Dr. Allison Lassiter, Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, joins John to discuss one of the hidden dangers of sea level rise—saltwater intrusion. With expertise in climate adaptation and urban water management, Dr. Lassiter explains how rising salinity threatens drinking water systems, agriculture, and infrastructure. Together, they explore the costly solutions, like desalination, and why small communities face unique challenges. They also discuss the role of state-level strategies and innovative financing in building resilient water systems for the future.

Meredith McInturff, manager of the Public Health Emergencies and Environmental Health Unit at the New Orleans Health Department, joins John to discuss how the New Orleans Health Department is evolving to meet the growing threats of extreme heat. She and John explore the public health challenges faced by vulnerable populations, from unsheltered individuals to transit riders and outdoor workers, and how these challenges are shaping new city policies and cross-sector partnerships aimed at heat resilience.

Jesse Keenan, the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning and the Founding Director of the Center for Climate Change and Urbanism at Tulane University, joins John to discuss the second transformation: Heat is moving north due to climate change, affecting regions and cities unprepared for prolonged high temperatures. Rising temperatures are straining public health systems, housing stability, and economic resilience, and driving new migration patterns across the U.S.

John Sabo continues the conversation on the first transformation —the deserts of the west moving eastward—with Brian Smoliak, an entrepreneur and climate scientist at Two Degrees Adapt. Brian shares insights on how climate change is affecting agriculture, and discusses innovative solutions helping farmers adapt. 

In Episode 1 of Season 4, John Sabo speaks with Jonathan Overpeck, a renowned climate scientist and Dean for the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Peck discusses his role in defining critical climate change terms such as “tipping point” and “mega-drought, how climate change is exacerbating drought conditions in the Western U.S. and spreading aridification across the Midwest, and strategies for adaptation, including changes in agricultural practices and the management of water resources.

In Season 4 of Audacious Water, host John Sabo dives into how climate change is reshaping the Mississippi River Basin. He'll explore five different transformations over ten episodes with experts and people on the front lines to find out what's happening and how we can take action. Join us as we explore a future shaped by climate change. The new season starts next month.

In this special bonus episode, John and his daughter Lilly take a road trip from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the headwaters, to get to know this great river, along with some of the people who live along it’s waters. From a fisherman in Plaquemines to visitors at the headwaters, each person they meet along the journey paints a picture of how they experience life by the Mississippi.

Tulane professors Torbjörn (Tor) Törnqvist, a geologist, and Sönke Dangendorf, a coastal engineer and physical oceanographer, join John to talk about sea level rise and coastal restoration, and what could happen to coastal communities if we pass the Paris Agreement global temperature threshold of 1.5-degree Celsius. Sönke has more than 15 years of experience researching mean and extreme sea levels, ocean tides and storm surges and the impact on coastal flooding, and is a member of the NASA Sea-Level Change Team. Tor has been researching the evolution of rivers, deltas, coasts, and shallow oceans in response to climate and sea-level change for more than 20 years.

Richard Seager, a climate scientist and the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, joins John to talk about changes in aridity in North America around the 100th Meridian, and how climate change is going to affect the heartland of the U.S. and the Mississippi river basin. Richard’s current work is focused on how global hydroclimate will change in the near-term future as a result of rising greenhouse gases, and how that will affect people and food systems.

Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and a Global Futures Professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, joins John to talk about groundwater management and the state of water in the American west. Jay has extensive experience measuring and tracking groundwater and water security issues, including using satellites to help develop advanced computer models to track how freshwater availability changes around the globe.

Cash Daniels is a 13-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who has been cleaning up rivers since he was just seven years old and cofounded the kid-run nonprofit, The Clean Up Kids. He and John talk about plastic waste in waterways and what can be done about it, how it affects human and wildlife health, and his upcoming documentary, The Conservation Kid.

Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Wetland Studies at Louisiana State University and the lead scientist on the recent 2023 dead zone cruise, talks with John about the current state of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, why it matters to the Gulf economy, what it might take to reverse it.

Ed Clark, Director of NOAA’s National Water Center and the Deputy Director of the National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction, talks with John about how data science plays a role in water forecasting, how new tools and technologies can provide better services to all communities, and how the National Water Center might help prepare the nation for the implications of climate change on human health.

Can New Orleans thrive with water? Jessica Dandridge, Executive Director of The Water Collaborative in New Orleans, talks with John about what water justice means, how to engage communities in creating solutions, and why we should think about thriving versus resilience.

Lisa Schulte Moore, a landscape ecologist, Iowa state university professor, and a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, talks with John about how Iowa agriculture practices impact the Mississippi River and how her work integrating prairie vegetation into crop fields led to real results in reducing soil erosion and nitrogen and phosphorus runoff.

Thomas LaVeist, public health expert and Dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, talks with John about how climate change will impact health, especially for more vulnerable communities, and the role water will play.

In this first of a two-part interview, Morgan Snyder of the Walton Family Foundation talks with John Sabo about the future of the Colorado River.

In this first of a two-part interview, Morgan Snyder of the Walton Family Foundation talks with John Sabo about the future of the Colorado River.

What should a US natural infrastructure strategy look like? John talks with Todd Bridges, the US Army Corps of Engineers' senior research scientist for environmental science and the national lead for the Corps' Engineering with Nature Initiative.

John Sabo talks with Glen Low of The Earth Genome about the trends Glen sees that will define the future of corporate water stewardship.