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Moira talks to author David Helvarg about his book, Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America's Forgotten Heroes. He tells the story of the Coast Guard and how their missions range from saving fishermen in the icy waters off Alaska to rescuing thousands in the wake of Katrina.

On the one hand, biofuels offer a green substitute against petrol-based fuels such as gasoline. On the other, they are still expensive to produce and are causing a steep inflation in food prices the world over. A panel of experts debates the root causes of the increase in food prices, and the need to produce biofuels vis-a-vis the measures to tackle the economic and political side effects of its production.

A food crisis is upon us. Prices of food commodities have risen dramatically. Shrinking supply, due to weather and the production of biofuels, combined with spiking petroleum prices, has lead to rising demand and instability in countries the world over. Robert Hormats, Helene Gayle, and Jacqueline Novogratz discuss the roles that the financial sector, NGOs, and small farmers around the world play as well as what they can, and must do, to reverse this alarming situation.

Just imagine being awakened by the crash of falling furniture, and a rocking, heaving house. Then it hits you, "It's an earthquake!" What should I do? Should I get out of the house? The answer, according to Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, founder of Build Change, depends upon where you live. In this interview with host Sheela Sethuraman, Dr. Hausler describes how the strategies of Build Change are helping villages in Indonesia and China to build earthquake resistant housing.

When huge disasters like Hurricane Katrina strike, who better to help out than the companies that provide many of the goods and services that relief agencies depend on? In this conversation, Eric Nee, co-host of Social Innovation Conversations, interviews Tom Lehner, manager of the Partnership for Disaster Response, on how business has been providing an organized response to some of the most disruptive natural catastrophes occurring around the world over the past four years.

Aid organizations around the world are learning that they can solve their technology and infrastructure problems faster and cheaper together than on their own. Enabling that collaboration is NetHope, a nonprofit information technology consortium helping NGOs establish the technology "ecosystems" they need to serve constituencies in more than 150 countries. Eric Nee interviews Bill Brindley, CEO of NetHope, on how the consortium got started, how it works, and how it is expanding its mission.

The Idea Village was launched in New Orleans by "five guys who wanted to change the world." The more modest goal of these entrepreneurs was to revitalize the city economically--a mission that became especially important when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Tim Williamson shares how his nonprofit has been helping rebuild the devastated city economically, and the progress inspired through a powerful network of talented individuals.

Phil and Scott discuss the recent Telecosm 2008 conference, where attendees debated, discussed, decoded and deciphered the digital and communications technologies and policies vital to the build-out of the global Internet infrastructure. They also talk about a number of other topics, including Google's Android project and PlateSpin, a company that specializes in server consolidation and disaster recovery.

Reconstruction of the electric grid in Iraq is seen as the most important project in that country. Over $60 billion have been pledged, but even three years after the end of the war, there is still a long ways to go. IEEE Spectrum executive editor Glenn Zorpette discusses the progress and challenges, both technological and political, facing the reconstruction effort there.

According to Yale University Professor Charles Perrow, it is time to start learning from recent natural disasters in the United States like Hurricane Katrina. On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, Perrow asserts that instead of simply responding to natural disasters, we should be reducing our vulnerability to them.