Outside/in

As extreme weather wreaks havoc around the globe NPR's Throughline looks at a natural disaster more than 200 hundred years ago that had far-reaching effects. This week, how the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki awed, terrified and disrupted millions around the world and changed the course of history. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $100 a month, Sam will personally give you a cross country ski lesson! And yes, it's true, he was taught how to ski by an Olympic gold-medalist.

Before Hurricane Maria hit in September of 2017, Puerto Rico's rickety electric grid was a notorious headache. After the storm, it was a crisis. This is the story of how a pair of star-crossed lovers came to see nuclear as the unlikely solution to Puerto Rico's energy woes, and how their vision for the island might be changing the way we approach power... even if their plan never comes to pass. Outside/In needs your help. Click here to find out how you can support the show. There's lots of great swag to choose from (so check out the thank-you gifts!) but for $20 a month, we'll send you a ticket to an Outside/In Trivia Night! Test your knowledge of the natural world, share an evening with Sam and the rest of the team, and support the podcast you love.

People love fishing for trout. They love it so much that we are willing to go to insane lengths to catch them. But what should we make of the fact that much of that experience of fishing for trout is just a facsimile of what it once was… and may actually be bad for the very same fish, that we so love to catch? Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org

When most of us heard about the "insect apocalypse" we were worried. When producer Jimmy Gutierrez heard it, he thought "this is great." Today he takes a journey in which he tries to learn to appreciate our many-legged companions. Want to read a transcript or support the podcast? Check out our website.

Sam answers questions about rethinking the toilet, line-dry laundry, rhubarb, and sleeping mosquitoes. Find more Outside/In.

Last year, two people were attacked by sharks on Cape Cod, and one died. The result has been a  media frenzy that really you have to see to believe.Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org

When it feels like doctors have closed the door to establishment medicine, another set of doors open. These doors lead to dubious providers, and untested treatments. Click here to donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content. 

A perfect carrier of disease. A race underneath your skin. The part we know, before we get to the parts we don't. Click here to donate $20 and get ad-free episodes of Patient Zero a week early and bonus content. 

When you're fighting off a cold or flu, it's easy to imagine the battle is being waged solely inside the confines of your body. But in order to spread, pathogens rely on nearly every aspect of our shared societies. Food and drink, social customs, our proximity to animals, urban design, income inequality: The science of epidemiology connects them all. Patient Zero investigates the spaces where people and pathogens collide. It is a story about Lyme disease, but it is also a story about uncertainty, and what to do in the face of it. 

A first look at Patient Zero, a series we'll be putting out next month! Hosted by Outside/In's Taylor Quimby. Sweet new theme by Ty Gibbons. First episode drops mid-August!  Find more at patientzeropodcast.com.

With Disney's reboot of The Lion King hitting theaters, does the original still hold up all these years later? In this episode, the team revisits an epic tale of class, land rights, and destiny... and critiques the landscapes, animals, and themes that so many 90's kids grew up watching. And once again, Jimmy defends the reputation of hyenas. Check out our website, outsideinradio.orgAnd follow us on Twitter and Instagram

 Ever since the threat of climate change was first made public, scientists have offered the possibility of a get-out-of-jail-free card: geoengineering. While reducing emissions is hard and complicated, why not just engineer the Earth's atmosphere in the meantime? Decades later, the science of geoengineering is still in its infancy, but a growing number of researchers are trying to change that.  Should they? Check out our website, outsideinradio.orgAnd follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Swimming is something that is more or less a part of human experience, depending on who you are, where you are, when you are alive in history. More than half of Americans can't perform all of the basic swimming skills. On this episode, two stories that explore our relationship with the water, and why people do or don’t learn to swim. Check out our website, outsideinradio.orgAnd follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Traveling to Antarctica to hang with penguins on the company dime likely seems like the dream assignment for a journalist... or anyone. Ron Naveen has been living that dream, counting penguins by hand for decades. And today you're going to hear about that work from our friends at the PBS Newshour's podcast "The Last Continent." Find more Outside/In.

Today on the podcast, a story that seemed like a perfect fit Outside/In that wound up going places that we didn’t expect to go. When workers at the American embassy Cuba claimed to have been attacked by a mysterious weapon that left no trace, it led to a major shift in American diplomacy towards the Caribbean socialist state. But the story has also led to a split in journalism, stemming from the sources different kinds of journalists rely on.This story forces us to ask: how do we decide what we know? What kinds of information we trust?

Ask Sam: that special segment when scientists cringe as Sam and the team speculate wildly on answers to a diverse range of questions from listeners before calling in the real experts.  This time we tackle paper towels, cow poop, body temperature, and weighing whales.Find more Outside/In

Textiles are all around us. We live in them, sleep on them, sit on them, walk on them, live in houses filled with them. It’s one of the biggest industries in the world. But it’s also one with a big problem and, at least for consumers in the United States, a largely invisible one - textile waste. Today, we’re tearing the very shirt off your back to explore the old is new approach to textiles that could eliminate millions of tons of garbage a year.Find more Outside/In

This month, Outside/In is asking for your support. Your donations will keep the show kicking butt, and help us make our next big series!  Plus, we’ve got special (limited-edition, super-twee) swag, handcrafted with an actual branding iron. Donate here.You hike, you fish, you camp… and you’re single. When you’re looking for love, what is the importance of being “outdoorsy”? And how do you communicate your identity — and expectations for potential matches — on an online dating profile?The fish photo is just the beginning. 

In Australia, conventional conservation wisdom has stated that in order to save the small indigenous mammals, it's necessary to kill invasive predators. But is it?  Today on the show, we follow environmental writer Emma Marris as she explores the concept, and possible limits, of compassionate conservationism. Also, are you noticing that we're in your feed a little early? That's because this month, we're asking for you to pitch in and support the podcast with a donation, and because we know that's kind of annoying, we want to give you something a little extra as thanks. So for the month of April, instead of just 2 episodes, we're going to give you four. Not only that we're giving away swag! We've lined up a bunch of nifty thank you gifts, which you can peruse at outsideinradio.orgSo, if you want to send a little love our way click here to donate to our Outside/In Fund Drive, and get a limited edition O/I button (among other cool stuff)!

The Sununus are one of New Hampshire's grandest families. John H. Sununu was governor and White House Chief of Staff. One of his sons, John E. Sununu, was a U.S. congressman and senator, and another, Chris Sununu, is governor today.  In their roles of political power, all of these men have faced a different landscape with regard to climate change, and what it means to be a Republican. Today, we track that party's evolution on the subject, through the frame of this one family.For full versions of several of the interviews in this episode, head to our website outsideinradio.orgSign up for our newsletter!