The waters of Northern California’s Tomales Bay have been home to Pacific oysters for more than a century, but today, they’re being threatened by climate change. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, are taking action—and that’s what led Amy Quinton, cohost of UC Davis’ Unfold podcast to the Bodega Marine Laboratory for a deep dive on ocean research.

Quinton tagged along with a UC Davis graduate student studying whether oysters can withstand warmer temperatures for an episode of Unfold, the U.S. university’s podcast that unpacks complex issues and highlights research. In season two, she and her cohost, Kat Kerlin, explore climate change’s myriad impacts on oceans, transportation, agriculture, communities, and more.

“That’s one of the things that I look for: Where can we take the listener?” Quinton says. “We ask: What kind of stories do we want to tell? What are our researchers doing that would make interesting audio stories?”

UC Davis started Unfold—which won a Gold 2020 CASE Circle of Excellence Award for Podcasts—to highlight key strategic communication pillars, including food security (season one of the show), climate change (season two), and curiosity (season three, now in planning and production). Both veteran journalists—Quinton for 20 years in public radio, Kerlin for about 20 years as an environmental science writer—the cohosts dig into solutions for tough issues through storytelling.

“It’s fun to have a different way of telling those stories. We get to see amazing things all the time that the average person doesn’t,” Kerlin says. The show “is a new way to be able to bring some of that to people.”