Category Archives: Radio

Wake Forest Prof: Climate Change Summit Could Be A Game Changer

COP20 logo

On Dec. 5, I leave for Lima, Peru, with videographer Michael Frierson to report on the UN climate negotiations. Our reporting is being underwritten by a grant from the Wake Forest Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES).

WFDD News Director Emily McCord interviewed me this week about the negotiations, what’s expected to come out of them and issues related to the politics of climate change and global warming. The audio story is here.

Excerpt: “We all depend on what’s coming out of Lima,” says Catanoso. “Climate change and global warming can seem huge but it affects us here locally. We just have to look at our coasts in North Carolina and see that sea level rises that are driven by climate change are going to have a dramatic impact on the Carolina coast, really now, and going forward.”

Beach erosion at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Michael and I plan to produce stories from Lima for WFDD, National Geographic NewsWatch, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and BusinessInsider.com.

Downtown Winston-Salem, a remarkable renaissance long in the making

In some form or fashion, I’ve been writing about and experiencing revitalization efforts in downtown Winston-Salem for more than 25 years — since we lived in West End with our young family (1988-1993). The wide-scale progress that’s taken hold, and appears permanent, in the past decade or so, is pretty remarkable. I talk about all that in this radio report on 88.5 WFDD.

Surprise — North Carolina a national leader in solar energy

A report released earlier this month by the Pew Charitable Trust extolled the virtues of a “new cash crop” in North Carolina. It’s not hogs or chickens, tobacco or soybeans. WFDD contributor Justin Catanoso gives the answer in his column this week in the Business Journal. “It’s solar energy,” he says. “North Carolina has 100 solar energy farms, which is the fifth highest capacity in the country.” Here’s the radio report on 88.5 WFDD.

Triad joins the trend in collaborative work spaces

According to a recent Gallup survey, about one-third of the U.S. employees operate outside the traditional confines of office towers, cubicles or factories. In other words, one in three American workers don’t have a traditional place to work. My radio report on Sept. 26, 2014, based on my Triad Next column in the Triad Business Journal, looks at the growing movement in collaborative work spaces with a close look at the newest — Flywheel in Winston-Salem.

Triad building infrastructure for creative class

The Forge

In this business report on WFDD, I talk about the ongoing battle to attract and retain  young professionals in the Triad, based on my August 2014  column in the Triad Business Journal. “The Triad has made a lot of progress over the last several years to the point of supporting the growth of the creative class, including those in design, technology, communication and the arts,” I told WFDD’s Keri Brown.

Click here to listen to the radio report

Witnessing a young Pope John Paul II’s passion

While having lunch last spring with good friend David Ford of WFDD, I told him about the time my wife and I — during our honeymoon in 1984 — witnessed the charismatic aura of Pope John Paul II while visiting the Vatican. Ford liked the story so much that we headed straight back to the studio to record it, unscripted. It aired right around the time of the former pope’s canonization. You can hear the recording here.

WUNC: How Is Climate Change Affecting Tropical Forests?

The view from 13,000 feet in Manu National Park, Andes Mountains, southeastern Peru.

This radio report (7:17 minutes) for WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio overviews my climate change reporting in summer 2013 from the Amazon basin of Peru. It discusses the implications of upslope tree migration in the Amazon jungles as a result of warming temperatures.

The second recording (12 minutes) is of Wake Forest biologist MIles Silman and me on the afternoon news program at WUNC, The State of Things, with Frank Stasio, discussing the same topic.

Wake Forest biologist Miles Silman in the Peruvian cloud forest.

Photos by Justin Catanoso