Outside/In

24/04/2025

Hey folks in the NH region! There's a really cool (and FREE) event coming up next week that you might be interested in. Speakers, breakout sessions, AND a trivia night. Come and mingle with some members of the O/I team and learn more about the connections between health and climate.

At this year’s By Degrees Climate Summit, NHPR is thrilled to bring together a diverse group of experts to share their insights on how we can better understand and tackle the challenges of climate change in a rapidly evolving world.

04/04/2025

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/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 stakes.

This is the second part of our “Things That Can Kill You” miniseries.

📸 Captions and Credits:
1. This common sipo is neither poisonous nor venomous, but we simply couldn’t resist its curious expression. Credit: Harry Williams.
2. A snake wrangler holding a Russell’s viper, a highly venomous snake. A drop of venom is visible on its right fang. Credit: Usman Ahmad on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
3. Dandelion, Jim Lukach (CC BY 2.0) / Peanuts, John Campbell (Public Domain) / Malabar pit viper, Yogendra Joshi (CC BY 2.0)

27/03/2025

A few months ago we got an email from a listener who tried a bite of a very poisonous apple and lived to tell the tale. Ultimately, he was fine, but the incident left him full of questions. 

We figured, why not run with that curiosity? We put a call out for all of your poison related queries and you delivered: How much should you worry about those green potatoes in your pantry? Could our car tires be poisoning the environment?

This is the first part of a “Things That Can Kill You” series, so buckle up! 🍎🐍🥜

Photo Credits:
Manchineel tree, Scott Hughes (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Dandelion, Jim Lukach (CC BY 2.0)
Peanuts, John Campbell (Public Domain)
Malabar pit viper, Yogendra Joshi (CC BY 2.0)

07/03/2025

Recently, our producer Justine Paradis .j noticed something. Humans really like to sing together in groups: birthday parties, sports games, church hymns, protest chants, singing along to Taylor Swift at the Eras concert… the list could get very long.

But… why? Did singing play a part in human evolution? Why does singing together make us feel so good?

Episode is in your feeds! Featuring , Ani Patel, Dor Shilton, and Arla Good of .

Photo credits:
1) Bobby McFerrin performing at TED in 2011. Credit: Suzie Katz on Flickr (CC BY-NC ND 2.0).
2) singing in the car. Adobe stock photo.
3) A close up of hands in a choir. Adobe stock photo.
4) Women performing folk songs during the Chuvash festival “Akatuj” held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by the Сhuvash diaspora. Credit: Zakharov Oleg via Wikiemedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5) A cheerful karaoke sesh. Credit: Cord Allman on Pexels.
6) Three women singing and walking on the day of the Million Man March in Washington, DC., 1995. Library of Congress.

27/02/2025

We’re used to seeing dogs and cats play with toys or get the zoomies… but do animals like rats and bumblebees play too? What is animal play for? How do scientists even decide what counts as play?

In this episode we’re taking a serious look at goofy behavior.

This episode is a collaboration between Outside/In and , the science podcast for kids.

Photo 1: ’s friend’s cat is a chess master.
Video 1: Nate’s dogs play
Video 2: Justine plays laser tag with her cat

25/02/2025

What is a forest for?

In New Hampshire, the most beloved swath of public land is the White Mountain National Forest. People interact with it as they would a national park – hiking, swimming, camping, and more. But a national forest is NOT a national park.

This week’s episode looks at one patch of forest from three different perspectives: conservationists, loggers,and the US Forest Service that has to somehow appease them both.

Listen to at outsideinradio.org or in the Outside/In podcast feed.

Photos: The Great Gulf Wilderness in the White Mountain National Forest. Courtesy of Zack Porter.

12/02/2025

Do trees age?

When we got this question from Will, a listener in Coulterville, California, we thought the answer would be fun and straightforward.

But it turns out this is a bit of an unknown. At nearly 5000 years-old, the bristlecone pine known as Methuselah is the oldest known tree on the planet. All things considered, Methuselah is aging rather gracefully.

But how?

Aging takes place on a cellular level. In human, as our cells replicate, the DNA in our cells is copied over and over, which gradually degrades the DNA. When that happens in our stem cells, we notice. Our hair gets grey and our skin loses its elasticity.

In plants, the equivalent to a stem cell is called a meristem. But unlike human stem cells, it looks like plant meristems may not age, in at least some species. So, “theoretically, trees can be immortal organisms,” according to a recent literature review.

The authors lay out evidence that trees don’t die because of genetically-destined cell decline. Instead, they’re killed by some external event, like a wildfire, insect attack, or the swinging of an ax.

When it comes to super long-lived trees like Methuselah, they tend to grow very slowly in pretty harsh environments, where not much else can live. In short, the reason some trees can live for millennia is simple: they’re really good at surviving.

PHOTOS 1-2: Exploring the California redwoods. Courtesy of Justine Paradis.
3: a bristlecone pine. Jim Morefield on Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)
4: Peaches ripening on the branch. Zechariah Judy on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
5-8: Bristlecone pine cone, wood, and landscape. Matthew Dillon on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Sources: Piovesan & Biondi, 2020. On Tree Longevity. The New Phytologist.

Qiu et al, 2021. Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence.

Interviews with Deborah Roach and Tong Qiu.

NOVA. 2021. “Methusaleh Tree.”

10/02/2025

Did you read “Brighty of the Grand Canyon” growing up? Well, enough people did that when the National Park Service announced plans to shoot the wild b***os of the Grand Canyon there was massive protest.

What followed was one of the flashiest animal rescue tales of our time. And, a story that says a lot about the ability of animal activism to make enduring change.

Listen at the link in our feed or at outsideinradio.org.

Photo Credits

1. Corralled b***os at the bottom of the canyon
2. Park rangers and the artist pose next to the Grand Canyon Brighty sculpture (NPS Photo, Flickr, CC by 2.0)
3. Captured b***os rest in a corral
4. The Fund for Animals’ round-up camp at the canyon bottom
5. Cowboys chase b***os on horseback
6. A b***o rises from out of the Grand Canyon
7. Wild b***os roam in the Grand Canyon prior to the round-up

(All rescue images NPS photos by David Sharrow)

05/02/2025

Hey Outside/Innies,

We're exploring the idea of creating an Outside/In club so people can support the podcast directly, get cool swag AND an ad-free version of the show. But... WHAT SHOULD WE CALL IT? We're reaching out to fans on social media to get your input:

1. The Outside/In club
2. Go Otter!
3. The Outside/Insiders
4. Outside/In+
5. The Outside/Inner Circle
6. The Outsiders

Thoughts?

03/02/2025

Producer Felix P**n has the story of a new kind of turf war, and how one community is trying to make peace with pickleball.

Coming to a podcast app near you.

24/01/2025

From “Colorado Brown Stain” to Dr. Strangelove, we look at the weird history (and surprising science) behind fluoridated water.

Listen to “Fluoridation nation” at outsideinradio.org or in the Outside/In podcast feed.

Photo: A flier issued in 1955 to warn against the communist dangers of fluoridated water (Public Domain).

10/01/2025

Sardines are in vogue. Literally. They are in Vogue magazine. They’re delicious (subjectively), good for you, and sustainable… right?

Recently, a listener called into the show asking about just that.

“I’ve always had this sense that they’re a more environmentally friendly fish, perhaps because of being low on the food chain. But I’m realizing I really have no sense of what it looks like to actually fish for sardines,” Jeannie told us.

The Outside/In team got together to look beyond the sunny illustrations on the fish tins. Is there bycatch? What about emissions? Are sardines overfished? If we care about the health of the ocean, can we keep eating sardines?

Photo credits:

1. A demonstration of stylishly dining on sardines. Photo by Justine Paradis.
2. Canned seafood by Jack Kennard on Flickr (CC BY NC ND 2.0)
3 & 4. Separated ball of sardines in Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo by Bill Abbot on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

08/01/2025

“We need Greenland for national security purposes," President Trump said on Tuesday. "I'm talking about protecting the free world.”

That might sound strange to many... but fans of WWII history will know this isn't the first time that line of reasoning has been invoked.

A few years back, we did a story on Camp Century, a WWII-era nuclear base that the US built INSIDE a glacier in Greenland, and how it unintentionally led to a revolution in climate science.

Listen here:

The Cold War mission to extract the world’s first complete ice core.

03/01/2025

Our listener, Zoe, admitted to something maybe you have also felt…

“I don’t understand why a blue moon is interesting. Why would the second full moon in a month matter if humans are the ones who made them up?”

Listen to this week’s episode to figure out why Nate and Felix had to leave our holiday party to fully grasp this question.

(Photo of a full moon in Dubai, UAE by Mo Eid / Pexels)

06/06/2024

Hey, it's your semi-regular reminder that most of the action for Outside/In is over on our private group page!

17/05/2024

Hey folks! Everybody who supports the show for $10 per month right now can get our second ever Outside/In mug. I mean... it kind of speaks for itself.

Support the show, axolotl questions: https://secure3.convio.net/nhpr/site/Donation2?df_id=4648&mfc_pref=T&4648.donation=form1&s_src=May2024&s_subsrc=facebook