What happens when we change our relationship to water? Can we stop trying to control water and just go with the flow?

Erica Gies, environmental journalist, National Geographic Explorer, and author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge sits down with host Jay Famiglietti to discuss how the engineered control of water sometimes does more harm than good.

We also hear from Nicholas Pinter about 'Design with Nature' and how communities are managing retreats from the floodplains.

The Endhó Dam north of Mexico City has been called “the largest septic tank in the world” and “Mexico’s toilet bowl”. Once designed to solve water problems in the region, it now receives wastewater from local industry and Mexico City.

Arizona State University doctoral students Raquel Neri, in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, and Diego Pantaleón, in the School of Social Transformation, join host Jay Famiglietti to discuss the devastating impact the contaminated water is having on local communities and water sources in Hidalgo, Mexico.

We also hear from Yury Uribe, activist and member of El Movimiento Social por la Tierra - Social Movement for the Land in Mexico. She has been in the community all her life and lived near the Endhó Dam for 20 years.

By June 7, 2024, officials from Mexico's federal health department met with community leaders to discuss ways to address public health concerns related to contaminants in the waters of the region, including the Endhó Dam. Read the official statement from Mexico's federal government announcing it has begun work to declare the Endhó dam as an ecological restoration zone:

What happens when science gets in the way of ambition, politics, and progress?

With a look back at the historical figures and forces that led to the overallocation of the Colorado River, and the consequences that continue to play out today, John Fleck joins Jay Famiglietti on What About Water? Fleck is a Water Policy Researcher at the Utton Center, University of New Mexico and co-author with Eric Kuhn of Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River.

We conclude the episode with a perspective on how we can use the latest science and technoligy to both map and protect the earth’s biodiversity. Greg Asner explains what AToMS (Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System) can do and where the technology is headed in the future. Asner is the Chief Science Officer for a satellite mission called Carbon Mapper and director of ASU’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.