The UC Davis-affiliated podcast Water Talk launches its second season today, April 2. This season will focus on drought, a water issue at the top of many minds during this relatively dry rainy season.

“In California, drought is not ‘if,’ it’s ‘when,’” said Water Talk co-host Faith Kearns, academic coordinator with the California Institute for Water Resources.

“The second season includes a diverse group of guests from every corner of the state, border to border,” said co-host Samuel Sandoval, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.

The weekly podcast will feature discussions of agriculture, water policy, environmental and social justice, land and wildlife management, water for cities, Indigenous perspectives on water, climate change and other issues related to California water. 

“We thought a lot about the geography of the state, the identities of the people whom we were speaking with, the experts we were talking with, and the topics,” said co-host Mallika Nocco, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources.

Some aspects of the podcast were modified in the second season. Instead of recording during a live event, as was done in the first season, each episode was recorded with only the co-hosts. In addition, two production assistants, Claire Bjork and Victoria Roberts, supported the development of each episode through a UC ANR Renewable Resources Extension Act grant. 

Listeners can subscribe, hear and download all the episodes in Spotify, Apple, and Google podcasts, as well as on the podcast’s webpage, watertalkpodcast.com. Follow @podcast_water on Twitter.