Strange by Nature Podcast

We've been building to it all month, it is time for Halloween and we have some great topics. Kirk kicks off the show with a topic that may have you think twice about the candy you pop in your mouth this year. He talks about all of the ways that insects end up in your candy. Red food coloring from ground up beetles, excretions from the Lac beetles in your hard candy coating and maybe some bee vomit...

Victoria kicks things off this week with the terrifying topic of Prion diseases. These bizarre infections can take years to manifest, are incurable, and can turn your brain into a sponge. Charming. Kirk is up next with a ghost story for this spooky season. Science wins out over superstition and in the end it ends up being a tale of how infrasound can affect human physiology and may be to blame for...

This week's show starts of with Rachel telling us about the Door to Hell. Seems like a fitting topic as we approach Halloween. But what is it? The Door to Hell is also known as the Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. It is a pit of fire that has burned for perhaps 50 years. It is the result of a drilling project gone horribly wrong. It reminds us a bit of the Burning Mountain in Australia from Epi...

Kirk keeps the Halloween month theme going by talking a bit about Black Cats big and small. What makes them strange? Why do they exist? Why were they the preferred color of cat to have on ships? All questions are answered. Rachel is up next and she brings us to...the ocean. I know, we're all shocked. This week it is to talk about Sea Urchins. They are truly some of the strangest creatures in the o...

Happy October!  We've got quite a show for you this week. Victoria kicks Spooky Month off with the Worm Pearlfish. At first they don't sound too bad but it turns out that they sneak though the anus of sea cucumbers and eat their gonads. Yikes. No thanks. Kirk keeps the ick going with an absolutely wild story about doctors restoring blind people's vision by putting their tooth in their eye. Say wha...

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...

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/strangeby...

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!  Sup...

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 stra...

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...

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 sup...

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 p...

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-bil...

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...

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...

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...

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. A...

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: p...

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.  Join us w...

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 eve...

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...

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 tra...

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 T...

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!  Supp...

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 sup...