Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Donate
Podcasts Take Two
NASA's breakaway from Russia, permits issued for driverless cars, history of drought, and more
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Take Two Logo
Sep 17, 2014
Listen • 1:36:50
NASA's breakaway from Russia, permits issued for driverless cars, history of drought, and more

On Wednesday, Take Two discusses how NASA is working to end its reliance on Russia by 2017, technology behind driverless cars, and how new CA groundwater regulations could help conserve water. We'll also look at the history of drought and its affect on wildflowers.
AMBOY, CA - FEBRUARY 29: Desert sunflowers begin the annual desert bloom at sunrise near Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark as a near-normal rain season follows a near-record dry season that lead to a wave of massive wildfires across southern California in 2007, on February 29, 2008 near Amboy, California. Weather experts are saying that it would take years of above-normal rainfall to refill the shrinking reservoirs of the West and to recover from a drought that has plagued western states since the end of the 1990s. Very few wildflowers were seen in California deserts in 2007. Amboy Crater is a symmetrically-shaped cinder cone near Mojave National Preserve in one of the youngest volcanic fields in the nation. The last eruption period occurred 500 years ago. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Desert sunflowers begin the annual desert bloom at sunrise near Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark on February 29, 2008 near Amboy, California.
(
David McNew/Getty Images
)

On Wednesday, Take Two discusses how NASA is working to end its reliance on Russia by 2017, technology behind driverless cars, and how new CA groundwater regulations could help conserve water. We'll also look at the history of drought and its affect on wildflowers.

Aid organizations respond to new U.S. Ebola response plan
Listen • 7:09
On Tuesday, President Obama outlined a ramped up U.S. plan to combat the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 2,400 people in West Africa.
Role of SpaceX in NASA deal marks shift in space contracts
Listen • 7:34
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says NASA's deal "will ultimately take us to the stars and make humanity a multi-planet species." We're talking about you, Mars.
Fall TV preview: The Flash, Madam Secretary, Black-ish and more
Listen • 8:28
While it doesn't feel like summer is over, fall officially starts next week and that means the new TV season is getting under way.
Attention cord-cutters: Big cable may give you more ways to watch
Listen • 6:13
Big cable companies look ahead as more people forego traditional pay-TV subscriptions.
Sports Roundup: The NFL's continuing problems and dysfunction on the Dodgers
Listen • 11:16
The NFL gets called to the carpet and are the Dodgers winning despite dysfunction? It's what we're talking about in our weekly sports chat with the Kamenetzky brothers.
Exploring California’s coast for lost ships
Listen • 3:58
Experts estimate that more than 300 ships have been lost at sea, more than 1,000 square miles off the Pacific just west of San Francisco.
How new Calif. groundwater regulations could help save water
Listen • 6:32
Until Gov. Jerry Brown signed this legislation into law, California was the only western state that did not regulate its groundwater.
LA County Probation Dept. investigates injury claims
Listen • 7:52
One Los Angeles County agency is working to weed out the bad apples filing bogus injury claims and get people back to work. The effort is not without controversy.
Study: Megadrought a possibility in Southwest
Listen • 3:33
If you've been enjoying the uncomfortable weather we've been having here in Southern California, then good news: We could be having several decades more of it.
History of drought in the West
Listen • 4:59
The idea of a megadrought may sound alarming, but it's nothing new to the West. So how does it compare to droughts of past?
The 'pretty side of climate change': Rocky Mountains see longer wildflower seasons
Listen • 5:08
Think of global warming and you might imagine massive wildfires and melting ice sheets. In the Rocky Mountains, imagine fields of blooming beautiful wildflowers.
California issues first permits for self driving cars
Listen • 4:50
This week California got one step closer to making the 1980s Hollywood fantasy of Knight Rider a 21st century reality with driverless car permits that take effect today.
Fart sounds woke up her comatose brother: How Margaret Nagle's experience helped her write "Red Band Society"
Listen • 9:25
"Red Band Society" tells the story of several teenagers with long-term or terminal illnesses that force them to live together in a hospital.