Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and oceans correspondent Teresa Tomassoni as they discuss the search for heat-resilient coral reefs that are somehow defying the odds to survive a warming planet.

The world has already lost more than half of its coral reefs, and most of what remains is at risk of disappearing in the next 25 years.

But new research offers a ray of hope: Even as hotter temperatures devastate coral reefs, some still possess an extraordinary ability to endure.

Teresa traveled to the Marshall Islands to follow Woods Hole scientists tracking down these super reefs. She explains the specialized technology aiding this research, the role governments play in coral conservation, and how unlocking the secrets of coral resilience might help scientists and conservationists restore, or even cultivate, reefs in other parts of the world.

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and ICN reporters Katie Surma and Kiley Price as they explain what sloth deaths in Florida reveal about the global wildlife trade and risks to public health.

Billions of live animals move through the legal and illegal wildlife trade, a massive industry a former CDC epidemiologist described as “pandemic roulette.”

Traded animals move to places they never would have been otherwise, encountering species—and pathogens—they never would have been exposed to in their own habitats. As a result, diseases can spread, mutate and ultimately sicken humans.

“Zoonotic” diseases jumping from animals to humans have driven many of the world’s most consequential outbreaks, including HIV/AIDS, influenza, West Nile virus and, many scientists believe, COVID-19.

Katie and Kiley dug into this story after reporting on mass deaths at Florida’s Sloth World, an investigation that led to calls for reform from lawmakers, a state-led criminal investigation and a short-term ban on sloth imports.

Today they explain what scientists learned from the dead sloths, who’s responsible for zoonotic disease oversight of imported wildlife, and what agencies could be doing to lower the public health risks of the global wildlife trade.

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and North Carolina reporter Lisa Sorg as they explain how a new N.C. ratepayer bill would put the brakes on data centers while incentivizing the use of fossil fuels.

The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas.

On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield North Carolinians from paying higher electric bills as a result of data centers’ operations.

On the other, the measure would liberate Duke Energy from limits on fossil fuel, upending key aspects of state energy policy and, in some respects, reversing nearly 20 years of painstaking work on climate change.

“It’s the terrible combined with the good,” a local advocate explained. “They should be two separate bills.”

Lisa, who has been following this legislation, explains how these two ideas got put together in the first place, where the opposing ideas fit in the state’s political landscape, and what’s at stake for North Carolina if the bill passes.