Earlier this year, after broadcasting our episode with Dr. Jason Bara about microplastics, we got an email from a listener named Hank asking if we would consider doing an episode on forever chemicals. Turns out, these two things are often brought up together in conversation—they’re both pollutants, both a bit of a headache to get rid of, and both are indicative of the advancements of technology. As Dr. Bara said in our microplastics episode, there may never be a world where we completely stop the use of plastics. As it turns out, that may also be true for these forever chemicals, or PFAS. Non-stick cookware, water-repellent clothes, cosmetics, the carpet industry, even foam used by firefighters all have these pesky chemicals roaming about.

Back-to-school season looks a little different for Gannon McNees this year. Instead of heading back to class at the University of North Alabama, he's jamming out on the world stage! The tuba player is the first UNA student to win a spot in the U.S. Navy Fleet Bands. In this episode of Quick-Fire Quips, Gannon talks about how his sister influenced his big brass dreams, the beauty of tuning out the world with cave crawls and why bringing out-of-state ideas can help Alabama’s rhythm move forward.

Civil rights advocates on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Texas law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments, teeing up a potential new test of state-sponsored religious expression in classrooms. This could have an impact in Alabama, where the state passed a similar measure back in April, which was signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey.

Ohio State and Oregon are 1-2 in the AP Top 25, giving the Big Ten Conference the top two teams in the preseason rankings for just the second time ever. Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas round out the top 5. The bitter pill for Alabama is its slot at number thirteen. The last time the Crimson Tide failed to make the top ten in the AP preseason was 2008, one year after legendary coach Nick Saban moved to Tuscaloosa.

This week, Don reviews A Family Place: A Man Returns to the Center of His Life by Charles Gaines.

Multiple published reports say The Las Vegas Raiders are hiring an Alabama assistant wide receivers coach as a quality control coach. The move comes within three weeks of the Crimson Tide’s season opener against East Carolina on Saban Field at Bryant Denny Stadium. That ted departure isn’t the only jolt to Alabama’s running backs unit.

This weekend's temperatures may hit record highs, which can make it difficult for our furry friends to stay comfortable (or safe)!

The U.S. Army temporarily halted all Apache helicopter training missions Friday after a fatal crash in Texas earlier this week killed two soldiers. No cause of the Wednesday crash has been released because the investigation has just begun. A safety investigation team from the Army Combat Readiness Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama, is trying to determine what happened, the Army said.

On this week's Keepin' It Real, It's August in Alabama, which means two things: the air conditioner is running non-stop, and somewhere in a house near you, a married couple is fighting over the thermostat. Cam is losing that fight.

Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a motel maid in 1985 and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death for killing a 5-year-old girl he had offered to pay her mother to abuse.

A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased. Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

There’s more than Spiderman and the Odyssey at the movies this month. And, The Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama hopes the message gets through. A theater in Daphne premiered a new documentary titled “Cookie Queens.” It focuses on the eight hundred million dollars in Girl Scout cookies that are sold every year.