who are confronting the difficult reality of climate…