Emily Kwong

And this is especially if your installer is like, actually, there's no place for you to put solar.

Check out Community Solar.

Basically, any shared solar projects.

These are where a group of people finance the installation of solar panels in another place.

It's good for people who rent or people with trees.

Jenny, the electrician, put it this way.

So even if the sun isn't shining directly on your house, it is always shining somewhere.

And be like Darcy, send us whatever question you have about your local environment.

Just record a voice memo with your question, and we'll go on a quest.

Email it to shortwave at npr.org.

I'm Emily Kwong.

Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

When Karen Parangatta's father died, she did what a lot of people do.

She reconnected with his side of the family.

And a pattern she learned on that side of the family changed the course of her life.

She noticed that a lot of people on his side had died young.

Not just her cousin, but her cousin's sister, her cousin's mother, and her cousin's grandmother.

So the family started to realize there must be something wrong.

Sarah Zhang is a staff writer at The Atlantic.