Can we really “tech” our way out of the world’s water crises? In our Season 4 finale, we’re asking the big question of the season – will water technology be enough to solve wicked water problems?

In this episode, we’re going underground, undersea and into your water and sewer pipelines with science fiction’s favorite problem-solvers…robots!

On this episode of What About Water? an entrepreneur in Austin, Texas turns his dishwasher sensor into a tech startup that’s giving water utilities a picture of their water quality in real time.

Jay sits down with the father of contaminant hydrogeology, Dr. John Cherry, to talk about the water under our feet, and how we can better monitor it.

Call the fashion police! In this special holiday edition of What About Water? we dive into the apparel industry’s dirty secret: its water use.

How can we measure water when it disappears into thin air? On this episode, we’re looking at evapotranspiration, or “ET” for short.

In our first-ever documentary “Submerged”, we hear the different ways Indigenous communities bear the brunt of mega hydroelectric projects.

It’s estimated that by 2050, we’ll have over 9 billion people on earth. To feed everyone, we will need to produce 60 per cent more food – and we’ll have to do it using less water. On this episode of “What About Water?” we’re looking at new technology that can make that shift possible.

With a number of our freshwater resources on land receding, is it time to look to the ocean – or, rather, underneath it for fresh water?

For Nik Kowsar, civil unrest in Iran is not new. In this episode, Nik shares how he harnesses the power of media and technology to spread the word about water issues in his home country.

Can water risk disclosure move the needle on corporate water stewardship? And what does it have to do with our own retirement funds? In this very special episode of What About Water? – recorded on location at World Water Week – Jay sits down with Cate Lamb in Stockholm, Sweden to discuss valuing water. We hear how companies with high water-related risks affect our own bottom line, and how pensions hang in the balance when the value of those companies erode in the face of climate change.

In the first episode of our fourth season, Jay sits down with renowned scientist and IPCC author, Virginia Burkett, to talk about technology, its pitfalls and its promises for a water-secure future.

What happens when tensions over water reach their boiling point? In our final bonus episode of the summer season, we explore the causes of water conflicts and what we can do to stop them.

In our third bonus episode of the summer season, we look back at some of the most innovative ways people are sourcing their freshwater, from building home water systems in the Navajo Nation to engineering a state of the art wastewater treatment facility in Orange County. We learn how different communities are finding innovative solutions to recycle and reuse their water supply. We also hear what improvements need to be made to aging water infrastructure and how nature-based solutions are key to restoring the damage that over-engineering has done.

From farmer’s fields to the high arctic, from your morning cup of coffee to a glass of wine – everything we eat and drink depends on water. In the second episode of our summer mini season, we draw from our past interviews about water scarcity and its effect on our food supply.

In our first mini-episode of the summer season, we turn to three guests from our past seasons to explore Indigenous ways of knowing, and to look more closely at the sacred nature of water — how various people understand it, conserve it and co-exist with it.

On our final episode of Season 3, we hear how a 6th grade science fair project led to receiving the Order of Nova Scotia for youth environmentalist and clean water advocate, Stella Bowles. At just 11 years old, Stella learned about the 600 straight pipes flushing unprocessed sewage from homes directly into the river behind her home, the LaHave. What started as a science fair project catapulted her community – and all three levels of government – into action to clean up the LaHave. Now 18 years old and $15.7 million in government funds allocated later, Stella sits down with Jay to share her story.

This week on What About Water?, we look at water infrastructure – from broken water pipes across America to the redistribution of water rights in Chilé – and what role governments play in fixing the systems that distribute our water.

On this episode of What About Water? we’re learning from traditional knowledge. Jay sits down with Tasha Beeds, a grassroots Indigenous academic and Water Walker. She takes us through the origins of Water Walking – an Indigenous ceremony recognizing and connecting with water. Beeds enters into ceremony for the water – discussing what it means to raise consciousness about water as a living entity.

On this episode of What About Water? we take a look at the state of our rising seas from space, and learn what coastal communities on the ground are doing to adapt. Jay speaks with long-time colleague Steve Nerem, a Principal Investigator on NASA’s Sea Level Change team.

With climate change threatening freshwater sources, water demand across the globe is likely to increase by 20 – 30% between now and 2050. In this episode, we’re looking at two promising solutions to create clean drinking water from surprising places: our sewers and oceans.

Transboundary waters – the rivers, lakes, and aquifers shared by two or more countries – are found in 153 of the world’s 192 countries, accounting for an estimated 60% of global freshwater flow. As a critical component of our survival, water has long been a source of conflict between nations. But the stakes are higher with a rapidly increasing population and threats of water scarcity. In this episode, we talk to Aaron Wolf, a trained mediator and Professor of Geography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, about transboundary cooperation as a useful tool for adaptation.

We’re already reaping the financial repercussions of climate change. Four Twenty Seven projects that by 2040, roughly $78 trillion, equivalent to about 57% of the world’s current GDP, will be exposed to flooding. On this episode of What About Water? we ask the question: can market incentives align with climate priorities? And how do we hold big corporations accountable?

For centuries, we have built big dams, reservoirs, and levees. Humans have steered and shaped the flow of water to irrigate deserts, prevent floods and access groundwater. But through big engineering, we’ve also created breaks in the natural flow of freshwater from source to sea. The good news is: we can look to nature for solutions to fix it.

Jay talks with Global Institute for Food Security Associate Director, Leon Kochian, about the challenges and potential solutions that can help farmers adapt to water scarcity in agriculture. We also hear from two farmers on the ground – Merle Massie and Reg Lowe – who are experiencing the impacts of this year’s drought first-hand.

Join our guest host, Professor Graham Strickert, as he hosts a panel of experts to discuss the pitfalls and problems of hydropower dams. Inspired by our screening of the award-winning Patagonia film “DamNation.”

Join us as some of Canada’s leading water scientists and experts discuss how testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 can help us detect emerging community outbreaks. It’s a dirty subject that is saving lives.

Climate change has a price. In this bonus episode (recorded on Earth Day) our host Dr. Jay Famiglietti has a live virtual roundtable with three experts, each with a unique perspective on this multifaceted topic.

Valuing water is about much more than price. In this bonus episode (a condensed version of our Let’s Talk About Water virtual forum on World Water Day), Jay talks with three individuals each with a unique perspective on valuing water. Featuring Kirsten James (Ceres), Gidon Bromberg (EcoPeace Middle East), and Dr. Karen Kidd (McMaster University).

World-renowned economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs believes humanity can leap forward with science and technology – but only if we drop our primeval addiction to war and conflict.

Colorado water lawyer James Eklund and California water policy expert Ellen Hanak talk to Jay about the future of water — or rather, about water futures. Water futures and securities are increasingly valuable investments.

For thousands of years, Indigenous North Americans drank some of the world’s purest drinking water. Then came colonization and government neglect. First Nations’ water quality fell and, with it, their health. But as Jay learns, change is coming thanks to Indigenous Water Protectors, like Deon Hassler, a teacher of water treatment plant operators for the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, and helpers, like Bob Patrick, a water expert at the University of Saskatchewan.

In this episode, Jay talks with an old friend about hope: hope for cleaner and safer water in America. Felicia Marcus is an attorney/consultant who has served in government, the non-profit world, and the private sector. She’s been a board member on numerous national and international bodies, including one that oversees Canada-U.S. water issues.

Dr. Chelsea Rochman, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, says plastic, everyone’s favourite cheap and easy resource, comes with a high price. Microscopic pieces of plastic flake off every time we wield a disposable bag, or wash a polyester sweater, or any number of things. They permeate our water, air, soil, bodies, even unborn foetuses. It’s a problem that will plague humans for untold generations unless, she says, we take aggressive action to control our plastic addiction.

Climatologist Micah Hewer and economist Pat Lloyd-Smith tell Jay about the good, the bad, and the ugly effects of global warming on Canada’s outdoor recreation sector.

Dr. Kelsey Leonard, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and member of the Shinnecock Nation, discusses how Indigenous views on the personhood of water can save that water. More and more bodies of water around the world are being granted legal personhood status, which gives them the right to be defended from industrial pollution. Dr. Leonard is fighting to make water justice a priority across government and bridge the gap between Indigenous belief and Western law.

Dr. Peter Gleick, co-founder and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, believes Joe Biden could be the man to save American water policy, which has been foundering under Donald Trump. In his co-authored policy brief, Water Recommendations to the Next President, Gleick and his colleagues lay out the biggest issues with US water safety and access, and what President Elect Biden needs to do to guarantee continued clean water for all Americans and limit the global repercussions of climate change.

Debra Perrone, Assistant Professor UC Santa Barbara, discusses the dwindling groundwater supply affecting 12 million US wells caused by global warming and over-consumption. The world relies on groundwater, which is getting harder and harder to find. With groundwater close to the surface vanishing, well-drillers are forced to turn to deep drilling for corporate, agricultural, and domestic water needs. But going deep this way is far more expensive and increasingly yields contaminated water.

Abrahm Lustgarten, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated environmental reporter, talks to us about climate migration, one of climate change’s biggest looming threats. Rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and ever-increasing natural disasters are forcing people to abandon their homes and their ways of life to seek safer ground. As the planet heats up, the number of climate refugees will just keep swelling, up to 3 billion people — a third of the global population — by 2070.

Up until a few years ago Ingrid Waldron was best known in her province for teaching sociology at Dalhousie University and advocating for members of the African Nova Scotian community and Indigenous people. Waldron argued these marginalized people were victims of environmental racism, who for centuries were forced to drink tainted water, breathe polluted air and live next to waste dumps. Now those concerns are reaching national and even global audiences, and change is happening in Nova Scotia.

In this episode of “What About Water?” California is burning. And Oregon. And Washington State. And not only are mega wildfires in the U.S. threatening – and sometimes taking — lives and property there, they’re pumping smoke and fallout high into the atmosphere that has spread to Canada and even entered European air space.