Podcast

The Wild Quiet

Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it. Host Bre Harris follows her curiosity into conversations with scientists, gardeners, writers, farmers, artists, herbalists, naturalists, and other people who help us look more closely at the world around us. Some episodes are conversations; others are shorter explorations of ordinary things that turn out to be surprisingly strange. Together, they ask what changes when we slow down, pay attention, and reconsider what we thought we already knew about nature. New Episodes Every Tuesday and Friday.

Episodes
16
Releases
Twice a week
Typical length
32 min
On air since
2026
Latest episode
20 hours ago

Episodes

16 episodes, newest first

  1. How Did Wild Animals Become So Ordinary? w/ Greger Larson

    Season 1, Episode 15

    Show notes

    There’s basically a wolf descendant sleeping on our couch. Wildcats live in our houses. And a bird that once lived in the forests of Southeast Asia is now one of the most familiar animals on Earth.

    So how did wolves, wildcats, and junglefowl become so tangled in human life that we almost forgot they were ever wild?

    Bre talks with Professor Greger Larson of the University of Oxford, who studies the origins and evolution of domesticated animals through archaeology, genetics, and ancient DNA.

    And the stories we tell about domestication? They might be a lot messier than we think.

    Greger shares the rabbit origin story that completely fell apart when his team tried to trace it back to its source, why wolves becoming dogs may have looked more like a relationship than a human takeover, what ancient dog burials can tell us about lives shared with people thousands of years ago, and one possible explanation for the rise of domestic cats involving ancient Egypt, religious pilgrims, and counterfeit cat mummies.

    We also get into the surprisingly strange history of chickens, why humans are so drawn to tidy stories about where things came from, and what changes when we stop thinking of ourselves as separate from the rest of nature.

    Because maybe domestication isn't really a story about humans conquering the wild.

    Maybe it's a story about what happens when species begin living alongside one another—and neither comes out of the relationship quite the same.

    In this episode:

    Greger Larson is an evolutionary biologist in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford who uses ancient DNA datasets to understand the deep-time relationships between people and animals.

    Greger Larson, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and director of the PalaeoBARN (Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network).

    Bluesky: @gregerlarson.bsky.social

    Coming up next: Did Dogs Change Us, Too? We usually ask how humans changed wolves. Next time, we're turning that question around.

    Stay Curious 🌿

    @thewildquietpod

    49 min
  2. When Does Medicine Become Magic?

    Season 1, Episode 14

    Show notes

    Humans were using plants as medicine—and poison—long before anyone knew what an alkaloid was or how the nervous system worked.

    So how did we know what plants could do before we understood why they worked?

    For this Halloween companion episode, I’m following that question through screaming mandrakes, poisonous nightshades, witches’ flying ointments and foxglove—a plant people were using medicinally long before science could explain what it was doing to the heart.

    Along the way, we’ll get into what atropine and scopolamine actually do to the nervous system, why plants make these chemicals in the first place, how people learned about medicinal plants before modern pharmacology, and why the popular story that accused witches were really persecuted herbalists is a whole lot messier than it sounds.

    Because sometimes humans know that something works long before we know why.

    And somewhere in that gap, we tend to tell stories.

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    19 min
  3. Monsters in Nature: What Were We Actually Seeing? - W/ Matt Kaplan

    Season 1, Episode 13

    Show notes

    Where did we get monsters?

    Dragons. Werewolves. Vampires. The Kraken. A whirlpool that could swallow a ship. Strange lights floating over a swamp.

    Humans are very good at making things up—but we didn't necessarily make all of this up.

    This week, I’m talking with science writer Matt Kaplan, author of The Science of Monsters, about the real animals, fossils, diseases and natural phenomena hiding underneath some of our oldest monster stories.

    We get into ancient Greek monsters showing up on actual maps, the surprisingly gross science behind vampires, what rabies may have had to do with werewolves, whether a giant squid could really sink a ship, and why sometimes a monster was simply a really effective way of saying: don't go over there.

    Because the more you dig into these stories, the question gets really interesting:

    How much of a monster comes from the thing that's actually out there—and how much do we add to it?

    Plus, Finn has a very important Kraken question.

    Guest: Matt Kaplan, science writer and author of The Science of Monsters, Science of the Magical, and I Told You So: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right.

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    32 min
  4. Do Animals Have Names for Each Other?

    Season 1, Episode 12

    Show notes

    Do animals have names for each other—or is naming one more human idea we keep trying to find reflected in the rest of nature?

    After giving a backyard downy woodpecker named Needo an entire family life and personal history, Bre begins wondering what other woodpeckers might call him.

    This episode follows the evidence from bottlenose dolphin signature whistles and socially learned parrot calls to receiver-specific elephant rumbles and the scientific debate surrounding marmoset “names.” Together, these animals reveal several possible ways of communicating something very close to: you, specifically.

    Because “we cannot translate it” is not the same as “nothing is being said.”

    This is a companion episode to Why Does a Wild Animal’s Life Feel Different Once We Know Its Name? — with Samantha Miller

    Listen and consider: Is a signal only a name if it works the way a human name does?

    Follow The Wild Quiet:

    Instagram: @thewildquietpod

    Substack: https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    16 min
  5. Why Does a Wild Animal’s Life Feel Different Once We Know Its Name? — with Samantha Miller

    Season 1, Episode 11

    Show notes

    Why does a wild animal’s life feel different once we recognize it as an individual?

    P-22 was not simply a mountain lion. Grizzly 399 was not simply a bear. Jackie was not simply one Bald Eagle among many.

    Once we learn an animal’s name, recognize its face or follow its family over time, information begins attaching itself to a particular life. It survived that winter. It crossed that road. It returned to that nest. It raised those young.

    But why do we so often need to recognize one individual before we care about what happens to the rest?

    In this episode of The Wild Quiet, Bre talks with Samantha Miller, Senior Carnivore Campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.

    Together, they explore how individual animals can become doorways into much larger conservation stories—from P-22 and Southern California’s wildlife crossings to Grizzly 399, Yellowstone’s Mollie’s pack, Colorado’s Copper Creek wolves, and Jackie and Shadow’s Big Bear Valley habitat.

    They also examine the risks that come with wildlife celebrity. Familiarity can create empathy and political action, but it can also encourage crowds, expose an animal’s location and tempt humans to turn a wildlife into a character expected to behave according to our story.

    In this episode:

    • Why Samantha once asked Santa Claus to save mountain lions
    • How one recognizable animal can make a population-level issue feel real
    • P-22, urban development and wildlife connectivity
    • Grizzly 399 and the complicated effects of wildlife celebrity
    • The young Copper Creek wolf who survived a winter alone
    • Mollie’s pack and the invisible boundary surrounding Yellowstone
    • Why names and numbers can influence how humans understand wild animals
    • How Jackie and Shadow helped make an entire landscape visible
    • The difference between witnessing wildlife and demanding access to it
    • Why calling an animal a “problem” can prevent us from examining the human side of a conflict
    • Which animal would arrive at a wildlife commission meeting most prepared—and most outraged

    About Samantha Miller

    Samantha Miller is the Senior Carnivore Campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, where she works on carnivore issues nationwide with a focus on state-level progress.

    Her career spans wildlife commission reform, political advocacy and coalition building to advance carnivore policy across the American West. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University.

    Find Samantha and Her Work

    Center for Biological Diversity:

    https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

    Instagram:

    https://www.instagram.com/biodiversitycowgirl/

    https://www.instagram.com/savingwolvesorg/

    https://www.instagram.com/centerforbiodiv/

    Listen to Wildlife Wire:

    https://wildlifewire.podbean.com/

    Saving America’s Wolves:

    https://savingwolves.org/

    Wolf Planning:

    https://www.wolfplanning.org/

    Continue Exploring

    Read the episode article:

    Why Does a Wild Animal’s Life Feel Different Once We Know Its Name?

    Watch Shadow and Kaydee on the official Big Bear Bald Eagle livestream:

    https://friendsofbigbearvalley.org/livestream/

    Companion episode: Do Animals Have Names for Each Other?

    Available Friday, October 23.

    Your Turn

    Is there one particular wild animal you have followed over time? Did learning its story change how you thought about the rest of its species—or the place it lived?

    Find The Wild Quiet on Instagram at @thewildquietpod.

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    This is The Wild Quiet. Until next time, stay curious.

    53 min
  6. Does A Butterfly Remember Being A Caterpillar?

    Season 1, Episode 10

    Show notes

    A caterpillar and a butterfly are the same animal—but they barely seem to have anything in common.

    One crawls around chewing leaves. The other flies, drinks nectar through a proboscis and may travel thousands of miles.

    In this solo episode of The Wild Quiet, Bre goes inside the chrysalis to explore what really happens during metamorphosis, why a caterpillar does not completely dissolve into “insect soup,” and whether anything it learns can survive the transformation.

    Along the way, we meet Catty Kathy, a monarch caterpillar living in Bre’s milkweed patch, and tobacco hornworms that were trained to associate an odor with danger—and still remembered that connection after becoming moths.

    Because the butterfly is not a reward waiting at the end of a caterpillar. It is the caterpillar’s life continuing.

    In this episode:

    • Whether a caterpillar and butterfly are truly the same animal
    • The difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon
    • What really happens inside a monarch chrysalis
    • Why a caterpillar does not completely dissolve into soup
    • Imaginal discs and the adult structures already developing inside a larva
    • How an insect’s nervous system changes during metamorphosis
    • The experiment testing whether moths remember something learned as caterpillars
    • The difference between learned associations and autobiographical memory
    • Why we value the beautiful butterfly differently from the hungry caterpillar
    • How monarchs navigate toward a destination they have never visited

    This episode accompanies Bre’s conversation with cartoonist and educator Peter Kuper: Can Art Change How We See Nature—and Ourselves?

    RESOURCES

    Retention of Memory Through Metamorphosis:

    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001736

    Monarch Growth and Development — Monarch Joint Venture:

    https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/monarch-life-cycle

    Monarch Biology FAQ — Monarch Joint Venture:

    https://monarchjointventure.org/faq

    Monarch Migration — Monarch Joint Venture:

    https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/monarch-migration

    Explore Peter Kuper’s work:

    https://www.peterkuper.com/

    Monarch’s Journey — American Museum of Natural History:

    https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/monarchs-journey

    Follow The Wild Quiet on Instagram:

    https://www.instagram.com/thewildquietpod/

    Read the episode companion:

    Can Art Change How We See Nature—and Ourselves?

    This is The Wild Quiet—curious conversations about nature, and our place within it.

    15 min
  7. Can Art Change How We See Nature—and Ourselves? — with Peter Kuper

    Season 1, Episode 9

    Show notes

    What would humans look like inside a museum curated by insects?

    Cartoonist and educator Peter Kuper uses art, storytelling and humor to change who appears to be observing whom. A 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Peter has written and illustrated SPY vs. SPY for MAD magazine since 1997, co-founded World War 3 Illustrated and created more than two dozen books, including Insectopolis: A Natural History, Ruins and Wish We Weren’t Here: Postcards From the Apocalypse.

    In this episode, we explore whether imagining another creature’s experience can change how we value its life—and what art can make visible that information alone sometimes cannot.

    We get into:

    The cicadas that captured Peter’s attention as a child

    How comics and wordless images communicate across age and language

    What a monarch sees when it crosses highways, power plants and human borders

    Why humor can help us stay present with frightening environmental issues

    The New York City cockroach that revealed how much Peter’s perspective had changed

    The overlooked people who helped build our knowledge of insects

    Why dung beetles are sacred, ecologically essential and extremely funny

    What insects might place inside a museum exhibit about humans

    Peter’s exhibition, Monarch’s Journey, opens October 16, 2026, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

    Explore Peter’s work:

    https://www.peterkuper.com/

    Follow Peter on Instagram:

    https://www.instagram.com/kuperart/

    Learn about Monarch’s Journey:

    https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/monarchs-journey

    Episode Companion:

    Can Art Change How We See Nature—and Ourselves?

    What animal have you already placed into a category—and what might change if you looked at it a little longer?

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    Instagram: @thewildquietpod

    Substack: The Wild Quiet Co.

    1 hr 2 min
  8. Why Does a Moth Fly Toward a Light?

    Season 1, Episode 8

    Show notes

    Years ago, hundreds of moths appeared inside a tiny cabin in the Black Hills. They covered the walls, flew around the beds and held what appeared to be the annual meeting of every moth in South Dakota directly above a terrified three-year-old. That kid...was my stepdaughter.

    It was chaos—but it also raises a question most of us have never thought very hard about:

    Why does a moth fly toward a light?

    The answer is stranger—and much less embarrassing for the moth—than we’ve been led to believe.

    In this companion episode to my conversation with author Leigh Ann Henion, we explore research suggesting that moths and other flying insects may not be deliberately steering toward artificial light. They may be trying to keep the brightest part of the world above their backs—and becoming trapped when humans put the sky in the wrong place.

    We’ll also meet moths away from the porch light: moving pollen through the dark, feeding young birds and using some spectacular defenses against hunting bats.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • The night hundreds of moths filled a cabin in the Black Hills
    • Why moths may not actually be choosing to fly toward artificial light
    • How flying insects use light to determine which direction is up
    • What happens when humans mount a miniature sun beside the garage
    • The microscopic scales covering moth wings
    • The overlooked work moths do as nighttime pollinators
    • Why moth caterpillars are important food for young birds
    • The evolutionary argument between bats and moths
    • How a luna moth’s tails can misdirect a bat’s attack
    • The effects artificial light can have on moths and their caterpillars
    • Simple ways to return some darkness to the night

    KEEP EXPLORING

    Listen to my conversation with Leigh Ann Henion:

    What Happens After Dark? - W/ Leigh Ann Henion

    Explore the full episode companion—with photographs, resources and something to try after dark:

    What Happens After Dark

    Why flying insects gather around artificial light:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44785-3

    Mothing 101 from National Moth Week:

    https://nationalmothweek.org/mothing-101/

    Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting:

    https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/

    YOUR TURN

    The next time you see a moth circling a porch light, turn it off for a while if you can. Give its eyes a chance to find the real sky.

    What changes when you let the night actually be dark?

    Follow The Wild Quiet Co.

    Instagram: @thewildquietpod

    Substack: https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    14 min
  9. What Happens After Dark? — with Leigh Ann Henion

    Season 1, Episode 7

    Show notes

    Once the sun goes down, even a familiar backyard can feel like an entirely different place.

    We often talk about darkness as if it is empty—or as if danger automatically arrives when the lights go out. But darkness is not simply the daytime world with the lights turned off. It is alive with its own flowers, sounds, relationships and living light.

    In this episode, Bre talks with author Leigh Ann Henion about her book Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark.

    After traveling around the world in search of natural wonders, Leigh Ann turned her attention toward the nighttime world close to her home in southern Appalachia. Together, we explore why darkness makes so many of us uneasy, what our artificial lights may look like from the other side and how much of our own familiar landscapes we have never truly met.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • Why darkness can make familiar places feel frightening or unknown
    • Glowworms, moon gardens and the living lights of southern Appalachia
    • What changes when we allow our eyes to adjust to the dark
    • Why nighttime is not simply a quieter version of daytime
    • How artificial light changes life for nocturnal plants and animals
    • What our homes and cities may look like from another creature’s perspective
    • The difference between seeking wonder far away and noticing it close to home
    • How stepping outside after sunset can reshape our relationship with darkness

    ABOUT LEIGH ANN HENION

    Leigh Ann Henion is the author of Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark and the New York Times bestseller Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. Her work explores wonder, place and the extraordinary lives unfolding within the natural world.

    LEARN MORE

    Leigh Ann Henion:

    https://leighannhenion.com/

    Explore Night Magic:

    https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/leigh-ann-henion/night-magic/9781643753362/

    Episode companion:

    Moths, Moon Gardens, Glowworms— What Appears After Dark?

    YOUR TURN

    Step outside after dark and give your eyes time to adjust. What appears when you stop treating darkness as something to get through—and actually go out to meet it?

    Tell me what you notice. You do not need to know its name. Noticing comes first.

    FOLLOW THE WILD QUIET CO.

    Instagram: @thewildquietpod

    Substack: https://thewildquietco.substack.com

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    38 min
  10. The Summer Yellowstone Burned

    Season 1, Episode 6

    Show notes

    In the summer of 1988, Yellowstone burned.

    What began as a collection of smaller fires grew into a months-long event that affected nearly 800,000 acres inside the park. Firefighters defended Old Faithful, historic buildings and nearby communities—but in the end, only rain and snow could stop the flames.

    This is the story of Black Saturday, a bison walking onto a snow-covered roof, the fight to save Yellowstone and what happened when the smoke finally cleared.

    It is also a story about the way we describe a burned landscape—and why “burned,” “destroyed” and “dead” are not interchangeable.

    This solo episode accompanies my conversation with fire ecologist Dick Hutto, Is a Burned Forest a Dead Forest?

    See historical photographs, the final fire map and the young lodgepole forest that followed in The Wild Quiet Companion Sheet : Charred, Alive, and Misunderstood - What We Miss in a Burned Forest

    24 min
  11. Is a Burned Forest a Dead Forest? — with Dick Hutto

    Season 1, Episode 5

    Show notes

    A burned forest can look empty: blackened trunks, bare ground and smoke hanging over what appears to be a dead landscape.

    But fire ecologist Dick Hutto sees an entire living community most of us have never learned to notice.

    In this episode, we step inside a severely burned forest and listen for beetles chewing beneath the bark. We meet Black-backed Woodpeckers, explore lodgepole pines waiting for fire and ask what can be lost when we treat a burned forest as something that must immediately be cleaned up or repaired.

    We also talk about climate change, salvage logging and the difficult truth that wildfire can be dangerous to people while still creating ecologically valuable habitat.

    Dick Hutto is professor emeritus of biology and wildlife biology at the University of Montana and the author of A Beautifully Burned Forest: Learning to Celebrate Severe Forest Fire.

    Listen next: The Summer Yellowstone Burned, a companion episode about the fires that transformed Yellowstone in 1988.

    Learn more and explore photographs, maps and resources in The Wild Quiet Companion: Charred, Alive, and Misunderstood - What We Miss in a Burned Forest

    42 min
  12. What Happens When Animals Can’t Move? with Ben Goldfarb

    Season 1, Episode 3

    Show notes

    We tend to think of roads as routes to somewhere else. But for wildlife, those same roads can become moving fences—cutting animals off from food, mates, migration routes, and sometimes entire futures.

    Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb joins me to explore the strange and surprisingly emotional world of road ecology: wildlife bridges, salamander tunnels, migrating pronghorn, mountain lions trapped among Los Angeles freeways, road noise as habitat loss, and why the animal always gets the final vote on whether our solution actually works.

    We also discuss the tragically underused historical insult flivverboob, which deserves another chance.

    ABOUT BEN

    Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist and the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet.

    Ben’s website:

    https://www.bengoldfarb.com/

    Find Crossings:

    https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324005896

    GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

    Companion Guide—with wildlife-crossing photos, migration videos, maps, and additional road-ecology curiosities:

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing:

    https://101wildlifecrossing.org/

    ABOUT THE ROADLESS RULE

    This episode is being released during the week of National Public Lands Day and while the U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering a proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule. Ben and I recorded our conversation before the proposal was announced, so we do not discuss it directly.

    Official proposed rule and public record:

    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026-16965/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation

    USDA’s explanation of the proposal:

    https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/08/18/usda-acts-remove-roadless-rule-restrictions-exacerbate-rising-wildfire-risk

    A look at arguments for and against rescission from the University of Wyoming College of Law:

    https://www.uwyo.edu/law/centers/center-for-land-and-water-law/blog/long-road-rescinding-roadless-rule.html

    National Public Lands Day:

    https://www.neefusa.org/npld

    LISTENER ASSIGNMENT

    The next time you travel a familiar road, look beyond the lane—preferably as the passenger. What does that road divide? Is there water on one side and nesting ground on the other? A game trail ending at the pavement? A culvert or strange green bridge you once ignored?

    Who was moving through there before we decided it was the way through?

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    Instagram and Facebook: @thewildquietco

    45 min
  13. P-22 and the Lines Animals Can’t See

    Season 1, Episode 4

    Show notes

    What happens when one wild animal becomes someone?

    P-22 was a mountain lion living in Griffith Park, surrounded by Los Angeles. He crossed two enormous freeways, spent more than a decade in an unusually tiny home range, survived mange and exposure to rat poison, and somehow became one of the most famous wild animals in America.

    In this episode, I follow P-22 from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Hollywood sign—and into the much bigger story his life helped people see.

    We get into the secret lives of mountain lions, wildlife communication, habitat fragmentation, rodenticides, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, and what happens when the lines humans draw across a landscape mean absolutely nothing to the animals trying to move through it.

    Plus: Grizzly 399, Yellowstone wolf 1090F, a suspected koala incident, a mountain lion on Grandma’s roof, and my six-year-old’s insistence that P-22 looks exactly like our very-not-a-mountain-lion house cat, Bonez Malone.

    GO LOOK CLOSER

    P-22 — National Park Service

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/puma-profiles-p-22.htm

    P-22 — Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

    https://nhm.org/experience-nhm/exhibitions-natural-history-museum/p-22

    Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

    https://101wildlifecrossing.org/

    The Wild Quiet Companion Guide

    Coming soon: photos, maps, wildlife-crossing rabbit—NOPE. 😂 —wildlife-crossing resources, P-22 links, and a few more strange and fascinating things I found while researching this episode.

    [ADD COMPANION GUIDE LINK]

    LISTENER ASSIGNMENT

    Find one place near you where an animal has to navigate something humans built.

    A road. A fence. A parking lot. A neighborhood. A culvert. A bridge.

    Then look at it from the animal’s side.

    Where would you go?

    THE WILD QUIET

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place in it.

    The Wild Quiet Co. on Substack

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com

    Instagram + Facebook

    @thewildquietco

    30 min
  14. What Happens When We Really Start Noticing Insects? — with Barrett Klein

    Season 1, Episode 1

    Show notes

    What happens when we stop sorting insects into beautiful, useful, annoying, disgusting, or terrifying—and actually look at them?

    Biologist, artist, and author Barrett Klein joins me to explore what can happen when we start paying closer attention to the tiny lives around us.

    We get into sleeping bees, monarch mysteries, mud-dauber architecture, childhood encounters with dead butterflies, insect-made art, milkweed beetles, the strange ways insects are woven into human culture, and whether understanding something can actually change the way we feel about it.

    We also assemble a three-creature team for an insect bank heist. For science.

    ABOUT BARRETT

    Barrett Klein is a biologist, entomologist, artist, professor at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, and author of The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture. His work explores insect behavior, sleep biology, cultural entomology, and the intersection of science and art.

    Barrett Klein + The Pupating Lab:

    https://www.pupating.org/

    Find The Insect Epiphany:

    https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/barrett-klein/the-insect-epiphany/9781643261362/

    GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

    Companion Guide — Insects, Milkweed & Tiny Dramas:

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    A deeper dive into some of the insects and ideas from this conversation, plus books, research, insect art, milkweed drama, and a few more things worth getting curious about.

    The Pupating Lab:

    https://www.pupating.org/people/

    Learn more about Barrett’s research into insect behavior, sleep biology, cultural entomology, and the intersection of science and art—including current research into monarch butterfly sleep.

    LISTENER ASSIGNMENT

    The next time you notice an insect, don’t worry about identifying it right away.

    Just watch it for a minute.

    What is it actually doing? Where is it going? Is it eating something? Building something? Hiding? Hunting? Resting? What is it interacting with?

    And maybe pay attention to your own reaction, too. Did you immediately decide it was beautiful? Gross? Scary? Annoying?

    What changes when you give it another minute?

    Then, if you want to know its name, go down the rabbit hole.

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    Instagram and Facebook: @thewildquietco

    51 min
  15. Soap Opera in the Milkweed Patch

    Season 1, Episode 2

    Show notes

    What happens when you plant milkweed for monarchs—and discover an entire tiny world living there?

    What started as a few volunteer milkweed plants in my front yard became a miniature neighborhood full of ant farmers, aphid mummies, four-eyed beetles, chemical warfare, disappearing caterpillars, strange pollination tricks, and conversations happening through the stems that I can’t even hear.

    In this companion episode, we’re looking past the monarchs to explore some of the other lives tangled up in a milkweed patch—and the surprisingly complicated relationships happening on one ordinary plant.

    We get into monarch caterpillars stealing milkweed’s chemical defenses, ants farming aphids, parasitoid wasps growing inside their hosts, red milkweed beetles flirting and fighting through vibrations, insects getting caught in milkweed flowers, and my own inability to remain emotionally detached from a caterpillar once I’ve found it.

    Turns out, I planted milkweed for the monarchs.

    The drama is what made me keep looking.

    GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

    Companion Guide — Insects, Milkweed & Tiny Dramas:

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    Photos, research, books, insect art, milkweed residents, and a few more strange things worth getting curious about.

    LISTENER ASSIGNMENT

    Find one plant you pass all the time—a tree in your yard, a weed growing beside the sidewalk, something in your garden—and give it a few minutes.

    Don’t just look at the plant.

    Look underneath the leaves. Check the stems. Watch the flowers. Notice what lands, crawls, eats, hides, hunts, or just hangs out there.

    How many lives can you find using one plant?

    You don’t have to know what any of them are yet. Just notice them.

    Then, if something makes you curious, go down the rabbit hole.

    The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

    https://thewildquietco.substack.com/

    Instagram and Facebook: @thewildquietco

    19 min
  16. Introducing The Wild Quiet Trailer

    Show notes

    The Wild Quiet is a new podcast about nature—and our place within it. Every Tuesday, Bre Harris follows a new curiosity about animals, plants, landscapes, and the complicated ways humans live alongside them.

    Sometimes through conversations with people who have spent years paying attention. Sometimes straight down the rabbit hole.

    The Wild Quiet launches September 15. Follow the show now so the first episodes are waiting for you.

    2 min

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