Outside/In

Cat People is a podcast series by Longreads that examines the strange relationships people have with big cats and the legal loopholes that have made America home to more captive tigers than there are left in the wild. It also serves as an important corrective to some of the irresponsible journalistic choices made by the creators of the hit Netflix series "Tiger King.” Learn more about your ad choi...

On today’s show, we are addressing a question we have seen A LOT. As we’re all adjusting to life with the coronavirus, the advice is to stay home and stay safe. But depending on where you are in the world, that advice gets a little blurrier when it comes to exercise and outdoor recreation. Is it safe to go outside? Is it safe… to go on a hike in the woods? What about a neighborhood in the city? Wh...

In our series 10X10, we examine ordinary places that are more interesting than they might initially appear; and few places hold more unexpected mysteries beneath the wet, mossy surfaces than the dark and muddy places we explored for this episode. We call them by a multitude of names: mires, muskegs, moorlands, or kettle bogs. This time, Outside/In digs beneath the shrubs, sedges, rushes and moss o...

The passenger pigeon is one of the world’s most symbolic extinction stories. It’s a cautionary tale of how in just a few short generations, one of the wonders of the world could be completely eradicated. But when that narrative was questioned in a popular book, *1491 *by Charles Mann, what does the response tell us about the conservation movement as a whole? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

The winner of our “Battle of Tiny Proportions” is revealed! Plus, one of our favorite episodes about the pace of technology: The Forest for the Treesap. Mysteries are brewing in the sugar shack. Changes are coming to New England’s sugar bushes. And the very identity of a product that we’ve been crafting in basically the same way for centuries, could be on the verge of a radical shift. But a shift...

In New England, the Waterman name is like mountain royalty. But beyond a tight circle of outdoors-people, they're not a household name. Today, we tell the story of one of the most influential voices in American wilderness philosophy, Laura Waterman, and how she has changed following the death of her husband. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A government bureaucrat builds a website that saves a billion gallons in gas. The minuscule Irish invention that enables the industrial revolution. An innovation for doctor’s gloves kicks off women’s liberation. An ill wind leads to America being stuck with the gallon forever. On this episode, we present a series of small “nudges” (but not actual nudges) that have had profound impacts for the envi...

Depending on who you ask, astrology is a science, an art, a form of therapy… or, a pseudo-science, fortune-telling, a scam.  But astrology is way more than a horoscope. Check us out online, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the ancient charcoal animals of France's Chauvet Cave, to 17th century Dutch windmill paintings, art history can tell us a lot about our evolving view of the natural world. In this episode, producer Taylor Quimby (a self-described art-world neophyte) searches for individual works and genres through history that reveal something interesting about human society and the outdoors. This episode ha...

As extreme weather wreaks havoc around the globe NPR's Throughline looks at a natural disaster more than 200 hundred years ago that had far-reaching effects. This week, how the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki awed, terrified and disrupted millions around the world and changed the course of history. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots...

Before Hurricane Maria hit in September of 2017, Puerto Rico's rickety electric grid was a notorious headache. After the storm, it was a crisis. This is the story of how a pair of star-crossed lovers came to see nuclear as the unlikely solution to Puerto Rico's energy woes, and how their vision for the island might be changing the way we approach power... even if their plan never comes to pass. Ou...

People love fishing for trout. They love it so much that we are willing to go to insane lengths to catch them. But what should we make of the fact that much of that experience of fishing for trout is just a facsimile of what it once was… and may actually be bad for the very same fish, that we so love to catch? Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

When most of us heard about the "insect apocalypse" we were worried. When producer Jimmy Gutierrez heard it, he thought "this is great." Today he takes a journey in which he tries to learn to appreciate our many-legged companions. Want to read a transcript or support the podcast? Check out our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam answers questions about rethinking the toilet, line-dry laundry, rhubarb, and sleeping mosquitoes. Find moreOutside/In. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, two people were attacked by sharks on Cape Cod, and one died. The result has been a  media frenzy that really you have to see to believe. Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it feels like doctors have closed the door to establishment medicine, another set of doors open. These doors lead to dubious providers, and untested treatments. Click hereto donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A perfect carrier of disease. A race underneath your skin. The part we know, before we get to the parts we don't. Click hereto donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're fighting off a cold or flu, it's easy to imagine the battle is being waged solely inside the confines of your body.  But in order to spread, pathogens rely on nearly every aspect of our shared societies. Food and drink, social customs, our proximity to animals, urban design, income inequality: The science of epidemiology connects them all.  Patient Zero investigates the spaces where pe...

A first look at Patient Zero, a series we'll be putting out next month! Hosted by Outside/In's Taylor Quimby. Sweet new theme by Ty Gibbons. First episode drops mid-August!  Find more at patientzeropodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Disney's reboot of The Lion King hitting theaters, does the original still hold up all these years later? In this episode, the team revisits an epic tale of class, land rights, and destiny... and critiques the landscapes, animals, and themes that so many 90's kids grew up watching. And once again, Jimmy defends the reputation of hyenas. Check out our website, outsideinradio.org And follow us...

 Ever since the threat of climate change was first made public, scientists have offered the possibility of a get-out-of-jail-free card: geoengineering. While reducing emissions is hard and complicated, why not just engineer the Earth's atmosphere in the meantime? Decades later, the science of geoengineering is still in its infancy, but a growing number of researchers are trying to change that.  Sh...

Swimming is something that is more or less a part of human experience, depending on who you are, where you are, when you are alive in history. More than half of Americans can't perform all of the basic swimming skills. On this episode, two stories that explore our relationship with the water, and why people do or don’t learn to swim. Check out our website, outsideinradio.org And follow us on Twitt...

Traveling to Antarctica to hang with penguins on the company dime likely seems like the dream assignment for a journalist... or anyone. Ron Naveen has been living that dream, counting penguins by hand for decades. And today you're going to hear about that work from our friends at the PBS Newshour's podcast "The Last Continent." Find moreOutside/In. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

Today on the podcast, a story that seemed like a perfect fit Outside/In that wound up going places that we didn’t expect to go. When workers at the American embassy Cuba claimed to have been attacked by a mysterious weapon that left no trace, it led to a major shift in American diplomacy towards the Caribbean socialist state. But the story has also led to a split in journalism, stemming from the s...

Ask Sam: that special segment when scientists cringe as Sam and the team speculate wildly on answers to a diverse range of questions from listeners before calling in the real experts.  This time we tackle paper towels, cow poop, body temperature, and weighing whales. Find more Outside/In Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices