This is Civics 101. I'm Hannah McCarthy. Today, we're going to zoom in on a small sample of a big

change happening in the United States. Over the past months, the Trump administration has paused,

reduced, restricted, or eliminated federal funding for programs, research, and jobs that advance

medicine, science, technology, and education,

to name a few.

Grants have disappeared, people have been laid off, years of progress has been put on the shelf.

Now, I'm working on an episode that we'll explain what this kind of funding actually is and how this is all happening.

Stay tuned for that. But in the meantime,

we're trying to understand who and what is being affected by these changes. We're turning to

our friends at Outside Inn, a podcast that I warmly recommend you start following if you haven't

already. Producer Justine Parody spent time with a community of researchers who are trying to understand a threat to drinking water for millions of people.

This is the story of how these scientists are navigating this task.

Increasingly unsure of how or if, anyone will be able to pay for it.

I'll let Outside In take it from here.

Hey, this is Outside In, a show where curiosity and the natural world collide.

I'm Nate Hedgy.

Our story starts at a barbecue, at a park just outside of Ithaca, New York.

It's a warm day in late spring.

There's a waterfall nearby.

Swallows are nesting in the rafters.

And almost every person here is a scientist. They're grilling, catching up, and making so many PhD jokes.

We're having a good laugh about too many PhDs cooking the barbecue. How many does it take?

...