At the edge of Miami’s beautiful Virginia Key, I’m joined in this conversation by Dalton Hesley at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, alongside my Miami-based artist collaborator Beatriz Chachamovits.

Together, we talk about corals, symbiosis, and why collaboration matters in the face of the climate crisis. We explore how science and art can learn to work together, how knowledge is strengthened through community, and how becoming a little more coral-like in our relationships to one another can help us imagine more resilient ways forward.

Join me in conversation with Melanie Prentice, research associate at the University of British Columbia and the Hakai Institute, and one of the lead researchers who helped unravel the mystery of the Sea Star Wasting Disease. In this conversation we particularly focus on the magnificent sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia. As the wasting disease spread up the pacific coast from California to Canada, more than 90% of these amazing sea stars were wiped out in epidemic proportions. We will talk with Melanie about her role in this groundbreaking discovery, the creativity that happens inside the lab, the ecological importance of the sunflower sea stars as a keystone species and what comes next.

The conversation on this episode is part of my 2025 artist residency at Willapa Bay, on the coastal peninsula of Washington State. Thank you Willapa Bay Artist in Residence for gift of time and expansive studio space, and for inviting me to be in residence this August session.

At the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, artist Randi Renate meets with Mitch Carl, the curator of aquatics and Lindsey Condray, senior aquarist and coral husbandry specialist working in conversation and care of the aquarium's many corals and projects. Following an extensive behind the scenes tour of their many scientific investigations in the fields of genetics, reproductive physiology, medicine, and more, listen in depth about their conservation projects, groundbreaking research, and discoveries happening at the Omaha aquarium.

This conversations are a part of Randi Renate's 2023 Bemis Center Artist Residency. This episode, and the following, will focus on stories happening in the midwest and how, even far from the oceans coast, an emphasis on care for our waters, ocean habitats and ecosystems remain as a strong narrative in sustaining these delicate systems against climate change.