A World of Possibilities is an award-winning one hour weekly radio program that penetrates behind the headlines to uncover the deeper meanings of events. It offers in-depth analysis, informed commentary and an exploration of new approaches to our most challenging problems. Our aim is to open minds and inspire new possibilities.
February 21, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Take Me For A Ride in Your E-Car
These days we think of electric vehicles as futuristic inventions, coming our way just a little before commercial flights to the moon. But actually, they preceded the infernal combustion engine by more than half a century. Now, as we choke on the exhaust, we turn once more to electricity. Only this time, the momentum is building not in Detroit but in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and California.
Read MoreFebruary 14, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Hong Kong, China’s Green Gateway?
Hong Kong has always been a world unto itself. But today it’s a city uncertain of its identity. As mainland China surges to the front rank of the global economy, its vast industrial base has upstaged Hong Kong. Many civic leaders are now asking what’s left for Hong Kong to do that makes use of its unique gifts and strengths. In this program we hear two civic leaders share their far-reaching visions of how a densely industrialized capital of high finance could become a model for urban green revitalization.
Read MoreFebruary 7, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
When the Music Stopped
It seemed the good times would never end. Pennies from heaven even rained down on Wal-Mart shoppers. Until one day in the fall of 2008, it all came crashing down. We sort through Wall Street’s ruin and Main Street’s rubble to find what went wrong, and what needs to be done to replace a system of brutal trade-off’s between affluence and poverty, with a balance of shared prosperity.
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Forgiving the Unforgivable
A look at a new Reconciliation process in Sierra Leone
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Natural Gas: Fractured Bedrock, Divided Communities
Nine thousand feet beneath the surface of several Northeastern states lie vast deposits of shale impregnated with natural gas. The Marcellus Shale play, as it is called, is being touted by energy analysts as one of the largest in the world. For a chronically hard-pressed region in a season of recession, the promise of mailbox money just for signing a simple lease to subsurface rights is almost irresistible. Almost, that is, until they’ve signed and discover the implications of their decision. In this program recorded on site in northeastern Pennsylvania, we follow the Marcellus Shale trail and find the fracturing of the bedrock under this gas-rich region mirrored by the fracturing of communities divided by the the benefits and blights that it brings.
Read MoreJanuary 17, 2013 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Grow Local, Eat Local: Feeding Our Hunger for Connection
Join us as we discuss the movement to buy and eat locally produced food, boosting the fortunes of local farmers and reducing our carbon footprints in the process.
Read MoreDecember 27, 2012 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Hungry Harvesters: Migrant Labor and the Poverty that Produces Our Plenty
On today's industrial farms, field workers harvest crops that they themselves can't afford to buy. Join us as we ask how much we're willing to pay for our food to assure that those who fill our plates are paid enough to eat what they harvest.
Read MoreDecember 20, 2012 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Fostering Ingenuity
An Interview with Lawrence Lessig and Scott Anthony
Read MoreDecember 13, 2012 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Green Chemistry: Better Living Through Nature
The chemicals we manufacture for modern needs are complex synthetic compounds. Most are untested and some are toxic to nature and the human body. But the new science of green chemistry offers the possibility of products that are "benign by design," modeled on natural processes. Join us as we explore how by following the lead of nature we may be able to transform petro-chemistry into biochemistry.
Read MoreDecember 6, 2012 Past Program - News & Public Affairs
Growing Pains: Organics Come of Age
Organic agriculture has grown up. A once-marginal movement of plucky and slightly eccentric home gardeners has bloomed into mega-farms that ship around the world selling at premium prices. In this program we’ll examine both ends of the organic industry food chain -- a mid-size organic farming family and the world’s largest organic food retailer. We’ll see what growing mainstream has done for – and to -- organic farmers, and what remains to be done to give farmers and consumers the sustainable food system we urgently need
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