Susan Moran on Muck Rack

Susan Moran

Verified
Boulder
As seen in: KGNU - How On Earth, The New York Times, Nature, PBS NewsHour, Scientific American, Popular Science, The Charlotte Observer, The Sacramento Bee, Discover Magazine, Kansas City Star, The State and
Freelance journalist, covering environment, humans, their overlap. Past @KSJ@MIT & TedScripps Fellow. Former @sejorg mbr, CU Boulder j instructor.
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Articles by Susan Moran

Tackling PFAS, From Wastewater to Tap Water

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Tackling “forever chemicals” in tap water (start time: 6:11): In this week’s science show we discuss the scientific findings and societal implications of a new study showing of dangerous (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in treated wastewater that ends up in the drinking water of more than 20 million Americans.
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The Carbon Footprint of Food

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
The Blue Plate in a Red-hot World (start time: 7:46) While adding cream to your morning cup of coffee, or digesting the hamburger that you grilled last night, you might not have been asking yourself, What’s the carbon footprint of these ingredients and meals? Understandable. Our guest today, ecologist Mark Easter, however, has pondered this question intensely for many years, when he grocery shops, plans his next meal, and researches.
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From Sewage to Planet Savior?

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
The Power of Poop (start time: 5:41)  This potent byproduct of our digestive system holds the promise of being a big part of the solution to several public health and environmental challenges of our time, such as drinking water scarcity and degraded cropland. In this week’s show, How On Earth’s Susan Moran interviews Dr. Bryn Nelson, a science writer and former microbiologist. His debut book, called Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure, recently appeared in paperback.
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Road Ecology // Wildlife Crossings

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Wildlife Crossings (start time: 0:58) In this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews journalist Ben Goldfarb about his new book, Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. It’s hard imagine modern human society without roads, be theyinterstate highways or county dirt roads. Love them or hate them, roads make our lives convenient. But for wild animals trying to migrate or find a mate, vehicle traffic on roads spells death.
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Your Brain On (and off) Chronic Pain: Part I

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Chronic pain science and treatments (start time: 4:27) In this week’s show host Susan Moran interviews two experts on the emerging neuroscience of and mind-body treatments for chronic pain, which is a leading cause of disability in the U.S. As many as one in five Americans suffer from chronic pain. The problem has cost the country more than $600 billion in treatments and lost work-time. Our guests today are at the forefront of research and clinical treatment of chronic pain.
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Water Reuse for the Arid West

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Water Recycling for Climate Resilience (start time: 7:54) When you poured tap water into your coffee maker this morning, or flushed the toilet, you may not have been thinking about where that water came from, or where it flowed to next. Pegged to World Water Week, on this week’s How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Austa Parker, PhD, an environmental engineer who is a consultant for the firm Brown and Caldwell on national water-reuse issues.
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Music on the Brain

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Your Brain on Music (start time: 6:18): Most people love music, whether it’s opera music, jazz, rock-n-roll, gospel, nursery rhymes or another genre. Whether you’re a trained professional or someone who just likes to sing in the shower or listen to your favorite playlists, you’ve likely felt the power of music in shaping your thoughts, feelings and behavior. But how?
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Finding Home in a Changing Climate

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Unruly Planet (start time: 5:31) This week on How On Earth Susan Moran interviews science journalist Madeline Ostrander about her recently published book, At Home On An Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge On A Changed Earth. The author reflects on what it means to reimagine the concept of home, and to literally find a secure home, in this era of upheaval and change.
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Clean Water Act 50 years later

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Clean Water Act, Then and Now (start time: 3:38): Two weeks ago was the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. The landmark law set out to clean up the nation’s lakes, rivers and streams, and to safeguard the water supply for humans throughout the country. While there’s been some progress since the act was signed in 1972, many view the law as a mixed bag, both nationally and here in Colorado.
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Colorado River Basin Crisis: Pt. II

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Colorado River Basin Crisis Pt. II (start time: 6:19): This week’s How On Earth show focuses on the implications and future prospects after the federal government in June ordered the seven Western states that rely on the river to come up with a plan to save trillions of gallons of water from the shrinking river) — and after the August 15 deadline came and passed without a deal.
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Climate- & Pollinator-Conscious Planting

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Climate-conscious, pollinator-friendly gardening (start time: 4:55; scroll down for audio file): This week’s episode of How On Earth features a discussion on how cities, neighborhoods, individual residents can plan their landscapes and gardens for a hotter and drier future here on the Front Range. Host Susan Moran interviews Dave Sutherland, a field naturalist formerly with Open Space Mountain Parks; and Fred Berkelhammer, an arborist and president of Berkelhammer Tree Experts, Inc.
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Climate Change: A Laughing Matter?

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Image credit: NASA Comedy+Climate Change: (start time: 5:50)  In this week’s show we look ahead to Earth Day by discussing the latest science about climate change, as reported in the recently released assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And we explore the role that performing arts, especially comedy, can play in communicating, and processing emotions around, climate change.
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Sounds Wild and Broken

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By Susan Moran 
| KGNU - How On Earth
Nature’s Songs and Cries (start time: 0:59) In this week’s show David George Haskell, a biologist at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tenn., talks with How On Earth’s Susan Moran about his newly published book, Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction. The book is at once a meditation and an urgent call to action.
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Exchange Artist Haven

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By Susan Moran 
| Corydon Times-Republican
Jessica Fletsch, 20, of Rockford, looks at hanging decor made by local artists during a preview party at Inscape Collective, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, at 201 7th Street in midtown Rockford, Ill. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)
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Beloved Beasts // Fund Drive Show

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By Susan Moran 
| howonearthradio.org
On this week’s show journalist and author Michelle Nijhuis talks with How On Earth host Susan Moran about her recently published book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. It’s a book of hope, history, and even humor. Special thanks to listeners who donated and received copies of the book. And thanks to WW Norton & Company for offering several copies to KGNU to help with the fund drive.
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California’s organic-waste law set a high bar, but most cities struggle to reach it

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By Susan Moran 
| The Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN)
In 2016, California passed the nation’s most ambitious restrictions on landfilling food and yard waste, with the aim of slashing the greenhouse gases these organic materials generate when buried. The law mandated turning the waste into compost or biogas, with a goal of cutting landfill disposal by 50 percent, from 2014 levels, by the end of 2020 and 75 percent by 2025. But already, cities have fallen behind on setting up the costly systems for collecting and processing this waste. Starting Jan.
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San Luis Valley ranchers see dividends in water for fish. Are they on to something?

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By Susan Moran 
| The Water Desk
Nathan Coombs, left, and Kevin Terry at the Manassa gate on the Conejos River. Credit: Susan Moran By Susan Moran Nathan Coombs, a burly alfalfa farmer in the San Luis Valley, never imagined he would trust an environmentalist, much less partner with one to improve habitat for fish in the region’s rivers and streams. As manager of the Conejos Water Conservancy District, Coombs cares first and foremost about supporting the livelihoods of agricultural water users in the upper Rio Grande Basin.
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San Luis Valley ranchers see dividends in water for fish. Are they on to something?

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By Mike Littwin , Susan Moran 
| The Colorado Sun
Nathan Coombs, a burly alfalfa farmer in the San Luis Valley, never imagined he would trust an environmentalist enough to have a beer with one, much less partner with one to improve habitat for fish in the region’s rivers and streams. As manager of the Conejos Water Conservancy District, Coombs cares first and foremost about supporting the livelihood of agricultural water users in the upper Rio Grande Basin.
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San Luis Valley ranchers see dividends in water for fish. Are they on to something?

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By Susan Moran , Instream Flow, Rio Grande
| Water Education Colorado
Nathan Coombs, a burly alfalfa farmer in the San Luis Valley, never imagined he would trust an environmentalist enough to have a beer with one, much less partner with one to improve habitat for fish in the region’s rivers and streams. As manager of the Conejos Water Conservancy District, Coombs cares first and foremost about supporting the livelihoods of agricultural water users in the upper Rio Grande Basin.
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Rockford ice cream vendor in ‘constant fear’ after robbery

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By Susan Moran 
| Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
Interpreter Agustin Escamilla, left, assists Pablo Perez, a Rockford area paletero, during a media interview Sunday, July 12, 2020, in Rockford. It hasn’t been easy for Pablo Perez to go back to work after he was robbed at gunpoint on July 3 while pushing his ice cream cart in southwest Rockford.
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Rockford ice cream vendor in ‘constant fear’ after robbery

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By Susan Moran 
| Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — It hasn’t been easy for Pablo Arroyo Perez to go back to work after he…
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Rockford ice cream vendor in ‘constant fear’ after robbery

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By Susan Moran 
| The Charlotte Observer
A child watches as paletero Pablo Perez pushes a cart full of Mexican ice cream bars and other frozen treats Sunday, July 12, 2020, down Sanford Street in Rockford. Susan Moran AP ROCKFORD, Ill. It hasn’t been easy for Pablo Arroyo Perez to go back to work after he was robbed at gunpoint on July 3 while pushing his ice cream cart in southwest Rockford.
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Toxic Air’s Health Risks

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By Susan Moran , Frank Flocke
| howonearthradio.org
Written on June 11, 2019 at 9:31 pm by Susan Moran Filed under Episodes {no comments} Air pollution over Denver. Photo credit: NCAR Air Pollution, Possible Solutions (start time: 2:36) It is ubiquitous and essential to our life. It it is also the cause of some 7 million premature deaths around the world every year, ranking just behind diet, cancer and tobacco as a health risk. That’s the air we breath.
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Pesticides and Health Impacts

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By Susan Moran 
| howonearthradio.org
Written on April 2, 2019 at 11:33 am by Susan Moran Filed under Episodes {no comments} A Consumer’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce (starts  7:55) You may be wondering if you washed the strawberries, blueberries or kale that you had for breakfast this morning enough to rid them of residue of potentially harmful pesticides. That is, if they were conventionally, not organically, grown.
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Why Should You Hire A Wedding Planner?

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By Susan Moran 
| Susquehanna Style Magazine
Planning a wedding is an exciting process—turning the details into a wedding that will genuinely reflect your vision. Your wedding planner must have a specialty in listening; fully hearing you, getting to know what defines you as a couple and earning your trust—that’s priority #1! Together, you’ll set your wedding apart by combining fresh trends with heartfelt traditions.
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Relative: Suspect in deputy's shooting death 'not a monster'

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By Susan Moran 
| Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
A McHenry County Sheriff's cruiser with lights on participates in the miles-long procession leaving Mercyhealth's Javon Bea Hospital and Physician Clinic-Riverside with the body of the McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner on Thursday, March 7, 2019, in Rockford, Ill. Floyd E. Brown, 39, is accused of fatally shooting 35-year-old Keltner, a 12 ½-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.
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Relative: Suspect in deputy's shooting death 'not a monster'

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By Susan Moran 
| Herald & Review
A McHenry County Sheriff's cruiser with lights on participates in the miles-long procession leaving Mercyhealth's Javon Bea Hospital and Physician Clinic-Riverside with the body of the McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner on Thursday, March 7, 2019, in Rockford, Ill. Floyd E. Brown, 39, is accused of fatally shooting 35-year-old Keltner, a 12 ½-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
An Illinois State Police Officer gears up in front of the Extended Stay America, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Rockford, Ill. Prosecutors in Winnebago County in central Illinois said they have issued a warrant against Floyd E. Brown, 39, for attempted murder in the shooting of the deputy, who police said was in critical condition. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
An unidentified person is loaded on an ambulance from the Extended Stay America, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Rockford, Ill. Prosecutors in Winnebago County in central Illinois said they have issued a warrant against Floyd E. Brown, 39, for attempted murder in the shooting of the deputy, who police said was in critical condition. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Herald & Review
Ron Schwartz, an acting officer and driving engineer of Rockford Fire Department's Engine 6, salutes as the law enforcement procession stretching miles long carrying the body of McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner passes on Thursday, March 7, 2019, along West State Street in Rockford, Ill. Floyd E. Brown, 39, is accused of fatally shooting 35-year-old Keltner, a 12 ½-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Herald & Review
A McHenry County Sheriff's cruiser with lights on participates in the miles-long procession leaving Mercyhealth's Javon Bea Hospital and Physician Clinic-Riverside with the body of the McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner on Thursday, March 7, 2019, in Rockford, Ill. Floyd E. Brown, 39, is accused of fatally shooting 35-year-old Keltner, a 12 ½-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Herald & Review
An Illinois State Police Officer gears up in front of the Extended Stay America, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Rockford, Ill. Prosecutors in Winnebago County in central Illinois said they have issued a warrant against Floyd E. Brown, 39, for attempted murder in the shooting of the deputy, who police said was in critical condition. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)
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Suspect in death of Illinois deputy arrested after standoff

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By Susan Moran 
| Herald & Review
An unidentified person is loaded on an ambulance from the Extended Stay America, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Rockford, Ill. Prosecutors in Winnebago County in central Illinois said they have issued a warrant against Floyd E. Brown, 39, for attempted murder in the shooting of the deputy, who police said was in critical condition. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)
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The Science of Exercise Recovery

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By Susan Moran 
| howonearthradio.org
Written on February 5, 2019 at 2:04 pm by Susan Moran Filed under Episodes {no comments} Athlete’s Guide to Recovery (starts at 5:39): Colorado is riddled with athletes, many of them incessantly chasing the latest recovery products and services that will enhance their performance — from Gatorade and other ubiquitous sports-recovery drinks, to supplements, to compression boots, to cryochambers, to good old-fashioned massages.
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Composting & Carbon Farming

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By Susan Moran 
| howonearthradio.org
Written on January 22, 2019 at 2:09 pm by Susan Moran Filed under Episodes {no comments} Eco-Cycle truck dumping organic waste at a compost facility. Photo credit: Dan Matsch Why Compost? (start time: 7:01) Many of us may feel a little less guilty letting fruits and vegetables go bad, because we figure that this waste, thanks to curbside compost pickup, will be turned into nutritious food for crops, lawns or grasslands down the road.
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As seas continue to rise, New Jersey buys residents out of flood zones

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By Nina Lam, Nsikan Akpan , Susan Moran , Ivette Feliciano
| PBS NewsHour
Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents live in flood zones that can become inundated with storm water. But the state is trying to move some of them out of harm’s way in one of the biggest home buyout programs in the nation. Newshour Weekend’s Ivette Feliciano reports. This story is part of our ongoing series, “Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change.” HARI SREENIVASAN: Sea levels will rise between one and four feet by the end of the century.
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Column: Writing truth to power

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By Laura Evans, Susan Moran 
| Gloucester Daily Times
For my Midweek Musing this month, I am turning my column over to one of our members. I give you: "Postcards to Power: Why We Write," by Laura Evans.For many people, “activism” means crowds, sign-waving, bullhorns, and extroverts marching in discontent. But does effective protest have to be public in nature and massive in scope to be effective? Consider the humble postcard: A direct, personal, and brief way to communicate thoughts, ideas and kudos to people in power.
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The Science Behind Finding Your Mantra and How to Practice It Daily

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By Susan Moran 
| Yoga Journal
Using mantra daily helps keep your meditation practice going strong. Marilyn Nieves/iStock Looking for a spiritually satisfying life after college, musician Tina Malia moved to Fairfax, California, an artsy city north of San Francisco, and began attending sacred music concerts. Something in the ritual and the mantra chanting moved her to tears and kept her going back again and again. Eventually, she started experimenting with the music on her own.
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Plastic Pollution in Ocean

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By Susan Moran 
| howonearthradio.org
In today’s show we offer two related features: Plastic Pollution in the Arctic, Green Chemistry  (start time: 7:48) Try to wrap your brain around this statistic: by mid-century the mass of plastic in the oceans will weigh more than the total mass of fish if we continue with ‘business as usual,’ according to the World Economic Forum.
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The Rise of the Wooden Skyscraper

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By Susan Moran 
| Anthropocene Magazine
The building materials that have defined and fueled the great urban migration of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries are brick, steel, and concrete. The building blocks of low-carbon cities of the future may, ironically, be a much older, time-honored material—wood. The carbon footprint of steel and concrete is enormous. Manufacturing and transporting concrete alone accounts for roughly five percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Wood, however, is both renewable and a carbon sink.
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Warning: Oil and gas development may be hazardous to your health

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By Susan Moran 
| Boulder Weekly
Ted Wood/The Story Group Every medical student learns this much Latin: primum non nocere: “First, do no harm.” For centuries, all newly minted physicians have taken the Hippocratic Oath before treating any patients. This central tenet dictates that a practitioner follow two mandates: to strive to do good, or at least do no harm. It appears to some scientists, politicians and residents that Colorado’s top medical officials, tasked with protecting residents’ health, never received the memo.
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Culture: Cultivate the muse

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By Susan Moran 
| Nature
Writing fiction allows neuroscientist David Eagleman to ask the big questions that science can't yet answer. He had already written several non-fiction books about perception and cognition, and had scripted and presented a television series on the brain. These are ways to disseminate science to the broader public. But his more-recent fiction writing has allowed him to explore and wrestle with the biggest ideas, he says.
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Tracking Nitrogen Through the Soil to Reduce Pollution From Agriculture

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By Susan Moran 
| Discover Magazine
On this gray, drizzly winter morning, the California coastal mountains in the distance look like a mirage hovering over a flat swath of fields at Russell Ranch, a 300-acre experimental farm in the Sacramento Valley. One of the researchers in charge is Martin Burger, an angular, intense-looking Swiss ecologist. He steps out of his Ford F-150 pickup and leads me down a gravely path to a field covered in neat rows of lime-green triticale — a cereal grain — and bean shoots.
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Team Tracks a Food Supply at the End of the World

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By Susan Moran 
| The New York Times
One recent morning at the bottom of the world, Kim Bernard spotted two humpback whales gorging in the Southern Ocean not far offshore. Dr. Bernard, a biological oceanographer, was spending the austral summer at Palmer Station, the United States research outpost on an outcropping off the western Antarctic Peninsula.
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Wastewater Is Key to Reducing Nitrogen Pollution

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By Susan Moran 
| Scientific American
Nitrogen is a vital nutrient for crops, but soils rarely produce enough of it to sustain the relentless farming needed to feed a world population that has more than doubled in the past 50 years. For almost a century synthetic fertilizer has made up the difference, driving up crop yields. Yet we have overindulged, creating vast quantities of waste.
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Conservation’s New Math

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By Susan Moran 
| beaconreader.com
As the climate warms, figuring out where species will go, and which landscapes will be most hospitable to a diverse mix of wild plants and animals, is a Herculean task. Nonetheless, some conservation biologists are taking up the challenge, and they are betting that geology holds the ticket to biodiversity. It's free to read because it was shared by the author. Back Flux, and your funding directly supports their future work — You can impact the stories that get told.
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Some Ways to Get Started as a Social Entrepreneur (Published 2011)

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By Susan Moran 
| The New York Times
Entrepreneurship|Some Ways to Get Started as a Social Entrepreneur https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/business/smallbusiness/23sbiz.html Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. With the economy still struggling, it may seem like an impossible time to start a do-good social venture. It can be hard enough to operate any business profitably — let alone one that also tries to improve the world.
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Speculators make uranium the latest commodity boom (Published 2007)

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By Susan Moran , Anne Raup
| The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/business/worldbusiness/27iht-uranium.4.5051347.html Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. By Susan Moran and Anne Raup LA SAL, Utah — Given its connotations, Pandora is an oddly appropriate name for an uranium mine.
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