Outside/In

While sand beaches comprise just over 30% of the world’s ice-free shorelines, the collective idea of the sand beach can sometimes cast a much bigger shadow. That imagined beach can even have an influence on other fields of science — like plastic pollution. Featuring Dr. Max Liboiron. Links Liboiron’s essay, “Plastics in the Gut,” published in Orion Magazine. Outside/In Book Club The pick for the first book is Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by geologist and writer Lauret Savoy. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

When composer and traveling musician Ben Cosgrove was just 7 years old, he wrote a song called “Waves”. Since then, he’s made a career out of music inspired by landscape, place, and wilderness. But if an artist has an environmental brand... do they also represent an environmental ethic? Over the years, Ben began to wrestle with what his music was really saying about the natural world. Subscribe to our newsletter. Read “The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon. More on Ben Cosgrove’s new album, also called “The Trouble with Wilderness”. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

Even in the quietest of times, sand beaches are defined by movement and change. “I think it's fair to say the beach is one of the most flexible or dynamic, if you will, habitats in the world. It’s super geologically unstable,” said coastal ecologist Dr. Bianca Charbonneau, also known as “the Dune Goon.” Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for biweekly reading lists, episode extras, and chances to get involved. On this edition of 10x10, we explore how beaches move. Producer Justine Paradis examines the systems and feedback loops on and around the sand beach, the science taking place there, and how the way beaches are changing is itself changing in a changing world. Support great storytelling by making a donation to Outside/In. Links Hawaii’s Beaches are Disappearing, a report from ProPublica and Honolulu Star-Advertiser Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life by Diane Cardwell United Nations report on the global sand shortage “Peak Sand” from Planet Money Beach profiling and community science with NH Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension. Announcing: the Outside/In Book Club Heads-up! In May, we will be debuting the O/I Book Club. The pick for the first book, selected by our listeners, is Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by geologist and writer Lauret Savoy. It is so good: she tells hidden stories of American landscapes, sometimes starting from the bedrock, and explores the interplay between geography, history, and culture. if you don’t get a chance to read the book we think you’ll still enjoy the conversation. But if you want to read along with us, here’s a link to buy the book from your local independent bookseller, or you can always check it out from the library.  WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

This week, we’re featuring an episode from How To Save A Planet, a podcast about climate change hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Blumberg. Heating and powering buildings takes a lot of energy, which is why a full thirty percent of U.S. greenhouse gasses can be traced back to the indoor environments in which we live and work. Lowering that number on a collective scale - by increasing their efficiency - is no easy feat. In this episode, Ayana and Alex speak with Donnel Baird, founder of BlocPower, about his mission to tighten up one of the leakiest contributors to climate change: our buildings. How To Save A Planet is produced and reported by Rachel Waldholz, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd and Felix Poon. Their senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Their editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design, mixing and original music by Emma Munger. Additional music by Catherine Anderson and Bobby Lord. This episode was fact-checked by Claudia Geib. Outside/In theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. Support Outside/In by making a donation in our year end fund drive WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

This special BONUS episode of Outside/In was sponsored and selected by our lovely donors. Thank you for your support! Gutters can refer to the curbside drainage channels that lead into storm drains, to the metal or plastic troughs that line some rooftops, or really to any low area designed to move water from one place to another. They are, by design, fairly ordinary examples of human engineering. But look closer, and you’ll find extraordinary objects and ecosystems hidden within. Starting at the curb and working our way up, we spend this episode learning about which creatures take advantage of our waste-water systems; find evidence of extraterrestrial travel on our rooftops; and look at how gutters function…or don’t… for the very species that designed them. Featuring Ken Belt, Carlos Goller, Menno Schilthuizen, Doug Hartman, Matthew Genge, Fushcia Hoover, and Joyce Hwang. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. Support Outside/In by making a donation! Read more about the Parisian Gutter study.  Check out Jon Larsen’s Facebook Group for urban micrometeorite hobbyists, Project Stardust. See a United States map of cities with Combined Sewer Systems. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

In the early 1900s, an Ohlone woman named Isabel Meadows was recorded describing her longing to eat acorn bread again. She detailed the bread’s flavor; the jelly-like texture; the crispy edges; the people who made it. And she talked about the bread’s place in the creation story of her tribe. A century later, a young Ohlone man named Louis Trevino came across the recordings and recognized Meadows as an ancestor from his community. Today, Trevino and his Ohlone partner, Vincent Medina, are on a journey to bring acorn bread, and the language and traditions connected to it, back to the Ohlone people. The Acorn: An Ohlone Love Story is a documentary about Ohlone food, language, and history. But, ultimately, it is a story about Ohlone strength and homeland, the landscape that stretches from the Bay Area of California to Monterey and Big Sur. And at the heart of this story are acorns. Links Michelle Macklem Zoe Tennant Cafe Ohlone Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. Support Outside/In by making a donation! WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

Another edition of Ask Sam, where Sam answers listener questions about the natural world. This time, questions about hugging trees, bumpy roads, objects stuck on power lines, and epic hummingbird battles. Featuring special guests, Maddie Sofia, host of NPR's Short Wave, and Kendra Pierre-Louis, climate journalist with Gimlet's How to Save a Planet. Also featuring Ferris Jabr, Stephen Morris, Greg Bruton, and Anusha Shankar. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. Support Outside/In by making a donation! WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

A lot of us may feel like our time and attention is not our own, and can easily disappear into the ether of work and the internet. But rather than merely suggesting a digital detox, Jenny Odell presents a third way. In her book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny draws on ecology, art, labor history, and literature, seeking a deeper kind of attention: an attention that probes our sense of selfhood, our relationship to place, time, and other species. An attention that reminds us of our being animal on this planet. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

When producer/reporter Dan Taberski collected data about the long-running reality TV show Cops, he found that it depicts a distorted version of America: Where nearly all crime is associated with violence, drugs, or prostitution, and nearly every police encounter ends in arrest. There’s another reality TV show about law enforcement called North Woods Law. It follows state conservation officers employed by New Hampshire’s Fish & Game Department. But on North Woods Law, you’re more likely to see an injured loon than an honest-to-goodness arrest. If COPS presents a world more dangerous than reality, North Woods Law presents something else. But what? Featuring Jamiles Lartey, William Browne, Erika Billerbeck, Colin Woodard, Colonel Kevin Jordan, Dan Taberski, and Scott Rouleau. Sign up for the Outside/In newsletter for our biweekly reading lists and episode extras. Support Outside/In by making a donation. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

For many of us during the pandemic, the dark and cold of winter brings a special sense of dread. But it’s not just this year: the seasonal darkness often collectively takes us by surprise. Like clockwork, we forget how dark and cold it gets - and it turns out, there are reasons for that. But our perception of the seasonal darkness can also be influenced by our attitudes about it. In Norway, cultural ideas around winter help shape attitudes and experiences of the cold. The Outside/In winter fund drive is nearly over, and we’re almost to our goal of 100 donors! Visit outsideinradio.org/donate to support the show - and vote on the topic of a potential bonus episode if we reach our goal. First, there’s the idea of getting cozy, or kosileg. Think candles, slippers, the glow of a fire in the window on a snowy night, eating wood-fired pizza under the stars, or “the smell of baked goods and the Christmas tree,” said Anders Folleras, college friend of Sam Evans-Brown and honorary Outside/In Norwegian cultural attaché. Koselig is the Norwegian analogue of the Danish idea of hygge. But there’s another concept that goes hand-in-hand with koselig: friluftsliv. “Being outdoorsy, I’d say,” said Folleras. “Outdoor lifestyle.” Embracing friluftsliv means open-air living, or getting outside every day, and outdoor adventures for all ages. So, we think if you really want to get koselig, you’ve gotta get a little friluftsliv too. For a full list of the suggestions we mentioned in this episode, visit the episode post on outsideinradio.org. WIN A NEW CAR OR 25K IN CASH DURING NHPR'S SUMMER RAFFLE! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.