Outside/In

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to global climate emissions. But what about hunting? Does shooting and eating wild game skirt the complicated ethics and emissions connected with eating factory farmed animals?  In this episode, a vegetarian-turned-hunter brings two reporters into a forest in Germany, in search of sustainable  meat. Not only is it an interesting conversation fr...

In Aspen, Colorado, bears descend from the mountains to gorge on unlocked restaurant dumpsters. In India, drunk elephants crash into bodegas searching for food. And behind these human-wildlife conflicts are the researchers and scientists who are trying to prevent us from killing each other.  Author Mary Roach is no stranger to squirmy subjects: she’s written about the science of decomposition, dig...

Who moved the giant monolithic statues of Rapa Nui, a remote island in the South Pacific? And how did they do it? These questions have been at the center of much speculation and debate since Europeans first arrived there on Easter Sunday, 1722, and called it “Easter Island”. The most popular theory was that this remote civilization destroyed itself -- cutting down all the trees to make contraption...

There’s a type of travel industry which defines itself as different: ecologically minded, even “responsible.” It’s a type of travel meant to support the conservation of threatened ecosystems. This is not just tourism, but “ecotourism.” This specific brand of tourism is a crucial part of the plan to conserve the Great Himalayan National Park in northern India, a gorgeous patchwork of forests, glaci...

The Great Himalayan National Park in India is among the most dramatic landscapes on Earth. Count the layers in a single panoramic photo of the park and you might see mountains, glaciers, old-growth forests, and alpine meadows. But National Parks are defined by two things: first, an abundance of wildlife and majestic landscapes; and second, no permanent human presence. So, before anybody was ever i...

We introduce our new mailbag segment: the Outside/Inbox, where we answer your questions about the natural world. This time:  Question 1: What are those blue boxes sticking out of East Coast salt marshes? Question 2: A bunch of wasps swarmed into my friend’s bowl of ramen and died. What poisoned the wasps?  Question 3: Did life begin on Earth just once? Or could it have happened multiple times duri...

Once upon a time, potpourri was a popular way to freshen up a space. Now, for some, it feels a bit like the lava lamp of fragrance: an outdated fad from a bygone decade. So, why was potpourri so popular in the 1980’s, and what happened to it? Did the trend dry up… or just evolve? We explore the transformation of potpourri, from the fermented mush of the Victorian era to the perfumed and colorful b...

Science journalist and sci-fi novelist Annalee Newitz thinks and writes a lot about the future. But in their latest book, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, Annalee looks at the distant past in four ancient cities: Pompeii (of the Roman Empire), Angkor (of the Khmer empire in modern day Cambodia), Catalhoyuk (the first known city in the world in today’s Turkey), and Cahokia (an i...

This week, we’re sharing an episode from The Experiment, a podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC that tells “stories from an unfinished country.” Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter. Each episode explores elements of the experiment that is the United States, from the evangelical influence on American politics to alcohol use in the United States… and to “America’s best idea:” its national parks. In...

As we wave off our erstwhile host as he moves on to new adventures, we recall a drive through the mountains and assemble (what else?) a riotous montage. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter. If you’ve got a question for the Outside/In[box] hotline, give us a call! We’re always looking for rabbit holes to explore. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a numb...

To be profitable, the offshore wind industry requires vast sums of money only accessible to some of the world’s biggest companies. But is the environmental movement ready to welcome oil majors and devoted capitalists into their ranks? Ready or not, here they come. Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who...

Billions of dollars in investment will rain down on the cities that are best positioned to launch America’s offshore wind industry. But not every city can become the “wind capital of America.” Where is it gonna drizzle, and where is it gonna pour? Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to...

The promise of the nascent American offshore wind industry meets an unlikely foe: squid fishermen in Rhode Island. Forces collide — like the enduring symbol of the American blue-collar worker, the big money of global energy interests, and the volatility of American politics. We ask: what is the nature of power? Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind pow...

Ten years ago, a Kennedy and a Koch shared the same goal: stop Cape Wind, America’s would-be first offshore wind farm. Despite nearly two decades of effort, Cape Wind was never built, and its failure had huge consequences for the offshore wind industry. But it also laid the groundwork for the next wave of offshore wind and the explosive growth to come. Windfall is the story of a promising renewabl...

Picture this: thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast, each one taller than the Washington Monument. Offshore wind is seen as an essential solution to climate change, and it’s poised for explosive growth in the United States. How did we get to a moment of such dramatic change? Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate....

A new series and an announcement. After 20 years of politicization and red tape, the U.S. is moving full speed ahead on plans to install thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast. Today, we’re proud to announce the launch of a special five-part series exploring this story. It’s called Windfall, and it follows the birth of a brand new industry in the U.S., one that will invest billions of d...

We’re exposed to plenty of invisible risks in our daily life: toxic compounds in the fabric of our couches, contaminants in the water, and pollutants in the air. A lot of the time, we don’t think too much about them. But sometimes, the invisible becomes suddenly, acutely visible. A story about the air we breathe, the risks we can live with, and what it means to become a citizen of a place. Featuri...

Geologist and writer Lauret Savoy considers fossil hunting and historical inquiry to be versions of the same pursuit. In Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, Lauret uses the search for her family story as a lens to better understand American history, and the landscape as a lens to better understand her past. Her memoir is a winding journey from southern California to Puritan N...

While sand beaches comprise just over 30% of the world’s ice-free shorelines, the collective idea of the sand beach can sometimes cast a much bigger shadow. That imagined beach can even have an influence on other fields of science — like plastic pollution. Featuring Dr. Max Liboiron. Links Liboiron’s essay, “Plastics in the Gut,” published in Orion Magazine. Outside/In Book Club The pick for the f...

When composer and traveling musician Ben Cosgrove was just 7 years old, he wrote a song called “Waves”. Since then, he’s made a career out of music inspired by landscape, place, and wilderness. But if an artist has an environmental brand... do they also represent an environmental ethic? Over the years, Ben began to wrestle with what his music was really saying about the natural world. Subscribe to...

Even in the quietest of times, sand beaches are defined by movement and change. “I think it's fair to say the beach is one of the most flexible or dynamic, if you will, habitats in the world. It’s super geologically unstable,” said coastal ecologist Dr. Bianca Charbonneau, also known as “the Dune Goon.” Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for biweekly reading lists, episode extras, and chances...

This week, we’re featuring an episode from How To Save A Planet, a podcast about climate change hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Blumberg. Heating and powering buildings takes a lot of energy, which is why a full thirty percent of U.S. greenhouse gasses can be traced back to the indoor environments in which we live and work. Lowering that number on a collective scale - by increasing...

This special BONUS episode of Outside/In was sponsored and selected by our lovely donors. Thank you for your support! Gutters can refer to the curbside drainage channels that lead into storm drains, to the metal or plastic troughs that line some rooftops, or really to any low area designed to move water from one place to another. They are, by design, fairly ordinary examples of human engineering....

In the early 1900s, an Ohlone woman named Isabel Meadows was recorded describing her longing to eat acorn bread again. She detailed the bread’s flavor; the jelly-like texture; the crispy edges; the people who made it. And she talked about the bread’s place in the creation story of her tribe. A century later, a young Ohlone man named Louis Trevino came across the recordings and recognized Meadows a...

Another edition of Ask Sam, where Sam answers listener questions about the natural world. This time, questions about hugging trees, bumpy roads, objects stuck on power lines, and epic hummingbird battles. Featuring special guests, Maddie Sofia, host of NPR's Short Wave, and Kendra Pierre-Louis, climate journalist with Gimlet's How to Save a Planet. Also featuring Ferris Jabr, Stephen Morris, Greg...