Taylor checks in with listeners to offer a preview of season two, focusing on the impactful research happening at Texas Tech and why it matters to you.

Fearless is back. Texas Tech is a “Tier One” Very High Research Activity university. While we're proud of that designation, this season aims to go beyond the numbers to uncover how the research happening here is changing lives.

In this episode, we dive into how Texas Tech's Davis College faculty take their work beyond campus borders. How a girl from West Texas became the highest-ranking female in agriculture, using her discoveries to navigate important conversations about food safety. We'll also introduce you to Tate Corliss, whose involvement in Raider Red Meats began as a student more than ten years ago. Today, he's the program's director, leading one of the most significant distribution efforts on campus. Finally, born and raised in Texas, Dale Woerner understands that agriculture is the lifeblood of this region, so he's investigating how we keep the industry thriving despite a changing culture.

Many university researchers have spent their careers focused on clean energy, including using radar technology to make wind farms more efficient. And more than five decades after a tornado tore through Lubbock, Fearless looks at how that devastating storm impacted the work of two faculty in two different departments.

Campus researchers are using their work to shape future generations in unexpected ways. For instance, recovering addicts and troubled youth benefit from animation skills learned in a Texas Tech Animation-Making Workshop research lab, and young adults with autism are learning to navigate parenting and relationships thanks to the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research. Finally, faculty in atmospheric and social sciences have joined forces to develop a smart home to teach all of us the power of conservation.

Climate change. It's a subject that garners varying opinions. Is it real? What should we do about it? Who should we look to for answers? From atmospheric to social science, Texas Tech faculty are investigating all facets of our climate, including extreme weather patterns and their impacts on our health, and even how we process topics like climate change in the media.

The South Plains is the largest cotton-producing region in the world. With more than three million acres dedicated to the crop, there's no question that it's the fiber of our life. And at Texas Tech, researchers are leveraging the area's emphasis on cotton to explore the plant's entire life cycle, from a more weather-tolerant seed to uncovering a new use for cotton waste.

From colonizing to commercializing, a local beekeeper is buzzing about the production of West Texas honey. What started as a hobby for one Texas Tech alumnus became a passion for promoting the value of honeybees in the region. Plus, university researchers have honed in on a sector of Texas' economy that's growing... on the vine.

"It wasn't just about writing papers anymore; it wasn't just about graduating students. It was about taking that knowledge and creating intellectual property.” -John Schroeder, Director, National Wind Institute. What happens after a groundbreaking discovery? Because of people like Cameron Smith, inventions have a life beyond a Texas Tech lab. Cameron and his Office of Research Commercialization colleagues empower researchers and bring their work to the marketplace. In this final episode of season two, we learn about the impact of these efforts.

In this bonus episode, we revisit the story of CASFER, a new research facility on campus that garnered the largest National Science Foundation grant in Texas Tech history. Its plans to create cheaper, cleaner, more sustainable fertilizer could be transformative for farmers. Fearless goes inside the research to discover more about CASFER through the eyes of a farmer who will feel its impact.