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PODCAST

Strange by Nature Podcast

Strange by Nature

Life is strange, naturally you want to hear about it. Strange by Nature is your guide to the strange, weird and unbelievable side of nature. Professional naturalists present weekly curated stories about just how strange nature can get.

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All Episodes

38:59

Can Plants Hear Insects?

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/09/24

This week Rachel kicks things off with a discussion of Cloud Forests. This rare habitat is found only in specific parts of the world and many unique plants and animals live there. Okay, so really Rachel is just setting the scene for where next week's strange topic lives.Victoria is up second and brings us fascinating research. Can plants hear? We've talked about this on the show when Kirk talked about plants hearing running water. This new research suggests that some plants can not only hear insect

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44:31

Jewelry Poisonous Enough to Kill

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/09/17

Kirk kicks off this week with predatory fungus that hunts for animals. Say what?Rachel tells us about the massive northern elephant seal. Victoria lets us know about the beautiful but incredibly powerfully poisonous rosary pea that is still used for jewelry to this day. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com where you

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41:53

Robotic Mushrooms!

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/09/10

This week, Victoria takes us to the ocean to learn about a truly bizarre creature, Sea spiders!Kirk then shares a story about the scientists giving robotic bodies to mushrooms so they can move around. Finally, Rachel takes us back to the ocean once again to share what makes Bonnethead sharks strange. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at:

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44:31

Do Bees Play?

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/09/03

This week, Rachel starts us off with an interesting question. Can bees play? A team of researchers thinks they can. Find out what happens when they gave them balls of wood.Kirk then makes us all thirsty with a dive into the roots of Root Beer. From medicinal medicine to soft drink, Kirk traces the history of this drink and the many natural ingredients that make it up. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us:

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51:36

The Stone Cold Steve Austin of Wasps

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/08/27

What a wild show this week. Kirk starts things off with a listener submitted story about how researchers created fake fiddler crabs to better understand sexual signaling.CRAB VIDEO: https://youtu.be/UOFtsJkiRmE?si=eWpbJzBPtIGCpb8I Our special guest Brett Sieberer then brings us the amazing story of a wasp that can consume enormous amounts of alcohol with seemingly no effects. Rachel then wraps up the show with a wild mystery in a German aquarium. Something lives there that has never been seen. Join

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43:45

Testing the Frog Glue

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/08/20

What a wild ride this week! Victoria is up first with a bizarre story about how researchers looked into frog glue. Kirk then builds off last week by talking about the origins of gold in the universe. Finally, Rachel tells us about the weird history of blood transfusions and how they were initially used to cure syphilis! They are older than you think! Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:

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39:39

Pharaoh's Curse Cures Leukemia

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/08/13

This week we explore the Pharaoh's tomb with Rachel and possibly discover the cause of the Curse of the Pharaoh. What's more, can it cure cancer? Rachel takes a look at Aspergillus fungus, how it causes disease but also has been used in experiments to cure Leukemia.Victoria is up next with a fascinating look at how spiders might be manipulating the flashing of fireflies in order to attract more prey. It's brand new research and wild. Kirk rounds out the show this week with a look at Mt Erebus in

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40:09

Milky Way Migrating Moths

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/08/06

Kirk kicks off this week's show with the amazing migration skills of the Bogong Moth. They are the first ever recorded invertebrate that uses celestial navigation for long-distance migration wayfinding. Rachel then tells us all about the Bluntnose Six-gilled Shark. This amazing creature gives birth to an incredible number of pups. Victoria rounds out this week's show with the aptly named Sword-billed Hummingbird and some of the amazing and strange adaptations it has to survive. Join us weekly for

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46:47

The Dodo!

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/07/30

This week, Kirk is back and the crew pulled together another great show. Victoria kicks things off with a creature feature on an animal we can't believe it took this long to discuss, the Dodo!Kirk, fresh from vacation spins a tale taking us back thousands of years to the eruption of Thera/Santorini in 1618 BCE and how it may have lead to the collapse of a dynasty in China. Rachel rounds out this week with spiders, so...many...spiders. Not only that, these spiders feed themselves to their young to

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36:39

This Episode Stinks (it's about skunks)

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/07/23

Hello Everyone, time for another weekly dose of weird. This week, Victoria kicks things off with a story about Brown-headed cowbirds and their amazing nesting strategy of being nest parasitizers. Rachel then stinks up the place with a deep dive on those cuddly creatures...skunks. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com

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34:25

Earth Had Rings Like Saturn?

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/07/16

This week we've got two amazing stories that couldn't be more different. Rachel spins a tale that spans millions of years. Could the explosion of life during the Ordovician have been the result of meteor impacts? Could those meteors have come from a time when Earth had rings like Saturn? She explores this possibility this week!Victoria is up next and scoops Rachel with a topic off her secret list. This week she present to you the mysterious and strange Blue Sea Dragons. Earth is full of strange

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43:28

The Bird with a Skull Crushing Kick

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/07/09

Victoria kicks off the show this week with yet another flying animal that usually can't fly. She's brought us flying snakes and flying spiders, how about flying fish?Kirk takes us on a winding journey connecting the dots over millions of years of history to connect a high-school sex-ed class with Sue the T-rex and an ancient protozoan disease. Rachel rounds out the show with the Secretary Bird. An amazing raptor that kills not with talons but with one of the most powerful kicks in the animal

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46:28

The Toad with Eyes in its Mouth

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/07/02

Rachel brings us the beautiful and disgusting Bradford pear this week. Thank you?Victoria takes us deep underground to discover mind-blowingly large gypsum crystals discovered deep in the earth in Mexico. Kirk round out this week's show with the strange mystery of a toad with eyes in mouth. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at:

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47:18

Stinking Smut of Rye

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/06/25

Kirk starts off the show with the mysterious story of the Basra Grain Poisoning of 1971, a terrible story of the dangers of methylmercury.Rachel is up next with the amazing story of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake on Earth. Victoria rounds out this week's show by talking about animal asymmetry. Turns out, not all animals are symmetrical and they can get real weird.

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42:09

A Pooper Scooper Claw

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/06/18

Victoria starts us off with a wealth of information about hermit crabs and the strange process of shell swapping.Kirk brings us the strange tale of Conan the Bacterium, a bacterium that can withstand amazing amounts of radiation and survive. Rachel wraps us up this week with...wait for it...even MORE facts about dandelions. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:

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40:23

What's So Strange About Dandelions?

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/06/11

What's so strange about Dandelions? That's a good question and Rachel gets to the bottom of it.Victoria is up next with some wild research into just how large of an object a snake can swallow. Kirk rounds out this week's show with a creature feature about a strange mole-like creature in Europe that is a relic of the past. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:

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41:29

Planets Made of Diamonds

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/06/04

Kirk brings the strange tale of the King's Lomatia, quite possibly the oldest living plant on Earth. It is a strange tree that has lost the ability to sexually reproduce and yet...it keeps on living for thousands of years.Rachel has a doozy of a story about a man who let himself be bitten by venomous snakes over and over and over. Now he's helping scientists make a better anti-venom. Victoria travels to the stars to tell us about planets made of diamonds. We really do cover it all this week! Join

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46:31

The Fastest Jaws on Earth

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/05/28

This week, Victoria starts us off with a discussion probably not suitable for all ages by talking about the massive penis of the Serotine Bat. It's a lot to take in.Kirk then shares the remarkable story of a palm tree that both flowers and fruits completely underground. Rachel rounds out this week's show talking about the fastest moving predatory appendage in the animal kingdom. The jaws of the Trap Jaw ant closes at 143 mph. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get

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40:20

Giant Bird Eating Spiders

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/05/21

Rachel kicks off this week show with the strange colonial creatures of the sea known as "By the Wind Sailors."Victoria makes us all a bit uncomfortable talking about giant bird-eating spiders. Kirk encourages us to smack rocks with hammers as he explains the mysterious Ringing Rocks of Pennsylvania. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at:

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38:59

Which Animal Smells like Buttered Popcorn?

Strange by Nature Podcast ·

2025/05/14

Kirk tells us about how scientists finally discovered the identity of a frog that had puzzled the scientific community for 80 years. Rachel tells us all about the Binturong, the bizarre bearcat that smells like buttered popcorn. In a salute to Mother's Day, Victoria tells us about the truly strange Sea Hares and her mom's research connection to them. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free! Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:

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243 results

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