World Ocean Radio - Reflections

Reflections
February 6, 2024

This week on World Ocean Radio we are correlating relationships and connections east to west, Pacific to Atlantic, from weather to communications, from financial exchange to treaties, from defensive and offensive events in the world toward connections and perspectives, new imaginings and change for a new, sustainable future. The sea connects all things.

December 26, 2023

At each year's end, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reads "At The Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop. This poem, a perennial favorite, was chosen not only for its relevance for the New Year, but also because it distills years of Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the world ocean.

November 21, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio, part two of a two-part Thanksgiving special. In this episode we discuss the ways we can give back to the land and the sea that provide so much. What if we accept the obligation to give back in an exchange that sustains Nature, through our behaviors and our patterns of consumption?

November 13, 2023

Where we live in the northeastern United States, we are celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving. In that spirit, what can we do to show our gratitude? What if we accept such reciprocal relationships with Nature as our obligation and our contribution to the public good? Let's all give thanks for the sustainability the ocean provides.

October 3, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill talks about the power of storytelling and the vast catalog of tales of adventure, sailors, song, battle, Captain's logs, letters home, and more that tell the stories of our ocean culture and civilization.

July 13, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio we are broadcasting an early episode in which we look to the night sky, to ponder the wonder contained therein, and to explore the danger of polluting it forever in the name of modern navigation and instant communications worldwide.

January 4, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio we lay the groundwork for a new and upcoming multi-part series--RESCUE--outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions: from the smallest to the largest solutions and inventions, to radical methods and policy changes for a sustainable future.

December 27, 2022

Our annual gift to World Ocean Radio listeners. In this episode, host Peter Neill reads "At the Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop, a poem from 1955 that distills Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the ocean. A favorite of ours, with profound relevance for the New Year. Please enjoy.

December 20, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special seasonal reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of extreme weather, storms, and especially nor'westers. Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.

November 15, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on a recent trip to Egypt, a dry desert land in the heart of Africa, the civilizations of which are clustered along the Nile, the longest river in the world. The desertification on display there offers clues to universal threats and our climate future: freshwater disruption, loss of land and wetland, urbanization, saltwater intrusion, and rising temperatures.

July 19, 2022

This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. In this episode, host Peter Neill discusses a recent full-moon rise he witnessed from an island perch in Maine. The silent, stealth-like way that it rose in the sky got him ruminating about water, tide, sun, current, power, light, nature, human emotion, and the often under-appreciated, surreal force of the moon.

February 14, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio: reflections on the morality of nature and the ocean. How do we change the consequences of our actions, and take responsibility for what we have done to create the world we find ourselves in? Is it time for a bit of moral neutrality to return to a more accommodating, natural state?

November 8, 2021

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we take listeners to the shore, to be reminded of the importance of silence, solitude and renewal in our lives, and of the healing power of the ocean--or water in any form--that is there for us, if and when we choose to stop and listen.

August 30, 2021

This week on World Ocean Radio we're looking to the night sky, to ponder the wonder contained therein, and to explore the danger of polluting it forever in the name of modern navigation and instant communications worldwide.

August 24, 2021

This week on World Ocean Radio we reflect on "blue" and the profound stages of meaning beyond the color of the sea and sky to encompass depth, stability, wisdom, faith, truth, redemption, and the natural world.

December 21, 2020

This week, as we lean into the holiday season of giving and gratitude, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill asks us to consider the concept of reciprocity--a give and take with the land and sea. And he provides us with three examples of ways that we can give back to Nature as part of our obligation and contribution.

June 23, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill asks us to look to the ocean during these turbulent times of social unrest, to recognize the ocean as at times a connector and circulator of slaves and refugees, but now also as the great equalizer and unifier for all who care to live collaboratively, in agreement, with equity and reciprocity.

May 26, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: host Peter Neill offers reflections on the word "blue" and the profound stages of meaning beyond the color of the sea and sky to encompass depth, stability, wisdom, faith, truth, redemption, and the natural world.

February 18, 2020

In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on a landscape of special importance to him on the coast of Iceland, and the ways that the experience of visiting it for the first time shaped his future and his dedication to sharing the meaning of the ocean with others, and to its contributions for the health and welfare of us all.

January 20, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio we highlight the innovative work of the Sasagawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, an organization using philanthropy to stimulate practical and transformative change for ocean communities in the Pacific, innovating through community, partnership and social engagements to bring about real and lasting change for communities, fishers, harvesters and others affected by severe weather, economic uncertainty and climate change.

December 24, 2019

This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of nor'westers... Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.

June 17, 2019

Visiting coastal graveyards in Ireland some years ago, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill observed the many stones of sailors lost at sea and began to contemplate the coastal ports in the United States, and the ways that cities and ports alongshore honor--or forget--those who dedicated their lives to the seaborne pursuits of fishing, boatbuilding, the merchant trades, and international commerce.

January 2, 2019

The ocean, in its constant motion, offers solace and support for the human spirit and provides an immersion in nature for renewal and regeneration. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we offer thoughts on the dynamic character of the ocean as a celebration of vitality, recreation, and rejuvenation. World Ocean Radio offers you, our listeners, very best wishes for a healthy and happy new year.

May 14, 2018

As humans migrate toward the coastal zone in the next 30 to 50 years, less seaside space will be available for us to enjoy, to entice our senses, and to rejuvenate our souls. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill outlines some of the sensate experiences that may be at risk of being lost if and when we are deprived of our connections to the sea.

March 20, 2017

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, written during a blizzard raging off the Maine coast, host Peter Neill reflects on the vulnerability of the ocean and the implications of the aggressive destruction of natural resources. And he asks, “Are we really prepared to destroy the global ocean and all its potential for sustaining us into the future?”