Matt Fidler

This is NSPR’s new weekday show about the local and regional effects of COVID-19 in the North State. Listen each weeknight Mon-Fri at 6:30 p.m. NSPR will continue this special coverage as long as our community needs it. Our mission with this show is to provide accurate news and information about COVID-19 in our region.  

Tonight, we’ll hear the latest from public health officials in Butte and Shasta counties who both held press briefings earlier this morning, and we’ll from Kim McCoy Wade, the Director of California’s Department of Aging who talks to two reporters from CalMatters about how seniors can protect themselves during this pandemic.  

Women’s History month on Cultivating Place continues this week, knowing that radio and new voices are especially important to us all right now. Dr. Elaine Ingham is the founder of Soil Food Web Inc.

An early researcher and articulator of the soil food web model, she brings us up to speed on things soil life. Hang in there and Join us! We are committed to being the encouraging and expanding voice in your ear as we all hang in there.

Nancy's Bookshelf revisits a conversation with retired professors Roger Lederer and Carol Burr who wrote and illustrated The Birds of Bidwell Park. Now they have collaborated on a guide to the trees of Bidwell Park.  

Tonight's special coverage on the coronavirus explores resources for parents staying home with kids now that most schools around the state are closed, we’ll talk to trauma experts about how to take care of your mental health during this challenging time.

We also talk to a reporter from the Redding Record Searchlight about how businesses there are dealing with the latest round of clampdowns from the governor aimed at helping stop the spread of the virus.

Tonight, NSPR brings you the first of a new weekday show about the local and regional effects of the coronavirus.  

In this first episode, we’ll hear from Chico Mayor Randall Stone about his concerns for the city, we’ll hear about the decision to close Butte County schools and about a new fund being created in the North State to help the region’s most vulnerable during this time.  

In this episode, we look back in space and time to examine the life of an extraordinary pioneer of the space race and literally our place in space -- the pale blue dot image. First Dave talks to Clayton Turner, the Director of the Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia as we examine the life of the late Katherine Johnson. 

Made famous in the book and movie, Hidden Figures, Johnson's mathematical computations paved the way to put the first Americans into space including Alan Shepard and John Glenn and the lunar missions of the Apollo Program. Johnson passed away on February 24 at the age of 101. We also visit with Katrina Young, a NASA Public Relations specialist who got to know Johnson well during her many return visits to Langley.

Women’s History month on Cultivating Place continues this week with Andrea DeLong-Amaya, Director of Horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin Texas. Two great women’s stories with plants in one! 

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin is the botanic garden for the state of Texas.  Andrea has been on for over 20 years and has more than 30 years of experience in horticulture, she guides 15 staff in the design and management of 9 acres of native gardens, 275 acres of natural areas and a native plant nursery. 

At Red Rock Canyon, we’ve arrived at the edge of the Mojave Desert. Before we push on, let’s take a side trip. Let’s go romp with the reptiles at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area—some 40 square miles that protect these venerable but threatened ancients.

The Desert Tortoise Natural Area is not a place to free your backyard tortoise, now that you’ve gotten an apartment and can’t keep her. Do the right thing and call the local animal shelter instead. Your beloved pet will not survive here, a very harsh environment. And pet tortoises often bring dire diseases that threaten the already threatened wild animals who live here.

Jennifer Jewell is the creator and host of the national award-winning, weekly public radio program, and podcast, Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History & the Human Impulse to Garden.

In her new book The Earth in Her Hands 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, she introduces an array of inspiring women who inspire in wide-reaching fields. From botany and floral design to landscape architecture and farming, these influencers are creating change from the ground up.

This week we wrap up our series on the healing power of gardens and kick off our Women’s History Month all at the same time.

For every episode in March to celebrate the month, Cultivating Place will be highlighting one of the women in The Earth in her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, which officially published just two days ago on March 3, 2020!