World Ocean Radio

Series produced by World Ocean Observatory

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5-minute audio essays on global ocean topics by Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory

World Ocean Radio is a weekly 5-minute audio feature for web listeners, podcasts, and worldwide distribution through community radio stations and partners. WOR provides weekly 5-minute commentary from longtime host Peter Neill, offering a unique perspective on important and relevant ocean issues. Thanks to private and foundation funds, we are able to offer World Ocean Radio for syndicated use at no cost.

Broadcast affiliates: We automatically send emails every Monday with mp3 file, episode summary, and links to image file and broadcast page. Episodes are also available for direct download from The Pacifica Network and The Public Radio Exchange.

We hope you'll find World Ocean Radio programming engaging and relevant for your listening audience. It is our belief that the sea connects all things. No matter where your listeners live, these broadcasts offer meaningful and relevant information for us all about the state of our world ocean.

Please let us know what you think: CONTACT US at director@thew2o.net so that we may begin sharing World Ocean Radio weekly broadcasts with you and your listening audience.

The WORLD OCEAN OBSERVATORY is a major utility for ocean communication as a means to advance public awareness and political will, and is dedicated to providing information and education about the health of the ocean. We believe that informed citizens worldwide can unite to sustain the ocean through mitigation and change of human behavior on land and sea. Our focus is the full spectrum of ocean issues: climate, fresh water, food, energy, trade, transportation, public health, finance, governance, security, recreation, and culture. It is our belief that the sea connects all things. Hide full description

World Ocean Radio is a weekly 5-minute audio feature for web listeners, podcasts, and worldwide distribution through community radio stations and partners. WOR provides weekly 5-minute commentary from longtime host Peter Neill, offering a unique perspective on important and relevant ocean issues. Thanks to private and foundation funds, we are able to offer World Ocean Radio for syndicated use at no cost. Broadcast affiliates: We automatically send emails every Monday with mp3 file, episode summary, and links to image file and broadcast page. Episodes are also available for direct download from The Pacifica Network and The Public Radio Exchange. We hope you'll find World Ocean Radio programming engaging and relevant for your listening audience. It is our belief that the sea connects all... Show full description


642 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Wolf Schram for Unsplash
How often do we think about what lies below the surface of the land, below the sea floor? This week on World Ocean Radio we're thinking about water...

  • Added: Jul 09, 2019
  • Length: 05:33
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This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill highlights the dark side of what happens at sea in the context of a forthcoming book by Pulitzer Pr...

  • Added: Jul 02, 2019
  • Length: 05:34
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In this episode of World Ocean Radio we look back at the most egregious actions and decisions taken by individuals, corporations and governments th...

  • Added: Jun 25, 2019
  • Length: 05:25
Caption: The Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial aka "Man at the Wheel" is a historic sculpture honoring those lost at sea. Located in Gloucester, Massachusetts and built in 1925. , Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Visiting coastal graveyards in Ireland some years ago, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill observed the many stones of sailors lost at sea and began...

  • Added: Jun 18, 2019
  • Length: 05:28
Caption: Bath Iron Works is a subsidiary of General Dynamics and Maine's largest defense contractor and a major employer. BIW builds Zumwalt destroyers for the U.S. Navy at its shipyard on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine
This week on World Ocean Radio we're talking about solutions to the climate challenge by highlighting some modern examples of and possibilities for...

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio and KVNF


  • Added: Jun 11, 2019
  • Length: 05:38
  • Purchases: 2
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This week we are talking about ocean calm and the ways that we are affected in mind, body and spirit by a peaceful ocean. In this episode we tell t...

  • Added: Jun 04, 2019
  • Length: 04:51
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The World Ocean Observatory is partnering with Main Street Bucksport this year for the 4th annual International Maritime Film Festival, a celebrati...

  • Added: May 21, 2019
  • Length: 05:04
Caption: Desalination plant in Hamburg, Germany, Credit: World Atlas | worldatlas.com/articles/can-we-make-drinking-water-out-of-ocean-water.html
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill gets us thinking about seawater: as a resource for fresh drinking water, as a means for robust rene...

  • Added: May 14, 2019
  • Length: 05:12
Caption: Rivedoux-Plage, Charente-Maritime, southwestern France , Credit: Sweet Ice Cream Photography
Bridges are physical structures born from the ingenuity and hard work of humankind, engineered to connect things from one side to another. Bridges ...

  • Added: May 07, 2019
  • Length: 04:38
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The Green New Deal has received much attention in the United States recently as one possible response to the challenging circumstances we face worl...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2019
  • Length: 05:16
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Solar energy has emerged worldwide as a serious and viable alternative to fossil fuels, and can now be found in many places around the world. In th...

  • Added: Apr 23, 2019
  • Length: 04:52
Caption: "Charlotte’s Hope” was tagged and observed by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and filmed by BBC 1 for Blue Planet Live, in Charlotte Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula on March 11, 2019. Charlotte's Hope was then adopted and named by Peter
There has never been a better time to be a citizen scientist--those individuals interested in the collection of data toward solutions, the expansio...

  • Added: Apr 19, 2019
  • Length: 04:49
Caption: Phytoplankton (and algae) form the lowest trophic level, the base of the aquatic food web, Credit: NOAA | www.noaa.gov
Food webs describe who eats whom in an ecological community. In the aquatic food web, humans feed down the food chain, consuming lesser and lesser ...

  • Added: Apr 09, 2019
  • Length: 05:27
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Invention and management of energy systems have led to increased efficiency and less reliance on unsustainable supplies of fossil fuels. In this ep...

  • Added: Apr 02, 2019
  • Length: 05:02
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World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill recently returned home from a trip to Antarctica aboard MS Island Sky with scientists from Woods Hole and a film...

  • Added: Mar 26, 2019
  • Length: 04:52
Caption: 500 Episodes, Credit: World Ocean Radio
This week marks the 500th episode of World Ocean Radio! For more than 10 years, World Ocean Radio has been engaging in dialogue about ocean issues,...

  • Added: Mar 19, 2019
  • Length: 05:17
Caption: Yale Climate Connections 2018 Report, Credit: Yale Climate Connections
A recent report from the Yale Program on Climate Change, measuring public awareness and political views on issues related to climate, shows that op...

  • Added: Mar 12, 2019
  • Length: 05:19
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The word 'indigenous' is used a lot these days, especially in terms of territorial rights to land and of invasive species of flora and fauna. In th...

  • Added: Mar 05, 2019
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Ernest Shakelton British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09, Credit: Public Domain Review
Antarctica, terra nullius--nobody's land, has long been a place apart, once explored only by intrepid and resourceful individuals willing to risk f...

  • Added: Feb 26, 2019
  • Length: 05:16
Caption: Mazu is a Chinese sea goddess, a tutelary deity of seafarers including fishermen and sailors. Worship of Mazu has spread throughout coastal Chinese regions and throughout Southeast Asia, Credit: Wikimedia Commons
We wrap up our seven-part thematic overview of the ocean edge this week by discussing the cultural edge: the place alongshore where we interact wit...

  • Added: Feb 19, 2019
  • Length: 05:03