Outside/In

• Tasting the forbidden fruit

  A few months ago we got an email from a listener who tried a bit of a very poisonous apple and lived to tell the tale. Ultimately, he was fine, but the incident left him full of questions. We figured, why not run with that curiosity? We put a call out for all of your poison related queries and you delivered: How much should you worry about those green potatoes in your pantry? Could our car tires be poisoning the environment? It’s another Outside/Inbox roundup on the show this week. Buckle up. This is the first part of a “Things That Can Kill You” mini-series. Up next we tackle venom and allergies.Featuring Hussein Elgridly, Deborah Blum, Andy Robinson, Angela Mech, Kyle Lombard and Heejung Jung.Are green potatoes toxic?Are invasive browntail moths expanding their range?Is hydroxyapatite an effective substitute for fluoride?How much toxic airborne pollution is contributed by vehicle tires?For our next Outside/Inbox roundup, we’re looking for questions about sound! Dream big here: we’re talking animal sounds, traffic noise, the sounds of space… Send us your questions by recording yourself on a voice memo, and emailing that to us at [email protected].  Or you can call our hotline: 844-GO-OTTER.For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. 

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• The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs

  Sgt. Tibbs, a fluffy, 19-year-old Maine Coon with tiger stripes, soft eyes, and a chipped tooth, is missing on the streets of Manchester, New Hampshire. His owner, Rose, fears the worst. But when she finds out her cat was never missing at all – the truth turns out to be worse than she feared.From our friends over at the Document team at New Hampshire Public Radio, this is the first in a four-part series about what we owe our pets – and what we owe our neighbors.For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.SUPPORTOutside/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.

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• The Emerald Forest: Why Irish farmers aren’t happy about some American trees

  After the Irish fought for and won their independence from the British in 1921, they had a problem. Centuries of exploitation had left the island one of the least forested nations in Europe, with less than 2% tree cover. So, they started planting a non-native American tree: fast-growing Sitka spruce capable of rebuilding their timber resources in record time. And it worked. Today, about 12% of the island is forested. But in the rural areas where iconic rolling hills have been replaced by rows and rows of conifers, farmers are not happy. Outside/In host Nate Hegyi takes us to County Leitrim, an area of Ireland hit hard by the Troubles and the Great Famine, to meet the townspeople who are fighting what they say is a new wave of colonialism: Sitka spruce plantations. Produced by Nate Hegyi. For a transcript and full list of credits, go to outsideinradio.org. Featuring: Justin Warnock, Brian Smyth, Donal Magner, Liam Byrne and Jodie Asselin SUPPORTTo 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.Subscribe to our (free) newsletter.Follow Outside/In on Instagram or BlueSky, or join our private discussion group on Facebook LINKSDonal Magner wrote a book covering the history of Ireland’s forests and timber industry. Sitka spruce plantations are controversial in other parts of Ireland as well, including Cork. There are also efforts to rewild parts of Ireland with entirely native trees and to protect and restore carbon-sequestering bogs. It can be really tough to figure out exactly what was growing in Ireland thousands of years ago – but these scientists used ancient pollen counts to figure it out. Researchers at University College Dublin produced  a detailed socio-economic impact report on sitka spruce plantations and County Leitrim in 2019.

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• Why we sing

  Recently, our producer Justine Paradis noticed something. Humans really like to sing together in groups: birthday parties, sports games, church hymns, protest chants, singing along to Taylor Swift at the Eras concert… the list could get very long.But… why? Did singing play a part in human evolution? Why does singing together make us feel so good?Featuring Hannah Mayree, Ani Patel, Dor Shilton, and Arla Good. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. SUPPORTTo 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.Subscribe to our (free) newsletter.Follow Outside/In on Instagram or BlueSky, or join our private discussion group on Facebook LINKSBobby McFerrin in 2009 at the World Science Festival, demonstrating the intuitive power of the pentatonic scale, and in 2010, improvising in a stadium in Germany with 60,000 singers.A short documentary about Sing For Your Life! and OneVoice Circle Singers.Check out Hannah Mayree’s music and work.Dor Shilton and Ani Patel collaborated on a paper (currently preprint) examining four societies where collective music-making is rare.Dor Shilton’s paper on the evolution of music as an “interactive technology” and open-access analysis of patterns in group singing.This journal presented the hypothesis of music as a mechanism for social bonding as part of an ongoing conversation. SingWell’s forthcoming research on group singing, aging, and Parkinson’s disease.

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• Why do animals play?

  We’re used to seeing dogs and cats play with toys or get the zoomies… but do animals like rats and bumblebees play too? What is animal play for? How do scientists even decide what counts as play?Today, we’re taking a serious look at goofy behavior. We’ll discover the five-part checklist that many scientists use to recognize play in nature, and find out why taking turns is so important for healthy brain development. This episode is a collaboration between Outside/In and Tumble, the science podcast for kids. Featuring Junyi Chu and Jackson HamProduced by Lindsay Patterson, Marshall Escamilla, and Taylor Quimby. For a transcript and full list of credits, go to outsideinradio.org.  SUPPORTOutside/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. LINKSLove this episode? Looking for family-friendly podcasts to listen to? There are over 150 episodes of Tumble to check out, including a few of our favorites: Do Trees Fart?The Swift QuakeWhy Are Sloths SlowAre Cats Evil? The five-part play checklist mentioned in the episode was developed by play researcher Gordon M. Burghardt. His paper, “Play in fishes, frogs and reptiles,” answers some other really interesting questions about animal play. 

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