Crosscut Talks Crosscut

The television host shares his ideal last meal and serves behind-the-scenes details from Nickelodeon and the Food Network.
Marc Summers, best known for his role as host of the 1980s Nickelodeon game show Double  Dare and host of the Food Network’s Unwrapped, actually launched his career doing magic tricks.
Summers shared this fun fact, and a whole lot more, with Rachel Belle, host of Your Last Meal — a James Beard Award finalist for Best Podcast — during a live taping at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in May. 
Another fun fact: Your Last Meal is now a Crosscut podcast! New episodes will be released every other Thursday. Learn more, listen and subscribe here. 
For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, Belle and Summers dig into the actor’s lifetime love of show business, how he snagged the job hosting the beloved Nickelodeon show (plus what that legendary slime was really made of), and why Summers decided to share his OCD diagnosis in the late 1990s. 
This conversation was recorded May 5, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Research shows the drugs can be effective in treating depression and substance-use disorders — but there’s still much we don’t know.
Psychedelics are moving back into the mainstream. According to a growing body of medical research, psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and ketamine can have a profound impact on people struggling with mental health conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress and substance-use disorders. 
As a result, legal barriers are beginning to fall away. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy,” for example, accelerating its path to approval, and recently released draft guidance for all clinical trials with psychedelic drugs. 
For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we listen in on a conversation among science journalist and author Carl Zimmer, palliative and rehabilitative care physician Dr. Sunil Kumar Aggarwal and University of Washington psychiatry professor Dr. Nathan Sackett about the rapidly emerging field of psychedelics in psychotherapy.
They discuss these drugs’ specific effects on the brain, explain their use in clinical practice and in current research and explore some of the bigger questions raised — from the challenges of practicing medicine in a legal gray area to the nature of human consciousness. 
This conversation was recorded May 6, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Pollution, habitat loss and climate change all threaten wildlife and their ecosystems. Conservationists discuss what we can do to help.
Wildlife numbers are plunging worldwide. From toxic waste to invasive species, deforestation to rising temperatures, threats to the survival of our planet’s millions of plants and animals are causing scientists to warn of a sixth extinction.
It’s estimated that roughly a third of the world’s species have become endangered or gone extinct in the past 500 years. And as the climate crisis continues to escalate, many more will be forced to adapt.
For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, environmental journalist Michelle Nijuis, Conservation Northwest senior policy director Paula Sweeden and National Wildlife Federation chief scientist Dr. Bruce Stein unpack the reasons we’re facing such a crisis and what we can do to mitigate it.
The panelists’ proposed solutions range from federal legislation to backyard gardens—and ultimately make the case that the biodiversity crisis is inextricable from the climate crisis.
This conversation was recorded May 4, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Following the failure of the Washington Recycling and Packaging Act, experts and a key lawmaker discuss next steps.
Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our refrigerators, in our oceans and even in our bloodstreams. And wherever there are plastics, there are questions over what to do with them. 
In Washington state, as in most other places, the answer has been to recycle them whenever possible. In 2011, Washingtonians recycled 56 percent of recyclable materials, but since then there’s been a decline. Now the state recycles about 49 percent.
For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we listen in on a conversation from the Crosscut Ideas Festival about plastics and the challenges to recycling. Seattle Times environment and climate editor Ben Woodard leads the conversations with Washington state representative Liz Berry, Ocean Nexus Center director and anthropologist Dr. Yoshitaka Ota and Zero Waste Washington executive director Heather Trim.
The panel discusses why those numbers have dropped, as well as China’s role in recycling, the equity issues surrounding the practice and legislative efforts to hold producers of goods accountable by having them pay for recycling services.
This conversation was recorded May 6, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

The climate leaders share why individual responsibility and corporate accountability aren’t mutually exclusive — and how daily habits can aid the planet.
The impacts of climate change are everywhere, often making headlines. Yet most Americans don’t know what climate change really is, or don’t think it will harm them ... until it does. 
For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we are listening in on a conversation about the challenges in communicating about climate change impacts and finding solutions with climate scientists Heidi Roop and environmental strategist Jamie Stroble. 
During the Crosscut Ideas Festival in Seattle, the two climate leaders discussed tangible solutions we can all participate in, and how climate scientists must recognize that facts and figures don’t change minds, but human connection can.
Roop and Stroble also discuss the longstanding inequities and structural barriers that result in disproportionate impact on marginalized communities, and how young people’s activism provides some hope for the future. 
This conversation was recorded May 6, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Jennifer Doudna discusses how the technology she helped advance is treating diseases and raising ethical dilemmas.
Gene editing is a game-changer for humanity. From health on individuals to the fate of the planet, the possible impacts of the technology are something previously found only in science fiction. But as with all scientific advancements that supercharge human capabilities and power, the technology comes with ethical questions.
These possibilities and questions are at the core of this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast. 
We’re listening in on a conversation between Nobel laureate and University of California Berkeley chemistry professor Jennifer Doudna and New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer as they discuss one of these technologies, CRISPR.  
Doudna, who won the Nobel for her work with gene editing technology, explains the fundamental science behind CRISPR, how it’s now being used by scientists to treat a wide range of diseases from HIV to sickle cell anemia, and where it might go from here.
This conversation was recorded May 3, 2023.
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Credits
Host: Paris Jackson
Producer: Seth Halleran
Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd
Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.