Episodes
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For over ten years, biologist Mark Higley has been stalking the forests of the Hoopa Valley Reservation with a shotgun. His mission? To save the northern spotted owl. The threat? The more aggressive barred owl, which has spread from eastern forests into the Pacific Northwest.
The federal government plans to scale up these efforts and kill hundreds of thousands of barred owls across multiple states. But can the plan really save the northern spotted owl? And is the barred owl really “invasive”… or just expanding its range?
In this episode, Nate Hegyi dons a headlamp and heads into the forest with Mark Higley to catch a glimpse of these two rivals, and find out what it takes to kill these charismatic raptors, night after night, in the name of conservation.
Featuring Mark Higley, Tom Wheeler, and Wayne Pacelle.
SUPPORT
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Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
The federal government’s barred owl management plan is very long but they have a helpful list of frequently asked questions.
Check out some beautiful photos of Mark Higley’s work in this Audubon magazine story from a few years ago.
Curious about the timber wars? Oregon Public Broadcasting has an excellent podcast miniseries you should listen to.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi
Mixed by Nate Hegyi
Editing by Taylor Quimby
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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For the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring the issue of human remains collections for our miniseries, “What Remains.” Today, we want to share another excellent series that has covered some similar, but also, very different ground.
Introducing “Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard,” the latest season of Last Seen from WBUR.
In this first episode, the police find buckets of body parts in a basement in Pennsylvania. Throughout the series, WBUR reporter Ally Jarmanning tells us what happened at Harvard, and how an elite university became a stop on a nationwide network of human remains trading.
It’s an excellent series, and a perfect follow-up to What Remains. If you want to hear the rest of the episodes afterwards, listen and follow Last Seen wherever you get your podcasts.
This episode of Last Seen: Postmortem was hosted and reported by Ally Jarmanning. It was edited by Dave Shaw and Beth Healy, with additional editing from Katelyn Harrop and Frannie Monahan Mixing and sound design. Paul Vaitkus. Last Seen’s Managing Producer is Samati Joshi. Executive Producer is Ben Brock Johnson.
Also, we have something new from NHPR’s award-winning Document team. Listen to “Emilia’s Thing,” a story of survival and resilience in the wake of January 6th. To listen, click here.
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Missing episodes?
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A scholar and an activist make an uncompromising ultimatum. A forgotten burial ground is discovered under the streets of New York City. In Philadelphia, two groups fight over the definition of “descendant community.”
Featuring Michael Blakey, Lyra Monteiro, Chris Woods, aAliy Muhammad, Wendell Mapson, Sacharja Cunningham, Jazmin Benton, Amrah Salomon, and Aja Lans.
MORE ABOUT “WHAT REMAINS”
Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.
But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. 19th and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospitals, robbed graves, and looted Indigenous bones from sacred sites.
Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.
Outside/In producer Felix Poon has informally gained a reputation as the podcast’s “death beat” correspondent. He’s visited a human decomposition facility (aka, “body farm”), reported on the growing trend of “green burial,” and explored the use of psychedelic mushrooms to help terminal cancer patients confront death.
In this three-episode series from Outside/In, Felix takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.
Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology.
Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next?
LINKS
Archival tape of protests for the African Burial Ground came from the documentary The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery (1994).Learn more about the African Burial Ground National Monument.A recently published report, co-authored by bioarchaeologist Michael Blakey for the American Anthropological Association, recommends that research involving the handling of ancestral remains must include collaboration with descendant communities.Learn more about Finding Ceremony, the repatriation organization started by aAliy Muhammad and Lyra Monteiro.Read the Penn Museum’s statement about the Morton Cranial Collection and the 19 Black Philadelphians they interred at Eden Cemetery in early 2024.You can find our full episode credits, listen to our back catalog, and support Outside/In at our website: outsideinradio.org.
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A classroom display of human skulls sparks a reckoning at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. A movement grows to “abolish the collection.” The Penn Museum relents to pressure. More skeletons in the closet.
This episode contains swears.
MORE ABOUT "WHAT REMAINS"
Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.
But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.
In this three-episode series from Outside/In, producer Felix Poon takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.
Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology.
Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next?
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
The Morton Cranial Collection
The Penn & Slavery Project Symposium in 2019 included a presentation on the Morton Cranial Collection.aAliy Muhammad’s 2019 opinion piece: “As reparations debate continues, the University of Pennsylvania has a role to play” (The Philadelphia Inquirer)Mar Portillo Alvarado’s 2020 opinion piece: “The Penn Museum must end abuse of the Morton collection” (The Daily Pennsylvanian)Paul Wolff Mitchell’s 2021 report: “Black Philadelphians in the Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection”The Penn Museum’s 2021 press release: “Museum Announces the Repatriation of the Morton Cranial Collection”The MOVE bombing and MOVE remains controversy
Archival tape of the MOVE bombing came from the documentary Let the Fire Burn, and Democracy Now!She Was Killed by the Police. Why Were Her Bones in a Museum? (NY Times)In 2021-2022 three independent investigations reported on the MOVE remains controversy: one commissioned by the Penn Museum, one by the City of Philadelphia, and one by Princeton University.Lyra Monteiro's piece on Medium, "What the photos from 2014 reveal about Penn Museum's possession of the remains of multiple victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing."You can find our full episode credits, listen to our back catalog, and support Outside/In at our website: outsideinradio.org.
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A 1,500 year old skeleton is diagnosed with tuberculosis. A visit to a modern-day bone library. A fight over the future of ethical science.
MORE ABOUT "WHAT REMAINS"Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.
But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. 19th and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospitals, robbed graves, and looted Indigenous bones from sacred sites.
Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.
Outside/In producer Felix Poon has informally gained a reputation as the podcast’s “death beat” correspondent. He’s visited a human decomposition facility (aka, “body farm”), reported on the growing trend of “green burial,” and explored the use of psychedelic mushrooms to help terminal cancer patients confront death.
In this three-episode series from Outside/In, Felix takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.
Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology.
Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next?
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
The Smithsonian’s ‘Bone Doctor’ scavenged thousands of body parts (Washington Post)
Medical, scientific racism revealed in century-old plaque from Black man’s teeth (Science)
America’s Biggest Museums Fail to Return Native American Human Remains (ProPublica)
Read about Maria Pearson, the “Rosa Parks of NAGPRA” and how she sparked a movement. (Library of Congress Blogs)
Read Olga Spekker’s paper on SPF15, “The first probable case with tuberculous meningitis from the Hun period of the Carpathian Basin.”
Listen to our episode about so-called body farms, “Life and Death at a Human Decomposition Facility.”
You can find our full episode credits, listen to our back catalogue, and support Outside/In at our website: outsideinradio.org.
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When KALW’s Marissa Ortega-Welch hit the Pacific Crest Trail, she used her preferred method of navigation: an old-fashioned trail map. But along the way, she met a couple who only used phones to guide them, a Search and Rescue team that welcomes the power of GPS, and a woman who has been told her adaptive wheelchair isn't allowed in official wilderness areas (not actually true).
So… does technology help people access wilderness? Or does it get in the way?
This week’s episode comes to us from “How Wild” produced by our friends at KALW Public Media. In this seven-part series, host Marissa Ortega-Welch charts the complex meaning of “wilderness” in the United States and how it’s changing. Marissa criss-crosses the country to speak with hikers, land managers, scientists and Indigenous leaders – people who spend every day grappling with how ideas about wilderness play out in the hundreds of designated wilderness areas across the U.S.
LINKS
Check out more episodes of “How Wild” here.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook
HOW WILD CREDITS
How Wild is created and executive produced by Marissa Ortega-Welch.
Edited by Lisa Morehouse. Additional editing and sound design by Gabe Grabin.
Life coaching by Shereen Adel. Fact-checking by Mark Armao.
How Wild is produced in partnership with KALW Public Media, distributed by NPR and made possible with support from California Humanities, a partner of the NEH. This podcast is produced in Oakland, California…on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ohlone. Learn more about the Indigenous communities where you live at native-land.ca
OUTSIDE/IN CREDITS
Outside/In Host: Nate Hegyi
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio is Rebecca Lavoie
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Kate Dario and Marina Henke.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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Perhaps you’re familiar with our Outside/Inbox hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER. Anyone can leave us a voicemail sharing questions about the natural world, and we periodically answer them on the show.
A few weeks ago, it came to our attention that we hadn't gotten a new voicemail in some time. Turns out our hotline has been bugging out for at least six months, and we have a lot of catching up to do.
So, we present: Outside/Inbox, the lost voicemails edition.
Featuring Stephanie Spera, with contributions from Ariel, Joe, Carolyn, Maverick, Jarrett, Eben, a rooster, and a closet (?) full of snakes.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member.
Subscribe to our newsletter for occasional emails about new show swag, call-outs for listener submissions, and other announcements.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
This is the study Marina mentioned with a comparative life cycle assessment of hand dryers vs. paper towel dispensers.
If you want to learn more about chronic wasting disease, Nate recommends listening to Bent Out of Shape, a three-part series from KUNC. For a quick read, here’s a fact sheet from the CDC.
Listen to Outside/In’s behind-the-scenes journey into a human decomposition facility, aka “body farm,” reported by Felix Poon.
If you’ve been to Acadia National Park in Maine and taken photos of the fall foliage anytime since 1950, you can participate in research about how climate change is shifting the timing of peak foliage. Contribute your pictures of the autumn leaves to the Acadia National Park Fall Foliage Project here.
Many are predicting that fall 2024 will be a banner season for spectacular foliage, including our colleagues at NHPR’s Something Wild. Plus, here’s more on the dynamics of fall foliage, precipitation, and anthocyanin.
CREDITS
Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
Reported by Justine Paradis, Nate Hegyi, and Marina Henke.
Produced and mixed by Justine Paradis.
Edited by Taylor Quimby
NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
Our staff also includes Kate Dario.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Brigham Orchestra, Guustavv, Katori Walker, John B. Lund, and Bonkers Beat Club.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Editor's note: A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated that Forest Park is the biggest public park in the United States. It is the biggest in St. Louis, Missouri and arguably bigger than Central Park. The audio and transcript have been updated.
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In the early 1900s, people didn’t trust refrigerated food. Fruits and vegetables, cuts of meat… these things are supposed to decay, right? As Nicola Twilley writes, “What kind of unnatural technology could deliver a two-year old chicken carcass that still looked as though it was slaughtered yesterday?”
But just a few decades later, Americans have done a full one-eighty. Livestock can be slaughtered thousands of miles away, and taste just as good (or better) by the time it hits your plate. Apples can be stored for over a year without any noticeable change. A network called the “cold-chain” criss-crosses the country, and at home our refrigerators are fooling us into thinking we waste less food than we actually do.
Today, refrigeration has reshaped what we eat, how we cook it, and even warped our very definition of what is and isn’t “fresh.”
Featuring Nicola Twilley.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
You can find Nicola’s new book “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves,” at your local bookstore or online.
CREDITS
Our host is Nate Hegyi.
Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi and Taylor Quimby.
Mixed by Nate Hegyi
Editing by Taylor Quimby
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Kate Dario and Marina Henke.
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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For more than two hundred years Americans have tried to tame the Mississippi River. And, for that entire time, the river has fought back.
Journalist and author Boyce Upholt has spent dozens of nights camping along the Lower Mississippi and knows the river for what it is: both a water-moving machine and a supremely wild place. His recent book, “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River” tells the story of how engineers have made the Mississippi into one of the most engineered waterways in the world, and in turn have transformed it into a bit of a cyborg — half mechanical, half natural.
In this episode, host Nate Hegyi and Upholt take us from the flood ravaged town of Greenville, Mississippi, to the small office of a group of army engineers, in a tale of faulty science, big egos and a river that will ultimately do what it wants.
Featuring Boyce Upholt.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
You can find Boyce’s new book The Great River, at your local bookstore or online.
The 2018 study which attributed increased engineering of the Mississippi as a greater influence to worsening floods on the river than climate change.
Check out Harold Fisk's 1944 now famous maps of a meandering and ever-changing Mississippi watershed.
The Mississippi Department of Archives & History has a remarkable collection of digitized photos from the 1927 flood.
To get a sense of the type of work being done on the Mississippi in modern day, a US Army Corps of Engineers video detailing concrete revetment on the Lower Mississippi.
Curious about recent controversy on the Mississippi? Read up on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion – a $3 billion coastal restoration project that will divert portions of the Mississippi’s flow in hopes of rebuilding lost land via sediment deposition.
CREDITS
Our host is Nate Hegyi.
Written and mixed by Marina Henke.
Editing by Taylor Quimby and Nate Hegyi.
Our staff also includes Felix Poon and Justine Paradis. Our executive producer is Taylor Quimby. Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio.
Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions, Martin Landstrom, and Chris Zabriskie. Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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Helium is full of contradictions. It’s the second most abundant element in the universe, but is relatively rare on Earth. It’s non-reactive, totally inert—yet the most valuable helium isotope is sourced from thermonuclear warheads.
And even though we treat it as a disposable gas, often for making funny voices and single-use party balloons, our global supply of helium will eventually run out. That’s because, at a rate of about 50 grams per second, this non-renewable resource is escaping the atmosphere for good.
In this edition of The Element of Surprise, our occasional series about the hidden histories behind the periodic table’s most unassuming atoms, we examine the incredible properties and baffling economics of our most notable noble gas.
Featuring Anjali Tripathi and William Halperin.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get occasional emails about new show swag, call-outs for listener submissions, and other announcements.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
Read John Paul Merkle’s petition arguing to change the name of helium to “helion.”
Despite being about a quarter century old, this passage from “The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve” has a pretty comprehensive list of the uses and properties of helium.
More on the recent sale of the Federal Helium Reserve (NBC News)
Physicist William Halperin said the idea of mining helium-3 on the moon was… unlikely… but that hasn’t stopped this startup company from trying it. (Wired)
Want to learn more about the weird history of American airships? Check out this film produced by the U.S. government in 1937, when they were still hoping to keep our airship program afloat.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Taylor Quimby
Editing by Rebecca Lavoie, with help from Marina Henke and Justine Paradis
Our staff includes Felix Poon
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Ryan James Carr.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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Jack Rodolico knows exactly what scares him. Sharks.
But here’s what he doesn’t get: if he’s so freaked out, why can’t he stop incessantly watching online videos of bloody shark attacks?
Why would he deliberately seek out the very thing that spooks him?
To figure it out, Jack enlists the help of other scaredy-cats: our listeners, who shared their fears about nature with us. Together, Jack and the gang consider the spectrum of fear, from phobia to terror, and what it might mean when we don’t look away.
Featuring Lauren Passell, Arash Javanbakht, Nile Carrethers, and Sushmitha Madaboosi.
This episode originally aired in October 2022.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Subscribe to our (free) newsletter for occasional merch drops and updates.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
Lauren Passell’s Podcast the Newsletter.
Related: why people love horror movies.
The ubiquity of smartphones means plenty of hair-raising amateur videos of shark attacks to get you started on your doomscrolling (warning: a couple of these are bloody).
If this image of an octopus freaks you out, you might share Lauren’s “fear of holes,” or trypophobia.
Learn more about augmented reality technology and other projects at Arash Javanbakht’s clinic.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Jack Rodolico
Mixed by Taylor Quimby
Edited by Taylor Quimby, with help from Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Nate Hegy, and Jessica Hunt.
Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie
Music for this episode by Silver Maple, Matt Large, Luella Gren, John Abbot and Blue Dot Sessions.
Thanks to everyone who sent in voicemails and memos, even the ones we didn’t play: Erin Partridge, Lauren Passell, Nile Carrethers, Michelle MacKay, Alec from Nashville, and Hillary from Washington.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
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From the perspective of Western science, plants have long been considered unaware, passive life forms; essentially, rocks that happen to grow.
But there’s something in the air in the world of plant science. New research suggests that plants are aware of the world around them to a far greater extent than previously understood. Plants may be able to sense acoustics, communicate with each other, and make choices… all this without a brain.
These findings are fueling a debate, perhaps even a scientific revolution, which challenges our fundamental definitions of life, intelligence, and consciousness.
Featuring Zoë Schlanger.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member.
Subscribe to our newsletter for occasional emails about new show swag, call-outs for listener submissions, and other announcements.
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LINKS
Zoë Schlanger’s book is called The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth.
“Everything Will Be Vine” is a great podcast episode from Future Ecologies featuring Zoë’s journey into the Chilean rainforest, where researchers are mystified by a once-overlooked vine.
Jagadish Chandra Bose was an Indian scientist who challenged the Western view of plants in the early 20th century. He studied electrical signaling in plants and argued that plants use language. Read about his life and work in Orion.
This is the now famous study by David Rhoades. Rhoades was derided for his “talking trees” theory, and only was proved correct after his death. Here’s an audio story which goes deeper on Rhoades.
Lilach Hadany, the scientist who likened a field of flowers to a “field of ears,” also recently found that plants produce sounds when stressed.
The study which found that plants respond to the sound of caterpillars chewing, a collaboration between Rex Cocroft and Heidi Appel.
The organization of the octopus nervous system is fascinating.
CREDITS
Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis.
Edited by Taylor Quimby
Our team also includes Felix Poon and Marina Henke.
NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
Special thanks to Rex Cocroft for sharing the recordings of leafhopper mating calls and chewing caterpillars.
Music by Mochas, Hanna Lindgren, Alec Slayne, Sarah the Illstrumentalist, Brendan Moeller, Nul Tiel Records, Blue Dot Sessions, and Chris Zabriskie.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
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GPS is essential these days. We use it for everything – from a hunter figuring out where the heck they are in the backcountry, to a delivery truck finding a grocery store, to keeping clocks in sync.
But our reliance on GPS may also be changing our brains. Old school navigation strengthens the hippocampus, and multiple studies suggest that our new reliance on satellite navigation may put us at higher risk for diseases like dementia.
In this episode, we map out how GPS took over our world – from Sputnik’s doppler effect, to the airplane crash that led to its widespread adoption – and share everyday stories of getting lost and found again.
Featuring: Dana Goward, M.R. O’Connor, Christina Phillips, Michelle Liu, Julia Furukawa, and Taylor Quimby
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
In 2023, Google Maps rerouted dozens of drivers in Los Angeles down a dirt road to the middle of nowhere to avoid a dust storm.
Maura O’Connor traveled from rural Alaska to the Australian bush to better understand how people navigate without GPS – and sometimes even maps.
Here’s the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Nature, that found that young people who relied on GPS for daily driving had poorer spatial memories.
Another study, out of Japan, found that people who use smartphone apps like Google Maps to get around had a tougher time retracing their steps or remembering how they got to a place compared to people who use paper maps or landmarks.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi
Edited by Taylor Quimby and Katie Colaneri
Our team includes Marina Henke, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer
Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
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Once again, it’s that wonderful time when scientists everywhere hold their breath as the team opens the Outside/Inbox to answer listener questions about the natural world. Today’s theme is smell: how it works in the nose, the mind, and how much is still unknown about the fifth sense.
Question 1: Does it gross you out to know that every time you smell something, a little bit of that thing… is in your nose? What happens to the molecules we smell?
Question 2: Why do smells have such a powerful connection to memory?
Question 3: How do pheromones work in humans? Do ‘ideal mates’ really ‘smell better’ to us?
Question 4: Why does the smell of florals sometimes precede a migraine?
Question 5: What’s anosmia?
Featuring Rachel Herz, Bob Datta, Katie Boetang, and Tristram Wyatt, with thanks to Stephanie Hunter.
Outside/In seeks your questions for an upcoming Outside/Inbox.
What questions should the Outside/In team explore about the U.S. presidential election? What do you want to know about what this election means for climate change or environmental regulation? Maybe you’ve got questions about Project 2025, or maybe you’re curious about presidential transitions more generally.
You can send your questions to [email protected] or leave a voicemail on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member.
Subscribe to our newsletter for occasional emails about new show swag, call-outs for listener submissions, and other announcements.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
Rachel Herz is the author of several books, including “Why You Eat What You Eat” and “The Scent of Desire.”
Tristram Wyatt is the author of “Pheromones and Animal Behavior.”
Katie Boetang hosts The Smell Podcast.
More on the connections between smell, memory, emotion, and health, featuring Bob Datta and Herz.
In the 1990s, one company claimed to have found human sex pheromones and tried to market them for use in perfumes.
Research on the connection between olfactory loss and depression, smell triggers for migraines, and an explanation of how COVID-19 causes loss of smell.
CREDITS
Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis, Catherine Hurley, and Felix Poon, with help from Marina Henke.
Edited by Taylor Quimby
NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
Music by Daniel Fridell, Caro Luna, Lofive, bomull, Jahzarr, Mindme, and John B. Lund.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
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Redwood National and State Parks are home to giants: coast redwoods that can grow as tall as a thirty-story building. These ancient California forests support hundreds of different species, and store more carbon than any other forest on the planet. But in the last century, 95% of them were felled by loggers.
Now, scientists have discovered a surprising strategy to foster the next generation of old-growth redwoods… and it involves chopping some of the younger trees down.
This week’s episode comes to us from “THE WILD with Chris Morgan,” produced by our friends at KUOW. Chris has got an infectious enthusiasm for the natural world, and the podcast has an immersive sound that makes it feel like you’re standing right under the redwoods with him.
LINKS
Check out more episodes of THE WILD at https://www.kuow.org/podcasts/thewild
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
THE WILD CREDITS
THE WILD is a production of KUOW and Chris Morgan Wildlife, with support from Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek. It is edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Theme music is by Michael Parker.
OUTSIDE/IN CREDITS
Outside/In Host: Nate Hegyi
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio is Rebecca Lavoie
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Marina Henke. Our intern is Catherine Hurley.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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Will Simone Biles live up to her moniker as greatest gymnast of all time? Will Lebron James and Team USA continue to dominate men's basketball? And will the Paris 2024 Games be the most sustainable in modern Olympic history?
While billions of viewers tune in for the drama of athletes competing on a global stage, climate scientists are tuning in to Paris's climate promises – from the locally sourced catering and carbon neutral Olympic cauldron, to head-scratching “solutions” like a sidewalk made of seashells, and not installing air conditioning in athletes’ housing.
Are these solutions making a difference? Or is it plain and simple greenwashing? We put these questions to the test in this episode on the XXXIII Olympiad. Let the games begin!
Featuring Martin Müller.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
Read Martin Muller’s paper evaluating the sustainability of summer and winter Olympic games from the past 3 decades.
Listen to Civics 101’s episode on the politics of the Olympic Games.
Check out scenes from Olympic opening ceremonies from London 1908 to Rio 2016.
Watch a timelapse video of construction of the temporary beach volleyball venue in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Read up on fun Olympics trivia, like what the most common surname of athletes is, and about the time two athletes who tied for second place cut their silver and bronze medals and fused them together to make two “friendship medals.”
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Felix Poon
Editing by Taylor Quimby.
Our staff includes Justine Paradis and Marina Henke.
Our intern is Catherine Hurley.
Our Executive producer is Taylor Quimby.
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR's Director of On-Demand Audio.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Joe E. Lee, Jay Varton, Arthur Benson, Philip Ayers, Kikoru, Trabant 33, and Phoenix Tail.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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You might not think much about the sticky bottle of vanilla sitting in the back of your pantry. But that flavor – one of the most common in the world – has a fascinating history, involving a fickle orchid and a 12-year-old enslaved boy who made the discovery of a lifetime.
That’s the sort of tale that attracts poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil. From peacock feathers to the sounds of garden insects, her work is known for magnifying the wonders of the natural world. Her latest book of essays, “Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees,” explores the unexpected connections between food, memory, and community.
So take a seat and pour yourself an aperitif, as Aimee Nezhukumatathil shares a few of these miniature morsels with Outside/In host Nate Hegyi: a three-course meal of grape jelly, sweet nostalgia, and just a hint of vanilla bean.
Featuring Aimee Nezhukumatathil
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Nate Hegyi
Editing by Taylor Quimby
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Marina Henke, Felix Poon and Catherine Hurley
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
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Introducing the newest series from NHPR’s award-winning Document team: “The Youth Development Center.” New Hampshire has sent its most troubled kids to the same juvenile detention center for more than a century. It's a place that was supposed to nurture them, that instead hurt them – in some of the worst ways imaginable. It's now at the center of one of the biggest youth detention scandals in American history. How did this happen – and how did it finally come to light?
The rest of the series is available now: listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, iHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This episode includes content that may not be suitable for young listeners. If you have suffered abuse and need someone to talk to, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. If you’re in a mental health crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8.
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Maybe you’ve looked at the sky on a clear night and spotted the International Space Station, a tiny white dot gliding through the stars. Maybe it felt special, a rare glimpse of a human-made satellite in space.
But what if you were to look up at the sky and see more visible satellites than stars? What if the Big Dipper and Orion were drowned out by a satellite traffic jam, criss-crossing through space?
A growing number of astronomers are sounding the alarm about such a possibility, even within the next decade. A new space race is already well underway. Commercial satellite traffic in low Earth orbit has skyrocketed in recent years, with more satellites launched into space than ever before. The majority of these satellites are owned and operated by a single company: Starlink.
Featuring Samantha Lawler, Jonathan McDowell, Aaron Boley, and Roohi Dalal, with thanks to Edward Oughton.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get occasional emails about new show swag, call-outs for listener submissions, and other announcements.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
LINKS
Here’s a link to the most popular proceedings in the FCC docket, and a step-by-step guide for submitting your own comments (this guide was compiled for a previous filing by an advocacy group which includes Samantha Lawler).
COMPASSE, or the Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment, also stays up-to-date on FCC procedures.
In this episode, Nate and Justine looked at this 3D rendering of satellite constellations around the globe, including GPS and Starlink.
Space Data Navigator has nice visualizations of the number of launches, satellites, and debris over time, which relies in part on Jonathan McDowell’s data.
Aaron Boley’s article in Nature, “Satellite mega-constellations create risks in Low Earth Orbit, the atmosphere and on Earth.”
A talk by Samantha Lawler about Kuiper belt objects and the challenges to astronomy posed by sharp increase in satellites.
An open-access paper which found that internet from satellite mega-constellations could be up to 12-14 times more emission-intensive than terrestrial broadband.
For more from Outside/In on the “earth-space environmental system,” check out our episode on property rights in airspace and space-space, this one on the element of aluminum, and an oldie-but-a-goodie on geoengineering.
A piece on the cutting room floor: the risk that you’ll get hit by satellite debris falling back to Earth is quite low… but the risk that someone will get hit is rising.
Here’s a global map of light pollution, and a tool to find dark sky sites near you.
On the issue of orbital crowding, there have been a couple notable traffic jams in space. Last month, a decommissioned Russian satellite disintegrated in low Earth orbit, posing potential risks to astronauts on board the ISS. In 2019, an important weather-monitoring satellite had to dodge a Starlink satellite, a fuel-expensive maneuver. In 2021, Starlink and OneWeb debated what really happened when their satellites passed within 190 feet of each other in orbit.
A note on space regulation
Our episode did not cover all the groups regulating space. At a global level, this includes the UN’s International Telecommunication Union and the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs. Within the United States, the Office of Space Commerce also plays a role, in addition to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission
CREDITS
Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis
Edited by Taylor Quimby
Our team also includes Felix Poon.
NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
Music in this episode came from Victor Lundberg, Lofive, Harbours & Oceans, Spiegelstadt, Curved Mirror, Silver Maple, Wave Saver, Cobby Costa, and From Now On.
The blue whale calls were recorded by NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
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Consider the potato.
The typical potato is not all that pretty. They can be beige and lumpy, dusty and speckled, and on top of that, they even sprout alien-like tentacles. Further, no one really knows what to make of the potato. Is it a vegetable, or so starchy that we should really consider it a grain?
It’s time for answers. The Outside/In team ventures into the potato patch and presents three stories on this “fifth most important crop worldwide.”
Part 1: An artist vaults the humble potato to luxury status.
Part 2: A deliberation on the potato’s true place in the food pyramid – or, that is, on “MyPlate.”
Part 3: When his mom was diagnosed with cancer, producer Felix Poon’s dad found a way to help her: fresh-squeezed potato juice.
Featuring Laila Gohar, Kristina Peterson, and Paul Poon.
SUPPORT
Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.
Subscribe to our newsletter for occasional updates and special announcements.
LINKS
Laila Gohar wrote about her potato party, and the Marie-Antoinette-era rebrand of the potato, in her column for the Financial Times.
For more details on the French pharmacist who transformed the potato’s image, check out this Atlas Obscura piece.
For a vinegary and vegetable-forward potato salad, Justine recommends this recipe from the great Deb Perelman.
Taylor recommends these vegan Bombay potatoes and peas (this is the closest recipe he could find online to the book recipe he uses at home).
Felix recommends trying Sichuan stir-fried potatoes from an authentic Sichuan Chinese restaurant if you haven’t had it before, and then give this Woks of Life recipe a try.
If you find yourself near the U.S.-Mexico border, Nate recommends you try some carne asada fries. Here’s a good recipe if you want to try them at home.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon
Mixed by Nate Hegyi, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon.
Editing by Executive Producer Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Our intern is Catherine Hurley.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Patrick Patrikios.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).Episode art courtesy of Laila Gohar.
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