Outside/In

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Outside/In: Where curiosity and the natural world collide. Look around, and you’ll find everything is connected to the natural world. At Outside/In, we explore that idea with boundless curiosity. We report from disaster zones, pickleball courts, and dog sled kennels, and talk about policy, pop culture, science, and everything in between. From the backcountry to your backyard, we tell stories that expand the boundaries of environmental journalism. Outside/In is a production of NHPR. Learn more at outsideinradio.org

  1. Red is the warmest color

    1 DAY AGO

    Red is the warmest color

    There’s few certainties in life. But the sun will always rise, the seasons will change, and the Outside/Inbox will forever remain answered.  From lighthouse paint hues to polar bear lovers, this week the team takes up your questions on all things red.  What makes cardinals red?  Why do albino animals have red eyes? ⁠ ⁠Why are so many lighthouses painted red? ⁠ Do our dogs love us?  ⁠Do some animals have same-sex relationships?⁠ ⁠How do environmental changes affect pair-bonding? ⁠ Featuring Alex Funk, Jeremy D'Entremont, Karyn Anderson, and Francesco Ventura.  Thanks to Outside/In listeners Liz, Tyler, Monica and Lera for their questions. We’re looking for new submissions to the Outside/Inbox! Give us your weirdest, nichest, most bizarre questions you can think of. Send us those questions by recording yourself on a voice memo, and emailing that to us at outsidein@nhpr.org.  Or you can call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER. SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. ⁠Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. ⁠ Follow Outside/In on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠BlueSky⁠, or join our private ⁠discussion group on Facebook⁠. LINKS Here’s Karyn’s paper on how ⁠same-sex behavior⁠ in animals is far more common than previously thought.  Olney, Illinois is known as “the home of the white squirrels.” Learn more about ⁠how they’re trying to protect these rare albino animals⁠ in this small Midwest town. Here’s the ⁠Northeast District’s 2025 US Light List⁠, which lists an astounding 40,000 different lights, sound signals, and other visual aids to navigation. Francesco Ventura’s paper analyzing divorce rates in albatrosses came out in 2021. ⁠You can find it here⁠.   CREDITS Produced by Marina Henke, Felix Poon and Nate Hegyi. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    32 min
  2. Return of the Kiwi Apocalypse: 10 years of Outside/In

    31/12/2025

    Return of the Kiwi Apocalypse: 10 years of Outside/In

    ** We’re celebrating our 10 year anniversary and want you to come! Join us in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a night of storytelling, featuring former Outside/In guests and hosted by our very own Nate Hegyi. Get your tickets here! **  In celebration of Outside/In’s 10th anniversary we’re looking back at our very first episode: “The Kiwi Apocalypse,” first published in December of 2015. Afterwards, we’ll get an update to the story and talk about how weird it is to have a podcast old enough to be in middle school.  Here’s our original description for The Kiwi Apocalypse:  Iago Hale has a vision: it’s one where the economy of the North Country is revitalized by local farmers selling delicious cold hardy kiwi berries to the masses. Meanwhile, Tom Lautzenheiser has been battling a hardy kiwi infestation in Massachusetts for years, and is afraid that this fight will soon be coming to the rest of New England. Should we worry about the cold hardy kiwi and what does the quest to bring it to market tell us about what an invasive species is? Featuring Iago Hale, Tom Lautzenheiser and Bryan Connolly. This episode was produced by our original host, Sam Evans-Brown. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. SUPPORT Grab a ticket for our 10 year anniversary live show here!  Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    35 min
  3. The cold truth about refrigeration

    10/09/2025

    The cold truth about refrigeration

    In the early 1900s, people didn’t trust refrigerated food. Fruits and vegetables, cuts of meat… these things are supposed to decay, right? As Nicola Twilley writes, “What kind of unnatural technology could deliver a two-year old chicken carcass that still looked as though it was slaughtered yesterday?” But just a few decades later, Americans have done a full one-eighty. Livestock can be slaughtered thousands of miles away, and taste just as good (or better) by the time it hits your plate.  Apples can be stored for over a year without any noticeable change. A network called the “cold-chain” criss-crosses the country, and at home our refrigerators are fooling us into thinking we waste less food than we actually do.  Today, refrigeration has reshaped what we eat, how we cook it, and even warped our very definition of what is and isn’t “fresh.”  Featuring Nicola Twilley. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.   SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.   LINKS You can find Nicola’s new book “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves,” at your local bookstore or online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    33 min
  4. Field reports from the cutting edge of science

    30/07/2025

    Field reports from the cutting edge of science

    It’s a weird time to be an environmental scientist. The proposed cuts to federal science funding in the United States are profound, and if they come to pass, it’s not clear what American science will look like on the other side. But for many researchers, science is much more than a career: it’s a community, lifestyle, and sometimes even a family business.  Outside/In producer Justine Paradis tagged along with researchers in the field to learn what it’s like to be a scientist right now. We visit one of the oldest atmospheric monitoring stations in the country, and venture onto the Finger Lakes with an ad-hoc group of researchers struggling to understand an emerging threat to water quality: harmful algal blooms. This is a glimpse of the people behind the headlines, navigating questions both personal and professional, and trying to find ways to continue their work, even as much of their funding is simultaneously collapsing around them.  Featuring Bob Howarth, Joshua Thienpont, Irena Creed, Nico Trick, Anita Dedić, and Tom Butler, with appearances from Roxanne Marino, Renee Santoro, and Garreth Smith.    SUPPORT To share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show’s hotline and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-844-GO-OTTER. No question is too serious or too silly. Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!). Follow Outside/In on Instagram and BlueSky, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.   LINKS NY67, one of the oldest atmospheric monitoring stations in the U.S., was established by Gene Likens, who helped discover acid rain in the 1960s (The Guardian).  More on the cuts to the National Science Foundation from The Guardian. It references a Federal Reserve Bank analysis, finding that for every dollar spent on R&D by the major federal agencies, there’s been a return to U.S. taxpayers of $1.50-$3.00—in other words, 150-300%. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has been tracking the federal science budget for decades, and publishes an ongoing analysis breaking down the proposed cuts. A map tracking harmful algal blooms in New York State.  In the early 2000s, some wondered if seeding the ocean with iron could be a climate solution. They hoped that the iron would trigger the growth of marine phytoplankton and sequester carbon in the ocean. But when Charlie Trick and his colleagues studied it, they learned it had unintended consequences: it triggered the growth of highly toxic algal blooms. A paper on the rise of ammonia, using data from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program and co-authored by Tom Butler. A letter condemning the proposed cuts to science in FY26, signed by more than 1200 members of the National Academy of Sciences.   CREDITS  Produced by Justine Paradis. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    34 min
  5. A Map to the Next World

    16/07/2025

    A Map to the Next World

    “In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for those who would climb through the hole in the sky.” That’s the first line of the poem “A Map to the Next World” by Muscogee writer and former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. It’s a piece that’s inspired Aquinnah Wampanoag writer Joseph Lee as he undertakes one of journalism's most nuanced beats: covering hundreds of unique tribal communities.  Sometimes those stories fit into neat narratives – about how tribes are restoring nature and winning back land – but that’s not always the case. What's it like covering Indigenous communities responding and adapting to climate change? And how are these tribes thinking about their futures? We talk to Joseph Lee about some of the stories he’s covered, and his own attempt to make a map to the next world.  Featuring Joseph Lee. Produced by Felix Poon. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.   SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.   LINKS “A Map to the Next World,” is the title of a poem by Muscogee poet Joy Harjo. Nothing More of This Land is a new book from award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, about Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world. Read Joseph Lee’s reporting on: The Northwestern Shoshone’s restoration work to the Bear River (Vox) The controversy over a proposed gold mine in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta (Grist) The Shinnecock tribe’s response to sea-level rise in the Hamptons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    32 min
  6. What Remains: More MOVE remains found

    12/12/2024

    What Remains: More MOVE remains found

    Just a few weeks after we released the What Remains series, news broke that the Penn Museum discovered additional remains of 1985 MOVE bombing victims in the museum. How did this happen? And what's next for the thousands of other human remains still in their possession? Producer Felix Poon knew just the person to talk to for answers. Featuring Rachel Watkins.  MORE ABOUT “WHAT REMAINS” Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.  But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. 19th and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospitals, robbed graves, and looted Indigenous bones from sacred sites. Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.  In this series from Outside/In, producer Felix Poon takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.  Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology. Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next? LINKS Read the Penn Museum’s statement about the latest discovery of additional MOVE remains at the museum. Listen to WHYY’s news report, Penn Museum discovers another set of human remains from the MOVE bombing. You can find our full episode credits, listen to our back catalog, and support Outside/In at our website: outsideinradio.org.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    24 min
  7. Windfall, Part 5: The Just Transition

    22/07/2021

    Windfall, Part 5: The Just Transition

    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 environmental movement ready to welcome oil majors and devoted capitalists into their ranks? Ready or not, here they come. Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future. Featuring: Henrik Stiesdal, Nat Bullard, Jason Jarvis, and Mijin Cha. Part 5 of 5. SUPPORT Windfall is made possible with member-support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Subscribe to our newsletter. LINKS A note about our reporting process CREDITS Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico Executive Producer: Erika Janik Mixing: Justine Paradis Fact-checking: Sara Sneath Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy Special thanks to Sandeep Pai, Bo Quinn, Sammy Roth and Kim Delfino. Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    23 min
  8. Fortress Conservation

    05/11/2020

    Fortress Conservation

    Throughout the 20th century, conservationists and environmentalists have looked to protect wildlife and biodiversity through the creation of parks and other forms of exclusionary wildlife zones. Zones that seek to preserve spaces devoid of human impact - or to create them, by displacing indigenous and poor people who already live there. Today, some academics call this strategy by a pejorative name: Fortress conservation. In this episode, we look at medieval forest law, the early days of Yellowstone National Park, and spreading concern over how conservation efforts are enacted and enforced around the world. Get more Outside/In in your inbox - sign up for our newsletter. Featuring Karl Jacoby, Prakash Kashwan, Rosalyn LaPier, Hadrian Cook, and Vicky Tauli-Corpuz. Find more Outside/In on our website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    44 min
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Hosts & Guests

About

Outside/In: Where curiosity and the natural world collide. Look around, and you’ll find everything is connected to the natural world. At Outside/In, we explore that idea with boundless curiosity. We report from disaster zones, pickleball courts, and dog sled kennels, and talk about policy, pop culture, science, and everything in between. From the backcountry to your backyard, we tell stories that expand the boundaries of environmental journalism. Outside/In is a production of NHPR. Learn more at outsideinradio.org

Information

  • Channel
    NHPR
  • Creator
    NHPR
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    381
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © New Hampshire Public Radio
  • Show Website
    Outside/In

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