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Anna Kusmer

Reporter/Producer

The World

Anna Kusmer is a reporter and producer at the World focusing on the environment.

Anna Kusmer is a reporter and producer at The World focusing on the environment. She creates The Big Fix, The World's weekly look at climate change solutions around the globe. Anna is fascinated by people's complex relationships with nature and is inspired by the diverse solutions for a more just and sustainable world.Before working at The World, Anna worked as a local news reporter at WGBH in Boston and KQED in San Francisco.Anna has an MSc in environmental science from McGill University. Outside of work, Anna enjoys reading, cooking, traveling and meeting her neighbors. Anna believes stories can change the world.Do you have a question about a climate change solution you want to hear answered on air? Email Anna: climate@theworld.org

A police car is parked near Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, May 10, 2023.

An attack at Africa’s oldest synagogue leaves Jews on a pilgrimage in Tunisia concerned

Religion

The Ghriba synagogue is the oldest in Africa and is the destination for an annual Jewish pilgrimage on the island of Djerba. The World’s Marco Werman spoke with Daniel Lee, a historian of the Jews of France and North Africa at Queen Mary University of London, about the ancient house of worship and an attack there on Tuesday.

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and Chair of The Elders, speaks to journalists at the COP27 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2022.

Ireland’s Mary Robinson says being an ‘Elder’ is about teaching the next generation, but also listening to them

Leaders
After the species was found, it was immediately described by scientists as highly threatened. This is a tragic predicament of many modern biologists.

Biologists describe a new owl species on Príncipe Island — and hope they can save it before it disappears

Environment
The cover to "Solito" by Javier Zamora.

New memoir speaks to the trauma of migration and the potential for healing

Books
In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, protesters make fire and block the street during a protest over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality

‘We’re done’: A new generation of Iranians are using this app to track the country’s morality police

Technology
An image from "Ducks," a graphic novel by Kate Beaton, depicting the "Highway of Death."

‘Wherever the work is, we’re all going’: Graphic novelist on working in Alberta’s tar sands

Books

“Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands,” a graphic novel by Kate Beaton, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, tells the story of leaving home and joining thousands of others to work in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. Beaton joined The World’s host Marco Werman to talk about her experience.

A Ukrainian woman waits for relatives fleeing the conflict from neighboring Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, on Feb. 25, 2022. UN officials said that 100,000 people were believed to have left their homes and estimated up to 4

Poland prepares to accept thousands of refugees from Ukraine

Ukraine

Agnieszka Kosowicz, president and founder of the Polish Migration Forum, spoke to The World’s host Marco Werman from Warsaw about the influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine amid the Russian invasion there.

UK environmental activist Ella Daish, who crafted a giant tampon out of used tampons, is on a mission to get rid of single-use, plastic tampons.

This UK activist is pushing to end single-use plastics in menstrual products

The Big Fix

This past week, UK environmental activist Ella Daish traveled to Switzerland and marched a giant tampon — which is a striped, blue and green tampon sculpture that stands more than 6 feet tall — to Procter & Gamble’s European headquarters in Geneva. She said she wanted to “return” the plastic applicators to the company.

Descendants of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, known as HeLa cells, have been used in medical research without her permission, say a prayer with attorneys outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore

Henrietta Lacks’ biographer: ‘So much of science started with her cells’

Health & Medicine

Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” spoke to The World’s host Marco Werman about her legacy on the 70th anniversary of her death.

US director, actor, screenwriter Melvin Van Peebles is seen during a tribute for his career at the 38th American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France

This film professor says Melvin Van Peebles taught her that ‘when Hollywood is closing the door, you find your own way’

Arts, Culture & Media

Racquel Gates, a professor of film at Columbia University, and the consulting producer and editor for the Melvin Van Peebles Box Set — being released by The Criterion Collection next week — discussed his work, life and legacy with The World’s host Marco Werman.