Threshold Podcast

Threshold Podcast A Peabody Award-winning podcast about our place in the natural world. Listen to our latest season: Hark.

Threshold is a public radio show and podcast that tackles one pressing environmental issue each season. We report the story where it's happening through a range of voices and perspectives. Our goal is to be a home for nuanced journalism about human relationships with the natural world.

06/02/2026

Out now: The first episode of Threshold’s new series, The Corridor.

Petrochemicals are made from fossil fuels, and they’re made where people live, amidst houses, schools, and churches. In this episode, we explore what it’s like to live in - and love - a place at the center of a highly toxic industry that’s interwoven with our modern consumer culture.

Listen by searching for Threshold wherever you get podcasts.

📍: St. James High School and the Koch Methanol Plant in St. James, Louisiana

05/19/2026

There is no water without peace, says Kaveh Madani, a leading water scientist and Iran’s former Deputy Head of Environment. He joins us this week on Threshold Conversations to talk about the links between water and war, and his award-winning work on the concept of “water bankruptcy.”

Find Threshold Conversations wherever you get podcasts.

📷 : Aerial photos and satellite imagery of Tehran, and the various dams and reservoirs that provide drinking water to Iran’s capital city

04/23/2026

Out now, on Threshold Conversations: Dr. Christopher Schell, an urban ecologist and coyote extraordinaire, helps us think about the carnivores we share our cities with, and what they can teach us about ourselves.

Listen at the link in our bio.

🌎: Map adapted from Hody and Kays (2018). Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across North and Central America.

02/17/2026

How much of what we know about animals is actually just an assumption? From dominant males and passive females to stigmas around same-sex sexual behavior, ideas from our human world influence our understanding of the nonhuman one.

Out now, a new episode of Threshold Conversations with Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer, who together wrote “Feminism in the Wild: How Human Biases Shape Our Understanding of Animal Behavior.” They join us to unpack some long-held ideas in biology, explain why these ideas are so powerful, and imagine how we might open our eyes to animal behavior that defies our expectations.

Listen at the link in our bio.

🦎: various species of anole lizard

12/09/2025

All over the world, small groups of complete strangers are getting together to share their feelings about climate. These gatherings are called Climate Cafes, and they’re carving out space for some big emotions we might prefer to avoid.

On this episode of Threshold Conversations, we’re joined by Audrey Martin, a Bay Area psychotherapist and one of the leaders of to unpack some of our complicated, scary emotions around climate, and to make the case for why this kind of self-reflection isn’t just comforting—it’s crucial.

Listen at the link in our bio.

🌍 NASA scientific visualizations of CO2 emissions and of sea surface temperature

11/25/2025

We need more than AI to really understand what dolphins are saying, says Dr. Stephanie King, a Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Bristol, U.K., and co-director of Shark Bay Dolphin Research in Australia. After decades of studying dolphins, there’s so much we still don’t know, and she says that there’s still no substitute for quietly watching—and listening.

Hear more from Stephanie and the Shark Bay dolphins in “Country is Speaking” at the link in our bio.

11/05/2025

It’s here—the final episode of Hark.

We think about listening with Indigenous storytellers on three different continents, and we have one more encounter with those magical Shark Bay dolphins.

Hear “Country is Speaking” at the link in our bio.

10/07/2025

New technologies like artificial intelligence have helped to accelerate and open up the entire world of bioacoustics, launching us into a new era of communication with the more-than-human world. In this episode, we explore the promise and perils of using AI in bioacoustics.

Hear Ellen Garland and other scientists talk about what they’re learning, and what might be at risk, in Threshold’s latest episode “Whynotamus,” wherever you get podcasts.

Our Behind the Scenes episode of Season 5 is out now.In this special episode, you’ll hear not only from Amy, but also Er...
02/12/2025

Our Behind the Scenes episode of Season 5 is out now.

In this special episode, you’ll hear not only from Amy, but also Erika, our managing editor, and Sam, our associate producer and fact-checker extraordinaire. They discuss why we decided to make this season of the show, how listening makes us feel vulnerable, and a surprisingly fun get-to-you question you didn’t know you needed.

Get into the sounds of making sound here: https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/season05/

We're often awed by the generosity of the Threshold listener community, but you blew us away this year. Our 2024 year-en...
01/07/2025

We're often awed by the generosity of the Threshold listener community, but you blew us away this year. Our 2024 year-end campaign raised $100,269 from 281 donors, making it one of the most generous giving periods in the history of our show. Thank you so much.

As we head into a new year, we're excited to bring you new episodes of Season 5. Before we do, we're taking a brief pause. During this time, we encourage you to embark on your own journey of listening, whether to the voices of others or the quiet rhythms of the natural world.

Thank you, and happy New Year,
Team Threshold

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