by Brittney Melton

November 9, 2025

Good morning. This week, a snow leopard cub made its debut at a Michigan zoo, Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland was found dead after a police chase, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she won’t seek reelection.

Should humans be “playing God”

by Nathan Rott, NPR’s Science Desk correspondent

Six years ago, while I was standing in a building filled with some of the most endangered species on the planet, I first stumbled on what I’ve come to think is one of the most pressing questions facing the wildlife conservation community: How far should we humans go to stop a species from going extinct?

I was in a rural part of eastern Tennessee reporting on a mysterious illness affecting freshwater mussels — nature’s Brita filters, as some scientists described them. And I asked a gathered group of biologists what seemed like a simple question: Why couldn’t they just move rare mussels from their native waterways into another waterway that was more fitting — when the mussels native waters became incompatible because of pollution, warming or disease. Translocation, I’d come to learn, is the technical term for moving a species from one habitat to another.

The Key deer is the smallest deer species in North America. Several are seen gathered around a real estate sign.

Ryan Kellman/NPR

One of the biologists was all for this solution. Roughly a million species are at risk of extinction globally because of human actions. We have a responsibility to intervene in nature, he argued, because we already have.

One of his colleagues adamantly disagreed, saying humanity should be cautious about “playing God” with the environment. Nature is complicated, her argument went, and we don’t fully understand the interconnections between plants, animals, fungi, air and water. Moving a freshwater mussel into a new environment to save it might help that species, but it also might have unintended consequences for the fish, mussels and plant life already there.

How do you weigh those risks? What right do we have — as just one of the many millions of species on the planet — to weigh them?

What interested me and my colleagues, Ryan Kellman and Lauren Sommer, most about this idea of “Playing God” was that it raised as many ethical questions as practical ones.

Humans can now manipulate DNA, the most fundamental building blocks of life. We can move entire coastlines, raze whole forests and alter the global climate. We can aim evolution, arguably nature’s most powerful tool, to make corn stalks that are more resistant to drought or breed dogs that don’t shed — shout out to my cuddly Cockapoo.

All of these abilities are used almost daily to improve human life. Why not use them to improve the life of a freshwater mussel?

Over the last few years, we’ve traveled around the world to find examples of how the debate over the use of these tools for wildlife conservation is playing out in real time.

We boated around with wildlife biologists in the Florida Keys who are wondering what to do with the smallest deer species in North America, as sea levels rise and their habitat shrinks. We looked at an effort in the mountains of California to save giant sequoias by spreading seedlings from parent trees that already live in the hottest and driest areas — with the hope that they’ll better be able to survive the climate of tomorrow.

We went to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where scientists are trying to essentially speed up evolution by doing a sort of coral IVF, breeding coral species that might be able to better withstand warming oceans.

We watched a helicopter, carrying thousands of essentially neutered mosquitoes, take off in Hawaii, to protect highly endangered birds from avian malaria.

We traipsed through forests in New Zealand where an army of backyard trappers are trying to kill off millions of invasive species that were brought by humans to the island country.

Our goal with these stories — and those to come — is to show you, dear reader, some of what’s possible. While the natural world is facing many crises, it’s not all bleak.

We can do a lot.

What we should do is the stickier question.

And it’s a question that deserves your thought and attention. Because like those freshwater mussels, we too need a clean environment. And like it or not, the health of the natural world — at least as we’ve known it — is very much in our hands.

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

➡️ Iowa state legislators are working to attract more OB-GYNs to the state, which currently has the lowest number of these specialists per capita in the U.S. The state’s abortion ban may be a factor in its OB-GYN numbers, as recent data shows a decline in medical students applying to residency programs with strict restrictions.
➡️ The number of children attending the Tibetan Children's Village, a school in India founded by the Dalai Lama, is currently declining, reflecting the fate of the exiled community itself.
➡️ Analysts have been seeking indicators to assess the status of the job market following two consecutive months without an official jobs report due to the federal shutdown. Here’s what we know about the economic outlook.
➡️ Migrating wild birds are spreading bird flu to domestic flocks. If not taken seriously, the consequences could extend beyond high egg prices, with influenza researchers warning the spread of bird flu among wild and domestic flocks could lead to a potential human outbreak.

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Quick question: Do you have a list of old books that you’ve always been meaning to get around to? You know — the sort of book that a friend recommended a hundred years ago, or maybe one that a teacher assigned (and you ignored), or a classic that everyone’s - allegedly - already read? Yep, us too.

Thankfully, we’ve just launched Books We’ve Loved, a brand-new, limited series from our Book of the Day podcast, with new episodes dropping on Saturdays throughout the fall. This is where we’ll be wrangling some of the most compelling lit nerds out there to make the case for picking up a book from the past.

We’re inviting a cast of literary luminaries – authors, critics, and familiar NPR voices – to argue why their book pick is worth your time. We’re asking our guests questions like — why can’t they get this book out of their head? How did this book shift a paradigm, shake the culture, or change their life? And, most importantly, why should you read it now?

Listen Now

Pod Club

Flowers lay on top of a gravestone listing multiple names.

Elvis Barukcic/Getty Images

Thanks for tuning in last week to the Here & Now Anytime episode, “The real story of Sacagawea.” The episode details is how the best-known story of Sacagawea’s life is incomplete and not entirely accurate. NPR listener Janna Markle says after listening to the episode, she was shocked by the misinformation being taught in school. “It wasn’t a little bit skewed, it was a lot skewed,” Markle said. “Why? To what end would the story be this far from the truth? What else did they lie to us about?!”

Today, we’re listening to Throughline. The episode “Prosecuting Genocide” examines how the term "genocide" might seem like it’s everywhere currently, making it easy to overlook that it is actually a legal term originating from World War II. For half a century afterwards, the word still wasn’t used in court. This episode details the events of the Bosnian War in the 1990s and the efforts involved in constructing a legal case to prove genocide. Listen to the episode or read the transcript here.

After listening, was there anything about the legal case that stood out to you? If so, let us know what it was by clicking here. Your response could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!

In today’s episode of The Sunday Story from Up First: There are tens of thousands of veterans in the U.S. behind bars, often without access to necessary mental health services. Hear one veteran’s journey from war to incarceration and redemption in a two-part special. Click here to listen to part one and follow it up with part two.

State postal abbreviations

The words "Sunday Puzzle" over a white background. The name "Will Shortz" is under the Sunday Puzzle title, etched into red dice.

NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! This week, every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first two letters of each word are the same state postal abbreviation. For example, if provided Colorado “everyday ailment there's no cure for” would have an answer of “COmmon COld.” Test your skills here. Check the page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m. ET.

This week's challenge comes from Mark Scott of Seattle. Think of a famous actress — first and last names. Interchange the first and last letters of those names. That is, move the first letter of the first name to the start of the last name, and the first letter of the last name to the start of the first name. Say the result out loud, and you'll get some advice on fermenting milk. What is it? Submit your answer here and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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This newsletter was edited by Treye Green.

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