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here's the show. If you can

1:01

go into a home that's going to feed you,

1:03

give you water, keep you warm, and take care

1:05

of your sewage on site, you

1:07

don't give a damn what happens out there unless Putin

1:09

drops a bomb right on this building. All

1:12

aboard the Earthship destination

1:15

off the grid. It's

1:26

Monday, June 24th, and this is

1:28

Here and Now Anytime from NPR

1:30

and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today

1:34

on the show, what's next

1:36

for astronauts stranded at the

1:39

International Space Station awaiting repairs on

1:41

the Boeing Starliner? Also,

1:44

in the high desert of northern New Mexico,

1:47

an architect built homes out

1:49

of old beer cans and

1:51

scrapped tires. We're not vulnerable.

1:54

When our building encounters the phenomena

1:56

of the planet to give us

1:58

life, we're not vulnerable. We'll

2:00

tour the earthships of Taos in

2:02

about 15 minutes. Before

2:05

that though, when it

2:07

comes to childcare, you can send your

2:09

kids to a center with teachers and

2:12

classrooms. But a popular

2:14

alternative is family childcare based in

2:16

a provider's home. It's

2:19

often more affordable, flexible, and

2:21

a better cultural fit for

2:23

families. Recently though,

2:25

a lot of those businesses

2:27

have been shutting down because of financial

2:29

troubles. But researchers say 11

2:32

states, including Massachusetts, are bucking

2:34

the trend of decline. Here

2:37

in now's, Ashley Locke went to

2:39

Central Mass to find out why.

2:41

Oh, I just bumped into a train. Choo

2:44

choo. In the city of

2:46

Fitchburg, a smiling baby boy named Carter is

2:48

the last to arrive for drop-off at the

2:50

home of Jessica Passelli. Are you ready

2:53

to play with all the guys? Have

2:55

a good day, okay? I love

2:57

you. Carter's mom says her goodbyes as

2:59

his big blue eyes take in the colorful

3:01

space. You might almost forget it's

3:03

a basement. There are bright

3:05

windows, educational posters, cubbies, a kitchen,

3:08

and a restroom. Jessica

3:10

Passelli has been running her family childcare

3:12

business here for about four years. She

3:15

started just before the pandemic. And

3:17

on warm days like today, she says the

3:19

kids spend most of their time outside. We

3:21

have running space, we have stepping stones, we

3:24

have a water table, we have lots of

3:26

places where they like love to look for

3:28

worms and bugs. That's why boys,

3:30

they love doing that. You

3:33

want me to reach a spider? Yeah. Where is

3:35

it? And as a mother of three, this job

3:37

saves Passelli the cost of paying someone to watch

3:40

her kids. Today, her two

3:42

youngest are spending the day with her, baby

3:44

Carter, and two other kids under five. She

3:47

has a new assistant helping out too, her mom, Rosie.

3:49

A common misconception, she says, is that they're just babysitters.

3:52

I feel like a lot of people think that we

3:54

just put TV on all day. And

3:56

that's not what, at least what I do

3:58

in my house. Like, we do. meditation,

4:00

we do yoga, we try to teach these

4:02

kids, you know, even like empathy, compassion, all

4:04

the other things that you don't see, we're

4:07

teaching daily. Regulation of businesses

4:09

like Paselis can vary from state to

4:11

state. In Massachusetts, all family

4:13

child care providers are required to

4:15

be licensed through the state's Department

4:18

of Early Education and Care. Some

4:20

providers like Paselis work under an agency. It

4:23

was easy, they filled up my daycare very

4:25

quickly, you know, when I started until this

4:27

day. I was new so

4:29

I had people I could ask that were experienced, you

4:31

know, they had experience. Other providers

4:33

like Paula Andrea Echeveri Durango run

4:36

their businesses independently. I have a

4:39

wedding list for, and right now it's like a 70

4:42

people waiting for a spot in my

4:44

program. So I

4:46

didn't see the need to belong

4:48

to agency. She and her assistant

4:50

slash husband Harold Blanco care for

4:53

10 children under 5 years old

4:55

in Springfield, Massachusetts. She

4:57

says many of their families are first

4:59

responders that need early morning, night and

5:01

weekend flexibility. Echeveri

5:04

Durango and other

5:07

providers gathered recently to discuss policy

5:10

priorities with the nonprofit Strategies for

5:12

Children. The group's executive

5:14

director is Amy O'Leary. She

5:16

says family child care providers in

5:18

Massachusetts are doing well, even though

5:20

federal COVID relief funding expired last

5:22

year. That's because the state

5:25

is now providing some money. Now we are

5:27

seeing things that they're able to support their

5:29

staff. They're not raising parent tuition. They

5:31

are really using it for operating purposes. And

5:34

this is the first time we have seen

5:37

money go beyond the subsidy system to all

5:39

programs. It's going to over 90% of programs

5:41

in Massachusetts. The state

5:43

has earmarked 475 million dollars for child care

5:48

providers for the 2024 fiscal year, including

5:50

for those working at home or at

5:52

a center. Advocates say it

5:54

hasn't been enough to meet everyone's needs. As more

5:57

businesses open, some providers are getting

6:00

lower payouts until lawmakers can come up with

6:02

a better system. Jessica

6:10

Paselli and Paula Andrea Echeveri Durango,

6:12

who we heard from earlier, have

6:14

been receiving grants of more than

6:16

$1,000 a month to keep their

6:18

businesses thriving. Across the

6:20

country, it's been a dimmer reality. The

6:22

number of licensed family child care homes is

6:25

down 12 percent since 2019. That's

6:28

according to Child Care Aware of America. It

6:31

issued a report last fall that

6:33

found family child care providers and

6:36

child care centers face similar financial

6:38

woes without sustained federal investment. And

6:41

home-based providers often receive lower reimbursement

6:43

rates for children that use vouchers.

6:47

Child Care Aware CEO Susan Gail

6:49

Perry says there are other factors

6:51

affecting them, like the cost of

6:53

housing, zoning laws, and changing demographics.

6:55

We know that almost

6:58

40 percent of the family

7:00

child care workforce is over

7:02

the age of 50. So

7:04

we need to be examining what's

7:07

behind family

7:09

child care home providers who are leaving,

7:12

but we're not seeing them

7:14

replaced with newer

7:16

business entrepreneurs who want to go

7:18

into this particular line of business.

7:21

Perry says she'll be watching to

7:23

see if more state-level investments in

7:25

and beyond Massachusetts will sustain this

7:27

workforce. For Here &

7:29

Now, I'm Ashley Locke. By

7:34

the way, we've got a lot more

7:36

of Ashley's reporting on child care at

7:38

hereandnow.org. Coming

7:40

up next, Boeing's Starliner

7:42

spacecraft is now docked at

7:44

the International Space Station, awaiting

7:47

repairs and stranding its astronauts until

7:49

at least next month. Deepa

7:52

Fernandez gets the latest from

7:55

Mission Control in T-minus this

7:57

short break. a

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to move in, styled for life. This message

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to mintmobile.com/switch. The

9:21

Boeing Starliner spacecraft remains docked at

9:24

the International Space Station. The Starliner

9:26

launched on June 5th for the first time

9:28

in the world. It's supposed to be a 10 day trip

9:32

for the two astronauts on board, but problems with

9:35

the spacecraft has kept them stuck at

9:37

the International Space Station for much longer

9:39

as NASA works to fix several issues

9:42

with Starliner and

9:44

the astronauts are not expected home

9:46

until some time next month. Joining us now

9:49

is Ben Turner, staff writer at Live

9:51

Science. Welcome, Ben. Hi,

9:53

guys. Thanks for having me. Ben, tell

9:55

us about the problems the moment there's been

10:00

Yeah, exactly. So right now NASA and

10:02

Boeing are troubleshooting two separate types of

10:04

fault. There were five leaks in the

10:06

helium system that pressurizes Starliner's propulsion, but

10:09

they mainly seem to have been resolved.

10:11

The main concern is with the service

10:13

module's 28 reaction control

10:15

system thrusters. Five of those malfunctioned

10:17

as Starliner approached the International Space

10:19

Station. So these reaction control

10:22

system thrusters are really important for

10:24

steering the capsule mid-flight and ensuring

10:26

it comes back at the right

10:28

angle for reentry. Initially the delays

10:30

were around three weeks, but NASA also

10:32

has spacewalks planned for early July that

10:34

they don't want the capsules reentry to

10:36

interfere with. And those are the reasons

10:38

we've been given so far. I

10:41

mean, that sounds really serious. Have they given an

10:43

indication that they will be able to fix the

10:46

issue? What's the problem here? There's

10:50

so many issues that could possibly be

10:52

at fault and they're going down different

10:55

troubleshooting trees to try and identify them.

10:57

But to find like what one particular

10:59

fault may be, they

11:01

haven't really arrived at that stage yet. But

11:03

the key is with those reaction control thrusters

11:06

really, that's the essential part that needs to

11:08

be working in order for reentry to happen.

11:11

Okay. And remind us why private

11:13

companies like Boeing and SpaceX are

11:15

involved in these kind of manned

11:18

space flights for NASA. Yeah,

11:20

well, NASA retired its space shuttle program

11:22

in 2011. And there's a slew of

11:24

reasons for that. It's partly due to

11:27

the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters, but

11:29

it's also because of increased costs per

11:31

flight. So rather than create another shuttle

11:33

program, NASA thought it would be cheaper

11:35

to develop public-private partnerships with Boeing and

11:38

SpaceX to kind of create a

11:40

safe and affordable taxi service to and from

11:42

space. So NASA is basically trying

11:44

to manage its budget with all of this

11:46

and also spend that funding as tactically as

11:48

it can. a

12:00

spacecraft? I suppose

12:02

right now that remains something of an

12:04

open question and we're seeing it being

12:07

tested in real time. So Boeing has

12:09

made two uncrewed test flights before. The

12:11

first in Canada in Canada anomaly that

12:13

prevented it even arriving at the International

12:15

Space Station. The second, despite some valve

12:17

leaks on the ground, did arrive. Between

12:21

then and this first crewed test flight there

12:23

have been a number of other faults. They've

12:25

had to fix problems with the capsules, parachutes and

12:27

remove around a mile of tape that was found

12:30

to be flammable. There was also a vibrating

12:32

oxygen valve on the Atlas V rocket that launched

12:34

it into space that led to two further delays.

12:37

It's not unusual for any new spacecraft to

12:39

have faults, but I think these are concerning

12:41

nonetheless. Let's talk

12:44

quickly about the two astronauts on

12:46

Starlink, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

12:49

They were supposed to be there just for a week. It's

12:51

now going to be a month. We understand,

12:53

you know, they are veterans. This is an exciting

12:55

mission for them. And at this point, what are

12:57

the implications of these delays in the extended trip

12:59

for them? So

13:01

it could mean really if you look at

13:04

how often expeditions go to and forth the

13:06

International Space Station, it might mean a few

13:08

extra months before they can catch a flight

13:10

home on one of those. Right

13:13

now there are seven other astronauts aboard

13:15

the space station. So that makes

13:17

it nine in total. It's really built with six

13:19

in mind. They

13:21

can expand temporary living quarters. I don't imagine

13:23

it's too uncomfortable. But

13:26

at the same time, it will be more cramped

13:28

than it usually is for them. But I don't

13:30

think there's any immediate concerns for their safety. It's

13:32

more about making sure that if they were to

13:34

return on Starliner, it would be a safe reentry

13:36

for them. And just quickly,

13:38

a 45 day mission. What happens if they don't? Is

13:40

there a lot of pressure on NASA? Do they have

13:42

to meet that 45 days? They

13:45

don't necessarily have to. But for Starliner

13:47

to like complete a

13:49

successful mission, then they would have

13:52

to in order to do that. That's

13:54

mainly due to how the ISS functions.

14:00

Ben. Thank you guys. When

14:09

you think about it, we're all stranded

14:12

on a spaceship with limited resources.

14:15

Ours is called Earth. After

14:18

the break, we'll hear from one community living

14:20

off the grid in the desert about how

14:22

they're getting by and what lessons

14:24

we might learn from them. Stick

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around. This

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16:06

conditioning units are cranked up across

16:08

the country as summer descends with

16:10

record-breaking heat waves. All

16:13

that energy consumption creates a tremendous

16:15

amount of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

16:18

But it doesn't have to be that way. Over

16:21

the next few days in our Climate

16:23

Series reverse course, we'll be reporting on

16:26

a few architectural solutions to the climate

16:28

crisis. And we focused

16:30

our attention on one place with a

16:32

lot of interesting ideas in action —

16:35

the high desert of northern New Mexico. Today,

16:38

Peter O'Dowd explores a subdivision

16:40

of unique off-grid houses, often

16:42

held up as one model

16:45

for building more efficiently. This

16:50

construction site looks like a frat house on

16:52

a Sunday morning. With

16:55

empty beer cans piled at his feet,

16:58

Marcus de Losa crushes each one and

17:00

then presses it into a wet glob

17:02

of concrete. Sometimes I get a little

17:04

thirsty while doing this, I'm not going

17:06

to lie. De Losa is building an

17:08

earthship, and I'm willing to bet you've

17:11

never seen anything quite like it. The

17:13

front of this unfinished building faces south

17:15

toward the sun with expansive views of

17:17

the Taos Mountains. The back of the

17:19

house is dug into the earth,

17:22

the entire north side a solid

17:24

wall of old tin cans and

17:26

tires stacked like bricks. That's

17:30

sturdy right there, isn't it? So

17:32

these tires are packed solid

17:34

with dirt. Construction

17:36

manager Deborah Binder says this earthship

17:38

works like a cave. The thick

17:40

tire walls and a huge dirt

17:42

berm behind them absorb the heat

17:44

from the sun and create an

17:46

envelope of insulation. It keeps the

17:48

house warm in the winter and

17:50

cool in the summer. The

17:53

tires come from the local landfill. People

17:55

look at it as really weird because most people go to

17:57

the landfill to drop off things and so here we are.

18:00

you know, carrying things out of the landfill, so people always

18:02

give us weird looks, which is kind of funny. And

18:05

that means that this is technically a

18:08

trash dump. Yeah, correct. Yeah,

18:10

we're living, we're building and living in a

18:12

trash dump. We actually have to permit every

18:14

job site as if it was its own

18:16

little dump for us to be able to

18:18

have tires here. Tell me why that shouldn't

18:21

put people off, because living

18:23

in a cave, quote unquote a cave,

18:25

made of trash, doesn't sound appealing on

18:27

the surface. Well, if you

18:29

go into an Earthship that's finished, you don't

18:31

notice any of that. You have no idea

18:34

that that's what's going on behind your walls.

18:36

None of the tires are

18:38

visible, none of the trash is visible at

18:40

the end of it. And so we're really

18:42

just reusing something that's naturally there on the

18:45

planet to build with. For me,

18:47

this concept is not going to save all the problems that

18:49

we have in the world and that we have on the

18:51

planet, but it does a little bit. One

18:54

thing is certain, a finished Earthship looks

18:56

nothing like a trash dump. So

18:59

this is a pretty new building. Michael

19:01

Reynolds is the architect behind this

19:03

movement. He looks the part with

19:05

his long white hair and a

19:07

flannel shirt. We met outside the

19:09

Earthship Atlantis. It's finished in a

19:11

smooth turquoise plaster that emerges from

19:13

the sagebrush like a gem. And

19:16

so I particularly liked this one and

19:18

played with it a lot. This

19:20

is the way it is year round. It's always

19:23

this temperature. A perfect 70 degrees.

19:25

Once inside, the first thing you notice

19:27

is the garden. It's bathed in sunlight

19:30

through a long bank of south facing

19:32

windows. It's a happy looking planter. Well,

19:34

this is a tomato plant. I think

19:36

there's some chard right there, some bananas.

19:38

And we have grapes and I believe

19:41

that's a citrus right there. This is

19:43

what the Earth looks like naturally when

19:46

there's a lot of water. The space

19:48

is bright. Exposed beams on the

19:50

ceiling, flagstone on the floors, the

19:53

bathroom shower, a gorgeous mosaic of

19:55

southwestern tile. This

19:58

shower is a critical part of the earthship

20:00

design. The house relies entirely on

20:02

rainfall collected in cisterns behind the

20:04

house. So when precious water goes

20:06

down the drain, it's piped to

20:09

the garden planters on the other

20:11

side of the house. Yes, the

20:13

shower waters the bananas and

20:15

the chard and whatever is left over

20:17

he's pumped back to the bathroom to

20:22

flush the toilet. And

20:24

then we take it outside for landscaping. So

20:27

there's really four uses of the same water.

20:30

This area gets about 12 inches

20:32

of precipitation a year. You can do

20:34

the math. 12 inches of rain and

20:37

snow used four times becomes 48 inches.

20:40

This house is totally self-sufficient. There's

20:42

no AC, no heater, just eight

20:44

solar panels for the lights in

20:46

the refrigerator and a tank of

20:49

propane for the stove. We're

20:52

not vulnerable when our building encounters

20:54

the phenomena of the planet to

20:56

give us life. We're not vulnerable.

20:59

Reynolds has been tinkering with the design

21:01

for 50 years and today about a

21:03

hundred earth ships are dug into the

21:05

earth just outside of Taos creating a

21:08

futuristic somewhat dystopian looking subdivision. If you

21:10

can go into a home that's going

21:12

to feed you, give you water, keep

21:14

you warm and take care of your

21:16

sewage on site, you don't

21:18

give a damn what happens out there unless Putin drops

21:21

a bomb right on this building. So

21:23

this is for people and planet. I'm

21:26

like on a mission I guess to cause

21:29

it to happen for more people. It

21:31

could happen for you. The Atlantis is

21:33

on the market for $825,000. Reynolds knows

21:35

most people can't afford that.

21:40

The house I saw under construction is

21:42

a smaller version for half the price.

21:45

Is a home like this a solution to the

21:47

climate crisis that we're in? Well

21:50

I would say a home

21:52

like this is a refuge from

21:54

the climate crisis and if enough

21:56

people have these, yes we could

21:58

change it around. For

22:00

me, those tires is a real struggle. Rachel

22:03

Preston is a historic building architect

22:05

in Tisuke, New Mexico. She's been

22:07

following Michael Reynolds' experiment in Taos

22:09

for years. I've always kind

22:12

of had this impression that because they were growing

22:14

out of the earth, that they were really made

22:16

out of earth. It never occurred

22:18

to me, for instance, that they might

22:20

be polluting the site. So

22:22

yeah, I really kind of had this in

22:24

my mind that it was made out of

22:26

sticks and rocks. I

22:28

mean, because tires are a toxic

22:30

donut full of chemicals that make

22:32

people sick. Like what are we

22:35

doing with the gas that we know is there?

22:37

Reynolds downplays the threat. He says by

22:40

the time old tires reach the landfill,

22:42

they've already offgassed their poison. But

22:44

Preston says, why take the risk?

22:47

Plus, a house packed with trash

22:49

kind of kills the vibe. In New Mexico,

22:51

we've been building with Adobe for a thousand

22:54

years and stoned for a thousand years

22:56

before that. And so I know

22:58

those materials and I trust them and I think

23:00

that they work really well here. Back

23:05

at the Earthship subdivision, I wanted to see

23:07

what it was really like to live in

23:09

one of these buildings. I take care of

23:11

the birds. Nadine Lolino

23:13

moved into an Earthship with Trey,

23:15

Donovan, Drake just before the pandemic.

23:17

Their yard has sweeping views of

23:19

the mountains. A few finches flit

23:21

happily around a feeder in the

23:24

elm tree. And

23:26

we can see them outside the window in

23:28

the kitchen and it's just really pleasurable. I

23:31

mean, it's just part of being in

23:34

the nature of the place. We are

23:36

completely surrounded and in it at

23:39

all times. Their house was built

23:41

in the 1990s. It's

23:43

an early model without the ventilation system

23:45

that's now standard in a modern Earthship.

23:47

And it was a little hot near

23:49

the south facing windows of their indoor

23:51

garden. But other parts of

23:53

this home work perfectly well. We

23:56

are standing on the metal roof. Up

23:59

here, Donovan. Jim Drake shows me how the

24:01

roof creates a V-shaped funnel to catch

24:03

the rain. He has three cisterns

24:05

that store up to 6,000 gallons of water. We've

24:09

been in a drought condition since we moved

24:11

here. Rather severe drought as I understand it.

24:14

So even in those conditions we haven't

24:16

run out of water. And

24:18

you can see the batteries right here too. He

24:23

opens a panel to the battery compartment. 12

24:26

of them are charging thanks to the solar

24:28

panels attached to the house. Have you

24:30

ever had any issues with the power? No.

24:33

No blackouts? No, we haven't run out of power

24:35

once. And

24:37

that's because we're careful about how we use

24:39

power. We can't plug in an electric heater

24:42

or a hair dryer or something like that.

24:45

It's just amazing. You live in

24:48

the desert. You've

24:50

never run out of water even in a

24:52

drought. You've never run out of power. Like,

24:55

I don't know, what are your thoughts on that? Well, I

24:57

have a lot of thoughts about it. That

25:00

was my intention to come and study how

25:02

these buildings perform. And when

25:04

I was standing on this roof looking at the house

25:06

with the real estate agent I thought I'm

25:08

going to call this Earth Lab 33 and make

25:11

myself a kind of a guinea pig

25:13

and just see how it does. And

25:15

I've been quite blown away at

25:17

how well it's performed. And

25:19

this is an older ship. This is a 30-year-older ship. It's

25:23

not always easy to live here. The

25:26

couple says storage is terrible. The drive

25:28

is 20 miles from town, one way.

25:30

They miss the beach and the amenities

25:32

from their past lives in Chicago and

25:35

California. But the quiet here

25:37

is beyond compare. I need

25:40

this, you know, and we all need

25:42

that quiet time to reground and to

25:44

reconnect. Remember

25:47

speaking of myself, when I can have

25:49

that on a continual basis every day,

25:51

like, that really helps me to keep

25:54

everything in life in perspective. something

26:00

to that. While reporting this story

26:02

I spent two days living in

26:04

the Earthship Atlantis. Late one night I

26:07

stepped outside to hear the cricket

26:09

song. The

26:13

lights of the house were off. The

26:15

building vanished into the darkness. In that

26:18

moment, as two shooting stars chased

26:20

each other across the sky, my

26:22

life slowed down just enough to

26:24

remind me that I too am

26:26

a part of this spinning planet.

26:29

For Here and Now, I'm Peter O'Dowd. Well,

26:34

not everyone is willing to uproot their lives

26:36

in the city and move to an Earthship.

26:39

Tomorrow, we'll meet people around

26:41

Taos who are using modern

26:43

design techniques, along with indigenous

26:45

knowledge, to build sustainable homes.

26:47

Make sure you're subscribed to or following Here

26:50

and Now anytime, wherever you get your

26:52

podcasts, right now so you don't miss

26:54

it. And you can

26:56

find all of our climate reporting

26:58

at hereandnow.org. We've also

27:00

got photos of those Earthships. They're

27:03

quite something. I joined Peter in the

27:05

Atlantis one night in the course of

27:07

reporting a story you'll hear tomorrow and

27:09

got up at sunrise to snap a few pics. Check

27:12

him out at hereandnow.org. That'll

27:18

do it for us today.

27:20

Here and Now anytime comes from the

27:22

team behind Here and Now from NPR

27:24

and WBUR Boston. Today's stories

27:27

were produced by Ashley Locke, Shirley

27:29

Jihad, and Peter O'Dowd. Today's

27:32

editors were Todd Mundt, Ahmad Damen,

27:34

Mikael Rodriguez, Michael Scotto, and Kat

27:36

Welch. Technical direction

27:39

from Mike Mosqueto and Caleb Green.

27:41

Mike Mosqueto also wrote our theme

27:43

music, along with Max Liebman and

27:46

me, Chris Bentley. Our

27:48

digital producers are Allison Hagan and Grace

27:50

Griffin, and the executive producer of

27:52

Here and Now is Carleen Watson.

27:55

Thanks for listening. We'll be back with

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