Outside/In

Call of the Void

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks ago our host, Nate Hegyi, was on the edge of a very high cliff in Utah’s Zion National Park when he heard a little voice inside his head...

The So-Called Mystery of Rapa Nui (AKA Easter Island)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Three hundred years ago on Easter Sunday, 1722, European explorers landed on a South Pacific island that they called “Easter Island.” And they wer...

How to Build a Solar-Powered Website

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like most modern publications, Low-tech Magazine has a website. But when you scroll through theirs, you’ll notice an icon in the corner: the weather...

Frankenfish

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lake trout are on life support in Lake Michigan. They rely on intense breeding and stocking by federal fisheries. There was a breakthrough last summer...

Outside/Inbox: You Can't Get Further Outdoors than Space

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, the final frontier of the outdoors: space! From rocket particles, to ominous theories about what might happen if we ever make contact...

Holy Scat! Why Antlers Are Freaking Amazing

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Antler tissue is the fastest growing animal tissue on the planet. It grows faster than a human embryo, faster even than a cluster of cancer cells. On ...

The Immigrant Apple and The Hard Cider Comeback

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Forget about beer, or even water; it was hard apple cider that was THE drink of choice in colonial America. Even kids drank it! And since it’s made ...

What the Tofurkey is Going On with Fake Meat?

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Move over, beef: there’s a new burger in town. Plant-based meats are sizzling hot right now; in 2020 alone, the alternative meat industry saw a reco...

Even Hikers Get The Blues

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Jocelyn Smith was growing up, she told her friends and family she didn’t want to go to college. Instead, her goal was to hike all 2,190 miles o...

Dispatches from the New American Shore

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When writer Elizabeth Rush visited neighborhoods already transformed by rising seas, she noticed that many people did not use terms like “climate ch...

The “Do-Nothing” Farmer: Part II, The Mountain

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Decades before the first international permaculture conference or certified organic tomato, a farmer on an island in southern Japan turned his back on...

The “Do-Nothing” Farmer: Part I, The Revolution

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Decades before the first international permaculture conference or certified organic tomato, a farmer on an island in southern Japan turned his back on...

It Was the Ladies Who Hugged the Trees

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On May 21, 2021, an influential environmental activist died of Covid-19 and you probably didn’t hear about it. Sunderlal Bahuguna’s passing didn’...

Sheep + Solar, A Love Story

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We all know that a key part of addressing climate change involves getting off fossil fuels. But renewable energies, such as solar energy, are not with...

How to Embrace Winter (like Norwegians do)!

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gasp! Once again, the Outside/In team find themselves plunged into (a very predictable) darkness as winter descends on the Northern Hemisphere. In thi...

Outside/Inbox: Do Bears Hoot?

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve got answers to your burning questions: a query about the impacts of wildlife smoke on bird migration; a long-smoldering family debate over whe...

A Vegetarian Turned Deer Hunter in Deutschland

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to global climate emissions. But what about hunting? Does shooting and eating wild game skirt th...

Can an Animal be a Criminal?

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Aspen, Colorado, bears descend from the mountains to gorge on unlocked restaurant dumpsters. In India, drunk elephants crash into bodegas searching...

The So-called Mystery of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 cen...

Tourism Spoils

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a type of travel industry which defines itself as different: ecologically minded, even “responsible.” It’s a type of travel meant to s...

The Himalayan Land Grab

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 an...

Outside/Inbox: The Ramen Wasp Murders & Other Mysteries

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We introduce our new mailbag segment: the Outside/Inbox, where we answer your questions about the natural world. This time:  Question 1: What are th...

Scents and Sensibility

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 fr...

Book Club: Four Lost Cities

26 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 H...

The Problem with America’s National Parks

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we’re sharing an episode from The Experiment, a podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC that tells “stories from an unfinished country.” S...

Bonus: Ciao for Now, Sam Evans-Brown

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 montag...

Windfall, Part 5: The Just Transition

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 enviro...

Windfall, Part 4: Port of Departure

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 ci...

Windfall, Part 3: Squid Pro Quo

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The promise of the nascent American offshore wind industry meets an unlikely foe: squid fishermen in Rhode Island. Forces collide — like the endurin...

Windfall, Part 2: Please Let Me Finish, Mr. Kennedy.

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Windfall, Part 1: Sea Change

24 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Picture this: thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast, each one taller than the Washington Monument. Offshore wind is seen as an essential s...

Introducing: Windfall

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

In Pittsburgh

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 pollutant...

Book Club: Trace

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Geologist and writer Lauret Savoy considers fossil hunting and historical inquiry to be versions of the same pursuit. In Trace: Memory, History, Race,...

The Sand Protocol

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Trouble With Music About Wilderness

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 mu...

10x10: Sand Beach

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 d...

A Climate Activist Goes to Business School

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Blumb...

10X10: City Gutter

11 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 curbsid...

The Acorn: An Ohlone Love Story

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 flav...

Ask Sam: Do Hummingbirds Sleep and Other Questions

11 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Another edition of Ask Sam, where Sam answers listener questions about the natural world. This time, questions about hugging trees, bumpy roads, objec...

I Would Prefer Not To

28 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A lot of us may feel like our time and attention is not our own, and can easily disappear into the ether of work and the internet. But rather than mer...

Thin Green Line

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When producer/reporter Dan Taberski collected data about the long-running reality TV show Cops, he found that it depicts a distorted version of Americ...

If You Wanna Get Kosileg, You Gotta Get a Little Friluftsliv

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For many of us during the pandemic, the dark and cold of winter brings a special sense of dread. But it’s not just this year: the seasonal darkness ...

Coal and Solar in the Navajo Nation

17 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we’re featuring an episode from A Matter of Degrees, a podcast about climate change hosted by Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katherine Wilkinson...

Climate Migration

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the coming decades, the scale of climate migration could be dizzying. In one projection, four million people in the United States could find themse...

Cat of the Clouds

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Marty, Maine coon cat, 12-year resident of the Mount Washington Observatory, and the highest-altitude feline in the Northeastern United states, died a...

The Forest for the Carbon

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A carbon offset is a simple premise: if you take a cross-country flight and are responsible for a half ton of carbon emissions, spend a few dollars to...

Fortress Conservation

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the 20th century, conservationists and environmentalists have looked to protect wildlife and biodiversity through the creation of parks and...

10x10: Pine Barren

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Another year… another record-breaking wildfire season. Thanks to climate change the fire season now starts sooner and ends later.  Scientists also ...

The Olive and the Pine

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Planting a tree often becomes almost a shorthand for doing a good deed. But such an act is not always neutral. In some places, certain trees can becom...

Rice is Food and Other Stories

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Listeners submit their cases for the best fruit ever, and we explore the intersections of fruit, food, and colonialism. Featuring Alicia Kennedy, Cora...

The Lithium Gold Rush

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In one version of a sustainable, carbon-neutral future, the world’s cars will transition from fossil fuels to electricity. Right now that vision abs...

Sidedoor: The Riverkeeper

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fred Tutman is a voice for Maryland’s Patuxent River. In 2004, he founded Patuxent Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization. His mission...

The Darién Gap

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are places on the map where roads end. The Darién Gap, or el Tapon del Darién, is one of them. It’s a stretch of rainforest in southern Pana...

Ask Sam: Spice Must Flow

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Are snow-making machines an example of climate adaptation, or an example of an emissions feedback loop? Does the fire risk posed by planting trees out...

Open Worlds

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The world of Skyrim is vast. The video game contains cities, villages, and rugged wilderness: high waterfalls cascading into deep pools, packs of wolv...

UPDATE: The GFOAT, or Greatest Fruit of All Time

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 F...

Ginkgo Love

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 i...

Fruit Fight!!!

18 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Birding While Black

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The experience of public outdoor spaces isn't the same for everyone. Today, we explore birding while Black (and #blackbirdersweek) and how racist hous...

Massachusetts v. EPA

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today on the show, we’re bringing you inside what may be the most important environmental Supreme Court Decision in history. Massachusetts v. EPA de...

Inside/In: Moss & Mold

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 saf...

On Fires and Feelings

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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. “F...

The Carrington Event

30 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Inside/In: How To Be A Backyard Birber

16 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 saf...

Cat People

09 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 A...

Inside/In

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

10X10: Kettle Bog

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In our series 10X10, we examine ordinary places that are more interesting than they might initially appear; and few places hold more unexpected myster...

Tempest in a Teacup

05 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Nudge-Off Results! Plus, The Forest for the Treesap [Replay]

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 Tr...

Nature Has Done Her Part

06 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

A Battle of Tiny Proportions

23 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A government bureaucrat builds a website that saves a billion gallons in gas. The minuscule Irish invention that enables the industrial revolution. An...

Leo Rising

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Chasing The Light

20 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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...

A Year of Wonders

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

Jesabel Y Eddie

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The Particular Sadness of Trout Fishing in America

12 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 tha...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 take...

Ask Sam: Grandpa's Rhubarb

10 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sam answers questions about rethinking the toilet, line-dry laundry, rhubarb, and sleeping mosquitoes. Find moreOutside/In. Hosted by Simplecast, an A...

Cold, Dark, and Sharky

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

Patient Zero: The Laser

12 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When it feels like doctors have closed the door to establishment medicine, another set of doors open. These doors lead to dubious providers, and untes...

Patient Zero: The Vector

29 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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-f...

Patient Zero: The Triangle

15 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 spre...

Introducing Patient Zero

23 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 epi...

Can You Feel the Lies Tonight

04 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

Plan B

20 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

 Ever since the threat of climate change was first made public, scientists have offered the possibility of a get-out-of-jail-free card: geoengineerin...

Swimming Lessons

06 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 th...

I'm a Penguin Counter for God's Sake!

23 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Operation Confirmation Bias

10 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Ask Sam: Bidets the Day

25 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

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 be...

Pants on Fire

18 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Textiles are all around us. We live in them, sleep on them, sit on them, walk on them, live in houses filled with them. It’s one of the biggest indu...

Must Love Logs

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This month, Outside/In is asking for your support. Your donations will keep the show kicking butt, and help us make our next big series!  Plus, we’...

Killing Cats, Saving Numbats

04 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In Australia, conventional conservation wisdom has stated that in order to save the small indigenous mammals, it's necessary to kill invasive predator...

The Family Business

28 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Sununus are one of New Hampshire's grandest families. John H. Sununu was governor and White House Chief of Staff. One of his sons, John E. Sununu,...

Hunting The Night Parrot

14 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time, the elusive night parrot of the Australian outback was believed to be extinct. Then, an experienced birder with a reputation for dubi...

10X10: Under The Ice

28 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In our 10X10 series, we examine places that might not seem all that interesting... places like your typical frozen pond.  Sure, on the surface it's a...

Leave No Stone

14 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Outdoorsy types are the among the biggest ambassadors of Leave No Trace, a set of principles and best practices for sharing and conserving wilderness ...

32 Is the New 40

31 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The 40-hour workweek is as American as apple pie, and it’s been around almost as long. So, is it finally time to re-think our Monday-through-Friday ...

Falling Doesn't Count

17 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Here's a humdinger of a thought experiment: How fast could people go before the combustion engine and other technologies drastically increased the spe...