Pulse of the Planet Podcast with Jim Metzner | Science | Nature | Environment | Technology

The tiniest bits of matter have a very large impact on our environment and our lives. Join Geoscientist Marc Michel on a deep dive into the science of nanotechnology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Couldn't resist another story in the sprit of Ireland. There's no intro, no host narrator. Just dive in and meet the late Packie Byrne - a friend, storyteller and musician of renown. We met in 2007 in the town of Ardara, near Donegal, where Irish music lives and thrives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Master storyteller Eddie Lenihan weaves a tale from the Other Side. You'll never think of the wee folk in quite the same way again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the rural Cajun communities of south Louisiana, Mardi Gras is organized mayhem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Basile, Louisiana has its own unique Mardi Gras song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the bayous of Louisiana, costumed revelers beg for food and money from their neighbors, to support a communal gumbo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Forget about your job, your worries, your bills.." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The roots of Mardi Gras run deeper than Christianity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Headphones on! Picture being under a palm tree next to a burbling brook in the middle of California's Anza-Borrego desert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists are finding ways to help plants absorb fertilizers and nutrients more efficiently. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keeping rare birds home on the range. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up close with one of the rarest bird populations in North America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the weather's been cold and the Hudson River freezes over, that's when ice boats may be sailing on the river. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Australia is home to about one tenth of the world's living bird species. Here's a sampling of a few of them - headphones on! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Headphones on for a sound portrait of a cloud forest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's sugaring time in the northeast woods of the US. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For bears in hibernation, giving birth and nursing newborns is a slumberous activity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grizzly bear tracking usually involves splitting a few hairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are Grizzly bears returning to the mountains of Montana? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through trickery and ingenuity, ravens are surviving the winter in Alaska Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The precise role of the humpback whale's song is unknown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harikuyo is a memorial service for the broken sewing needles of the past year, celebrated across Japan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They might be the source of many ocean myths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The wail of the Indri lemur signals the mating season of these primates that some tribes consider the ancestors of humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Common Loon is anything but common, and they're on their way South. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even the "chief of all animals" must struggle to survive the winter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elephant seals on Ano Nuevo island. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sex, violence, and two-ton marine mammals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Up Helly Aa festival gives the people of the Shetland Islands a chance to torch a replica of a Viking galley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poetry and Sounds of the Anza Borego Desert Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of nature's most destructive forces has inspired a new technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nanotechnology is making possible a new way to remove Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does a tea kettle make its whistling sound? The answer isn't as simple as it may seem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new water-purifying technology may provide a way to remove nanoparticles from our waterways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever wonder where "Xmas" came from? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Polish Christmas tradition of Wigilia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Along the banks of the Mississippi River, a line of Bonfires lights the way for Papa Noel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christmas caroling - Puerto Rican Style! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Atonal snores, sonorous gurgles - all part of the dance of the soundscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Commemorating Mary and Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dipping into the Doop of ancestral Sweden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young Swedish girls represent Saint Lucia in an early morning ritual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonkonnu revelers sing and dance through neighborhoods, visiting homes where their pageantry might be favored with a gift of money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rituals of light in the darkness of winter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a little help from quantum physics, Santa could have all the time he needs to make Christmas deliveries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Switzerland's Klausjagen blends a Catholic holiday with a much older celebration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whips, bells and a giant paper bishop's hat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Change Santa Claus's team of reindeer into a single white horse, replace his costume with a bishop's robes, and you'll begin to get a picture of Sinterklaas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sound objects or sensory immersion? It's all in the ear of the beholder! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take a deep dive into the hobby of presidents, kings, movie stars and ordinary people - Stamp Collecting! A free-wheeling conversation with Cheryl Ganz, president of the American Philatelic Society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices