Reef and Trench

Ocean science from the shoreline to the abyss

Wanjiru Kamande2 episodes2 min of audio192 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2May 14, 20260:51119 plays Preview

The Current That Feeds East Africa

The East African Coastal Current carries nutrients, larvae and warmth along the coast. Wanjiru speaks with a Lamu fisher and an oceanographer about how it shifts with the monsoon and what that means f…

S1 · E1Feb 18, 20260:4773 plays Members

How a Reef Is Built, One Polyp at a Time

Wanjiru explains how a coral animal the size of a pinhead turns seawater into limestone, why algae living inside it do most of the work, and what happens when the water warms by one degree.

About the show

Reef and Trench is a weekly ocean science show for people who love the sea but never got past snorkelling. Marine biologist Wanjiru Kamande spends half of every episode on a single question, such as why the Indian Ocean is warming faster than the Atlantic, how a coral polyp builds a reef, or what actually lives four kilometres down off the Kenyan coast. The other half is a conversation with a working scientist, a fisher, or a dive instructor who sees the changes first hand. Episodes run 35 to 45 minutes and are built for listening on a commute or a long walk, with no jargon left unexplained. Wanjiru brings field recordings from Watamu and Lamu, a scientist's patience with uncertainty, and a habit of saying when the evidence is thin. If you want to understand tides, currents, plankton and the deep without a textbook, start here.

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