It's rare to find a podcast that can actually change your life.

But when the show is called Life Kit, that's kind of the whole point.

I'm Mariel Segarra.

Three times a week on the Life Kit podcast, we guide you through a topic we could all use help with,

from personal development to healthy living to managing your dinero,

with takeaways so you can start living what you learn right away.

Escucha El Life Kit podcast from NPR.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey everyone, Regina Barbara here.

It's Monday, which means sea camp, our summer series where we share sign stories from the ocean,

diving a little deeper each

week. And today, we're finally going to take our submersible downwards to the sunlight zone,

also known as the epipelagic zone of the ocean. Which is zero to 200 meters. That is where

sunlight is penetrating the ocean. This is marine biologist Noel Bolin, who's worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Noel is going to be our ocean zone guide for the rest of the series.

And the thing that you need to know about the sunlight zone is that.

The things that happen at the surface are very important for every zone. And that's the photosynthesis that

happens. Courtesy of phytoplankton, the plants of the sea. They eat sunshine, poop out food

for other critters, and generate oxygen. The ocean makes about half of Earth's oxygen and plankton

are responsible for a big share of that. So this zone is essential to our

planet's health. And it's a place that Drew Harville has seen up close, as a diver who studies

marine invertebrates, creatures without a backbone, who have been around for a long, long time.

...