Rain & Shine: Recent Episodes
Calla Rose Ostrander & Kori Stanton
Western Colorado's Weekly Nature and Science Update. Rain & Shine is a regional weekly nature and science short-form podcast that explores how the planet works and how we work with the planet. At three to five minutes, these bitesize episodes seeks to inspire awe for the natural world and provide basic science education for people of all ages. Episodes are based off questions asked by the public, or friends and family, and are purposefully designed to invoke curiosity and place the listener in a familiar context. Episodes include a written summary and linked citations, and may be used as school curriculum, or as stand-alone pieces for public entertainment and education. Rain & Shine is excited to be joining forces with The Learning Council and to now be available free for all western Colorado public radio stations.CONTACT: Email us at rainshineweekly@gmail.com and find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RainShinePodcasthttps://thelearningcouncil.org/rain-and-shine/
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Check out the YouTube video mentioned in this episode: What's Up: March 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA Support the show
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Photo Courtesy Colorado Parks And Wildlife/Victor Schendel
Wondering what steps to take if you run into a bear? Check out our Bear PSA here.
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Photo by Jayme Henderson from The Storm Cellar in Hotchkiss, CO
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The turkey is a unique bird indigenous to the lands we now call America. Our national (and personal) feelings about this beautiful bird go deep. Originally domesticated by first peoples for its feathers, the bird now graces tables across the nation every year as fall transitions to winter
CONTACT: Email us at rainshineweekly@gmail.com and find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RainShinePodcast
What connects the smell of a fresh spring rain and homemade sourdough? What keeps us healthy and happy? Unseen and vast, multitudes of healthy and symbiotic microbes are at the root of much of what makes life good and spring is an excellent time to keep them, and the ways in which we can keep them happy, at top of mind.
Photo by: Steve Grizz Adams
The iconic sandhill crane is a seasonal resident in Colorado. Big, fierce, and ancient, these creatures are beautiful neighbors that we look forward to seeing every year.
Pollution occurs when an element or chemical is moved out of its normal cycle. Thinking about pollution in this way can give us more resources to create products and processes that align with Nature's cycles and prevent pollution from the start!
This weeks Rain & Shine covers the scintillating topic of stars and many of the questions you may have asked yourself while lying in a hotspring on a cold, clear and dark winter night. Paonia resident Jez Wain helps us to answer these musings.
Water is life. It makes up 71% of Earth’s body and 60% of ours. An essential element it is often characterized by being in motion: flowing, ebbing, falling, freezing, melting, vaporizing, condensensing. Water is ever cycling through its different states of being, as a gas (vapor), a liquid (water), and a solid (ice).
One thing we don't often think about is how the speed, or the energy in the water molecules, determines water’s different states: vapor, liquid, solid. The water molecules of crystalized water in our winter wonderland are still. As water cools it loses thermal energy (heat), and as that energy goes the water molecules begin to slow down, until at 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit they stand still and condense, locking together to form solid ice. When water gets warm, the molecules regain energy and start to move, breaking apart and eventually moving around each other forming liquid water. H20 molecules that continue to warm and gain energy eventually move so fast that they leave their liquid state to become a gas, evaporating into water vapor. In the air they rise and then congregate creating clouds. If they continue to come together they become heavier and cooler until they condense and fall as rain.
CONTACT: Email us at rainshineweekly@gmail.com and find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RainShinePodcast
La Niña is a weather phenomenon that arises from the temperatures of Pacific Ocean waters affecting the course of the Pacific and Polar jet streams. La Nina years typically bring wet falls (from increased Atlantic and Gulf storms) and dry winters (by bumping up the Polar jet stream) to southern Colorado. This year looks to be a dry one, but Rain & Shine’s team is holding out for the famous variability of our region in hopes for some snow!CONTACT: Email us at rainshineweekly@gmail.com and find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RainShinePodcast
The turkey is a unique bird indigenous to the lands we now call America. Our national (and personal) feelings about this beautiful bird go deep. Originally domesticated by first peoples for its feathers, the bird now graces tables across the nation every year as fall transitions to winter
CONTACT: Email us at rainshineweekly@gmail.com and find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RainShinePodcast