The Worst Drought in 1,200 Years
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 July 2022
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The American southwest is in a megadrought. Water levels in lakes are dropping, threatening the local environment as well as agriculture, hydroelectric power, and the people living there. As global temperatures rise, it could be a preview of worse things to come.
Guest: Dr. Jason Smerdon, ocean and climate physicist, and Lamont research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and co-director at the Earth Institute Faculty.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Sam Mendes presents Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, an audible original drama. |
| 0:05.6 | The young gentleman's name would be... |
| 0:08.3 | Oliver. Oliver Twist. |
| 0:10.7 | ...with Brian Cox as Fagan. |
| 0:12.9 | What have you seen? Street boy. |
| 0:14.9 | Nicola Cochlan as Nancy and Daniel Caluia as Bill Sykes. |
| 0:19.3 | Oh, look at me like a hound of my noise! |
| 0:21.3 | I love you, baby! |
| 0:22.3 | ...with original music by Dan Gillespie Cells. |
| 0:25.7 | Subscription required, see audible.co.uk for terms. |
| 0:37.1 | Lake Mead is shrinking. |
| 0:39.5 | And when I say that, here's what I mean. |
| 0:42.6 | If you're good or less Vegas, drive out to the lake, |
| 0:45.2 | which is actually America's largest reservoir, |
| 0:48.2 | you'll notice a strange pale stripe running along the waterline. |
| 0:52.1 | Some people call this a bathtub ring. |
| 0:54.9 | Over the last two decades, it has gotten so dry here |
| 0:59.0 | that it is as if the lake has drained, leaving bleached white rocks, |
| 1:05.0 | where the waterline used to be. |
| 1:07.1 | As the water recedes, it's uncovering things that got drowned a long time ago. |
| 1:13.2 | Just this month, a World War II era swamp boat emerged from the lake. |
| 1:18.4 | And a few weeks before that, people were making more gruesome discoveries. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

