Outside/In

Another year… another record-breaking wildfire season. Thanks to climate change the fire season now starts sooner and ends later. Scientists also say climate change will make lightning more frequent, and winds more powerful. Basically, the world is a tinderbox. But maybe the problem with these big, out-of-control fires is actually *not enough* fire. Get more Outside/In in your inbox - sign up for our newsletter. Featuring Luke Romance, John Bailey, Mike Crawford, Jeff Lougee, Paul Gagnon, Tony Harwood, Steve Pyne and Adele Fenwick. This episode originally aired in 2018. Find more Outside/In on our website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Planting a tree often becomes almost a shorthand for doing a good deed. But such an act is not always neutral. In some places, certain trees can become windows into history, tools of erasure, or symbols of resistance. Featuring Liat Berdugo, Irus Braverman, Jonathan Kuttab, Noga Kadman, Iyad Hadad, Raja Shehadeh, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Miri Maoz-Ovadia, and Nidal Waleed Rabie and his granddaughter Samera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listeners submit their cases for the best fruit ever, and we explore the intersections of fruit, food, and colonialism. Featuring Alicia Kennedy, Coral Lee, Lauren Baker, Grant Bosse, and Hallie Casey. Sign-up for the Outside/In newsletter Links “On Luxury” by Alicia Kennedy “C is for Colonialism’s Effect on How and What We Eat” by Coral Lee Here’s the 2013 Scientific American article Taylor mentioned on America’s corn system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In one version of a sustainable, carbon-neutral future, the world’s cars will transition from fossil fuels to electricity. Right now that vision absolutely depends on lithium, a primary component of the lithium-ion battery. But there is no “Lithium Central Planning Committee” balancing supply and demand or making sure that lithium is mined in environmentally and socially responsible ways. In fact, there is almost no lithium mining in the United States at all. So where does it all come from? And who is being affected? Featuring Emily Hersh, Chloe Holzinger, Mike Wise, Patrick Donnelly, Thea Riofrancos, Emiliano Gullo, Ramón M. Balcázar, and Julian Brave NoiseCat. Check out NHPR’s new climate reporting project, By Degrees. Sign up for our newsletter (really, you’re missing out). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fred Tutman is a voice for Maryland’s Patuxent River. In 2004, he founded Patuxent Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization. His mission is to protect and preserve all 110 miles of the Patuxent—a mission that takes him to the courtroom and to the riverbank. Fred is also the only African-American "Riverkeeper" in the Waterkeeper Alliance in the U.S., which he sees as an indicator of an environmental movement that is incomplete—one the planet will pay the price for. “It’s very hard in these big conservation movements for people of color to be ourselves,” said Tutman. “We need not only all hands on deck, but we actually need movements that are adaptable enough to embrace and serve all.” This episode was produced by Sidedoor, a podcast from the Smithsonian. Sign-up for the Outside/In newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are places on the map where roads end. The Darién Gap, or el Tapon del Darién, is one of them. It’s a stretch of rainforest in southern Panama, right on the edge of Central and South America. From a globetrotter’s perspective, the Darién Gap might seem to exist mostly as an obstacle to tourists dreaming of a truly epic road trip from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego. But, while a road is a way movement, it’s not the only way to get somewhere. What happens, or does not happen, in a place without roads? Featuring Jorge Ahumada, Roland Kays, Hector Huertas, Ustin Pascal Dubuisson, and Alicia Korten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are snow-making machines an example of climate adaptation, or an example of an emissions feedback loop? Does the fire risk posed by planting trees outweigh the benefits of their use as a carbon sink? Can the team talk big planet problems and still leave room for bad puns? We’ll answer these questions and more climate queries on this special edition of Ask Sam. Check out NHPR’s new climate reporting project, By Degrees. Sign up for our newsletter (really, you’re missing out). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of Skyrim is vast. The video game contains cities, villages, and rugged wilderness: high waterfalls cascading into deep pools, packs of wolves roaming the edges of misty alpine forests, echoes in the canyons. The game is celebrated for the intricacy of its environment, and is one of the top-selling video games of all time. “The world itself was almost the main character of the game, in a way. To say that it's just the background I think is not quite enough,” said Noah Berry, Skyrim’s lead environment artist. “All the memories that you take away from playing a game…I think the world is sort of the larger encompassing vehicle that helps usher all that into you. We hope.” But if you spend enough time in a fantasy, it might change how you relate to the real world. Featuring Megan Sawyer, Ana Diaz, and Noah Berry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this update, we tally your votes and announce the winner of our fruit fight. What seed-bearing plant ovary will be crowned the GFOAT, or Greatest Fruit of All Time? The pepper? The coconut? The gourd? The vanilla bean? Or… none of the above? One listener challenges our candidates with a fruit of his own. Listen to his full 5 minute argument for the grape on the episode page for Fruit Fight. And we welcome you to send you own fruit pitch voicemail to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2016, we produced an episode about the ginkgo tree titled "Ginkgo Stink." With its fan-shaped leaves and golden fall foliage, the Ginkgo biloba is a beautiful tree with an incredible history dating back millions of years. It’s also a popular street tree among urban foresters, despite the fact that some ginkgoes produce malodorous cones. The episode was meant to be a celebration of the incredible ginkgo. But the episode contained an offensive phrase and failed to consider a nonwhite perspective of this amazing species. In this episode, we’re correcting our mistake, and adding some context about what exactly we got so wrong. First, Felix Poon shares his personal relationship with the ginkgo tree and explores the history of food-related racism in the United States. Then, a new version of the original story, edited to sound the way it should have when we first produced it four years ago. Explicit Language warning: this episode contains repeated use of a swear word used in the original episode many times. It also contains an ethnic slur, spoken in the context of a conversation about racism. For those reasons, this episode may not be suitable for young kids. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For months, producer Taylor Quimby has been trying to craft a story about spicy peppers. Every one of his pitches has been shot down…until now. On this episode of Outside/In, a CULINARY challenge, a DELICIOUS debate, a FANTASTIC food fight in which four producers argue about which seed-bearing delicacy is the ABSOLUTE best. Of course these fruits aren’t the ones you typically think of when you’re making a fruit salad… *To Take our FUN and VERY SCIENTIFIC survey, click here. * To cast your vote in the Outside/In Fruit Fight, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The experience of public outdoor spaces isn't the same for everyone. Today, we explore birding while Black (and #blackbirdersweek) and how racist housing policies drive unequal exposure to climate-driven heat waves. Find more Outside/In on our website We need your help! Take our short audience survey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we’re bringing you inside what may be the most important environmental Supreme Court Decision in history. Massachusetts v. EPA declared that greenhouse gases are pollution under the definition set out by one of the nation’s oldest and most successful environmental laws, the 1970 Clean Air Act. The case determined that if the executive branch wanted to do so, it could** **confront one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century with one of the most celebrated laws of the 20th century. As such, ultimately, it’s a story of the power … and the limits… of the law. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org Outside/In is supported by Ben's. Click here to learn more or go to https://bens30.com/outsidein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so many of our favorite outdoor activities currently off-limits, we’re look for accessible ways to explore the magic of the nature from the safety of our homes our neighborhoods. In this edition of Inside/In, we discover the magic and wonder of two often ignored or reviled organisms. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org Outside/In is supported by Ben's. Click here to learn more or go to https://bens30.com/outsidein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being stuck at home for an extended period of time, worrying about the safety of yourself and your loved ones takes a toll on your mental health. “For the first time, it seems, the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head,” writes Stephanie Foo, who was diagnosed with complex PTSD in 2018. We talk to her about how to keep yourself on an even keel when the whole world feels like a disaster. Also, how much impact did native people have on the forests of New England? It’s been a great debate ever since William Cronon published *Changes in the Land *in 1983, claiming they had dramatically altered the landscape that colonist observed upon arrival. But a new study challenges that narrative, as well as the very idea that agriculture and large-scale impacts on landscapes should be used as a barometer of the “progress” of a society. Outside/In is supported by Ben's. Click here to learn more or go to https://bens30.com/outsidein If you want to donate to Outside/In, you’ll get an invitation to our virtual trivia night, happening Thursday May 21st. Click here to make a gift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know that scene in every disaster movie, where the frantic and panicky science nerd unsuccessfully tries to warn the powers that be that something terrible is about to happen? In this episode, we explore a historic storm of cosmic proportions, which, if it happened today, experts say could turn out to be a disaster the likes of which our modern world has never seen. So…how do you prepare for a disaster that always seems incredibly far away… until it’s not? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so many of our favorite outdoor activities currently off-limits, we’re look for accessible ways to explore the magic of the nature from the safety of our homes our neighborhoods. This is the first in a series of short episodes for families and individuals who want to discover how, even when we’re stuck inside, the natural world ties us together. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cat People is a podcast series by Longreads that examines the strange relationships people have with big cats and the legal loopholes that have made America home to more captive tigers than there are left in the wild. It also serves as an important corrective to some of the irresponsible journalistic choices made by the creators of the hit Netflix series "Tiger King.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s show, we are addressing a question we have seen A LOT. As we’re all adjusting to life with the coronavirus, the advice is to stay home and stay safe. But depending on where you are in the world, that advice gets a little blurrier when it comes to exercise and outdoor recreation. Is it safe to go outside? Is it safe… to go on a hike in the woods? What about a neighborhood in the city? Where do you draw the line, and how do you make this decision for yourself - and for your community? Find more Outside/In on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our series 10X10, we examine ordinary places that are more interesting than they might initially appear; and few places hold more unexpected mysteries beneath the wet, mossy surfaces than the dark and muddy places we explored for this episode. We call them by a multitude of names: mires, muskegs, moorlands, or kettle bogs. This time, Outside/In digs beneath the shrubs, sedges, rushes and moss of the bog to find something else - peat. It’s a journey that holds smokey hints of pepper, seaweed, and for peat’s sake, a lot of fossil fuels. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The passenger pigeon is one of the world’s most symbolic extinction stories. It’s a cautionary tale of how in just a few short generations, one of the wonders of the world could be completely eradicated. But when that narrative was questioned in a popular book, *1491 *by Charles Mann, what does the response tell us about the conservation movement as a whole? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The winner of our “Battle of Tiny Proportions” is revealed! Plus, one of our favorite episodes about the pace of technology: The Forest for the Treesap. Mysteries are brewing in the sugar shack. Changes are coming to New England’s sugar bushes. And the very identity of a product that we’ve been crafting in basically the same way for centuries, could be on the verge of a radical shift. But a shift towards what? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In New England, the Waterman name is like mountain royalty. But beyond a tight circle of outdoors-people, they're not a household name. Today, we tell the story of one of the most influential voices in American wilderness philosophy, Laura Waterman, and how she has changed following the death of her husband. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A government bureaucrat builds a website that saves a billion gallons in gas. The minuscule Irish invention that enables the industrial revolution. An innovation for doctor’s gloves kicks off women’s liberation. An ill wind leads to America being stuck with the gallon forever. On this episode, we present a series of small “nudges” (but not actual nudges) that have had profound impacts for the environment… or maybe not the environment, maybe just generally. Head to our website and vote on your favorite! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Depending on who you ask, astrology is a science, an art, a form of therapy… or, a pseudo-science, fortune-telling, a scam. But astrology is way more than a horoscope. Check us out online, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the ancient charcoal animals of France's Chauvet Cave, to 17th century Dutch windmill paintings, art history can tell us a lot about our evolving view of the natural world. In this episode, producer Taylor Quimby (a self-described art-world neophyte) searches for individual works and genres through history that reveal something interesting about human society and the outdoors. This episode has visual aids - so click this link or find us on Instagram to follow along with the show! Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $20 a month, we'll send you a ticket to an Outside/In Trivia Night! Test your knowledge of the natural world, share an evening with Sam and the rest of the team, and support the podcast you love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As extreme weather wreaks havoc around the globe NPR's Throughline looks at a natural disaster more than 200 hundred years ago that had far-reaching effects. This week, how the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki awed, terrified and disrupted millions around the world and changed the course of history. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $100 a month, Sam will personally give you a cross country ski lesson! And yes, it's true, he was taught how to ski by an Olympic gold-medalist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Hurricane Maria hit in September of 2017, Puerto Rico's rickety electric grid was a notorious headache. After the storm, it was a crisis. This is the story of how a pair of star-crossed lovers came to see nuclear as the unlikely solution to Puerto Rico's energy woes, and how their vision for the island might be changing the way we approach power... even if their plan never comes to pass. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $20 a month, we'll send you a ticket to an Outside/In Trivia Night! Test your knowledge of the natural world, share an evening with Sam and the rest of the team, and support the podcast you love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People love fishing for trout. They love it so much that we are willing to go to insane lengths to catch them. But what should we make of the fact that much of that experience of fishing for trout is just a facsimile of what it once was… and may actually be bad for the very same fish, that we so love to catch? Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When most of us heard about the "insect apocalypse" we were worried. When producer Jimmy Gutierrez heard it, he thought "this is great." Today he takes a journey in which he tries to learn to appreciate our many-legged companions. Want to read a transcript or support the podcast? Check out our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam answers questions about rethinking the toilet, line-dry laundry, rhubarb, and sleeping mosquitoes. Find moreOutside/In. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, two people were attacked by sharks on Cape Cod, and one died. The result has been a media frenzy that really you have to see to believe. Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it feels like doctors have closed the door to establishment medicine, another set of doors open. These doors lead to dubious providers, and untested treatments. Click hereto donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A perfect carrier of disease. A race underneath your skin. The part we know, before we get to the parts we don't. Click hereto donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're fighting off a cold or flu, it's easy to imagine the battle is being waged solely inside the confines of your body. But in order to spread, pathogens rely on nearly every aspect of our shared societies. Food and drink, social customs, our proximity to animals, urban design, income inequality: The science of epidemiology connects them all. Patient Zero investigates the spaces where people and pathogens collide. It is a story about Lyme disease, but it is also a story about uncertainty, and what to do in the face of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A first look at Patient Zero, a series we'll be putting out next month! Hosted by Outside/In's Taylor Quimby. Sweet new theme by Ty Gibbons. First episode drops mid-August! Find more at patientzeropodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Disney's reboot of The Lion King hitting theaters, does the original still hold up all these years later? In this episode, the team revisits an epic tale of class, land rights, and destiny... and critiques the landscapes, animals, and themes that so many 90's kids grew up watching. And once again, Jimmy defends the reputation of hyenas. Check out our website, outsideinradio.org And follow us on Twitterand Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since the threat of climate change was first made public, scientists have offered the possibility of a get-out-of-jail-free card: geoengineering. While reducing emissions is hard and complicated, why not just engineer the Earth's atmosphere in the meantime? Decades later, the science of geoengineering is still in its infancy, but a growing number of researchers are trying to change that. Should they? Check out our website, outsideinradio.org And follow us on Twitterand Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Swimming is something that is more or less a part of human experience, depending on who you are, where you are, when you are alive in history. More than half of Americans can't perform all of the basic swimming skills. On this episode, two stories that explore our relationship with the water, and why people do or don’t learn to swim. Check out our website, outsideinradio.org And follow us on Twitterand Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Traveling to Antarctica to hang with penguins on the company dime likely seems like the dream assignment for a journalist... or anyone. Ron Naveen has been living that dream, counting penguins by hand for decades. And today you're going to hear about that work from our friends at the PBS Newshour's podcast "The Last Continent." Find moreOutside/In. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the podcast, a story that seemed like a perfect fit Outside/In that wound up going places that we didn’t expect to go. When workers at the American embassy Cuba claimed to have been attacked by a mysterious weapon that left no trace, it led to a major shift in American diplomacy towards the Caribbean socialist state. But the story has also led to a split in journalism, stemming from the sources different kinds of journalists rely on. This story forces us to ask: how do we decide what we know? What kinds of information we trust? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ask Sam: that special segment when scientists cringe as Sam and the team speculate wildly on answers to a diverse range of questions from listeners before calling in the real experts. This time we tackle paper towels, cow poop, body temperature, and weighing whales. Find more Outside/In Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Textiles are all around us. We live in them, sleep on them, sit on them, walk on them, live in houses filled with them. It’s one of the biggest industries in the world. But it’s also one with a big problem and, at least for consumers in the United States, a largely invisible one - textile waste. Today, we’re tearing the very shirt off your back to explore the old is new approach to textiles that could eliminate millions of tons of garbage a year. Find more Outside/In Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month, Outside/In is asking for your support. Your donations will keep the show kicking butt, and help us make our next big series! Plus, we’ve got special (limited-edition, super-twee) swag, handcrafted with an actual branding iron. Donate here . You hike, you fish, you camp… and you’re single. When you’re looking for love, what is the importance of being “outdoorsy”? And how do you communicate your identity — and expectations for potential matches — on an online dating profile? The fish photo is just the beginning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Australia, conventional conservation wisdom has stated that in order to save the small indigenous mammals, it's necessary to kill invasive predators. But is it? Today on the show, we follow environmental writer Emma Marris as she explores the concept, and possible limits, of compassionate conservationism. Also, are you noticing that we're in your feed a little early? That's because this month, we're asking for you to pitch in and support the podcast with a donation, and because we know that's kind of annoying, we want to give you something a little extra as thanks. So for the month of April, instead of just 2 episodes, we're going to give you four. Not only that we're giving away swag! We've lined up a bunch of nifty thank you gifts, which you can peruse at outsideinradio.org So, if you want to send a little love our way click here to donate to our Outside/In Fund Drive, and get a limited edition O/I button (among other cool stuff)! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sununus are one of New Hampshire's grandest families. John H. Sununu was governor and White House Chief of Staff. One of his sons, John E. Sununu, was a U.S. congressman and senator, and another, Chris Sununu, is governor today. In their roles of political power, all of these men have faced a different landscape with regard to climate change, and what it means to be a Republican. Today, we track that party's evolution on the subject, through the frame of this one family. For full versions of several of the interviews in this episode, head to our website outsideinradio.org Sign up for our newsletter ! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a long time, the elusive night parrot of the Australian outback was believed to be extinct. Then, an experienced birder with a reputation for dubious finds offered up foolproof evidence that the bird is still alive: photographs, feathers, and birdsong that he promises is the real deal. This week on the show, we're featuring our Australian podcast pal Ann Jones, host of ABC's Off-Track, as she heads out into the bush to try and capture sound from a bird few have ever heard. Sign up for our newsletter ! Episode photo by Eddie Yip. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our 10X10 series, we examine places that might not seem all that interesting... places like your typical frozen pond. Sure, on the surface it's a wind-swept desert of crunchy snow and frigid temperatures, but drill a few inches down though, and you'll discover a world turned upside-down. In this episode, we give the down low on bizarre properties of water, fish that thrive in a capped-off environment, and long beards of algae clinging to the underside of a secret ecosystem few have ever explored. Sign up for our newsletter Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Episode photo by Michael Carian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outdoorsy types are the among the biggest ambassadors of Leave No Trace, a set of principles and best practices for sharing and conserving wilderness areas. But while most people agree on the broad strokes - DON'T SCREW UP NATURE! - sorting out the details can be an emotional and argumentative affair... especially when it comes to rocks. Sign up for our newsletter Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 40-hour workweek is as American as apple pie, and it’s been around almost as long. So, is it finally time to re-think our Monday-through-Friday lifestyle? With modern mechanization and automation, should we all have more leisure time? And what would that mean for the environment? Producer Jimmy Gutierrez looks into the history of work culture, where it’s being challenged, and makes the argument that we ALL should be working less, you know, to save the planet. Sign up for our newsletter Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices