Terrestrials

Pull on your wading boots because we’re taking you on a haunted swamp tour… of meat-eating plants! Our journey begins in a bog in North Carolina, where a fly lands on what looks like a tiny pair of green jaws. Suddenly, they snap shut. A venus flytrap has just caught its dinner. But why would a plant eat meat in the first place?

Our resident bug expert, Dr. Sammy Ramsey, reveals the answer as he introduces us to the world's strangest carnivorous plants. From pitcher plants with slippery waterslides of doom, to sundews covered in sticky lollipop traps, to underwater bladderworts that suck up their prey in a millisecond. Along the way, we’ll meet tree shrews that poop into plants, bats that sleep inside them, and baby mosquitoes with butt snorkels! Ultimately, we’ll discover why these fearsome plants might actually be some of the least confrontational creatures in the garden.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced and reported by Alan Goffinski with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Our Executive Producer is Sarah Sandbach. Our team also includes Ana González, Natalia Ramirez, Tanya Chawla and Joe Plourde. Factchecking by Diane Kelly.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Just in time to commemorate Day of the Dead, we are releasing a special Spanish version of our monarch butterflies episode! Este episodio nos lleva a las montañas del centro de México para conocer un oasis donde, después de volar miles de kilómetros, millones de mariposas monarcas se reúnen, exactamente en esta época, año tras año. Un fenómeno que desde hace siglos ha maravillado a las personas que habitan estas tierras y del que hasta hace poco podemos entender mejor.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced and reported by Ana González with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Our Executive Producer is Sarah Sandbach. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, Tanya Chawla and Joe Plourde. Factchecking was by Hilary Elkins.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This Halloween, we’re going to the dark side. Deep in the darkest tropical forests, some of the world’s most elusive bats hang upside down in their winged sleeping bags. On a quest to find one of these flying mammals, Producerbud Ana ventures into a Puerto Rican forest and the back corridors of the American Museum of Natural History with Dr. Angelo Soto-Centeno. Why? Because while they may be scary and look kinda like Dracula, with their sharp fangs and beady eyes, these bats hold something crucial for humanity - the ability to repair entire ecosystems after some of the most destructive hurricanes ever.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced and reported by Ana González with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Our Executive Producer is Sarah Sandbach. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Tanya Chawla and Joe Plourde. Factchecking was by Emily Krieger.

Special thanks to the American Museum of Natural History and Dr. Angelo Soto-Centeno.

Also tell us what creature you want a future show about! Submit suggestions on what animals we should do our next season on here!

Our advisors for this show were Liza Demby, Ana Luz Porzecanski, Nicole Depalma and Carly Ciarrocchi.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s an epic humans-versus-birds showdown in this follow-up to last week’s crows episode! Ever since humans started farming, birds have been eating our crops. And for centuries, we’ve been trying to figure out how to frighten them away.

Science writer Mary Roach walks Lulu and Radiolab’s Latif Nasser through the long and surprising history of humans scaring away birds: scarecrows, fake owls, taxidermied hawks, robotic falcons, even animatronic bears with flashing eyes. But none of it works for long. The birds are too smart for our tricks. Until one day in Ohio, a wildlife researcher accidentally stumbled onto something that seemed to really freak out a roost of vultures.

The strange solution raises a bigger question about what fear really is, and why uncertainty and confusion might be the thing we fear most. Plus, we learn about the one bird that seems to know how to overcome this fear.

Attention Grown-ups! For more Mary Roach, join us for Radiolab Presents: Viscera, live in New York City on Thursday, November 5, with special guest Mary Roach discussing her upcoming book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy. Get your tickets at wnyc.org/events.

And be sure to check out Mary Roach’s books Fuzz and Stiff, and pre-order her upcoming book: Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla with sound design and editing by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Hilary Etkins.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Spooky season is upon us and so we are bringing you a tale of Halloween’s eeriest avian mascot.

Emma Terry is friends with basically everyone in her town. She personifies a rainbow—she has bouncy blonde hair, sparkly cat-eye glasses, and a closet full of bright colors. But for the last decade, she's been trying to befriend the one creature that seems like the opposite of her vibe: the cemetery-lurking, ominous crow.

The more Emma observed and read about crows, the more their morbid reputation seemed… off. She learned crows drop nuts into crosswalks so car tires will crack them open, that they can recognize human faces, that they can use tools... She even heard a rumor that, sometimes, crows might leave gifts for humans who are nice to them.

So she started leaving treats for them in a basket outside her home, nearly every day, for seven years. Then one summer morning, she looked under the basket and saw something glinting. Crow scientist and ornithologist Dr. John Marzluff helps us figure out whether a friendship between a person and a bird is a real thing, or just a story we wish were true.

Special thanks to Emma Terry and Dr. John Marzluff. Check out Emma's art and ceramics at http://madebyemmapie.com. And if you want to help scientists study crows, download Crow Scientist, a free app made by John and Colleen Marzluff.

Check out some crows talking here!

• Jimini Crowket Talking Crow [VIDEO]
• Joe, the talking crow [VIDEO]
• Joe, the talking crow pt 2 [VIDEO]
• Crow saying hello, I know right after a human talks to it [VIDEO]
• Crow saying "you alright love?" in Yorkshire accent [VIDEO]

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla with sound design and editing by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Sophie Samiee.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the leaves begin to change and the air cools, monarch butterflies disappear from our skies and journey …where? The mysterious migration of this iconic butterfly stumped scientists for decades. Until an intercepted message on a butterfly wing led them to the isolated mountains of central Mexico to find the ancient monarch oasis where these butterflies cluster by the millions. It’s here we meet Estela, who grew up around this extraordinary phenomenon and explains that the real mystery isn’t where the monarchs are going but, actually, how??

The answer involves poisonous-tasting caterpillars, supergenerations of buff butterflies, and a web of life that connects a whole continent. Plus, as many people prepare for their Day of the Dead celebrations, we learn how monarch butterflies are a symbol of connection to the ancestors living on in our memories.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Ana González with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Hilary Elkins.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we bring you a story stranger than fiction. In 2006, paleobiologist Natalia Rybczynski took a helicopter to a remote Arctic island near the North Pole, spending her afternoons scavenging for ancient treasures on the ground. One day, she found something the size of a potato chip. Turns out, it was a three and a half million year old chunk of bone. SPOILER ALERT BELOW.

Keep reading if you’re okay with us spoiling the surprise.

It’s a camel! Yes, the one we thought only hung out in deserts. Originally from North America, the camel trotted around the globe and went from snow monster to desert superstar. We go on an evolutionary tour of the camel’s body and learn how the same adaptations that help a camel in a desert also helped it in the snow. Plus, Lulu even meets one in the flesh.

Special thanks to Latif Nasser for telling us this story. It was originally a TED Talk where he brought out a live camel on stage. Thank you also to Carly Mensch, Juliet Blake, Anna Bechtol, Stone Dow, Natalia Rybczynski and our camel man, Shayne Rigden. If you are in Wisconsin, you can go meet his camels at Rigden Ranch. And follow his delightful TikTok @rigdenranch to see camels in the snow!

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Joe Plourde, Lulu Miller, and Sarah Sandbach, with help from Tanya Chawla and Natalia Ramirez. Fact checking by Anna Pujol-Mazzini.

Our advisors this season are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, and Liza Demby.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ervin Carlson grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana hearing stories about buffalo (aka American bison) who once roamed the land by the hundreds of thousands. These giant beasts weighed up to 2000 pounds, were almost 7 feet tall, and had two curved horns so sharp they could even buck away grizzly bears. And they were ecosystem engineers! Just by grazing and rolling in the dirt, they brought new life to the land.

But Ervin had never seen one. Not in the wild. To him, buffalo were a thing of the past. Because in the 1800s, as America expanded west, settlers hunted them by the trainload, for sport and fashion, until the wild herds completely disappeared from Montana.

And that could've been the end of the story, if not for a secret inter-generational baby buffalo rescue mission that you'll have to hear to believe.

To uncover the twists and turns of this tale first-hand, Producerbud Ana travels to Montana where she witnesses an epic horse race, joins a three-day celebration of all things buffalo, and crosses her fingers that she’ll get to meet one of these creatures up close.

Huge thanks to Ervin Carlson, Paul Weatherwax, Chazz Racine, Sloo, everyone at Buffalo Spirit Hills Ranch, the Intertribal Buffalo Council, Latonna Spotted Eagle, Cristina Mormorunni, and everyone who helped organize the 2026 Iinnii Days. Thanks also to Valerie June for lending her voice to Alan's stampede song, and to the students and teachers at the Blackfeet language immersion school.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Ana González with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Sophie Samiee.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meet François Tranquille. He's a snail. He's French. And this is the first episode of a little experiment we're calling Celestials: Bedtime Stories from Terrestrials. Restful tales, bedtime meditations, and the occasional lullaby, designed to help you drift off to sleep. Like Terrestrials, it's about a creature here on Earth. Unlike Terrestrials, it wanders away from the world of facts, towards someplace dreamier.

In our very first Celestials pilot, Monsieur Tranquille tries his hand — er, antennae — at helping you slooowww doooowwwn.

We're experimenting with a few more of these this year, and we'd love your help shaping them. After you listen, take two minutes to tell us what you thought: https://forms.gle/6WKkJsVpbJZgpLLf6

We'll be back next week with your regularly scheduled Terrestrials programming. In the meantime, sweet dreams!

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Artist Ashley (Ash) Eliza Williams was so shy growing up that they found it hard to speak to people. Instead, they withdrew from the world of humans and found comfort in the forest, where they spent hours exploring, scavenging, and collecting — eventually discovering lichen. They began painting portraits of lichen’s wild, colorful, and fuzzy shapes.

In time, Ash learned that lichen is actually a composite organism, a mixture of two species — algae and fungi — working together to live. This idea originally challenged evolutionary theory so much that scientists didn’t believe it. But lichen had much more to teach us.

Chef Prashanta Khanal fills us in on the food science of lichen, and how its collaborative powers also extend to making certain foods healthier! Learning that lichen draws its strength from collaboration eventually encouraged Ash to break out of their shell and reconnect to the world, where they would find not just friends and collaborators, but their true love.

Since the release of this podcast, artist Ash Eliza Williams goes by Ash and uses they/them pronouns.

Check out Ash Eliza Williams’s beautiful paintings.

Visit chef Prashanta's cooking blog, the Gundruk, for more on Nepali food history and recipes.

This episode features punk rock legend Laura Jane Grace, who makes a musical cameo on the song The Fuzzy Ruckus. Watch the music video and find the link to stream on our songs page.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Brenna Farrel, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Alan Goffinski, Ana González, Tanya Chawla, Joe Plourde, Sarah Sandbach, Valentina Powers and Lulu Miller. Fact-checking by Diane Kelly. Transcription by Caleb Codding.

Special thanks to Siya Sharma-Gaines, Niran Bhatt Scharpf, Scott LaGreca, and Sarita Bhatt.

Our advisors are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Andy J. Pizza, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, Liza Demby, Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Tara Welty.

Learn more about storytellers, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website,

Terrestrialspodcast.org.

Badger us on social media: @radiolaband #TerrestrialsPodcast or by emailing us at terrestrials@wnyc.org.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you’ve been on the internet recently, you might’ve heard of Jimothy—a raccoon from Seattle who went viral. Jimothy t-shirts, murals, tattoos, and tribute songs popped up across the country. We wanted to understand why this raccoon had captured so many hearts, so we spoke to one of the first people who spotted him: Ben Trammell.

One night in Seattle, Ben was watching a raccoon family walk along his backyard fence when he saw a tiny, scruffy, hunched-over raccoon with stiff front legs and a short puffball of a tail instead of the usual long, stripey one.

He was instantly enamored with this clumsy little guy and began watching his escapades night after night. What Ben saw taught him something about raccoons he never expected.

Songbud Alan talks with Ben about raccoon chaos, family care, and the joy of watching a wild animal do life his own way. They flip the script on “survival of the fittest” to discover that compassion and care are natural and weird is good! Lulu also speaks with Seattle writer and disability activist Elsa Sjunneson about how Jimothy became a champion for grungy Seattle and an icon for the disability community.

Very special thanks to Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes for his performance of the song, "Jimothy."

KEEP LEARNING!

Huge thanks to Elsa Sjunneson for joining us. Her new book,Dear Blind Lady, is out this fall and available for preorder now - it includes a whole chapter for parents on how to talk to their kids about disability.

Elsa also recommended two children's books for young readers who want to learn more:

• We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire, a picture book about the many different ways disabled people move through the world.
• All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, the true story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, who at 8 years old crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to protest for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Want more Elsa? Listen to her Radiolab episode,The Helen Keller Exorcism, and watch this wonderfulPBS mini documentary about Elsa and her fencing.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Alan Goffinski with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Diane Kelly.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s summer break! So, while Terrestrials takes a summer breather,, we’re bringing you a show that we really love. It’s called Just the Zoo of Us, and it’s produced by Ellen and Christian Weatherford, a married couple with a shared love of telling stories about this wonderful planet!In every episode, they rate a different animal on three qualities - effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics. In this episode, they’re tackling the DUNG BEETLE, a beetle that loves… poop. It's a story that will take us to incredible places - beetles in boots, in hats, in planetariums! Enjoy!

Check out the full episode to learn about Moray Eels here!

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lulu has been terrified of snakes all her life. But strangely, her oldest son has been obsessed with them since he was two. So to understand his fascination, she called a snake expert who might also be one of the least afraid people on Earth: Gowri Shankar Pogiri.

As a kid in Bangalore, India, Gowri was his neighborhood's resident snake-catcher — wrangling seven-foot snakes and motorcycling into the sunset with the serpent draped around his neck so he could release it back into the wild. In college, he'd skip school to look at snakes for hours at the zoo.

And the day he met his first king cobra? He became completely entranced. He started working as a professional herpetologist, and became one of the first researchers to track king cobras in the wild. He’d spend his days in the rainforests of India, following the giant snakes as they climbed trees, swam across streams, and hunted prey. Until one day, when a dramatic encounter with a king cobra nearly ended his life.

That remarkable story, plus a last-minute marriage proposal, a heroic bag, and how the only thing that Gowri is truly scared of might just be what Lulu, and all of us, are most afraid of, too.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Alan Goffinski with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Sophie Samiee.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The director of horticulture at Madison Square Park, Stephanie Lucas, spends her days caring for over 300 trees in the heart of New York City. One day in 2022, she saw a callout from NASA giving away seeds that had traveled to the moon. This would be the crown jewel of the park! She and her team worked hard on their application, submitted it, and then waited for two years. Eventually they gave up. Until one day, Stephanie got a call from NASA telling her to check her spam inbox. A week later, a cardboard box arrived at the park.

The tree - an American sweetgum - has been growing in the park for a year. Lulu and Producerbud Ana went to see it, met Stephanie, and imagined how this little sapling might grow one day.

If you’d like to see it yourself with the Terrestrials team, come to our Moon Tree Launch Partyhappening from 4-8 PM on July 16th at Madison Square Park! It’s FREE, open to the public, and full of moon-tree magic: we’ll be showcasing our Moon Tree drawing contest submissions, inviting park-goers to make their own art, and giving folks a chance to meet Songbud Alan (who may or may not have a real half Moon Tree seed). See you there!

We also hear a brand-new poem from New York State Poet Laureate Kimiko Hahn and revisit our episode about astronaut Stu “Smokey” Roosa and the origin story of Moon Trees.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it really mean to be a dad? In the animal world, fathers have long been painted as aggressive or absent. At best providers and protectors, but certainly not caregivers. And yet for every tale of a lion or chimp dad eating its own young (yikes!), there’s another creature who tells a sweeter story.

Two HUMAN dads bring us on this DADventure: Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, who has spent decades studying owl monkey dads in the forests of Argentina, and Michael Feigelson, who once worried he wasn't cut out for the softer side of parenting.

They introduce us to seahorse dads who get pregnant, poison dart frog dads who give piggyback rides to their tadpoles, Darwin frogs who swallow their eggs to keep them safe, burying beetles who build "corpse cribs," jacana birds who do all the egg-sitting, and stickleback fish who construct intricate underwater nests for their young. Along the way, we learn that nature doesn’t offer just one model of fatherhood. Alongside Mother Nature... there just might be a Father Nature, too.

Special thanks to the Van Leer Foundation for the support of this episode.

Resources on Animal fatherhood

• Eduardo Duque's Owl Monkey Project: https://www.owlmonkeyproject.com/
• An interview with Eduardo in Yale News
• Lauren O’Connell lab – frog behaviour
• Short explainer: frog parenting research
• Stickleback fish parenting study (Alison Bell)
• Alison Bell lab video

Human fatherhood

• Fathertime by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
• ECM interview: evolution of “man the nurturer”
• Lee Gettler – biology of fatherhood (video)
• Lee Gettler article in Early Childhood Matters
• Darby Saxbe book: Dad Brain
• Darby Saxbe Article in Early Childhood Matters

Talks, films & convenings

• Yale Conference on Fatherhood
• Live Recording of Yale Conference:
• Fathers and Fatherhood: From Molecules to Modern Families
• Fathertime documentary

Campaigns & global perspectives

• Equimundo's State of World's fathers report
• Men Care Changemakers Journey
• Parenting Out Loud (Elliot Rae)

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Angely Mercado.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're back with PURR-T TWO of our big cats journey, and this time, we’re heading even deeper into the cat-iverse.

We travel to India, where conservationist Shatrunjay Pratap Singh introduces us to leopards that live among shepherds and ancient temples. Then we head to Colombia, where biologist Laura Lisbeth Jaimes Rodriguez helps us track one of the most mysterious cats on Earth: the jaguar. We meet shapeshifting shamans, forest guardians, and cats so secretive that some scientists spend years studying them without ever seeing one. Finally, we meet the ghost cat of the mountains—the snow leopard—with wildlife biologist Dr. Nyeema Harris.

Along the way, we stumble onto the idea that the world might actually need its scariest creatures, that fear might be one of the most powerful forces keeping our planet in balance.

Special thanks to Luke Hunter at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Shatrunjay Pratap Singh, Laura Lisbeth Jaimes Rodriguez, and Dr. Nyeema Harris.

LEARN MORE:

• Watch this video of Shatrunjay Pratap Singh explaining the harmonious coexistence between humans and leopards in Bera, Rajasthan.
• Read Panthera's piece onwhy Indigenous culture is key to jaguar conservation, including how shamans in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta believe jaguars travel between physical and spiritual worlds.
• Learn about theJaguar Shamans of Yuruparí, recognized by UNESCO as guardians of sacred sites along Colombia's Pirá Paraná River.
• Meet the "ghost cat of the mountains" withNational Geographic Kids' snow leopard page.
• Learn more about Dr. Nyeema Harris's work studying carnivores at theApplied Wildlife Ecology Lab at Yale.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Diane Kelly.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Big cats are our most requested animal, but Lulu doesn’t really want to make an episode about them! . She thinks lions, tigers, and their feline cousins are the bullies of the animal kingdom. So Songbud Alan and Producerbud Ana set out to change her mind.

We head to the Bronx Zoo where big cat expert Luke Hunter introduces us to tigers that cough up furballs and wrestle crocodiles, and lion prides built around mothers, sisters, and grandmothers, who roar not just to intimidate, but to call out to their family. Along the way, we play a game show called The Roar, learn why cheetahs aren’t technically “big cats”, and why orange tiger fur looks green to deer.

By the end, Lulu sees these fearsome animals in a different light. And this is only part one of our first ever two purr-ter!

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Alan Goffinski and Ana González, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Diane Kelly.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the depths of the ocean, a tiny male anglerfish catches a scent and follows it through the darkness. Eventually he finds a glowing, toothy female with a bacterial lightbulb on her head. He kisses her… and never lets go. Their bodies permanently fuse, merging bloodstreams, flesh, and digestive tracts.

Radiolab correspondent Molly Webster brings us the wild story of this eternal kiss. We dive deeper into glowing lures, bioluminescent bacteria, and the biology of two creatures becoming one.

Plus, Alan tells us about the time he broke a world record, and marine biologist Dr. Kory Evans answers our questions about some of the weirdest fish in the sea.

Big thanks to Molly Webster for bringing us this story. Check out all of her Radiolab stories, but if you want one to start off with, listen to Goo and Youabout butterflies!

If you have something special you think you can hold a world record in, draw us a picture and email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was reported by Molly Webster and produced by Alan Goffinski with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Emily Krieger.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Amy Ray (whose music you might know from the Indigo Girls) was on a walk in the Georgia woods with her dogs when she passed a tree branch and saw hundreds of tiny, white, fluffy creatures doing a synchronized stadium wave. She was mesmerized.

Turns out, she was looking at woolly aphids - small, defenseless bugs who have somehow figured out how to survive everything the forest throws at them. Resident Bug Correspondent Dr. Sammy Ramsey explains how: from the army of ants fighting their battles, to their power to clone themselves over and over, to their sap-eating ways that make plants scream chemical SOS signals through the air!

What starts as a story about a fuzzy bug turns into one about a secret harmony running through the whole forest.

Plus, we try aphid poop honey!

Special thanks to Amy Ray and Ozie, and to Dr. Sammy Ramsey, whose new documentary Secrets of the Bees from National Geographic is out now.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Alan Goffinski with sound design by Alan and Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Diane Kelly.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As one of the most famous cellists of all time, Yo-Yo Ma has spent a lot of time playing music inside. But a few years ago, he decided to take the cello out of the fancy concert halls and into nature, bringing our very own Producerbud Ana along for the ride!

That brings us to humpback whales. Like Yo-Yo, humpbacks are musical. They communicate through melodies, clicks, grunts, whispers, and bellows. Human beings still don’t fully know what the whales are saying to each other, but for Yo-Yo it sounds just like cello music. So, he had a wild idea: What if he tried to communicate with whales using his cello?

On a very windy December day, Producerbud Ana and Yo-Yo travel to Hawai'i and meet up with hula master, Snowbird Bento, who explains how she uses music to connect with the natural world. Then, they all board a legendary canoe called Hōkūleʻa with local fishermen, seafaring captains, and marine biologists, and Yo-Yo plays his cello, hoping the whales will hear the vibrations and maybe... respond? To find out what happens next, sit back, relax, and join Ana and Yo-Yo on an aquatic adventure.

This was an episode from Our Common Nature, a seven-episode podcast series of Yo-Yo Ma’s musical journey around the country to places where people have deep connections to the Earth. Listen to the Our Common Nature EP

Credits:

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings

Hosted by Ana González
Produced by Alan Goffinski
Editing from Pearl Marvell
Sound design and episode music by Alan Goffinski

Additional sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick

Mixed by Joe Plourde

Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado. Additional fact checking by Sophie Samiee.

Executive Producers are Emily Botein, Ben Mandelkern, Sophie Shackleton, and Jonathan Bays.

Our advisors are Mira Burt-Wintonick, Kamaka Dias, Kelley Libbey, and Chris Newell

Episode photo by Austin Mann; Episode and show art by Tiffany Pai

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrials@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.