When people ask me what sorts of stories I’m pursuing as coordinating producer for the “Sound of Ideas," I can usually give them a straightforward answer.

“I’m working on a policy story with one of our Ideastream reporterds.” Or, “I'm prepping for an interview with a local newsmaker.”

My latest endeavor has been turning some heads:

"I’m reading a book about shade .”

“Huh?”

Yeah, the shadows cast by a tree. The cooling effect of being under an awning. How the temperature inside homes in shady environments stay cool even on a hot summer day. Or the plight of agricultural workers in this country as they labor in the sunbaked fields of California.

That shade.

The book, “Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource” by Sam Bloch, really has two main points.

One is that heat is i

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