Episode Details

Less than 2% of native prairie remains today. That’s a problem for the endangered Mead’s milkweed, which is the main food source of monarch caterpillars. We talk with the creator of the new short film “Intervention,” which follows St. Louis-based scientists into some of the last remaining prairies in North America to undertake the painstaking work of hand-pollinating Mead's milkweed. Conservation geneticist Christy Edwards also joins the discussion to share her passion for this work — exacting labor that comes with long, hot days navigating thorny brush in tick country.