Casey Gerald writes what he lives with remarkable wit, depth, and honesty; starting with his deep and delightful memoir There Will Be No Miracles, published by the Riverhead Books division of Penguin Random House. It is now available in paperback. His “The Black Art of Escape; A New Vision for Black Americans,” recently published in New York Magazine, considers the 400th anniversary of the “birth of a new people, and where we go from here.”

In the second segment (minute 32:27), Rebecca Helm professor at UNC-Asheville, takes up the complexities of plastic cleanup in our oceans, while teaching us about the barely known sea surface ecosystem. Those remediation projects we’re hearing about have much to learn about their impacts in the Neuston environment. Calling community scientists – if you see something on the beach, please report it to: https://www.inaturalist.org/.