The Commons – April 2025

  • Samples from Holwerda’s 2024 print and dye class on display at last year’s Earth Fest. Photo by Laila Smith

    How to: Design Sustainably with Natural Dyes

    During last year’s Earth Fest celebration, UW–Madison’s D.C. Smith Greenhouse was adorned with beautiful hangings dyed in all colors of the rainbow.

  • Person hiking overlooking sunset. Photo by iStock / KieferPix

    How to Build Climate Courage

    Fill in the blank: It takes courage to ___________.

  • New seedlings growing in soil. Photo by iStock / Daniele Orsi

    Healers and Harbingers

    Nothing is more universal than the idea of the “end of the world.” From religious revelations to the yearly climate reports, the apocalypse always seems to loom just around the corner.

  • Gooley and the other Nelson Institute ambassadors at last year’s Earth Fest Trivia. Gooley is in the center, holding the microphone. Photo courtesy of Grace Gooley

    Trivia Category: Earth Fest Events

    When did the first Earth Day take place? What’s the driest place on Earth? What is Wisconsin’s state bird?

  • Mead Witter Concert Hall inside the Hamel Music Center. Photo by Bryce Richter / UW–Madison

    The Sound of Science

    What makes El Niño important enough to rise to the level of a Schoolhouse Rock analogy?

  • John Francis

    All Walk, No Talk

    On January 18, 1971, two oil tankers, the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard, collided in the San Francisco Bay.

  • Manny Teodoro

    Meet Manny Teodoro

    Manny Teodoro’s area of expertise can be boiled down to the difference between a hydrated, well-functioning society, and a brutal, post-apocalyptic wasteland where scorching deserts stretch endlessly, rusted remnants of civilization litter the landscape, and lawless marauders clad in scavenged armor battle for dwindling resources amid a backdrop of anarchy, dust storms, and relentless survival.