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PODCAST

Outside/In

Outside/In: Where curiosity and the natural world collide. Look around, and you’ll find everything is connected to the natural world. At Outside/In, we explore that idea with boundless curiosity. We report from disaster zones, pickleball courts, and dog sled kennels, and talk about policy, pop culture, science, and everything in between. From the backcountry to your backyard, we tell stories that expand the boundaries of environmental journalism. Outside/In is a production of NHPR. Learn more at

science natural sciences

All Episodes

00:29:25

Taxonomy's 200-Year Mistake

Outside/In ·

2025/08/13

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

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00:28:38

People are buying coyote urine. Where does it come from?

Outside/In ·

2025/08/06

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

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00:30:52

Field reports from the cutting edge of science

Outside/In ·

2025/07/30

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

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00:37:24

The Element of Surprise: The $1,000 Balloon

Outside/In ·

2025/07/23

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

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00:28:45

A Map to the Next World

Outside/In ·

2025/07/16

“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

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00:29:38

The Trojan Seahorse

Outside/In ·

2025/07/09

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

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00:29:58

A 2,200 Mile Podcast

Outside/In ·

2025/07/02

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

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00:38:56

What Jurassic Park got wrong (and right) about dinosaurs

Outside/In ·

2025/06/26

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)

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00:32:11

Phallic windchimes and ASMR: the magic of sound

Outside/In ·

2025/06/19

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 The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro, to President Barack Obama.So strap your earbuds in, we’re going for a ride!What are tintinnabula, and the first wind chimes in the world?What exactly is ASMR, and what makes it feel good?Why does my cat make twitter sounds when she sees birds?Why do frogs sing together around the

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00:27:11

Lawn and Order

Outside/In ·

2025/06/12

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

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00:28:55

Cruise-o-nomics

Outside/In ·

2025/06/05

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

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00:29:16

Where the Wild Things Grow

Outside/In ·

2025/05/29

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

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00:32:27

A Righteous Gemstone

Outside/In ·

2025/05/22

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 that

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00:42:54

Foraging made her famous

Outside/In ·

2025/05/15

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

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00:27:26

The future was hydrogen

Outside/In ·

2025/05/08

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

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00:32:39

Black Sheep Metal

Outside/In ·

2025/05/01

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

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00:32:43

The Cold War Ice Core of Greenland

Outside/In ·

2025/04/24

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

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00:46:02

Dark Magic Rabbit

Outside/In ·

2025/04/17

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 doesn’t actually appear

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00:26:12

The Bee’s Sneeze: Why allergies are getting worse

Outside/In ·

2025/04/10

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

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00:26:53

Venom and the cure

Outside/In ·

2025/04/03

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

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370 results

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