Tim Skoog

Sound Designer and Producer, On Point

Our planet’s rich nature sounds are disappearing, drowned out by human-made noise. Sound recordist Matt Mikkelsen travels the world, listening to and working to preserve our vanishing soundscapes.

Week of Wonder: Can we save the quietest places in the world?

Claire Donnelly

Producer, On Point

Meghna Chakrabarti

Host, On Point

The sun illuminated a dramatic palisade on South Fowl Lake Friday night near the dam. Tony Jones, his 14-year old son Aidan, their friend Brad Shannon and Outdoors editor Bob Timmons embarked onto the Voyageurs Highway on Tuesday, June 11, 2019. (Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Canoe trip in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA)

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Environment

Smell can trigger memories and influence emotions. New research is giving us insight into how that happens, including why some people can "smell" music and why losing the sense of smell can alert us to what might make us sick.

Week of Wonder: 'Vivaldi smells like breakfast sausage'

Willis Ryder Arnold

Members of the "Cayo" Cuban-American Youth Orchestra perform. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

Cuba US Youth Orchestra

Health

You’ve heard of 'mom brain.' But how do men’s brains change when they become fathers?

The new science of 'dad brain'

Darby Saxbe / "White matter microstructure organization across the transition to fatherhood"

dad brain

Life

For decades, kids in St. Louis County caught crawdads in Coldwater Creek, made mudpies, went swimming -- and were exposed to nuclear waste. How did St. Louis become a dumping ground for radioactive waste generated by the Manhattan Project?

The long-term effects of nuclear waste in St. Louis

"Wait a minute, have you heard about Coldwater Creek?"

"We caught crawdads in there. We dug into the bank, which was probably the most dangerous thing we could have done."

"What the U.S. needed was 40 tons of pure uranium ... But there was only a quarter cup of pure uranium in the U.S. at the time."

"[The] ore was sent from Africa to New York, put on cattle cars and shipped to St. Louis, and it would be purified or refined."

"A lot of this is ... a talcum powder consistency ... some of it's stored in barrels which rusted [and] opened up, but some of it, just piles in open air."

"They put the processing plant next to the high school so that the Russians wouldn't think it was a processing plant."

"I blame it all on the creek ... His life was not even half over. He could have lived a better life."

"I've got a 6-year-old girl they're talking about giving a hysterectomy to. I've got a 19-year-old girl that died of cancer. This stuff is still poisoning people in folks' backyards."

"It needs to be a priority ... This situation was created by the federal government. They arranged the uranium to come in."

Coldwater Creek flows April 7, 2023, in Florissant, Mo. The Army Corps of Engineers has determined that soil is contaminated beneath some suburban St. Louis homes near Coldwater Creek, where nuclear waste was dumped decades ago, but the contamination isn't enough to pose a health risk. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Nuclear Contamination St. Louis

For decades, kids in St. Louis County caught crawdads in Coldwater Creek, made mudpies, went swimming -- and were exposed to nuclear waste. Hear the story of how St. Louis became a dumping ground for radioactive waste generated by the Manhattan Project.

YouTube turns 20 this year. The platform now hosts 20 billion videos, and lets basically anyone, anywhere on Earth, create, share and watch. How has YouTube changed us?

How YouTube transformed our world

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Technology

Rebroadcast: Being alone often gets a bad rap. But research shows alone time can actually boost overall well-being, increasing our emotional regulation, contentment and creativity.

The power of solitude

Paige Sutherland

A solitary fisherman is silhouetted against the setting sun as he casts from the end of the pier on May 9, 2024, in Gulf Shores, AL. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)

Sunset Fishing in Alabama

The world's 1.4 billion Catholics have a new pope, Leo XIV. But the church he now leads is far from unified. What does the global Catholic Church want from a new pope -- and can he deliver it?

The challenges facing the first-ever American pope

Pope Leo XIV meets members of the international media in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Vatican Pope

News

Teenage boys are experiencing increasing rates of loneliness and suicidal thoughts -- which is having a direct impact on their achievement in school. How can schools address that? The final part in On Point’s special series “Falling Behind: The Miseducati

Falling Behind: 'We're in jail with our emotions'

Dorey Scheimer

Senior Editor, On Point

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Teenage boys are experiencing increasing rates of loneliness and suicidal thoughts -- which is having a direct impact on their achievement in school. How can schools address that? The final part in On Point’s special series “Falling Behind: The Miseducation of America’s Boys.”

Education

After decades of decline, male teachers now make up less than a quarter of the public-school teaching force. What’s driving men away, and what would it take to bring them back? On Point’s weeklong series exploring boys and education continues.

Falling Behind: Where have all the men gone?

Jonathan Chang

Producer/Director, On Point

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Data show boys are falling behind in school. Black boys are falling behind the most. What’s happening in classrooms that are bucking that trend? On Point’s weeklong series exploring boys and education continues.

Falling Behind: The opportunity gap

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Data show boys are falling behind in school. Black boys are falling behind the most. What’s happening in classrooms that are bucking that trend? <em>On Point</em>’s weeklong series exploring boys and education continues.