Buzz explores how Wisconsin's Earth Day celebration evolved into a week-long Earthfest, with his guests Nathan Jandl and Emily Reynolds.

In a continuation of exploring The Odyssey Project, Buzz Kemper talks with director Emily Auerbach, and Odyssey Project alums Hezouwe Walada and Rene Robinson about their stories of courage. The UW-Odyssey Project offers University of Wisconsin-Madison humanities classes for adult students facing economic barriers to college. The majority of students that participate in the Odyssey Course are from racial and ethnic minority groups (~90%) and are often overcoming the obstacles of single parenthood, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, incarceration, depression, and domestic abuse. Odyssey students report transformative outcomes, and some have even moved from homelessness to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Students also say that they read more to their children, feel that they are better parents and advocates for their children in school, have more hope about their own futures, and are more likely to vote and become involved in their communities.

UW-Madison's Odyssey Project offers humanities classes for adult students facing economic barriers to college. The majority of students who participate in Odyssey are from racial and ethnic minority groups, and are often overcoming the obstacles of single parenthood, homelessness, addiction, incarceration, depression, and domestic abuse. Participants say they read more to their children, feel they are better parents, and have more hope about their own future. In this program, we're exploring how Odyssey has helped students find their voice and be heard. Buzz speaks with Director of UW Odyssey Project Emily Auerbach, and Odyssey Projects alums Keena Atkinson and Corey Saffold about their Odyssey experience.

Buzz speaks with Village of Waunakee Executive Assistant Kylie West and UniverCity Managing Director Gavin Luter about how cities, towns, and villages form alliances with UW-Madison to accomplish their goals; in this case, working with the Ho Chunk Nation to create a traveling museum about the Ho Chunk people.

What is research? We have images of labs, computer models, surveys, ivory towers, etc. but some researchers are taking research to the people: to communities and neighborhoods. We find out more with our guests, Community-Engaged Scholarship Specialist Cory Sprinkel of the Morgridge Center for Public Service and Kat Phelps, with the Wisconsin Network for Research Support.

Psychology Emeritus Professor Robert McGrath helps us tune into the meaning of Thanksgiving by talking about the benefits of gratitude and thankfulness.

It's Veterans' Day month, and on this episode, Joe Rasmussen, Director of Veterans Services at UW-Madison, talks about how the UW supports our veteran students.

Humans have doctors to cure them of illnesses and disease, so why not plants? Leslie Holland, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist of Fruit Crop Pathology talks with Buzz Kemper about diagnosing and curing disease in Wisconsin's most common fruit crops: cranberries, apples, and grapes.

Every fall, the Wisconsin Science Festival features fascinating events all over Wisconsin. On this episode, Buzz Kemper speaks with Festival Director Samantha Mulrooney about this year's festival.

Dr. Lee L. Eckhardt is the Gary and Marie Weiner Professor of Cardiovascular Research and a faculty member in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine within the Department of Medicine. As an electrophysiologist, Dr. Eckhardt treats a wide variety of arrhythmia conditions particularly conditions that cause ventricular arrhythmia or sudden death. She is an expert in inherited arrhythmia conditions and directs both clinical and basic science arrhythmia research projects related to these interests with an overarching goal of prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD). She is co-director of the UW Health Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic and the Cardiac Arrest Prevention Program. Dr. Eckhardt serves as the Vice President of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society (2020-2022) and the Heart Rhythm Society Fellowship Committee. She is an editorial board member of the Heart Rhythm Society Journal, Heart Rhythm Care Reports Journal and JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology.

Buzz Kemper talks with cell and regenerative biology professor Dr. Jeffrey Dilworth, who helps us understand why the genes that maintain stem cells in a healthy state sometimes get turned off and how we can use epigenetics to turn these genes back on, so our satellite cells can function properly and effectively throughout our lifetime.

Buzz Kemper speaks with UW Madison Assistant Professor of Astronomy Michael Maseda about what he's learned from hundreds of hours of observing distant galaxies through the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST.

Soon-to-be Doctor Melissa Morris talks with Buzz Kemper about galaxies, their environments, their movements, and what supermassive black holes can tell us about them.

In this episode, Buzz chats with Jack Williams, Professor of Geography and Geography Department Chair, about his geography career, which overlaps with many other fields in working to solve the historical climate puzzle in looking at plant pollen in lake sediment over the more recent geological past.

The UW State Cartographer's Office kindly loaned us Jim Lacy for today's episode of The Badger Talks Podcast. He makes Cartography fun and, well, easily navigable!

Dr. Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at UW-Madison, brings clarity to the difficult topic of war crimes, and specifically, war crimes being investigated in the Russian war against Ukraine.

New Badger Talks Podcast host Buzz Kemper speaks with Managing Director of Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association Michael (Mike) Fahey about celebrating UW-Madison's 175th Anniversary all throughout the state.

Laura Albert, professor and chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering, gives Ben a crash course in industrial engineering, the goal of the field, and how we can use its methods to predict systems like Badger and National Football League bracketsLinks to other Badger Talk Live recordings of University of Wisconsin-Madison experts, can be found here: https://badgertalks.wisc.edu/badger-talks-live/

Dipesh Navsaria chats with Ben about the importance of reading to kids, how he became interested in combining children's literature and medicine, and how books can transport a child's mind to a brand new place.Links to the upcoming virtual Badger Talk Live about upcoming or past Badger Talk Live recordings, can be found here: https://badgertalks.wisc.edu/badger-talks-live/

Tom Eggert chats with Ben about investing in solutions to climate change and social justice that will likely give you returns and help improve the planet simultaneously. Tom also chats about how micro-finance loans can help communities rebound from natural disasters.Links to the upcoming virtual Badger Talk Live about upcoming or past Badger Talk Live recordings, can be found here: https://badgertalks.wisc.edu/badger-talks-live/