OS Conversations: Drought

A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljamal spots her elderly neighbour tending to his garden. “He's been raking the earth,” she says, “prepping the soil for new seeds. Giv ...  Show more

People in Gainesboro, Tennessee, have some new neighbours. A conservative developer has bought land just outside the tiny rural Appalachian town, with the aim of forging an “aligned” community based on shared values like “faith, family, and freedom“. Two of the first people to co ...  Show more

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. In Kenya the situation is forcing children to drop out of school to help their parents look for food and water. Kenyan President William Ruto recently told the COP27 summit in Egypt that this year alone, 2.5 millio ...  Show more

“We should also harvest the water, store it in the soil. Grow our crops and grow our trees. Because the storage in the soil is much, much bigger than any store we can ever put on the surface. God has already given us a huge reservoir where we can put our water.” Kenya has been ra ...  Show more

It's common knowledge that famines are usually caused by major droughts: Rain doesn't fall, crops don't grow, and people go hungry. But recent research suggests that while weather may trigger famines, they may actually be more of a human-made catastrophe. Find out more in this cl ...  Show more

Droughts can be an inevitable feature of a local climate or a catastrophic result of human meddling. In this classic episode, learn the ins and outs of droughts including the American mother of them all, the Dust Bowl.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.