In September of 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew were beginning to feel desperate about reaching land. But he was reassured after seeing some birds that landfall was not far off. Frank Corrado has our BirdNote®.

A new National Commission report finds that the Obama administration underestimated the amount of oil that flowed into the Gulf and then overestimated how much had been removed. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with Kate Sheppard, the energy and environmental politics reporter for Mother Jones magazine, about the findings.

What do a jazz pianist, a linguist, a stone carver, and an entomologist have in common? They’re among the winners of this year’s MacArthur genius grants. Host Bruce Gellerman gets the buzz from award winner Marla Spivak, a honeybee expert from the University of Minnesota.

For as long as we've gazed at the heavens, we've never seen a planet that looks quite like us. Some planets were too close to their sun, and some were too far away. Now host Bruce Gellerman asks astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the "Goldilocks” planet that is potentially just right for life.

Blair Mountain, in West Virginia’s coal country, was the scene of the most important event you probably never heard of. The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain pitted thousands of union miners against machinegun toting coal operators. Historians call that five-day battle the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War. Living on Earth’s Jeff Young tells us about a new battle for Blair Mountain, one between those who want the site protected and a mountaintop removal coalmine.

Delegates from 150 nations meet in China for climate negotiations. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN climate talks, about her expectations for an international agreement, given the disappointing results at the Copenhagen summit last year.

Some restaurants have goat on the menu; this one has goats on the roof. A Swedish Restaurant in Wisconsin has become so famous for its rooftop stable that the owner has decided to patent his design. Host Bruce Gellerman asks proprietor Lars Johnson about intellectual property and ornamental livestock.

Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute is at the climate talks in China. She tells host Bruce Gellerman the international community is still looking to America and hoping President Obama will take a strong stand on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.