The world of Skyrim is vast. The video game contains cities, villages, and rugged wilderness: high waterfalls cascading into deep pools, packs of wolves roaming the edges of misty alpine forests, echoes in the canyons. The game is celebrated for the intricacy of its environment, and is one of the top-selling video games of all time. “The world itself was almost the main character of the game, in a way. To say that it's just the background I think is not quite enough,” said Noah Berry, Skyrim’s l...
Jul 16, 2020•38 min
In this update, we tally your votes and announce the winner of our fruit fight. What seed-bearing plant ovary will be crowned the GFOAT, or Greatest Fruit of All Time? The pepper? The coconut? The gourd? The vanilla bean? Or… none of the above? One listener challenges our candidates with a fruit of his own. Listen to his full 5 minute argument for the grape on the episode page for Fruit Fight . And we welcome you to send you own fruit pitch voicemail to [email protected] ....
Jul 09, 2020•9 min
In 2016, we produced an episode about the ginkgo tree titled "Ginkgo Stink." With its fan-shaped leaves and golden fall foliage, the Ginkgo biloba is a beautiful tree with an incredible history dating back millions of years. It’s also a popular street tree among urban foresters, despite the fact that some ginkgoes produce malodorous cones. The episode was meant to be a celebration of the incredible ginkgo. But the episode contained an offensive phrase and failed to consider a nonwhite perspectiv...
Jul 02, 2020•42 min
For months, producer Taylor Quimby has been trying to craft a story about spicy peppers. Every one of his pitches has been shot down…until now. On this episode of Outside/In, a CULINARY challenge, a DELICIOUS debate, a FANTASTIC food fight in which four producers argue about which seed-bearing delicacy is the ABSOLUTE best. Of course these fruits aren’t the ones you typically think of when you’re making a fruit salad… * To Take our FUN and VERY SCIENTIFIC survey, click here . * To cast your vote...
Jun 18, 2020•50 min
The experience of public outdoor spaces isn't the same for everyone. Today, we explore birding while Black (and #blackbirdersweek) and how racist housing policies drive unequal exposure to climate-driven heat waves. Find more Outside/In on our website We need your help! Take our short audience survey .
Jun 11, 2020•34 min
Today on the show, we’re bringing you inside what may be the most important environmental Supreme Court Decision in history. Massachusetts v. EPA declared that greenhouse gases are pollution under the definition set out by one of the nation’s oldest and most successful environmental laws, the 1970 Clean Air Act. The case determined that if the executive branch wanted to do so, it could** **confront one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century with one of the most celebrated laws of the 20t...
Jun 04, 2020•59 min
With so many of our favorite outdoor activities currently off-limits, we’re look for accessible ways to explore the magic of the nature from the safety of our homes our neighborhoods. In this edition of Inside/In, we discover the magic and wonder of two often ignored or reviled organisms. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org Outside/In is supported by Ben's. Click here to learn more or go to https://bens30.com/outsidein...
May 21, 2020•32 min
Being stuck at home for an extended period of time, worrying about the safety of yourself and your loved ones takes a toll on your mental health. “For the first time, it seems, the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head,” writes Stephanie Foo , who was diagnosed with complex PTSD in 2018. We talk to her about how to keep yourself on an even keel when the whole world feels like a disaster. Also, how much impact did native people have on the forests of New England? It’s been a gr...
May 14, 2020•27 min
You know that scene in every disaster movie, where the frantic and panicky science nerd unsuccessfully tries to warn the powers that be that something terrible is about to happen? In this episode, we explore a historic storm of cosmic proportions, which, if it happened today, experts say could turn out to be a disaster the likes of which our modern world has never seen. So…how do you prepare for a disaster that always seems incredibly far away… until it’s not?
Apr 30, 2020•30 min
With so many of our favorite outdoor activities currently off-limits, we’re look for accessible ways to explore the magic of the nature from the safety of our homes our neighborhoods. This is the first in a series of short episodes for families and individuals who want to discover how, even when we’re stuck inside, the natural world ties us together. Find more Outside/In on our website: outsideinradio.org
Apr 16, 2020•23 min
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.”
Apr 09, 2020•35 min
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? Where do you draw the line, and how do you make this decision for yourself - and for your community? F...
Apr 02, 2020•32 min
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 of the bog to find something else - peat. It’s a journey that holds smokey hints of pepper, seaweed, ...
Mar 19, 2020•22 min
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?
Mar 05, 2020•34 min
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 towards what?
Feb 20, 2020•43 min
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.
Feb 06, 2020•33 min
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 environment… or maybe not the environment, maybe just generally. Head to our website and vote on your f...
Jan 23, 2020•34 min
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 .
Jan 10, 2020•38 min
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 has visual aids - so click this link or find us on Instagram to follow along with the show! Outside/In...
Dec 20, 2019•40 min
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 of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $100 a month, Sam will per...
Dec 05, 2019•32 min
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. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great...
Nov 21, 2019•35 min
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
Nov 12, 2019•38 min
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 .
Oct 24, 2019•30 min
Sam answers questions about rethinking the toilet, line-dry laundry, rhubarb, and sleeping mosquitoes. Find more Outside/In.
Oct 10, 2019•32 min
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
Sep 25, 2019•41 min
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 here to donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content.
Sep 12, 2019•46 min
A perfect carrier of disease. A race underneath your skin. The part we know, before we get to the parts we don't. Click here to donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content.
Aug 29, 2019•27 min
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 people and pathogens collide. It is a story about Lyme disease, but it is also a story about uncertainty...
Aug 15, 2019•46 min
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 .
Jul 23, 2019•4 min
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 on Twitter and Instagram...
Jul 04, 2019•41 min
