Outside/In

It’s that time again when we open our mailbag to answer your (oh-so-delightful) questions. This time, we deliberate over what seagulls are doing so far from the sea, the reason that staring at fire is so compelling, why dogs kick up dirt after they poo, and other timeless inquiries.

Submit your own question (the weirder the better) on Instagram, via email at outsidein@nhpr.org, or by calling our Outside/Inbox hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER. 

Question 1: Would ice age humans still think of ice as ‘cold?’

Question 2: Why do we like to stare at fire?

Question 3: Why do dogs scratch the ground after pooping?

Question 4: Shouldn’t seagulls be at sea? 

Question 5: Do animals get seasonal allergies? 

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Taylor Quimby & Felix Poon

Mixers: Taylor Quimby & Felix Poon

Editing by Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Rebecca Lavoie

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Felix Johansson Carne, Stationary Sign, Jules Gaia, Yomoti, and Flouw. 

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever have an unexpected animal encounter that leaves you filled with adrenaline? Or awed by the natural world? Or filled with fear? 

On this episode, we hand over the reins to the folks at Every Little Thing, a Spotify-exclusive podcast hosted by Flora Lichtman.

They asked their listeners for stories about extreme animal run-ins, and boy did folks deliver…. From a tangled antlers conundrum, to a life-altering encounter with jellyfish, these are animal stories that will make you laugh, sweat, and want to stay on the boat. 

Thanks to Cory, Sara, Geoff and everyone who called in to Every Little Thing with a wild animal tale.

Every Little Thing is made by Flora Lichtman, Annette Heist, Phoebe Flanigan, Hadley Robinson, Stephanie Werner and Carla Javier.

Outside/In is produced by Nate Hegyi, Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Felix Poon 

AFRAID OF NATURE? SEND US YOUR STORIES!

Halloween is coming up, and we want to know what natural thing scares the bejeezus out of you. Is there a particular animal, insect, or encounter that just absolutely creeps you out? Or maybe it’s just an idea: like you’re afraid of the dark, or the ocean, or thunderstorms? 

Submit your fear, and we may feature it on a future episode of the show - or call you up to talk about whatever it is that freaks you out.  Here are some prompts:

What scares you? 

How does that fear manifest in your life? Where do you think that fear stems from? 

Tell us a specific anecdote or story related to your fear.

Submit your story by sending a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org. Or by calling our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER. 

MORE ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING

Why do news anchors all sound the same? Do wolves really howl at the moon? How did Elvis imitators take over Las Vegas wedding chapels? On ELT, you call with a question, they find you an answer. 

Their helpline is open 24-7. Call 833-RING-ELT or send an audio message to elt@gimletmedia.com.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some people see something special happening at the Berkeley Community Garden in Boston’s South End: a multicultural garden community built from the rubble of a demolished city block; a green oasis of Chinese plants like bitter melon, cultivated here for over half a century.

But others… well, all they see is a trash pile.

In the final installment of Yardwork, the story of how a predominantly immigrant community garden is shaping the built environment, even as gentrification threatened its existence.

Featuring: Arlene Ng, Kim Szeto, Chun Lee, Sue Fong Lee, Helen Ng, Fanny, Ada, Sarah Hutt, Jeremy Liu, Betsy Johnson, Ann McQueen, Valerie Burns

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Official Berkeley Community Garden Website

Adversity Can Help A Garden To Grow (NYTimes)

Berkeley Community Gardeners Master Growing...Up (WBUR)

The Trustees of Reservations now owns and manages the Berkeley Community Garden. But many organizations have supported the garden through the decades, including:

• Boston Natural Areas Network (Wikipedia)
• South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust (Wikipedia)
• Boston Urban Gardeners

Mel King was instrumental in making community gardens in Boston possible. In 1974 he sponsored the MA Gardening and Farm Act, which passed into law and allowed people to farm and garden on vacant public land. He was honored in 2021 by then acting mayor of Boston, Kim Janey.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Felix Poon

Editing by Taylor Quimby and Nate Hegyi

Additional editing help from Jessica Hunt and Justine Paradis. 
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special thanks to Michelle Slater, Julie Stone, Zach Nowak, Mark Gardner, Michelle de Lima, Vidya Tikku, Peter Bowne, Jessica Holden, Lauren Chooljian Nick Capodice, Jason Moon, Christina Phillips, and Eileen Poon.

Music for this episode by Walt Adams, Blue Dot Sessions, and Airae

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Yardwork, a summer yard and garden miniseries from Outside/In. We’re sharing three stories about our relationships with the land around us: the front yard, the backyard, and down the block. This is part two.

Sometimes, when Maureen McMurray is digging in her backyard garden, she encounters something she didn’t expect: a lump of coal. She’s planted vegetables in the same soil for a few years now. But as she prepared for an upcoming growing season, she wondered: is her homegrown produce poisoning her family?

The answer is nicer than you might think.

Featuring Maureen McMurray, Nate Bernitz, and Ganga Hettiarachchi. 

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our (free) newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram + Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Find your state’s cooperative extension and soil testing service in this directory.

Cornell Small Farms Program offers a guide to soil contamination, including ranges of safe levels, with the caveat that toxicity depends on factors like soil texture, pH, and organic matter. 

The EPA’s primer to lead in soil.

More information on managing the health risks of lead in New Hampshire soils from the UNH Cooperative Extension. 

This open source paper goes even deeper on issues of urban gardening, soil contamination, and public awareness.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing help from Nate Hegyi, Felix Poon, Rebecca Lavoie and Jessica Hunt. 

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Title art and photo: Justine Paradis

Special thanks to Tom Lemien, Anna Paltseva, and Jim Garvin.

Music by Walt Adams, Nul Tiel Records, Alexandra Woodward, Martin Gauffin, Blue Dot Sessions, and Arthur Benson.

Outside/In theme by Breakmaster Cylinder

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Yardwork, a summer yard and garden miniseries from Outside/In. We’re sharing three stories about our relationships with the land around us: the front yard, the backyard, and down the block. This is part one.

Americans love a lawn. Green grass grows everywhere: on baseball fields, in backyards, in front of strip malls. Collectively, we spend billions of dollars every year keeping them fertilized and watered.

But lawns cost more than money in Western states like Utah. Despite a severe drought, residents of Utah’s towns and cities use more water per capita than any other place in the nation, and a majority of that water goes right into lawns. That’s helping fuel an environmental disaster that could wipe out one of America’s largest inland seas.

In part one of Yardwork, we trace the 600-year history of lawns, explore how they became a symbol of power, wealth, and Whiteness in America, and share tips on how to make a yard more environmentally responsible.

Featuring: Malin Curry, Ira Curry, Kelly Kopp, Zach Frankel, Karen Stenehjel

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Check out Malin Curry’s essay on the history of Black Americans and yard work. 

To read more about how agriculture and outdoor watering is contributing to the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake, take a look at these two studies. 
 

ProPublica published an excellent investigation into why one of the West’s driest states often rejects aggressive water conservation efforts. 

For some great history on lawns, read Paul Robbins’ Lawn People and Virginia Scott Jenkins’ The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi

Editing by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing help from Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Rebecca Lavoie and Jessica Hunt. 
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special thanks to Sherry Lund, Zach Renstrom, Karry Rathje and Ken Fox. 

Music for this episode by Walt Adams, Sture Zetterberg, OTE, Headlund, Roy Edwin Williams, El Flaco Collective, Pulsed, Jimmy Wahlsteen, Both Are Infinite, Airae, and Alfie-Jay Winters.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans have had an impressive run thus far; we’ve explored most of the planet (the parts that aren’t underwater anyway), landed on the moon, created art and music, and some pretty entertaining Tik Toks. 

But we’ve survived on the planet for just a fraction of the time horseshoe crabs and alligators have. And we’re vastly outnumbered by many species of bacteria and insects. 

So what is the most successful species on Earth? And how do you measure that, anyway? 

From longevity, to happiness, to sheer numbers, we put a handful of different organisms under the microscope in hopes of better understanding what exactly it means to succeed at life on a collective and individual scale.   

Featuring: Stephen Giovannoni, Rashidah Farid, and Steward Pickett

SUPPORT

Check out Stephen Giovannoni’s paper: “SAR11 Bacteria: The Most Abundant Plankton in the Oceans”

An interesting treatise on adaptability: “Why crocodiles still look the same as they did 200 million years ago”

From the NSF: “The most common organism in the oceans harbors a virus in its DNA”

More food for thought: “The non-human living inside you"

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Taylor Quimby

Editing by: Nate Hegyi, Rebecca Lavoie

Additional editing help from Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt. 

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special thanks to everybody who answered our question at the top of the show: Josemar Ochoa, m Carey Grant, Butter Wilson, Tim Blagden, Robert Baker, Sheila Rydel, and Bob Beaulac.

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, and Jules Gaia

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Park Service has changed immensely since its days of keeping poachers out of Yellowstone. So has its approach to telling the story of America. 

Kirsten Talken-Spaulding of the NPS and Will Shafroth of the National Parks Foundation help us understand how this colossal system actually works and what it's doing to tell the true story of the United States.

This episode was reported and produced by our friends at the wonderful podcast Civics 101.

LINKS

For more about the history of national parks and state-backed conservation, we’ve got episodes! 

We’ve also delved into the history of Yellowstone, with a focus on the original conservation strategy behind it and many other parks, a strategy pejoratively called “fortress conservation.”

“Himalayan Land Grab” tells the story of what happened when park developers applied the same “fortress conservation” strategy in northern India.

“Thin Green Line” is an exploration of the role of conservation law enforcement through the reality TV show North Woods Law.

We’ve also featured “The Problem with America’s National Parks,” an episode of the podcast The Experiment (no longer being produced) which asked: why not simply give the national parks back to Native people?

CREDITS

Hosted by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice

Produced by Hannah McCarthy with help from Nick Capodice

Senior Producer: Christina Phillips

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Civics 101 staff includes Jacqui Fulton.

Outside/In team: Nate Hegyi, Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt.

Music (National Park Service): Nul Tiel Records, Evan Schaefer, Kesha, Walt Adams, Site of Wonders, Dusty Decks, HoliznaRAPS and Margareta.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The land had been cultivated and lived on for millennia when geologist Ferdinand Hayden came upon the astounding Yellowstone "wilderness." It wasn't long before the federal government declared it a national park, to be preserved in perpetuity for the enjoyment of all. Ostensibly. How did Yellowstone go from being an important home, hunting ground, thoroughfare and meeting place to being a park? 

This episode was reported and produced by our friends at the wonderful podcast Civics 101. 

Featuring: Megan Kate Nelson, author of Saving Yellowstone, Mark David Spence, author of Dispossessing the Wilderness and Alexandra E. Stern, historian of Native peoples and Reconstruction are our guides to this rocky start. 

LINKS

For more about the history of national parks and state-backed conservation, we’ve got episodes! 

We’ve also delved into the history of Yellowstone, with a focus on the original conservation strategy behind it and many other parks, a strategy pejoratively called “fortress conservation.”

“Himalayan Land Grab” tells the story of what happened when park developers applied the same “fortress conservation” strategy in northern India.

“Thin Green Line” is an exploration of the role of conservation law enforcement through the reality TV show North Woods Law.

We’ve also featured “The Problem with America’s National Parks,” an episode of the podcast The Experiment (no longer being produced) which asked: why not simply give the national parks back to Native Americans?

CREDITS

Hosted by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice

Produced by Hannah McCarthy with help from Nick Capodice

Senior Producer: Christina Phillips

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Civics 101 staff includes Jacqui Fulton.

Outside/In team: Nate Hegyi, Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt.

Music: Walt Adams, Silver Maple, Arthur Benson, Alexandra Woodward and Rocky Marciano.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last summer, former Outside/In host Sam Evans-Brown quit journalism to become a lobbyist for clean energy.

He’s not alone. Millions of people left their jobs or changed careers in the past couple years. But is the field of climate journalism going through its own “Great Resignation?” In a moment when the stakes are so high, are the people who cover the climate crisis leaving journalism to try to help solve it?

Producer Justine Paradis talks with two reporters who recently found themselves re-evaluating their personal and professional priorities: one who left journalism, and another who stayed.

Featuring Sophie Gilbert, Sam Evans-Brown, Stephen Lacey, Julia Pyper, Meaghan Parker, and Kendra Pierre-Louis.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 
Subscribe to our (free) newsletter.
Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

The podcast episode of Warm Regards that Justine mentions is “Apocalyptic Narratives, Climate Data, and Hope, with Zeke Hausfather and Diego Arguedas Ortiz”

The history of objectivity is arguably one of the “great confusions of journalism.” In the early 20th century, reporter Walter Lippman and editor Charles Merz contended that objectivity is a practice akin to the scientific method. “The method is objective, not the journalist.”

More recently, plenty of folks have commented on problems with “bias” in journalism, including Lewis Raven Wallace, Wesley Lowery, and Sam Sanders, who wrote, “The avoidance of the ‘perception’ of ‘bias’ ultimately means the only reporters to be trusted are those whose lives haven’t been directly touched by the issues and struggles they’re covering. And you [know] what that means.”

Julia Pyper’s podcast Political Climate

Post Script Media, Stephen Lacey’s podcast company

How cable TV covered climate change in 2021.

Nate Johnson, a former journalist who left Grist to become an electrician, featured on How to Save a Planet.

Kendra Pierre-Louis spoke in greater depth about her career and what it’s like to be a Black woman in journalism with Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt on Hot Take.

The Yale Climate Opinion Maps find that 72% of Americans believe in global warming, although just 33% report hearing about climate in the media at least once a week. You can explore the data and see how climate attitudes vary by state and county.

For Sarah Miller, all the right words on climate have already been said. “I could end this story by saying ‘We kept swimming and it was beautiful even if it will all be gone someday,’ or some shit, but I already ended another climate story that way. I have, several times, really nailed that ending… Writing is stupid. I just want to be alive.”

CREDITS

Special thanks to Nate Johnson and Peter Howe

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis

Editing and additional mixing by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Rebecca Lavoie, Nate Hegyi, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Music: Sarah the Illstrumentalist, Daniel Fridell, baegel, FLYIN, Smartface, Silver Maple, By Lotus, 91nova, Moon Craters, Pandaraps, and Blue Dot Sessions

Theme Music: Breakmaster Cylinder

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few bear witness to human decomposition. We embalm and seal bodies in caskets, and bury them six feet underground. Decomposition happens out of sight and out of mind, or in the case of cremation, is skipped over entirely.

But at human decomposition facilities, sometimes known as "body farms," students and researchers see rotting corpses every day. They watch as scavengers and bacteria feast on them. And when it's all over, they clean the skeletons, and file them away in a collection.

In this episode, producer Felix Poon visits a human decomposition facility in North Carolina to  see what the people who work there have learned about death, find out how a human body decomposes, and why a person might choose to wind up there in the first place. 

Featuring: Nick Passalacqua, Rebecca George, Carter Unger, Maggie Klemm, Carlee Green, Victoria Deal, Kadri Greene, Mackenzie Gascon, Reagan Baechle, Leigh Irwin, and Lucinda Denton

LINKS

You can watch Bill Bass tell the story of Colonel William Shy and the time since death estimation he got so wrong that led to him founding the first ever “Body Farm.”

If you want to hear from pre-registered donors about their decision to donate their bodies, you can watch a WBIR-TV segment, The Body Farm: A donor explains why she’s ready to hand off her corpse to the forensic center about Lucinda Denton, who we feature in this episode. And you can read Fawn Fitter’s article, My Afterlife on the Body Farm (NY Times), about how she intends to help solve crimes as part of a world-renowned criminal justice program after she dies.

If you’re curious to read more about the “CSI Effect,” check this article out: ‘CSI effect’ draws more women to forensics.

And if you want to read up on how the field of forensics is talking about evolving their concepts of race and gender, you can read Decolonizing ancestry estimation in the United States, and Centering Transgender Individuals in Forensic Anthropology and Expanding Binary Sex Estimation in Casework and Research.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Felix Poon

Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help and feedback from Nate Hegyi, Rebecca Lavoie, Justine Paradis, and Jessica Hunt.
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special Thanks to: Fawn Fitter, Katie Zejdlik, Jimmy Holt, Carter Unger, Maggie Klemm, Carlee Green, Victoria Deal, Kadri Greene, Mackenzie Gascon, Reagan Baechle, and Leigh Irwin.

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anybody who supports the show RIGHT NOW, during our June 2020 Fund Drive, will be entered to win a $500 Airbnb gift card, and will receive an adorable limited-edition Outside/In axolotl sticker.

Click here to donate to Outside/In right now. 

A few weeks ago, we teamed up with the Civics 101 podcast to bring you the story of Happy, an Asian elephant living in the Bronx Zoo.

Lawyers had petitioned the New York State Court of Appeals for a writ of Habeas Corpus; a legal maneuver that could have freed Happy and set a new precedent for animal rights. But in a ruling out this week, the court has decided: Happy isn’t going anywhere. 

In this quick update to our previous episode (listen here if you haven’t already)  Nate and Hannah debrief on the 5-2 split decision, and what it means for the future of animal rights. 

Featuring: Maneesha Deckha

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Read more about this week’s ruling, and what it may mean for animal rights, in this article  from Slate.

CREDITS

Hosts: Nate Hegyi and Hannah McCarthy

Reported and produced by: Nate Hegyi

Mixer: Taylor Quimby

Editing by Taylor Quimby

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Fabien Tell, Bill Ferngren, Sarah the Illstrumentalist, and Alexandra Woodward

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anybody who supports the show RIGHT NOW, during our June 2020 Fund Drive, will be entered to win a $500 Airbnb gift card, and will receive an adorable limited-edition Outside/In axolotl sticker.

Click here to donate to Outside/In right now. 

When the smash-success Jurassic Park first hit theaters in 1993, it inspired a generation of dinophiliacs and helped to usher in a new “golden age of paleontology.” 

But it also froze the public’s perception of dinosaurs in time, and popularized inaccuracies that people still believe are true today. 

So what happens when the biggest source of information on a scientific field comes from a fictional monster movie? In this episode, three Jurassic Park super-fans (one paleontologist, and two podcasters) try to sort it all out. 

Featuring: Gabriel-Philip Santos

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Want to learn more about dinosaurs? Check the publish date before you check it out from the library!  And here are some good options:

Smithsonian’s The Dinosaur Book (pretty much all of the Smithsonian books are good for younger readers)

Want to get a more global perspective of where dinosaurs have been discovered? Check out a dinosaur atlas book. 

For older readers, or anybody who loves a good coffee table book, check out this entry featuring a number of excellent paleoartists: Dinosaur Art II (Taylor has the first one and loves to show it off). 

Also: A truly disheartening read about people who think feathered dinosaurs are an attack on masculinity. 

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Taylor Quimby

Mixer: Taylor Quimby

Editing by Rebecca Lavoie, with help from Nate Hegyi and Justine Paradis

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Sarah the Illstrumentalist, Pandaraps, Matt Large, Ballpoint, and Valante.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anybody who supports the show RIGHT NOW, during our June 2020 Fund Drive, will be entered to win a $500 Airbnb gift card, AND will receive an adorable limited-edition Outside/In axolotl sticker.

Click here to donate to Outside/In right now. 

Happy has lived in New York City’s Bronx Zoo for years. To visitors, she’s a lone Asian elephant. But to a team of animal rights lawyers, she’s a prisoner. 

They’ve petitioned state courts for a writ of Habeas Corpus; a legal maneuver that, if granted, would declare Happy a legal person who deserves to be freed. It’s the latest case in an ongoing fight to extend basic human rights to animals – one that could have big repercussions in the natural world. 

Because this is a case that deals with animals AND the law, two podcasts from New Hampshire Public Radio have teamed up to take it on: Outside/In and Civics 101. We always hear about the animal rights movement… but what rights do animals actually have? 

Featuring: Maneesha Deckha, Kevin Schneider

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Listen and subscribe to Civics 101!

Check out which animals don’t get covered by the country’s biggest anti-cruelty law, the Animal Welfare Act, here.

Nonhuman Rights Project founder, Steven Wise, explained why he compares the plight of nonhuman animals to the plight of enslaved people in a wide-ranging interview with University of Toronto law professor Angela Fernandez in 2018. 

The New Yorker wrote about Happy the elephant’s legal case earlier this year. 

You can rent the HBO Documentary about Tommy the chimpanzee, Unlocking the Cage, on Apple TV.

We weren’t able to dive into it in this episode, but Maneesha has made a compelling case for not fighting for personhood for animals – instead, there should be a distinct third classification known as “legal beings.” Check out her lecture on it here. 

CREDITS

Hosts: Nate Hegyi, Hannah McCarthy, Nick Capodice

Reported and produced by: Nate Hegyi

Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help and feedback from Nick Capodice, Hannah McCarthy, Rebecca Lavoie, and Nate Hegyi

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by El Flaco Collective, The Fly Guy Five, Jules Gaia, and Peerless. 

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s that time again, when scientists everywhere hold their breath as we open our listener mailbag. It’s spring in the northern hemisphere, so the theme of the questions in this episode is “growth” — with the exception of the last question, which is… kind of the opposite.

Question 1: Um, what are those frogs doing? (go to our website to see the picture)

Question 2: What’s that white foam that forms on trees when it rains?

Question 3: Does moss get damaged when you walk on it?

Question 4: What’s the best filling for raised beds in the garden?

Question 5: How long does it take for a dead squirrel to decompose?

[insert image]

Thanks for the excellent questions, Louise, Mihaela, Tricia, Kevin, and Nicolas! Do you have a question about the natural world? Submit it to the Outside/Inbox! Send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

Featuring: Nat Cleavitt, Rebecca Roy, Yolanda Burrell, and Sibyl Bucheli

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Check out one of many salacious articles about frog sex, or read the somewhat less sensational study about underwater breeding chambers. 

And here’s one more study about frog sex; specifically simultaneous polyandry. 

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt

Mixed by Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon 

Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help from Rebecca Lavoie and Justine Paradis 

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a bluebird day in April of 2019, Snow Ranger Frank Carus set out to investigate a reported avalanche in the backcountry of Mt. Washington. He found a lone skier, buried several feet under the snow. The man was severely hypothermic, but alive.

Wilderness EMTS can work for decades and never encounter this particular situation, and what happened next was an attempted rescue that people in Northern New England are still learning from. 

What happens when a rescue goes wrong? And how do first responders cope when an opportunity to save someone’s life slips through their fingers?

Featuring:  Denise Butler, Frank Carus, Jeff Fongemie, Nicholas Weinberg

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Read the Mount Washington Avalanche Center’s final report on Nick Benedix’s death.

Learn more about avalanche safety here.

Read the Wilderness Medical Society Journal article about this incident here.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Jessica Hunt

Mixer: Taylor Quimby

Editing by Taylor Quimby and Nate Hegyi, with help and feedback from Rebecca Lavoie, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Erika Janik, Sam Evans-Brown, Jimmy Gutierrez, and Christina Philips.

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special Thanks to: Matt Dustin, Ty Gagne, Frank Hubbell, and Andrew Parrella. 

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few weeks ago our host, Nate Hegyi, was on the edge of a very high cliff in Utah’s Zion National Park when he heard a little voice inside his head whisper… “jump.”  

He didn’t heed the call, thankfully, and when he got down safely he discovered that more than a third of all people might feel this urge, ominously known as “the call of the void.” 

Most of us can wave off these impulses. But what if you couldn’t? What if the call of the void was so intense that you almost acted? Is there a cure? 

This episode contains a contextual reference to suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, anxiety, or just needs someone to talk to, reach out to the folks at the Crisis Text Line, a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.

Featuring: Jennifer Hames, Stephen Hunt

ELECTRIC VEHICLE SURVEY

Hey folks – we’re working on some stories about electric vehicles, and we’re looking to hear from you. Are you interested in going electric? Wish there was better charging infrastructure where you are? Or would you prefer sticking with the car/truck you’re used to? 

Tell us what you think about EVs, and help inform our reporting by filling out this survey. It’ll only take a couple minutes, and it really helps us produce the show. Thanks so much!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

This 2020 study, in BMC Psychiatry, looks at the prevalence of high place phenomenon and whether it’s connected to suicidal ideation. 

Read Jennifer Hames’ paper in The Journal of Affective Disorders on the “call of the void”: “An urge to jump affirms the urge to live: an empirical examination of the high place phenomenon.”

The Imp of the Perverse, by Edgar Allen Poe

Marconi Union, “Weightless”

Listen to our previous episode “Even Hikers Get The Blues” 

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by: Nate Hegyi.

Mixer: Nate Hegyi and Taylor Quimby

Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help from Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, Felix Poon and Rebecca Lavoie.

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Marconi Union, Sour Mash, Dew of Light, Gavin Luke, and Christopher Moe Ditlevsen.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three hundred years ago on Easter Sunday, 1722, European explorers landed on a South Pacific island that they called “Easter Island.” And they were shocked to see nearly one-thousand giant statues of stoic faces, called “moai”, placed all over the island.

Who moved them? And how did they do it?

The most popular theory was that this remote civilization destroyed itself – cutting down all the trees to make contraptions for moving statues.

But according to the Indigenous people of Rapa Nui, their ancestors didn’t need to cut down any trees to transport the statues. In fact, their oral history has always been clear about how the moai were transported. The real mystery is, why hasn’t anyone been listening?

This story originally ran in  October 2021, and was updated for the 300th anniversary of first contact between Rapanui and European peoples.

Featuring: Sergio Rapu Haoa, Carl Lipo, Terry Hunt, Sergio Mata’u Rapu, and Gina Pakarati

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A profile of Sergio Rapu Haoa for the 2002 Rotary World Peace Scholars program at Berkeley

Eating Up Easter -- a documentary film produced by Sergio Mata’u Rapu, about how the people of Rapa Nui are grappling with environmental and social changes brought on by tourism and economic development.

The NOVA-National Geographic Documentary

• A team of 18 volunteers move a 10-foot 5-ton statue for the NOVA-National Geographic documentary, Mystery of Easter Island
• A figurine animation demonstrating five different theories of moai-transport through the years.
• Mystery of Easter Island -- The NOVA-National Geographic Documentary in its entirety

Lectures by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo

• National Geographic Live Lecture -- Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo: The Statues That Walked
• Long Now Foundation Lecture: The Statues Walked -- What Really Happened on Easter Island | Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo

CREDITS

Reported and produced by Felix Poon

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Felix Poon

Additional Editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, Rebecca Lavoie, and Erika Janik

Special thanks to Effie Kong, and Daniela Allee for her Spanish and Rapanui voiceovers.

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like most modern publications, Low-tech Magazine has a website. But when you scroll through theirs, you’ll notice an icon in the corner: the weather forecast in Barcelona.

That’s because Kris Decker, the creator of Low-tech Magazine, powers the site off a solar panel on his balcony. When the weather gets bad, the website just… goes offline.

In a way, the solar-powered website is an experiment: an attempt to peel back the curtain and to reveal the infrastructure behind it, and to raise questions about our relationship with technology. Should everything on the internet be accessible, all the time? Could progress mean choosing to live with less?

Featuring Kris De Decker.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE SURVEY

We’re working on a series about electric vehicles, and we’re looking to hear from you. Would you consider going electric? What do you think about the EV transition?  

Help inform our reporting by filling out this survey. It’ll only take a couple minutes, and it really helps us produce the show. Thanks so much!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our (free) newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Low-tech Magazine has published instructions on how to build a low tech or solar-powered site. 

Solar Protocol, a solar-powered platform designed with the idea that “it’s always sunny somewhere!”

HTTP Archive tracks the history of web performance.

Re: that time it rained inside the data center.

This website lets you measure the emissions of any website (including this one).

Photographer Trevor Paglen’s images of undersea Internet cables (reportedly wiretapped by the NSA), and a video of sharks nipping at them.

Another example of the natural world interfering with computers, from the cutting room floor: the world’s first computer bug was a literal bug.

When Senator Ted Stevens described the internet as a “series of tubes,” many have opined that he actually wasn’t wrong.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Producer: Justine Paradis

Editor: Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Nate Hegyi, Jessica Hunt, and Felix Poon 

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Special thanks to Melanie Risch.

Music: Pandaraps, Damma Beatz, Dusty Decks, Harry Edvino, Sarah the Illstrumentalist (sic), and Blue Dot Sessions.

The “Internet is a Series of Tubes” remix was created by superfunky59 on Youtube.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lake trout are on life support in Lake Michigan. They rely on intense breeding and stocking by federal fisheries. There was a breakthrough last summer, though, that could help bolster the lake trout’s recovery. A geneticist successfully mapped the lake trout genome: an outline of the fish’s genetic makeup. The genome will help biologists understand why some “strains” of trout have a higher survival rate. 

But could it also be used to create a sort of super-trout? And is that a good thing? Or is conservation-based gene editing a step too far? 

Featuring: Mark Walton, Roger Gordon, Chuck Madenjian, Seth Smith, Marty Kardos and Kim Scribner.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE SURVEY

Hey folks – we’re working on some stories about electric vehicles, and we’re looking to hear from you. Are you interested in going electric? Wish there was better charging infrastructure where you are? Or would you prefer sticking with the car/truck you’re used to? 

Tell us what you think about EVs, and help inform our reporting by filling out this survey. It’ll only take a couple minutes, and it really helps us produce the show. Thanks so much!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

Check out more episodes of Points North, and their special series: [Un]Natural Selection 

Listen to our previous episode “The Particular Sadness of Trout Fishing in America”

CREDITS

This episode of Points North was written and produced by Patrick Shea

Hosts: Dan wanschura and Morgan Springer

Editor: Morgan Springer 

Consulting editor: Peter Payette 

Music for this episode by Max Dragoo, Marlin Ledin, Santah, and Blue Dot Sessions 

Outside/In is produced by Nate Hegyi, Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Felix Poon 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, the final frontier of the outdoors: space! From rocket particles, to ominous theories about what might happen if we ever make contact with aliens, we’re launching into uncharted territory to answer your questions about outer space. 

And speaking of uncharted territory, we’re kicking this episode off with a very important introduction: our new host Nate Hegyi is picking up the mic for the first time. 

Question 1: How do I become a backyard astronomer? Here are seven Tips for getting started. 

Question 2: How sustainable is space travel? 

Question 3: What is the ‘Dark Forest’ theory?

Question 4: Would the hare-brained scheme from 'Don't Look Up' actually work?

Do you have a question about the natural world? Submit it to the Outside/Inbox! Send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

Featuring: Susan Rolke, Jennifer Willis, Martin Ross, Jonathan Yaney, and Amy Mainzer

ELECTRIC VEHICLE SURVEY

Hey folks – we’re working on some stories about electric vehicles, and we’re looking to hear from you. Are you interested in going electric? Wish there was better charging infrastructure where you are? Or would you prefer sticking with the car/truck you’re used to? 

Tell us what you think about EVs, and help inform our reporting by filling out this survey. It’ll only take a couple minutes, and it really helps us produce the show. Thanks so much!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

Find an astronomy club near you

Want some digital stargazing help? Try an app like Star Walk 2 or Stellarium.

Check out the sounds of space. 

Learn more about the company Spinlaunch, which is trying to use centrifugal force to launch rockets into space, and watch their Orbital Accelerator concept video.

Does more efficient sometimes mean more emissions? Read up on Jevon’s Paradox. 

Are we alone? Like, really alone? Learn about the Drake Equation to find out. 

Go down a wikipedia wormhole on The Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin.

Don’t Look Up seems like it’s about a comet, but it’s actually about climate change. 

Simulate a world ending comet collision with the Earth Impact Effects Program.

CREDITS

Reported and produced by Felix Poon, Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, and Justine Paradis

Host: Nate Hegyi

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing by Justine Paradis and Cori Princell

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Felix Poon, Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, and Justine Paradis

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Howard Harper-Barnes, Jerry Lacey, Jules Gaia, and Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antler tissue is the fastest growing animal tissue on the planet. It grows faster than a human embryo, faster even than a cluster of cancer cells. On a hot summer day, some antlers can grow as much as one inch per day! And buried inside them is a cocktail of nutrients that both animals and humans are itching to get their paws on.

In summary: Antlers are freaking amazing. So in this episode of Outside/In, we’ve invented a new segment just to highlight them. We’re calling it Holy Scat! and it’s our way of exploring all the things about the natural world that make us totally geek out. 

For our inaugural adventure, we learn about how antlers grow so fast, meet a collector who covers hundreds of miles searching for them, AND find out why scientists hope antlers could unlock new treatments for osteoporosis. Plus, we’ll tell you a whole herd of awesome deer factoids, and answer the eternal question: are Santa’s reindeer males or females? 

Featuring Henry Ahern, Will Staats, Brendan Lee, and Tomas Landete-Castillejos. Special thanks to Chris Martin and Dave Anderson of Something Wild, who inspired this episode!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS

Check out the episode of the NHPR podcast Something Wild that inspired this story!

Stanford scientists identified genes behind rapid antler growth. Read more here. 

Watch a video describing the research on glioblastoma cells.

Good footage of an antler shoving match. 

Graphic Video Warning! If you want to see what an emergency velvet antler amputation looks like, here you go. 

Reporting on MMA Fighter George Sullivan’s one year suspension for the use of Velvet Antler supplements

Is the Coronavirus in Your Backyard? A New York Times report on coronavirus in animal populations (and especially, in deer)

An article from Smithsonian detailing what may be the first case of coronavirus to spread from a deer to a human

CREDITS

Produced and researched by Jessica Hunt and Taylor Quimby

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Edited by Taylor Quimby and Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Felix Poon and Nate Hegyi

Special Thanks to Cindy Downing and David Hewitt

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Arthur Benson and Claude Signet

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget about beer, or even water; it was hard apple cider that was THE drink of choice in colonial America. Even kids drank it! And since it’s made from apples – the “all-American” fruit – what could be more American than cider?

But apples aren’t native to America. They’re originally from Kazakhstan.

In this episode we look at the immigration story of Malus domestica, the domesticated apple, from its roots in the wild forests of Central Asia, to its current status as an American icon. And we look at how apples and cider were used in some of America’s biggest migrations – from Indigenous tribes who first brought apples west across the continent, to the new immigrants who are using hard cider to bridge cultures and find belonging.  

Featuring Soham Bhatt and Susan Sleeper-Smith.

Special thanks to everyone Felix spoke to at the Cider Days Festival, including Ben Watson, Charlie Olchowski, and Bob Sabolefski.

LINKS

How to Make Hard Cider

George and Ursula Granger: The Erasure of Enslaved Black Cidermakers, by Darlene Hayes.

An Apple Commons: reflections by cidermaker Melissa Maddens on what it means to forage from wild apple orchards – relics of this country’s history of dispossessing Indigenous people of their lands.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter.

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook.

CREDITS

Produced and mixed by Felix Poon

Edited by: Taylor Quimby

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Additional editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt,  and Rebecca Lavoie

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Jharee, Kevin MacLeod  and Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Move over, beef: there’s a new burger in town. Plant-based meats are sizzling hot right now; in 2020 alone, the alternative meat industry saw a record $3.1 billion in investment, with 112 new plant-based brands launching in supermarkets. These juicy, savory, chewy fake burgers are a far cry from the dry, weird-tasting veggie patties of the past. 

In this episode, Gastropod co-hosts Nicole Twilley and Cynthia Graber visit the Impossible Foods labs to swig some of the animal-free molecule that makes their meatless meat bleed, try fungal food start-up Meati's prototype "chicken" cutlet, and speak to the scientists and historians who compare these new fake meats to their predecessors—and to real meat! 

Can a plant-based sausage roll be considered kosher or halal? Are plant-based meats actually better for you and for the environment? And how might a mysterious protein-powerhouse fungus named Rosita help feed the world?

This episode was reported and produced by our friends at Gastropod.

Featuring Aymann Ismail, Celeste Holz-Schietinger, Malte Rödl, Tyler Huggins, and Raychel Santo.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS

Read Aymann Ismail’s piece on the debates surrounding plant-based pig substitutes in Muslim communities here. 

Celeste Holz-Schietinger, the VP of Product Innovation at Impossible Foods, featured in Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business in 2020. 

Malte Rödl is a researcher in environmental communications at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. His PhD thesis is titled “Categorising Meat Alternatives: how dominant meat culture is reproduced and challenged through the making and eating of meat alternatives.”

Tyler Huggin’s company, Meati, which he started after “auditioning” thousands of fungus species and finally a protein powerhouse he and his team nicknamed “Rosita.”

Raychel Santo studies how plant-based meats measure up against animal meats in terms of both nutritional and environmental impacts. Read the full paper she and her colleagues wrote here.

CREDITS

Gastropod co-hosts: Nicola Twilley and Cynthia Graber 
Produced by Sonja Cho Swanson
Outside/In team: Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt
Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie
Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder
Additional music by Ludwigs Steirische Gaudi and Jackson F. Smith 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Jocelyn Smith was growing up, she told her friends and family she didn’t want to go to college. Instead, her goal was to hike all 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail, a rugged journey spanning from northern Georgia to central Maine. Last year, she finally realized that dream in a seven-month long, life-changing adventure.

But as soon as she started her descent from the last mountain summit, she started to wonder… what now? What did all of this mean? For the thousands of people who “thru-hike” the world’s longest trails, this is actually a well-known phenomenon. They call it “the post-trail blues.'' 

If getting out into nature is supposed to be restorative, why do so many long-distance hikers report feeling depressed after they finish? In this episode, we explore how an epic hike turns into a new identity, and ask why some of the biggest achievements of our lives can leave us feeling strangely empty. 

Featuring Jocelyn Smith, Shalin Desai, Joseph Robinson, and Anne Baker.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, reach out to the folks at the Crisis Text Line, a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS

Jocelyn Smith’s blog for The Trek

Shalin Desai’s piece about diversity on the trail, originally published in A.T. Journeys, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy magazine. 

More information about the life and music of Earl Shaffer, the first known person to have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail from end-to-end. 

Anne Baker’s article for The Trek, titled Post-Trail Depression: It’s Not What You Think

Our previous episode on Baxter State Park, featuring ultramarathoner Scott Jurek: “Champagne on The Rocks”
 

CREDITS

Produced and mixed by Taylor Quimby

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Edited by Rebecca Lavoie

Additional editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, Felix Poon, and Rebecca Lavoie

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, River Foxcroft, Dew of Light, Golden Age Radio, Matt Large, and Earl Shaffer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When writer Elizabeth Rush visited neighborhoods already transformed by rising seas, she noticed that many people did not use terms like “climate change.” They still talked about it – it’s just that they talked about it in terms of their own experiences: the dolphins, swimming in tidal creeks further inland than ever before… how the last big flood wasn’t gradual, but fast and sudden.

In this episode, we’re looking for new ways to discuss climate change with Elizabeth Rush, author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore. While some books about climate change are heavy on politics and UN reports, Rising is not that. Instead, Elizabeth focuses on the people, species, and communities on the leading edge of sea level rise, from New York to California, Louisiana and even to the mountains of Oregon.  

“A good friend of mine… was like, ‘This is the first climate book I've also read that has zero quotes from politicians.’ That wasn't purposeful, but I looked back and was sort of proud of that,” Elizabeth said.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS

Elizabeth Rush's website

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

CREDITS

Hosted by Justine Paradis and Felix Poon
Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis
Edited by Rebecca Lavoie
Additional editing: Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt
Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie
Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder
Additional music by Chris Zabriskie and Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades before the first international permaculture conference or certified organic tomato, a farmer on an island in southern Japan turned his back on industrial agriculture and devoted his life to finding a different way of farming.

Masanobu Fukuoka was working as a plant pathologist when he experienced a revelation – and promptly quit his job and returned home to his family farm. Eventually, he wrote The One-Straw Revolution, a manifesto on his method, shizen noho, and the philosophy of “do-nothing farming.” 

Published in 1978, the book has been described by writer Michael Pollan as “one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement.” But its reach goes far beyond farming: The One Straw Revolution has been translated into 25 languages and is admired by artists, writers, and philosophers. 

Fukuoka passed away in 2008, but his grandson, Hiroki Fukuoka, is still living and farming there today. In the second part of the story of Fukuoka and “do-nothing” farming, writer Hannah Kirshner journeys to the place where he lived and farmed, to see shizen noho, as it is today. 

Featuring Hiroki Fukuoka, with appearances by Akiko Fukuoka, Taro Nakamura, and Atsushi Tada.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS + FURTHER READING 

Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm

Hannah Kirshner, author of Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town

Fukuoka in discussion with Bill Mollison and Wes Jackson for Mother Earth News, which took place at the Second International Permaculture Conference in Washington state.

Many of those practicing natural farming in Japan learned about it from Yoshikazu Kawaguchi, who adapted Fukuoka’s practice and started a natural farming school called Akame Shizennou Jyuku.

The 1978 review of The One Straw Revolution in Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation

For more on the story behind the book’s publication and Fukuoka’s travels in the United States: The One Straw Revolutionary: The Philosophy and Work of Masanobu Fukuoka by Larry Korn

CREDITS

Special thanks to Tim Crews and the Land Institute, ethnobotanist Justin Robinson, Jeffrey Gray of Fenlake Farm, Paul Quirk of Ishiharaya farm, Bill Vitek, and Atsushi Tada and Taro Nakamura, who work with the Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm. 

Reported and written by Justine Paradis and Hannah Kirshner

Produced and mixed by Justine Paradis

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Rebecca Lavoie and Felix Poon

Translation help from Michael Thornton

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Patrick Patrikios and Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades before the first international permaculture conference or certified organic tomato, a farmer on an island in southern Japan turned his back on industrial agriculture and devoted his life to finding a different way of farming.

Masanobu Fukuoka was working as a plant pathologist when he experienced a revelation – and promptly quit his job and returned home to his family farm. Eventually, he wrote The One-Straw Revolution, a manifesto on his method, shizen noho, and the philosophy of “do-nothing farming.” 

Published in 1978, the book has been described by writer Michael Pollan as “one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement.” But its reach goes far beyond farming: The One Straw Revolution has been translated into 25 languages and is admired by artists, writers, and philosophers. 

What is it about this slim green book that has touched so many people? 

Part I tells the “origin story” of Masanobu Fukuoka, and how his ideas spread far beyond his home on the Japanese island of Shikoku. 

In Part II, we journey to that corner of southern Japan, and the mountain where Masanobu Fukuoka once lived and farmed, to see shizen noho in action today.

Featuring Takeshi Watanabe, Robin Calderon, and Hiroki Fukuoka.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

LINKS + FURTHER READING 

Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm

Fukuoka’s discussion with Bill Mollison and Wes Jackson for Mother Earth News, which took place in 1986 at the Second  International Permaculture Conference in Washington state.

Many of those practicing natural farming in Japan learned about it from Yoshikazu Kawaguchi, who adapted Fukuoka’s practice and started a natural farming school called Akame Shizennou Jyuku.

The 1978 review of The One Straw Revolution in Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation

For more on the story behind the book’s publication and Fukuoka’s travels in the United States: The One Straw Revolutionary: The Philosophy and Work of Masanobu Fukuoka by Larry Korn

CREDITS

Special thanks to Tim Crews and the Land Institute, ethnobotanist Justin Robinson, Jeffrey Gray of Fenlake Farm, Paul Quirk of Ishiharaya farm, Bill Vitek, and Atsushi Tada and Taro Nakamura, who work with the Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm. 

Reported and written by Justine Paradis and Hannah Kirshner

Produced and mixed by Justine Paradis

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Rebecca Lavoie and Felix Poon

Translation help from Michael Thornton

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Patrick Patrikios

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 21, 2021, an influential environmental activist died of Covid-19 and you probably didn’t hear about it. Sunderlal Bahuguna’s passing didn’t make the major news outlets in the US, but it was a big deal in India, where he was the renowned leader of the Chipko movement against deforestation in the 1970s. 

Chipko is a Hindi word for “hugging”, but according to Bahuguna, he was just the messenger of the movement. “It was the ladies who hugged the trees,” he said.

This story is about the life and legacy of Sunderlal Bahuguna, and the tree huggers that saved India’s forests.

Featuring: Haritima Bahuguna

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

LINKS

On The Fence: Chipko Movement Re-visited

The Axing of the Himalayas

Appiko (To Embrace)

CREDITS

Reported and produced by Felix Poon

Host: Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing by Justine Paradis, and Erika Janik

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Felix Poon

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Saumya Bahuguna, Samuel Corwin, and Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all know that a key part of addressing climate change involves getting off fossil fuels. But renewable energies, such as solar energy, are not without costs. One key cost? It uses a lot of land. The team at How to Save a Planet takes a look at one creative solution to this problem – mixing solar panels with agriculture. And they are not at all sheepish about the role of one very adorable four legged animal.

Featuring How to Save a Planet.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

CREDITS

How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production.
Host: Alex Blumberg
Episode producer: Kendra Pierre-Louis
Show producers: Anna Ladd, Rachel Waldholz and Hannah Chinn 
Intern: Nicole Welch
Supervising producers: Lauren Silverman and Kaitlyn Bogucki
Editor: Caitlin Kenney.
Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard
Original music by Peter Leonard, Catherine Anderson and Emma Munger
Fact-checking: James Gaines
Special thanks to Alex DePillis at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, and Tonje Waxman and Brooks Mixon at Sun Raised Farms. 

Outside/In team: Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt.
Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie
Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gasp! Once again, the Outside/In team find themselves plunged into (a very predictable) darkness as winter descends on the Northern Hemisphere. In this episode, our second annual friluftsliv special, we turn to Norwegian culture for inspiration on how best to approach the coldest quarter of the year.  

The team offers our 2021/22 tips on how to enjoy the outdoors in inclement weather, and cozy (and not so cozy) indoor recommendations for those days when the wind is howling, the digits are single, and you simply can’t even. 

Featuring Jim Staples.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  If you give before the end of 2021, we'll send you a limited-edition Outside/In sticker!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter

Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook 

'FRILUFTSLIV' GEAR TIPS

Interested in microspikes? Check out this review of various winter traction devices. 

How to sell a parka: Fast Company calls the Canada Goose “cold room” the best retail experience of the year. 

Everything old is new again: The LA Times on how the disposable camera is making a comeback among millennials and Gen Z. 

'KOSELIG' TV RECOMMENDATIONS

Jessica: 100 Foot Wave. A seminal big-wave surfing documentary, complete with staggering visuals, intense score, and larger-than-life personality. Follows extreme surfer Garrett McNamara’s journey as he pioneers new methods for taking on the world’s biggest waves. HBO Max.

Rebecca: Dark. At first, this cerebral time-travel story feels like a German take on Stranger Things - but Dark, frankly, is much weirder than that. Get hooked by the surprising twists, stay for the stellar performances from its ensemble cast. Perfect for a February binge-session. Netflix.

Taylor: Alone. Most reality TV relies on human interaction in order to create drama  - this one is just the opposite. Contestants film themselves as they try to survive the longest in harsh wilderness conditions without friends, family, or even producers around to see them do it. Hulu and Netflix.

Justine: The Great. An “occasionally true” look back at the reign of Catherine the Great, the devotee of enlightenment ideals who oversaw Russia during one of its most prosperous eras. Visually, it’s a great period piece - but what sets it apart is the raunchy, smart, laugh-out-loud humor. Hulu.

NON-SCREEN 'KOSELIG' IDEAS

Taylor: Put together a puzzle unlike any other. 

Rebecca: Keep yourself cozy with a rubber hot water bottle. 

Jessica: Make yourself some glogg.

Justine: Throw a fantastic winter banquet, with the help of How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry. 

[Note: Please be cautious of CDC safety guidelines when planning any social gatherings during the pandemic - a good winter banquet need not be held indoors or have a large guest list to be a splendid time!]

Justine’s bonus recommendation (excellent on its own or paired with The Great): The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, a book about freedom, the Indigenous influence on the Enlightenment, and what on Earth our ancient human ancestors were up to for hundreds of thousands of years. 

CREDITS

Produced and mixed by Taylor Quimby

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Additional editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Rebecca Lavoie

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve got answers to your burning questions: a query about the impacts of wildlife smoke on bird migration; a long-smoldering family debate over whether or not bears can hoot; and, perhaps, stamping out the fire in the gas furnace heating your home.

Question 1: What home heating system is best for the climate?

Question 2: Is wildfire smoke impacting bird migration?

Question 3: Do bears hoot?

Question 4: Are farmers practicing agroforestry in New England?

Do you have a question about the natural world? Submit it to the Outside/Inbox! Send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

Featuring: Nate (The House Whisperer) Adams, Emily Mottram, Joe Lajewski, Olivia Sanderfoot, Anni Yang, Dave Mance III, Andy Timmins, David Telesco, Kate Macfarland, and Meghan Giroux.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook

CREDITS

Reported and produced by Felix Poon, Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, and Justine Paradis

Host: Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing by Cori Princell

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Felix Poon, Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, and Justine Paradis

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to global climate emissions. But what about hunting? Does shooting and eating wild game skirt the complicated ethics and emissions connected with eating factory farmed animals? 

In this episode, a vegetarian-turned-hunter brings two reporters into a forest in Germany, in search of sustainable  meat. Not only is it an interesting conversation from a climate perspective, it’s also a fascinating glimpse into the differences between hunting culture in the United States and Germany. 

This story comes from our friends at On The Green Fence, a podcast about environmental issues. It’s produced by Deutsche Welle and hosted by Neil King and Gabriel Borrud. This episode was part of their season on the ethics and sustainability of eating meat, which recently won a 2021 Lovie Award for Best Limited Series.

Featuring Alena Steinbach.

Follow On The Green Fence on Twitter: @dw_environment

Follow On The Green Fence on Instagram: @dw_globalideas

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram: @OutsideInRadio

Follow Outside/In on Twitter: @OutsideInRadio

Join our private Facebook Group

LINKS

For more on the “meat paradox” that Neil and Gabriel mention in this episode, check out our previous episode The Meat Matrix. 

CREDITS

On The Green Fence is hosted by Neil King and Gabriel Borrud. Their executive producer is Vanessa Fischer. Their sound engineer is Jürgen Kuhn and they’re produced by Natalie Muller.

The Outside/In team is Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon and Jessica Hunt

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Aspen, Colorado, bears descend from the mountains to gorge on unlocked restaurant dumpsters. In India, drunk elephants crash into bodegas searching for food. And behind these human-wildlife conflicts are the researchers and scientists who are trying to prevent us from killing each other. 

Author Mary Roach is no stranger to squirmy subjects: she’s written about the science of decomposition, digestion, and sex. By comparison, her latest book sounds almost cute: It’s called Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. But don’t be fooled, because this book is “wilder” than anything else she’s ever written.

Reminder: you don’t need to read the book to enjoy Outside/In Book Club! The conversation is open to all. In this episode, we speak with Mary about humanity’s drive to keep wild animals out of our kitchens, communities, and crops, and the absurd -- and sometimes disturbing -- lengths we’ll go to do it. 

Our next pick for the Outside/In Book Club is Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, by Elizabeth Rush. Again, you don’t have to read it to enjoy the show, but if you do,  don’t forget to tag us @OutsideInRadio on Twitter and Instagram, and use the hashtag #ReadingOutsideIn to share your thoughts and questions.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

More about Mary Roach

CREDITS

Produced by Taylor Quimby and Jessica Hunt

Edited by Justine Paradis

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Jessica Hunt, and Felix Poon

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who moved the giant monolithic statues of Rapa Nui, a remote island in the South Pacific? And how did they do it? These questions have been at the center of much speculation and debate since Europeans first arrived there on Easter Sunday, 1722, and called it “Easter Island”. The most popular theory was that this remote civilization destroyed itself -- cutting down all the trees to make contraptions for moving statues.

But according to the indigenous people of Rapa Nui, their ancestors didn’t need to cut down any trees to transport the statues. In fact, their oral history has always been clear about how the moai were transported.

This is a story about storytelling: what happens when your community becomes the subject of a global mystery? A parable of human failure and ecological collapse? What’s the true story? And who gets to tell it?

Featuring: Sergio Rapu Haoa, Carl Lipo, Terry Hunt, Sergio Mata’u Rapu, and Gina Pakarati

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A profile of Sergio Rapu Haoa for the 2002 Rotary World Peace Scholars program at Berkeley

Eating Up Easter -- a documentary film produced by Sergio Mata’u Rapu, about how the people of Rapa Nui are grappling with environmental and social changes brought on by tourism and economic development.

The NOVA-National Geographic Documentary

• A team of 18 volunteers move a 10-foot 5-ton statue for the NOVA-National Geographic documentary, Mystery of Easter Island
• A figurine animation demonstrating five different theories of moai-transport through the years.
• Mystery of Easter Island -- The NOVA-National Geographic Documentary in its entirety

Lectures by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo

• National Geographic Live Lecture -- Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo: The Statues That Walked
• Long Now Foundation Lecture: The Statues Walked -- What Really Happened on Easter Island | Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo

CREDITS

Reported and produced by Felix Poon

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Felix Poon

Additional Editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, Rebecca Lavoie, and Erika Janik

Special thanks to Effie Kong, and Daniela Allee for her Spanish and Rapanui voiceovers.

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a type of travel industry which defines itself as different: ecologically minded, even “responsible.” It’s a type of travel meant to support the conservation of threatened ecosystems. This is not just tourism, but “ecotourism.”

This specific brand of tourism is a crucial part of the plan to conserve the Great Himalayan National Park in northern India, a gorgeous patchwork of forests, glaciers, mountains, and rare wildlife.

From one perspective, the strategy is working: tourism is on the rise, which provides jobs to locals and incentivizes conservation.

But from another perspective, the very thing meant to help conserve the area might also be one of its biggest threats.

In our last episode, journalist Yardain Amron reported on the conservation strategy -- and the controversy -- around the creation of the GHNP in the 1980’s and ‘90s.

Here, Yardain turns to 21st century ecotourism, and explores just how much the Tirthan Valley of India is changing. Who profits from tourism based on exploring wilderness? And just how eco-friendly is ecotourism?

Featuring Raju Bharti, Karan Bharti, Dimple Kamra, Upi Kamra, Rosaleen Duffy, Stephan Marchal, Robert Fletcher, Narottam Singh, and a traveler named Nishant.

Translation by Vibha Kumar.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

To learn more about this approach to conservation, check out our episode on the origins of Yellowstone National Park, “Fortress Conservation.” 

Dorceta Taylor, “The Rise of the American Conservation Movement.”

Bram Buscher and Robert Fletcher, “The Conservation Revolution.”

CREDITS

Host: Justine Paradis

Reported and produced by Yardain Amron

Edited by Taylor Quimby with help from Justine Paradis

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Yardain Amron and Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Felix Poon and Jessica Hunt

Special thanks to: Guman Singh, Tony Gaston, and Hema Marchal.

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great Himalayan National Park in India is among the most dramatic landscapes on Earth. Count the layers in a single panoramic photo of the park and you might see mountains, glaciers, old-growth forests, and alpine meadows.

But National Parks are defined by two things: first, an abundance of wildlife and majestic landscapes; and second, no permanent human presence.

So, before anybody was ever invited to visit the park, authorities first told about 15,000 local people to stay out.

This episode is the first of two stories reported by freelance journalist Yardain Amron.  In this tale, he explores the strategies of conservation at work in India’s Tirthan Valley, and what it took to create The Great Himalayan National Park over the course of two decades. What does it mean to “protect” the natural world? Who is doing the protecting, and who should it be protected from?

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

To learn more about this approach to conservation, check out our episode on the origins of Yellowstone National Park, “Fortress Conservation.”

Dorceta Taylor, “The Rise of the American Conservation Movement.”

Bram Buscher and Robert Fletcher, “The Conservation Revolution.”

CREDITS

Host: Justine Paradis

Reported and produced by Yardain Amron

Edited by Taylor Quimby, with help from Justine Paradis

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Yardain Amron and Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Felix Poon and Jessica Hunt

Translation: Vibha Kumar

Special thanks to Guman Singh and Tony Gaston.

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We introduce our new mailbag segment: the Outside/Inbox, where we answer your questions about the natural world.

This time: 

Question 1: What are those blue boxes sticking out of East Coast salt marshes?

Question 2: A bunch of wasps swarmed into my friend’s bowl of ramen and died. What poisoned the wasps? 

Question 3: Did life begin on Earth just once? Or could it have happened multiple times during the same period?

Question 4: If you ironed out all the mountains in a place like New Hampshire - how much bigger would the surface area of the state be?

Do you have a question about the natural world? Submit it to the Outside/Inbox! Send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER.

Featuring: Gabrielle Sakolsky, Luke Steller, Jared Dyer, Debbie Maciecki, Larry Garland, and Russell Congalton

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

CREDITS

Produced and Reported by Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon

Host: Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Cori Princell and Rebecca Lavoie

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Taylor Quimby, Jessica Hunt, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once upon a time, potpourri was a popular way to freshen up a space. Now, for some, it feels a bit like the lava lamp of fragrance: an outdated fad from a bygone decade.

So, why was potpourri so popular in the 1980’s, and what happened to it? Did the trend dry up… or just evolve?

We explore the transformation of potpourri, from the fermented mush of the Victorian era to the perfumed and colorful bag of pine cones of the eighties, and talk to a few of the people still making potpourri today.

Featuring: Yvette Weaver, Carly Still, Laure Moutet, Autumn Anderson, Paulus, and Ednita Tingle.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

An 1895 recipe from Sweet from Sweet Scented Flowers and Fragrant Leaves for 50-year moist potpourri (the recipe begins on page 42).

From Death Scents: more fascinating info on the history of medieval trends that predate potpourri and the rise of “rotten pot” potpourri.

Fragrant Potpourri Preserves the Floral Scents of Summer: A 1975 NYT article that bridges the gap between moist and dried potpourri recipes.

A 1988 Glade Potpourri Spray commercial

CREDITS

Hosted by Justine Paradis

Reported and produced by Taylor Quimby

Edited by Justine Paradis

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Felix Poon and Jessica Hunt

Special thanks to Rosalyn LaPier, Mark Nesbit, and to NHPR’s voices from the ‘80s: Nick Capodice, Josh Rogers, Emily Quirk, Patricia McLaughlin, Rick Ganley, and Rebecca Lavoie.

Theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Ben Nestor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science journalist and sci-fi novelist Annalee Newitz thinks and writes a lot about the future. But in their latest book, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, Annalee looks at the distant past in four ancient cities: Pompeii (of the Roman Empire), Angkor (of the Khmer empire in modern day Cambodia), Catalhoyuk (the first known city in the world in today’s Turkey), and Cahokia (an indigenous city near what’s now St. Louis, Missouri).

Through these four cities, Annalee explores the past to understand our future. And, in the face of the existential threat of climate change, we talk about what the stories of these cities can tell us about humanity’s possible future.

The next Outside/In book club pick is Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. It comes out on September 14, 2021.

Don’t forget to tag us @OutsideInRadio on Twitter and Instagram, and use the hashtag #ReadingOutsideIn to share your thoughts and questions about Four Lost Cities or Fuzz!

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter

LINKS

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

CREDITS

Host: Justine Paradise
Written and reported by Felix Poon
Edited by Justine Paradise, Erika Janik, and Taylor Quimby
Executive Producer: Erika Janik
Mixed by Felix Poon
Music by Breakmaster Cylinder

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re sharing an episode from The Experiment, a podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC that tells “stories from an unfinished country.”

Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter.

Each episode explores elements of the experiment that is the United States, from the evangelical influence on American politics to alcohol use in the United States… and to “America’s best idea:” its national parks.

In an essay for The Atlantic, David Treuer, an Ojibwe author and historian, says we can make that idea even better—by giving national parks back to Native Americans.

“By virtue of the parks returning to Native control, I would like people, when they’re standing at the foot of El Capitan, to look up knowing they’re on Native lands, to look up knowing that they’re standing on the graves of Native people,” says Treuer, who grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota as the nearby Voyageurs National Park was being established. “I would like, when people look up at vistas, like at Yosemite or at Yellowstone, that they’d look up as a way to look back at the history of this country.”

Outside/In is a member-supported production of New Hampshire Public Radio. You can donate at outsideinradio.org/donate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we wave off our erstwhile host as he moves on to new adventures, we recall a drive through the mountains and assemble (what else?) a riotous montage.

Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter.

If you’ve got a question for the Outside/In[box] hotline, give us a call! We’re always looking for rabbit holes to explore. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

One more throw-back of Sam, one of our more “creative” fundraising ideas from a few years back.

Outside/In is a member-supported production of New Hampshire Public Radio. You can donate at outsideinradio.org/donate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To be profitable, the offshore wind industry requires vast sums of money only accessible to some of the world’s biggest companies. But is the environmental movement ready to welcome oil majors and devoted capitalists into their ranks? Ready or not, here they come.

Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.

Featuring: Henrik Stiesdal, Nat Bullard, Jason Jarvis, and Mijin Cha.

Part 5 of 5.

SUPPORT

Windfall is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A note about our reporting process

CREDITS

Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik

Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown

Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico

Executive Producer: Erika Janik

Mixing: Justine Paradis

Fact-checking: Sara Sneath

Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy

Special thanks to Sandeep Pai, Bo Quinn, Sammy Roth and Kim Delfino.

Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder

Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billions of dollars in investment will rain down on the cities that are best positioned to launch America’s offshore wind industry. But not every city can become the “wind capital of America.” Where is it gonna drizzle, and where is it gonna pour?

Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.

Featuring: Ziven Drake, Dana Rebeiro, Jesper Bank, and Lars Pederson.

Part 4 of 5.

SUPPORT

Windfall is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A note about our reporting process

Time-lapse of a (European) jack-up barge in action

CREDITS

Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik

Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown and Jack Rodolico

Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico

Executive Producer: Erika Janik

Mixing: Taylor Quimby

Fact-checking: Sara Sneath

Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy

Special thanks to

Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder

Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The promise of the nascent American offshore wind industry meets an unlikely foe: squid fishermen in Rhode Island. Forces collide — like the enduring symbol of the American blue-collar worker, the big money of global energy interests, and the volatility of American politics. We ask: what is the nature of power?

Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.

Featuring: Joe McNamara, Norbert Stamps, Josiah Dodge, Kevin Sullivan, Jason Jarvis, Meghan Lapp, Lars Pederson, Nicola Groom, Ben Storrow, Kevin Stokesbury, David Monti, David Bernhardt, and Gina Raimondo.

Part 3 of 5.

SUPPORT

Windfall is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A note about our reporting process

CREDITS

Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik

Reported by Sam Evans Brown
Written by Sam Evans-Brown, Jack Rodolico, and Annie Ropeik

Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico

Executive Producer: Erika Janik

Mixing: Justine Paradis 

Fact-checking: Sara Sneath

Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy

Special thanks to Miriam Wasser of WBUR and Craig Lemoult for audio of Lars Pederson and David Bernhardt in this episode. Thanks also to Christa Bank, Jean Flemma, Andrew Gill, David Bidwell, Henrik Lund, John Mitchell, Callie Tansill-Suddath, and the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies.

Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder

Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ten years ago, a Kennedy and a Koch shared the same goal: stop Cape Wind, America’s would-be first offshore wind farm.

Despite nearly two decades of effort, Cape Wind was never built, and its failure had huge consequences for the offshore wind industry. But it also laid the groundwork for the next wave of offshore wind and the explosive growth to come.

Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.

Featuring: Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Jim Gordon, Sean Corcoran, Beth Daley, and Audra Parker.

Beth Daley is now the editor-in-chief of The Conversation. Sean Corcoran is currently the managing editor at WGBH.

Part 2 of 5.

SUPPORT

Windfall is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A note about our reporting process

A pro-Cape Wind PSA (from Greenpeace) circa 2007

CREDITS

Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik

Writing and reporting: Jack Rodolico

Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico

Executive Producer: Erika Janik

Mixing: Taylor Quimby

Fact-checking: Sara Sneath

Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy

Special thanks to Beth Daley, Sean Corcoran, Bettina Washington, and Richard Andre

Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder

Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Picture this: thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast, each one taller than the Washington Monument. Offshore wind is seen as an essential solution to climate change, and it’s poised for explosive growth in the United States. How did we get to a moment of such dramatic change?

Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.

Featuring: Henrik Stiesdal, Bryan Wilson, and Bob Grace.

Part 1 of 5. Listen to the rest of the series here.

SUPPORT

Windfall is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

LINKS

A note about our reporting

A video from the power company, Orsted, detailing the decommissioning of Vindeby, the world’s first offshore wind farm. 

How a turbine works

CREDITS

Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik

Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown

Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico

Executive Producer: Erika Janik

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Fact-checker: Sara Sneath

Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy

Special thanks to Sarah Mizes-Tan and WCAI for the audio of the Block Island Wind Farm Tour, and to Vincent Schellings, Walter Musial, Michael Taylor and Dan Shreve

Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder

Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new series and an announcement.

After 20 years of politicization and red tape, the U.S. is moving full speed ahead on plans to install thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast.

Today, we’re proud to announce the launch of a special five-part series exploring this story. It’s called Windfall, and it follows the birth of a brand new industry in the U.S., one that will invest billions of dollars in our economy and reshape our coastal communities.  

Giant corporations are retooling their business models, setting their sights on the climate problem and hoping to capitalize on offshore wind. But some of these corporations — including BP and Shell — are the same companies arguably responsible for climate change in the first place.

Windfall is the story of a promising green technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. And it’s a story about power… and who has the power to reshape our energy future.

The first episode will debut on the Outside/In feed on June 24th, with new episodes weekly through July 22nd.  Learn more at windfallpodcast.org

Also, we share a big announcement about the staffing of Outside/In – a change that not only informs our reporting and transparency for the upcoming Windfall series, but impacts the future of the show as a whole.

Sign up for our biweekly newsletter here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re exposed to plenty of invisible risks in our daily life: toxic compounds in the fabric of our couches, contaminants in the water, and pollutants in the air. A lot of the time, we don’t think too much about them.

But sometimes, the invisible becomes suddenly, acutely visible.

A story about the air we breathe, the risks we can live with, and what it means to become a citizen of a place.

Featuring Susan Scott Peterson, Stella Peleato, Dr. Deborah Gentile, Rashmi Baliga, and Linda Wigington.

Links and Resources

To learn ways to improve your indoor air quality wherever you are, here’s a link to the ROCIS guide.

For open-source air quality data in your location, visit the Purple Air monitoring network map.

For more on air quality in the Pittsburgh region, start with Breathe Project and the Smell PGH and Plume PGH apps by Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab.

To learn more about air quality activism in Pittsburgh, visit the Group Against Smog and Pollution and Breathe Project.

Sign up for the biweekly Outside/In newsletter.

Outside/In is a member-supported production of New Hampshire Public Radio. To support work like this, please consider a donation to the show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Geologist and writer Lauret Savoy considers fossil hunting and historical inquiry to be versions of the same pursuit.

In Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, Lauret uses the search for her family story as a lens to better understand American history, and the landscape as a lens to better understand her past.

Her memoir is a winding journey from southern California to Puritan New England, from Lake Superior to the U.S.- Mexico Border, and finally to Washington, D.C., where she grew up. For Lauret, identifying the geologic story in the American landscape was often easier than finding  answers about her own family.

The next Outside/In book club pick is *Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age* by Annalee Newitz. Look for that episode in late summer.

We want to see you reading your books! Share a picture of yourself #ReadingOutsideIn, and don’t forget to tag us @OutsideInRadio on Twitter and Instagram. Plus, if you’ve got a thought about Trace or a question for Annalee Newitz, send ‘em our way! 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While sand beaches comprise just over 30% of the world’s ice-free shorelines, the collective idea of the sand beach can sometimes cast a much bigger shadow.

That imagined beach can even have an influence on other fields of science — like plastic pollution.

Featuring Dr. Max Liboiron.

Links

Liboiron’s essay, “Plastics in the Gut,” published in Orion Magazine.

Outside/In Book Club

The pick for the first book is Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by geologist and writer Lauret Savoy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices