NPR.

The splendid poison frog, the Yankti River Dolphin, the Maui Akipa songbird.

These are all animals that went extinct over the last couple of decades.

Those are sounds our grandchildren won't hear, and it could even mean that medicines never get discovered.

Yeah, Ozenpick was developed after a chance discovery with venom from the Gila monster lizard,

and that lizard is near threatened.

Hugh Possingham is a scientist at the University of Queensland and Australia,

and Hugh says these extinctions are largely due to human activity.

We are in a mass extinction, and the rate at which species are going extinct is roughly

100 times the normal rate.

So if you're wondering how to help, what kind of donation or policy would have the most

impact, Hugh actually has an answer.

He has a way to maximize biodiversity.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Whelan Wong.

And I'm Dariam Woods.

Today on the show, cost-effective conservation.

Hugh challenges ecologists to think more like economists, and we meet some incredibly cute tortoise hatchlings on a tropical island.

Don't we can't we.

If you want to learn how to save species cheaply, Hugh Possingham's your guy.

My life is very complicated.

I'm 31 boards and committees outside my day job.

...