Outside/In

You might not think much about the sticky bottle of vanilla sitting in the back of your pantry. But that flavor – one of the most common in the world – has a fascinating history, involving a fickle orchid and a 12-year-old enslaved boy who made the discovery of a lifetime. 

That’s the sort of tale that attracts poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil. From peacock feathers to the sounds of garden insects, her work is known for magnifying the wonders of the natural world. Her latest book of essays, “Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees,” explores the unexpected connections between food, memor...

** We’re celebrating our 10 year anniversary and want you to come! Join us in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a night of storytelling, featuring former Outside/In guests and hosted by our very own Nate Hegyi. Get your tickets here! ** 

In celebration of Outside/In’s 10th anniversary we’re looking back at our very first episode: “The Kiwi Apocalypse,” first published in December of 2015. Afterwards, we’ll get an update to the story and talk about how weird it is to have a podcast old enough to be in middle school. 

Here’s our original description for...

Over the past few decades, CGI has allowed directors to put virtually anything they can imagine onto the big screen. But in the world of theater, practical effects still rule supreme. 

So how do these special effects wizards make it snow, rain, and gust inside the confines of a theater, where real live audiences are sitting just feet away? And what are the challenges to dumping more than 100 gallons of water indoors, or coating the stage in slippery fake snow? 

We tour a Brooklyn warehouse that houses the secrets behind Broadway’s wildest special effects, wher...

When Avatar came out in 2009, it shattered box-office records.  And even though it was billed as a sci-fi epic featuring blue aliens on a far-away moon, the movie didn’t shy away from a pretty Earth-based message of environmental conservation.

So, with a third Avatar hitting theaters this weekend, we were inspired to bust out the popcorn, dim the lights, and play the part of pop culture critics. 

How do movies – from blockbusters to documentaries to Disney films –  shape our conception of the natural world?

Featuring Alyssa Vitale, David Whitley, Salma Monani, and Erin Trah...

Did you know that some species of worms can be cut into multiple pieces and each piece will make a new worm? Some can even make a whole new brain. Wild, right?

While not all forms of healing are quite as miraculous as this, the body’s ability to repair itself is pretty darned cool. So today, we’re answering your questions about healing. Like…

For ou...

At any given time, millions of lab mice are being used in research facilities nationwide. And yet nearly all of them can be connected back to a single source: The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where the modern lab mouse was invented.

What started as a research project aimed at understanding heredity is now a global business. Research on lab mice has led to more than two dozen Nobel prizes, helped save countless human lives, and has pushed science and medicine to new heights. But behind it all is a cost that’s rarely discussed outside of...

The garment industry has a giant carbon footprint, labor issues, and a massive waste problem. We have the power to change how and where we shop, but there’s another way to shift our consumption: the practice of repairing our clothes. After all, the most sustainable garment is always the one already hanging in your closet. 

But mending is more than a household chore: it can also infuse new joy in our habits, skills, perspective, and community.

Outside/In producer Justine Paradis talked to a few repair pros and came up with 8 tips on embracing a r...

“Operation Night Cat” is a special three-part series from NHPR’s Document team and Outside/In.

Episode 3: A Duck’s a Duck

Two sets of potential crimes, investigated by more than five sets of law enforcement agencies. Why most of them never took a shot at accountability.

News audio clip credit: WMUR. For a full list of credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. 

SUPPORT

Operation Night Cat is made possible with listener support. Click here to support independent, investigative journalism. 

To hear more of Document's investigati...

“Operation Night Cat” is a special three-part series from NHPR’s Document team and Outside/In.

Episode 2: Behind the Brick Wall

The poaching investigation takes a surprising turn when it reveals another set of potential crimes – this time, behind the brick walls of New Hampshire’s State Prison for Men.

This episode contains strong language that may not be suitable for all listeners. For a full list of credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

SUPPORT

Operation Night Cat is made possible with listener support. Click here to support independent, investigat...

“Operation Night Cat” is a special three-part series from NHPR’s Document team and Outside/In.

Episode 1: Why Did the Deer Cross the Road? 

A New Hampshire Fish and Game warden follows a tip to a man’s backyard. He finds a twisted game of one-upmanship with digital trophy rooms.

This episode contains strong language. For a full list of credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

SUPPORT

Operation Night Cat is made possible with listener support. Click here to support independent, investigative journalism. 

Follow Outside/In on Insta...

Introducing a special three-part series from NHPR’s Document team and Outside/In: Operation Night Cat. 

A New Hampshire Fish and Game warden follows a tip to a man’s backyard. He finds a twisted game of one-upmanship, digital trophy rooms, and one of the biggest poaching cases in recent state history. Then, the hunting investigation takes a surprising turn when it reveals another set of potential crimes – this time, behind the brick walls of New Hampshire’s State Prison for Men. 

Host Nate Hegyi has spent the past year digging into what happened next. Catch the...

According to our unscientific office poll, the annual changing of the clocks has all the popularity of a root canal. With few exceptions, people described the shift to and from Daylight Saving Time as disorienting, arbitrary, and unwelcome.

On a more existential level, winding the clocks back and forth reminds us that no matter how concrete minutes and hours may feel, the way we perceive time is fluid. Time flies when you’re having fun. A watched pot never boils. 

So to celebrate (or perhaps protest) another year setting back the clocks, the Outside/In tea...

Every so often, oak trees go into overdrive. During these so-called mast years, the gentle patter of falling acorns grows into a mighty downpour and ripples across and over ecosystems like a flood. 

What happens when a small thing goes from scarce to plentiful? When a player usually hidden behind the scenes vaults onto the main stage?  

From swimming squirrels and bug-infested weddings, to an explosion in babies named Oaklee, we investigate the myriad ways a sudden surge in abundance can trigger unexpected consequences. 

This episode is part of a playful exercise in comm...

Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is massive, bigger than the state of Florida. If it collapses, it could reshape every coast on this planet during this century. That’s why it’s sometimes known as “the Doomsday Glacier.”

And yet, until recently, we knew very little about it. Because Thwaites is extremely remote, reachable only by crossing the wildest ocean on the planet, scientists had never observed its calving edge firsthand. 

In 2019, a ground-breaking international mission set out to change that, and writer Elizabeth Rush was on board to document the voyage.  We caught up with her to lea...

Ever since a tornado tore through one of St. Louis, Missouri’s poorest neighborhoods, there are piles of bricks all over the place. 

It’s not just a debris problem. Bricks in St. Louis have a long and complicated history here – the darling of many historic preservationists and a good source of profit to just as many demolition crews. 

Producer Marina Henke spent a week in North City, tagging along with a brick layer who’s racing against the clock to build back homes. Can North City keep its bricks? Should they even try?

Featurin...

What do pastries have to do with environmental justice? Cat butts with the climate crisis? And what US president ate a half-chewed piece of salmon leftover from a bear on reality TV?

Grab a pencil (and maybe a pint?) and get ready for the inaugural Outside/In trivia episode we’re calling “Natural Selection.” We’ve got a game called “Guess That Animal!” We’re testing our panel’s knowledge on the environment in movies and music. And, maybe, we’ll learn a thing or two along the way about environmental policy, past and present.

Produced by Felix...

When designer Matt Leacock decided to make a board game about climate action, he knew he wanted to make it – first and foremost – fun to play. “If we sold anything as an educational game… people would run screaming and running for the hills,” he told us. 

But can simulating the climate crisis really make for a good Friday night with your friends? What are the limits to gamifying social issues as complex as global warming?

In this episode, we speak with Matt about what it took to design an entertaining game about one of the most challe...

For humans, roads epitomize freedom. For wildlife, it’s a different story: a million animals are killed by cars every day in the US alone. How did our infrastructure turn so deadly? And what are people trying to do about it?

In this episode, we look at how two very different species are impacted by roads. Along the way, we visit a turtle rescue clinic, and hear about a celebrity cougar that was trapped in the Hollywood Hills.

This episode was first produced in 2023.

Right now, the Trump administration is planning to rescind th...

In the early 1900s, people didn’t trust refrigerated food. Fruits and vegetables, cuts of meat… these things are supposed to decay, right? As Nicola Twilley writes, “What kind of unnatural technology could deliver a two-year old chicken carcass that still looked as though it was slaughtered yesterday?”

But just a few decades later, Americans have done a full one-eighty. Livestock can be slaughtered thousands of miles away, and taste just as good (or better) by the time it hits your plate.  Apples can be stored for over a year without any noticeable change. A network called the “cold...

We’re catching some air this week, and talking things with wings!  

Quandaries range from the practical (how do different animal and insect wings differ?) to the ethereal (this includes dragons). Here’s the questions we’ll be answering…

Featuring Jonathan Rader, Tim Burbery, Lauren Ponisio, and Andrew Howley. 

For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

For our next Outside/Inbox roundu...

Shipwrecks captivate our imagination, and are the subject of many books, academic papers, and movies—from the world-famous Titanic, to sunken World War II warships, to ancient fishing canoes. Some describe them as time capsules of our maritime history, waiting to be discovered and opened.

But there’s a group of people who are drawn to shipwrecks for very different reasons, and it sometimes leads to the demise of the wrecks themselves: fishermen.

In this episode, why archaeologists and fishermen have sometimes been at odds over shipwrecks, and the federal government program that’s bringing them t...

GPS is essential these days. We use it for everything, from a hunter figuring out where the heck they are in the backcountry, to a delivery truck finding a grocery store, to keeping clocks in sync.

But our reliance on GPS may also be changing our brains. Old school navigation strengthens the hippocampus, and multiple studies suggest that our new reliance on satellite navigation may put us at higher risk for conditions like dementia.

In this episode (first released in 2024), we map out how GPS took over our world—from Sputnik’s Doppler effect to the...

Fungi used to be considered plants. Bad plants. Carl Linnaeus even referred to them as “the poorest peasants” of the vegetable class. This reputation stuck, and fungi were considered a nuisance in the Western world well into the 20th century.

Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is trying to rewrite that narrative. Her new book, Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature catalogs fungi that sprout from the shells of beetles, morph with their sexual partners into one being and exhibit as many as 23,000 mating types. 

Patty believes that fungi’s ability to defy our cut and dry assumpt...

Last spring, a curious listener called with an unusual question about coyote urine. Is it – as advertised by companies who sell it – an effective, all natural pest deterrent? And more importantly: “Who are the coyotes that are providing this urine?”

Since then, producer Taylor Quimby has been trying to find out… and with literal gallons of the stuff available online, he discovered the answers aren’t pretty. 

Today on Outside/In, we peek inside the unregulated Pandora’s box of urine farming. Does it work? Is it ethical? And is anybody willing to actually talk about it? 

It’s a weird time to be an environmental scientist. The proposed cuts to federal science funding in the United States are profound, and if they come to pass, it’s not clear what American science will look like on the other side. But for many researchers, science is much more than a career: it’s a community, lifestyle, and sometimes even a family business. 

Outside/In producer Justine Paradis tagged along with researchers in the field to learn what it’s like to be a scientist right now. We visit one of the oldest atmospheric monitoring stations...

Helium is full of contradictions. It’s the second most abundant element in the universe, but is relatively rare on Earth. It’s non-reactive, totally inert—yet the most valuable helium isotope is sourced from thermonuclear warheads. 

And even though we treat it as a disposable gas, often for making funny voices and single-use party balloons, our global supply of helium will eventually run out. That’s because, at a rate of about 50 grams per second, this non-renewable resource is escaping the atmosphere for good. 

In this edition of The Element of Surprise, our occasional series abo...

“In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for those who would climb through the hole in the sky.”

That’s the first line of the poem “A Map to the Next World” by Muscogee writer and former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. It’s a piece that’s inspired Aquinnah Wampanoag writer Joseph Lee as he undertakes one of journalism's most nuanced beats: covering hundreds of unique tribal communities. 

Sometimes those stories fit into neat narratives – about how tribes are restoring nature and winning back land – but that’s not always t...

In 1970, marine architect Charlie Canby got an odd assignment: Design a 600-foot ship for an undisclosed purpose and an undisclosed customer. Only after it was built did he finally find out what it was for. 

“I was dumbfounded,” he said. “I drove away in a daze. I could not believe what we were really doing.”

In this episode, reporter Daniel Ackerman tells the unbelievable story of a boat, a government conspiracy, and the birth of a new industry that could change the way we look at oceans forever. 

Featuring Charlie Canby, Andrew Thaler, Wernher Kr...

Today on Outside/In, we’re sharing an episode from our friends and partners at Common Land.

Common Land explores the creation stories behind protected land. Each season takes a deep dive into the history, science and politics behind the creation of one particular patch of protected, common land.

Season two of Common Land, produced in partnership with New Hampshire Public Radio, follows documentarian Matthew Podolsky as he attempts to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail with his 65-year-old mom, Candy. Matt and his mom face extreme weather, illness, and injury as they trek 2,200 miles from Georgia to...

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.

This episode was originall...

In this episode, we’re taking your questions on the subject of sound. We talk about tinnitus, “the mind’s ear,” and the celebrity voices we have strong feelings about, from Bob Ross to President Obama, Michael Barbaro to Ira Glass.

So strap your earbuds in, we’re going for a ride!

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 this episode, first produced in 2022, we tra...

This summer, more than 100 cruise ships will visit the small city of Portland, Maine, dropping thousands of passengers onto the city’s commercial waterfront for lobster rolls, local souvenirs and a quintessential New England experience. 

But as Portland has rapidly become a landmark destination for cruise lines, a group of activists are calling into question the long held narrative that cruise ships provide a dependable economic boom. 

Producer Marina Henke spent the months leading up to the 2025 cruise season charting these muddy waters. For small coastal cities like Portland, are cruise ships really the economic gene...

Growing up, Kiese Laymon thought of himself as a city kid. But he spent his childhood with a foot in two worlds: his mom’s house in the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi and his grandma’s house in a rural country town.

It wasn’t until Kiese left Mississippi that he came to understand that this question of city versus country actually meant a lot more. It carries a lot of baggage: the tensions between north and south, tectonic historical forces, and the contradictions of life in Mississippi.

In this episode, our producer Justine Paradi...

One of our listeners is in a pickle. He’s looking to buy an engagement ring but wants to make sure the diamond comes from an ethical and sustainable source. So he sent us an email asking for help. 

This is our latest addition of “This, That, or the Other Thing.” It's a series about the choices we make in our lives to try and build a more sustainable world, whether they have any effect, and what we can do instead if they don't.

Today… Host Nate Hegyi looks into the most sustainable ways to source th...

Alexis Nikole Nelson, better known to her millions of fans as @blackforager, was raised by a mother who is an avid gardener and a father who loves to cook. Foraging allowed Alexis to fuse her love for wild plants and food from a very young age.

But before Alexis became the @blackforager many know today, there was a period in her life where Alexis lost that love and connection to foraging, and where food became very much the enemy.

This episode comes to us from our friends at Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, a...

Mike Strizki drives the only hydrogen-powered car on the East Coast. That’s because he’s the only person with access to fuel… which he makes, by himself, in his backyard in New Jersey. 

And it’s not just his car. Mike’s house, his lawnmower, even his bicycle are all powered by hydrogen. He’s convinced that this element could be the single most important solution to the climate crisis, if only people and governments would just get on board.

But he’s been screaming this from the rooftop of his hydrogen house for two decades. An...

Lead is a study in contradictions. It’s dense enough to stop an X-ray, but soft enough to scratch with your fingernail. It’s heavier than steel and iron, but also more flexible. 

And, despite evidence of its toxicity, humans have been using it for all sorts of things for thousands of years. 

In this edition of our series “The Element of Surprise,” we hone in on this notorious heavy metal. What chemical properties make lead so harmful? How did something so dangerous become so ubiquitous? And if medical authorities acknowledge no amount of lead exposure i...

In the late 1950s, engineer Herb Ueda Sr. traveled to a remote Arctic military base. His mission? To drill through nearly a mile of ice, and extract the world’s first complete ice core.

To finish the job, he and his team would endure sub-zero weather, toxic chemicals, and life inside a military base… which was slowly being crushed by the glacier from which it was carved. 

In this episode (first released in 2023) Daniel Ackerman takes us inside Camp Century, and explains how a foundational moment in climate science was inextricably linked with the United State...

A magician spins a black top hat to show their audience it’s empty. Then, with the wave of a wand and a few magic words, PRESTO: a snow white rabbit pokes its ears over the brim. 

Compared to sawing a person in half, pulling a rabbit out of a hat is a joyful bit of magic that entertainers have been doing for more than 200 years. But after the applause dies down, one is left wondering: where did the rabbit come from? And where did it go? 

Today, in honor of the Easter Bunny (who does...

Allergies have been documented in historical records dating as far back as 2,400 years ago, when Hippocrates wrote about “hostile humors” in some people who suffered badly after eating cheese. But why do we experience them to begin with? What even is an allergy? Are allergies on the rise? And why are some mere nuisances, while others are deadly?

This episode is a roundup of allergy stories—from the mundane to the frightful—and a round up of allergy questions we’re asking Dr. Theresa MacPhail, author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, to answer for us. Duration: 00:26:04

Venom is full of dualities. According to the UN’s World Health Organization, snakebite envenoming causes somewhere between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths per year, and even that is likely an undercount. Yet research into venom has yielded treatments for diabetes, cancer, erectile dysfunction, and even the celebrity favorite diabetes slash diet drug, Ozempic. 

In this episode, we explore the world of venom, where fear and fascination go hand-in-hand, and the potential for healing comes with deadly stakes. 

This is part II of our “Things That Can Kill You” miniseries, which also explores poison and allergies.

Featurin...

A few months ago we got an email from a listener who tried a bit of a very poisonous apple and lived to tell the tale. Ultimately, he was fine, but the incident left him full of questions. 

We figured, why not run with that curiosity? We put a call out for all of your poison related queries and you delivered: How much should you worry about those green potatoes in your pantry? Could our car tires be poisoning the environment? It’s another Outside/Inbox roundup on the show this week. Buckle up. 

This is t...

Sgt. Tibbs, a fluffy, 19-year-old Maine Coon with tiger stripes, soft eyes, and a chipped tooth, is missing on the streets of Manchester, New Hampshire. His owner, Rose, fears the worst. But when she finds out her cat was never missing at all – the truth turns out to be worse than she feared.

From our friends over at the Document team at New Hampshire Public Radio, this is the first in a four-part series about what we owe our pets – and what we owe our neighbors.

For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

SU...

After the Irish fought for and won their independence from the British in 1921, they had a problem. Centuries of exploitation had left the island one of the least forested nations in Europe, with less than 2% tree cover. 

So, they started planting a non-native American tree: fast-growing Sitka spruce capable of rebuilding their timber resources in record time. And it worked. Today, about 12% of the island is forested. But in the rural areas where iconic rolling hills have been replaced by rows and rows of conifers, farmers are not happy. 

Outside/In host Nate Hegyi takes us...

Recently, our producer Justine Paradis noticed something. Humans really like to sing together in groups: birthday parties, sports games, church hymns, protest chants, singing along to Taylor Swift at the Eras concert… the list could get very long.

But… why? Did singing play a part in human evolution? Why does singing together make us feel so good?

Featuring Hannah Mayree, Ani Patel, Dor Shilton, and Arla Good. 

For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

SUPPORT

To share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show’s...

We’re used to seeing dogs and cats play with toys or get the zoomies… but do animals like rats and bumblebees play too? What is animal play for? How do scientists even decide what counts as play?

Today, we’re taking a serious look at goofy behavior. We’ll discover the five-part checklist that many scientists use to recognize play in nature, and find out why taking turns is so important for healthy brain development. 

This episode is a collaboration between Outside/In and Tumble, the science podcast for kids. 

Featuring Junyi Chu and Ja...

In New Hampshire, the most beloved swath of public land is the White Mountain National Forest. People interact with it as they would a national park – hiking, swimming, camping, and more. But a national forest is NOT a national park. 

The difference comes down to a fundamental concept: the “multiple-use” land mandate. In the WMNF, you’ll find parts of the forest preserved for wildlife conservation, recreation, climate resilience, and, most controversially, logging. 

This episode looks at one patch of forest from three different perspectives: a conservationist who would like to see cutting halted in the WMNF...

It seems like every morning, another arm of the federal government is being reformed, eliminated, or downsized. That might wind up including an agency that a lot of Americans rely on when disaster strikes: FEMA.

President Trump has called FEMA a “disaster.” His new head of homeland security, Kristi Noem, has signaled it’s time to “get rid of FEMA the way it exists today.” FEMA is a big agency, and understanding its role can be difficult in the abstract. So this week, we’re playing an episode from one of our favorite public radio podcasts: Sea Change.   Duration: 00:28:07

In the early 1980s, an animal rights group airlifted nearly 600 wild burros out of Grand Canyon National Park. 

The media ate it up – magazines sold full-page ads advertising the cause and families from the East Coast clamored to adopt the rescued animals.

But conflict around wild burros in the West still exists today. What does one of the flashiest rescue stories of the last century tell us about the power of animal activism to make enduring change? 

Featuring Rebbel Clayton, Abbie Harlow, John MacPete, Dave Sharrow, Travis Ericsson, and Eric Claman. 

For a...

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. It may also be the most hated. Tennis and basketball players are complaining about losing court space because of an “invasion” of pickleballers. Residents are losing sleep because of the incessant noise. Fights over pickleball have led to a slew of petitions, calls to the police, and even lawsuits.

So why do pickleball players love this sport so much? Just how annoying is it to everyone else? And what will it take for everyone to just get along? 

Producer Felix Poon visits one of the most popular court...

Ever since fluoridation became widespread in the 1950s, cavities in kids have fallen drastically. The effort is considered one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. But it’s also one of the most controversial. 

At really high doses, fluoride is toxic – it can calcify your ligaments and joints and even fuse your spine. It also potentially has impacts on our brains. There’s a small but growing body of research suggesting that fluoride can inhibit intelligence in children. 

This is still unsettled and hotly debated science but, as host Nate Hegyi fi...

What has Donald Trump claimed he would do when it comes to environmental policy in the U.S.? What happened during his last administration?  And what are the limits on executive powers when it comes to treaties and global agreements?

Just days before Trump’s inauguration, this episode comes to us from our friends over at Civics 101. 

Featuring Elizabeth Bomberg.

This episode was produced by Hannah McCarthy with help from Nick Capodice and Marina Henke. For a transcript and full list of credits, go to outsideinradio.org. 

LINKS

Chec...

Sardines are in vogue. Literally. They are in Vogue magazine. They’re delicious (subjectively), good for you, and sustainable… right? 

Recently, a listener called into the show asking about just that.

“I've always had this sense that they're a more environmentally friendly fish, perhaps because of being low on the food chain. But I'm realizing I really have no sense of what it looks like to actually fish for sardines,” Jeannie told us.

The Outside/In team got together to look beyond the sunny illustrations on the fish tins. Is there bycatch? What about emi...

The next blue moon isn’t until May 2026, but luckily for you, you won’t have to wait that long to hear the Outside/In team answering listeners’ questions. This time, we’re exploring why blue moons are cool (or even what the heck a blue moon even is) and other seasonably appropriate curiosities.

Featuring Asmeret Asefaw Ber...

Appalachia is Bigfoot territory. In a big way. This week, we look at the mythical beast's legend, lore and sizable economic impact in the region. And we follow one reporter’s journey through the mountains and foothills of western North Carolina in search of Sasquatch.

This episode comes to us from the wonderful folks at The Broadside from North Carolina Public Radio, a weekly podcast exploring stories happening in their home at the crossroads of the American South. Other topics include how the world ‘y’all’ is taking over the world, the impact of dangerous heat on workers...

Coyotes are a sort of goldilocks animal. They can be active during the day, and at night. They can hunt in groups, or survive solo. They’re wolfish enough to survive in the wild, dog-like enough to blossom in the big city.  

That adaptability has arguably made coyotes one of the most successful mammalian predators on the planet. It’s also given them a reputation as opportunistic villains that prey on neighborhood garbage, livestock,  and (occasionally) household pets. 

So what makes these animals so special? And if coyotes are so good at living amongst us, how do w...

Just a few weeks after we released the What Remains series, news broke that the Penn Museum discovered additional remains of 1985 MOVE bombing victims in the museum.

How did this happen? And what's next for the thousands of other human remains still in their possession?

Producer Felix Poon knew just the person to talk to for answers.

Featuring Rachel Watkins. 

MORE ABOUT “WHAT REMAINS”

Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundat...

Hear ye, hear ye! Winter is fast approaching, and it is time for our fifth annual ‘surthrival’ special, in which the Outside/In team reframes the endurance sport that is winter. We’ve got suggestions for thriving during the cold-season, which we hope will help you positively look forward to dirty snow banks and single-digit temperatures.

This year, though, there’s a twist. A listener asked us for advice on what to do before the snow starts to fall, when it’s gray and bleak. This is that dingy in-between period, known in New England as ‘stick season.’  Duration: 00:50:28

Humans are noisy. The National Park Service estimates that all of our whirring, grinding, and revving machines are doubling or even tripling global noise pollution every 30 years. 

A lot of that noise is negatively affecting wildlife and human health. Maybe that’s why we’re so consumed with managing our sonic environments, with noise-cancelling headphones and white noise machines — and sometimes, we get into spats with our neighbors, as one of our guests did…

So for this episode, producer Jeongyoon Han takes us on an exploration of three sonic landscapes: noise, silence, and something in between. ...

In Appalachia, Hurricane Helene was a thousand-year-flood. It flattened towns and forests, washed roads away, and killed hundreds.

But this story is not about the flood. It’s about what happened after.

A month after Hurricane Helene, our producer Justine Paradis visited Marshall, a tiny town in the Black Mountains of western North Carolina, a region renowned for its biodiversity, music, and art.

She went to see what it really looks like on the ground in the wake of a disaster, and how people create systems to help each other. But what she fo...

A few months ago, producer Marina Henke saw two skunks sprint under her porch. Since then, she can’t stop wondering what’s really going on beneath her feet.

And as it turns out, she’s not the only one. Every day across the country, homeowners are waging wars with the animals who stake out our porches, decks and crawl spaces. Have we as humans inadvertently designed luxury apartments for “unwelcome” wildlife? And is that necessarily a bad thing? 

In a new edition of our (long-retired!) 10x10 series we’re going under the porch. So, grab your hea...

For over ten years, biologist Mark Higley has been stalking the forests of the Hoopa Valley Reservation with a shotgun. His mission? To save the northern spotted owl. The threat? The more aggressive barred owl, which has spread from eastern forests into the Pacific Northwest.

The federal government plans to scale up these efforts and kill hundreds of thousands of barred owls across multiple states. But can the plan really save the northern spotted owl? And is the barred owl really “invasive”… or just expanding its range? 

In this episode, Nate Hegyi dons a headlamp and hea...

For the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring the issue of human remains collections for our miniseries, “What Remains.” Today, we want to share another excellent series that has covered some similar, but also, very different ground.

Introducing “Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard,” the latest season of Last Seen from WBUR. 

In this first episode, the police find buckets of body parts in a basement in Pennsylvania. Throughout the series, WBUR reporter Ally Jarmanning tells us what happened at Harvard, and how an elite university became a stop on a nationwide network of human remai...

A scholar and an activist make an uncompromising ultimatum. A forgotten burial ground is discovered under the streets of New York City. In Philadelphia, two groups fight over the definition of “descendant community.” 

Featuring Michael Blakey, Lyra Monteiro, Chris Woods, aAliy Muhammad, Wendell Mapson, Sacharja Cunningham, Jazmin Benton, Amrah Salomon, and Aja Lans. 

MORE ABOUT “WHAT REMAINS”

Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s sh...

A classroom display of human skulls sparks a reckoning at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. A movement grows to “abolish the collection.” The Penn Museum relents to pressure. More skeletons in the closet.

This episode contains swears.

MORE ABOUT "WHAT REMAINS"

Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past. 

But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard...

A 1,500 year old skeleton is diagnosed with tuberculosis. A visit to a modern-day bone library. A fight over the future of ethical science. 

MORE ABOUT "WHAT REMAINS"

Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past. 

But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. 19th and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospit...

When KALW’s Marissa Ortega-Welch hit the Pacific Crest Trail, she used her preferred method of navigation: an old-fashioned trail map. But along the way, she met a couple who only used phones to guide them, a Search and Rescue team that welcomes the power of GPS, and a woman who has been told her adaptive wheelchair isn't allowed in official wilderness areas (not actually true).

So… does technology help people access wilderness? Or does it get in the way? 

This week’s episode comes to us from “How Wild” produced by our friends at KALW Public...

Perhaps you’re familiar with our Outside/Inbox hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER. Anyone can leave us a voicemail sharing questions about the natural world, and we periodically answer them on the show. 

A few weeks ago, it came to our attention that we hadn't gotten a new voicemail in some time. Turns out our hotline has been bugging out for at least six months, and we have a lot of catching up to do.  

So, we present: Outside/Inbox, the lost voicemails edition. 

Featuring Stephanie Spera, with contributions from Ariel, Joe, Carolyn, Maverick, Jarrett, Eben...

In the early 1900s, people didn’t trust refrigerated food. Fruits and vegetables, cuts of meat… these things are supposed to decay, right? As Nicola Twilley writes, “What kind of unnatural technology could deliver a two-year old chicken carcass that still looked as though it was slaughtered yesterday?”

But just a few decades later, Americans have done a full one-eighty. Livestock can be slaughtered thousands of miles away, and taste just as good (or better) by the time it hits your plate.  Apples can be stored for over a year without any noticeable change. A network called the “cold...

For more than two hundred years Americans have tried to tame the Mississippi River. And, for that entire time, the river has fought back. 

Journalist and author Boyce Upholt has spent dozens of nights camping along the Lower Mississippi and knows the river for what it is: both a water-moving machine and a supremely wild place. His recent book, “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River” tells the story of how engineers have made the Mississippi into one of the most engineered waterways in the world, and in turn have transformed it into a bit...

Helium is full of contradictions. It’s the second most abundant element in the universe, but is relatively rare on Earth. It’s non-reactive, totally inert—yet the most valuable helium isotope is sourced from thermonuclear warheads. 

And even though we treat it as a disposable gas, often for making funny voices and single-use party balloons, our global supply of helium will eventually run out. That’s because, at a rate of about 50 grams per second, this non-renewable resource is escaping the atmosphere for good. 

In this edition of The Element of Surprise, our occasional series abo...

Jack Rodolico knows exactly what scares him. Sharks. 

But here’s what he doesn’t get: if he’s so freaked out, why can’t he stop incessantly watching online videos of bloody shark attacks? 

Why would he deliberately seek out the very thing that spooks him?

To figure it out, Jack enlists the help of other scaredy-cats: our listeners, who shared their fears about nature with us. Together, Jack and the gang consider the spectrum of fear, from phobia to terror, and what it might mean when we don’t look away.

Featuri...

From the perspective of Western science, plants have long been considered unaware, passive life forms; essentially, rocks that happen to grow. 

But there’s something in the air in the world of plant science. New research suggests that plants are aware of the world around them to a far greater extent than previously understood. Plants may be able to sense acoustics, communicate with each other, and make choices… all this without a brain.

These findings are fueling a debate, perhaps even a scientific revolution, which challenges our fundamental definitions of life, intelligence, and consciousness.

Fea...

GPS is essential these days. We use it for everything – from a hunter figuring out where the heck they are in the backcountry, to a delivery truck finding a grocery store, to keeping clocks in sync.

But our reliance on GPS may also be changing our brains. Old school navigation strengthens the hippocampus, and multiple studies suggest that our new reliance on satellite navigation may put us at higher risk for diseases like dementia. 

In this episode, we map out how GPS took over our world – from Sputnik’s doppler effect, to the airplane crash that le...

Once again, it’s that wonderful time when scientists everywhere hold their breath as the team opens the Outside/Inbox to answer listener questions about the natural world. Today’s theme is smell: how it works in the nose, the mind, and how much is still unknown about the fifth sense.

Question 1: Does it gross you out to know that every time you smell something, a little bit of that thing… is in your nose? What happens to the molecules we smell?

Question 2: Why do smells have such a powerful connection to memory?

Questi...

Redwood National and State Parks are home to giants: coast redwoods that can grow as tall as a thirty-story building. These ancient California forests support hundreds of different species, and store more carbon than any other forest on the planet. But in the last century, 95% of them were felled by loggers. 

Now, scientists have discovered a surprising strategy to foster the next generation of old-growth redwoods… and it involves chopping some of the younger trees down.

This week’s episode comes to us from “THE WILD with Chris Morgan,” produced by our friends at KUOW. Chris has...

Will Simone Biles live up to her moniker as greatest gymnast of all time? Will Lebron James and Team USA continue to dominate men's  basketball? And will the Paris 2024 Games be the most sustainable in modern Olympic history?

While billions of viewers tune in for the drama of athletes competing on a global stage, climate scientists are tuning in to Paris's climate promises – from the locally sourced catering and carbon neutral Olympic cauldron, to head-scratching “solutions” like a sidewalk made of seashells, and not installing air conditioning in athletes’ housing.

Are these solutions making a differenc...

You might not think much about the sticky bottle of vanilla sitting in the back of your pantry. But that flavor – one of the most common in the world – has a fascinating history, involving a fickle orchid and a 12-year-old enslaved boy who made the discovery of a lifetime. 

That’s the sort of tale that attracts poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil. From peacock feathers to the sounds of garden insects, her work is known for magnifying the wonders of the natural world. Her latest book of essays, “Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees,” explores the unexpected connections between food, memor...

Introducing the newest series from NHPR’s award-winning Document team: “The Youth Development Center.” New Hampshire has sent its most troubled kids to the same juvenile detention center for more than a century. It's a place that was supposed to nurture them, that instead hurt them – in some of the worst ways imaginable. It's now at the center of one of the biggest youth detention scandals in American history. How did this happen – and how did it finally come to light?

The rest of the series is available now: listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, iHeart Radio, or...

Maybe you’ve looked at the sky on a clear night and spotted the International Space Station, a tiny white dot gliding through the stars. Maybe it felt special, a rare glimpse of a human-made satellite in space. 

But what if you were to look up at the sky and see more visible satellites than stars? What if the Big Dipper and Orion were drowned out by  a satellite traffic jam, criss-crossing through space? 

A growing number of astronomers are sounding the alarm about such a possibility, even within the next decade. A new space race...

Consider the potato. 

The typical potato is not all that pretty. They can be beige and lumpy, dusty and speckled, and on top of that, they even sprout alien-like tentacles. Further, no one really knows what to make of the potato. Is it a vegetable, or so starchy that we should really consider it a grain? 

It’s time for answers. The Outside/In team ventures into the potato patch and presents three stories on this “fifth most important crop worldwide.” 

Part 1: An artist vaults the humble potato to luxury status.

Part 2: A...

Ed Yong’s writing about the pandemic in Atlantic Magazine was read by millions of Americans. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for his coverage. 

But behind the scenes, he was struggling with burnout, anxiety and depression. 

Host Nate Hegyi sits down with Ed for a conversation about how he decided to step back from pandemic reporting, the benefits (and possible drawbacks) of birdwatching for mental health, and the unexpected club that’s bringing two halves of his life together. 

Featuring Ed Yong.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made pos...

During their twelve seasons as winter rangers in Yosemite National Park, Rob and Laura Pilewski have learned a thing or two about what it means to love a place – and a person.

This episode comes to us from the wonderful folks at The Dirtbag Diaries, another podcast that features stories about conservation, epic adventures, and more. 

Featuring Rob and Laura Pilewski

SUPPORT

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

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our p...

What do wolves, waste-water treatment plants, and the Gulf Stream have in common? This episode, that’s what! It’s that wonderful time when we comb through all your wonderful questions and call up some scientists to help us answer them. Some of the more unlikely things that get brought up include dinosaur pee, abandoned shopping carts, and wolves preying on cheese curds. 

Here’s what’s on the docket:

Every December, during the Christmas Bird Count, tens of thousands of volunteers look to the skies for an international census of wild birds. 

But during migration season, a much smaller squad of New York City volunteers take on a more sobering experience: counting dead birds that have collided with glass buildings and fallen back to Earth. 

In this episode, we find out what kind of people volunteer for this grisly job, visit the New York City rehab center that takes in injured pigeons, and find out how to stop glass from killing an estimated one bi...

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC is sometimes called “the people’s zoo.” That’s because it’s the only zoo in the country to be created by an act of US Congress, and admission is free.

But why did our federal government create a national zoo in the first place?

Producer Felix Poon has the scoop – from its surprising origins in the near-extinction of bison, to a look at its modern-day mission of conservation, we’re going on a field trip to learn all about the National Zoo.

Featuring Kara Ingraham, Dani...

While digging a well in 1750, a group of workers accidentally discovered an ancient Roman villa containing over a thousand papyrus scrolls. This was a stunning discovery: the only library from antiquity ever found in situ. But the scrolls were blackened and fragile, turned almost to ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Over the centuries, scholars’ many attempts to unroll the fragile scrolls have mostly been catastrophic. But now, scientists are trying again, this time with the help of Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology we’ve got: particle accelerators, CT scanners, and AI.

The Colorado River – and the people that rely on it – are in a state of crisis. Climate change and overuse are taking a significant toll. Seven states must compromise and reach a solution to prevent the river from collapsing.

In late 2023, tensions were running high between the major players in the water world as they convened at the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin was there, seeking to learn as much as she can about the people with the most power on the river, including a sharply-dressed 28-year-old from California. 

This...

You might associate it with the foil that wraps leftover pizza and the shiny craft beer cans sold in breweries, but aluminum is literally everywhere. Scoop up a handful of soil or gravel anywhere on Earth, and you’ll find atoms of bonded aluminum hidden inside. Over the past 150 years, that abundance has led production of the silvery metal to skyrocket (pun intended) and created an industry responsible for 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

But even before it was used in everything from airplanes to deodorant, the trade of aluminum minerals helped color the world, finance the...

When officials commissioned a set of updated hazard maps for Juneau, Alaska, they thought the information would help save lives and spur new development. Instead, the new maps drew public outcry from people who woke up to discover their homes were at risk of being wiped out by landslides.

What’s followed has been a multiyear project – not to address the challenges posed by climate-fueled landslides – but to alter, ignore, or otherwise shelve the maps that outline the threat in the first place.

Host Nate Hegyi visits Juneau to see one example of why, across the co...

When it comes to protecting the biodiversity of Planet Earth, there is no greater failure than extinction. Thankfully, only a few dozen species have been officially declared extinct by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the half-century since the passage of the Endangered Species Act. 

But, hold on. Aren’t we in the middle of the sixth mass extinction? Shouldn’t the list of extinct species be… way longer? Well, yeah. Maybe.

Producer Taylor Quimby sets out to understand why it’s so difficult to officially declare an animal extinct. Along the way, he compares...

Shirtless influencers on TikTok and Instagram have acquired millions of followers promoting the carnivore diet. They say studies linking meat consumption and heart disease are flawed — and plant foods are making people sick. "Western medicine is lying to you," says content-creator Dr. Paul Saladino, who co-owns a company selling desiccated cattle organs.

The online popularity of the carnivore diet is undeniable. Yet, no controlled studies have been published confirming its advertised benefits. 

Our friends at WBUR’s podcast Endless Thread look at how social media cooked up the anti-establishment wellness trend.

SUPPOR...

Hemp used to be a staple of life in America. King James I demanded that colonists produce it. Hemp rope and fabric were ubiquitous throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The USDA even produced a WWII newsreel called “Hemp for Victory.”

But other materials came to replace hemp – wood pulp for paper, and cotton and synthetics for fabric. Why?

For that matter, what is hemp? Is it different from weed? And does it actually have 25,000 uses as its proponents claim?

Featuring Hector “Freedom” Gerardo, David Suchoff, John Fike, and Danny Desjarlais.

SUPPOR...

It’s that special time again! Scientists everywhere hold their breath as the team opens the Outside/Inbox and answers listener questions about the natural world. In this episode, we consider Flaco the Eurasian eagle owl, an impulsive goat purchase, and a big night for salamanders. Plus, we’re graced with Nate’s rendition of a Tom Waits song. 

Questions:

To save for retirement, common knowledge says to “diversify your portfolio.” Give your cash to a company so they can invest it into hundreds of other companies on the stock market. But unless you’ve gone out of your way to change it, your portfolio probably has little to do with your values. 

For example, there are climate activists invested in fossil fuel companies. Staunch vegans putting some of their hard-earned income into Tyson Foods. On the flip side, there are climate deniers with money in Tesla!

So is there a way to save for retirem...

Editor's Note: This episode first aired in July, 2023

With 'Oppenheimer,' director Christopher Nolan turned the Manhattan Project into an Academy-Award-winning blockbuster. The film is set in Los Alamos, where the first atomic bomb was tested. But few people know the history of Carrizozo, a rural farming area downwind of the test.

Radioactive fallout from the bomb settled on everything: the soil, gardens, and drinking water. Cow’s milk became radioactive. Later, hundreds of people developed radiogenic cancers. 

The people of Carrizozo were among the first people in the world exposed to a nuc...

If you grew up with family members who pushed (or dragged) you onto the trail, chances are you have strong memories associated with hiking. Epic vistas… swarms of black flies… and your dad’s terrible homemade gorp. 

Whether you grow up to see them as personal triumphs or family fiascos, those early adventures can shape your perception of the outdoors for life.
Can parents shape kids into hardcore hikers? And what happens when your best-laid plans go off the map?

Featuring Sarah Lamagna, Nick Capodice, Daisy Curtin, Niles Lashway, Sarah Raiche, Tiffany Raiche, and Phineas...

A century ago, coastal dunes threatened to overwhelm the city of Florence, Oregon. The sand swallowed roads, highways, and houses. When “Dune” author Frank Herbert visited the area in 1957, he was stunned by the awesome power of the sand. Eventually, it inspired his fictional desert planet, Arrakis.

But now, the dunes that inspired “Dune” are disappearing. 

To solve the sand problem, the US Forest Service planted dunes with non-native beachgrass, hoping its strong roots would keep the dunes in place. The strategy worked… too well. The grass spread, out-competing native species and transforming the dunes. At one popu...

In the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, dozens of strangers gathered together in the woods for three straight days. Their mission? Teach people of color how to kill, gut, and butcher a deer for the first time.

Producer Felix Poon was there as a first-time hunter. He wanted to know: what does it feel like to take an animal's life to sustain your own? Given the opportunity… would he pull the trigger?

In this episode we follow Felix out of his depth and into the woods, to find out if one weekend can convert a...