Strange by Nature Podcast

Stinking Smut of Rye

Kirk starts off the show with the mysterious story of the Basra Grain Poisoning of 1971, a terrible story of the dangers of methylmercury.

Rachel is up next with the amazing story of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake on Earth. 

Victoria rounds out this week's show by talking about animal asymmetry. Turns out, not all animals are symmetrical and they can get real weird. 

A Pooper Scooper Claw

Victoria starts us off with a wealth of information about hermit crabs and the strange process of shell swapping.

Kirk brings us the strange tale of Conan the Bacterium, a bacterium that can withstand amazing amounts of radiation and survive.

Rachel wraps us up this week with...wait for it...even MORE facts about dandelions.

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What's So Strange About Dandelions?

What's so strange about Dandelions? That's a good question and Rachel gets to the bottom of it.

Victoria is up next with some wild research into just how large of an object a snake can swallow.

Kirk rounds out this week's show with a creature feature about a strange mole-like creature in Europe that is a relic of the past.

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Planets Made of Diamonds

Kirk brings the strange tale of the King's Lomatia, quite possibly the oldest living plant on Earth. It is a strange tree that has lost the ability to sexually reproduce and yet...it keeps on living for thousands of years.

Rachel has a doozy of a story about a man who let himself be bitten by venomous snakes over and over and over. Now he's helping scientists make a better anti-venom.

Victoria travels to the stars to tell us about planets made of diamonds. 

We really do cover it all this week!

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The Fastest Jaws on Earth

This week, Victoria starts us off with a discussion probably not suitable for all ages by talking about the massive penis of the Serotine Bat. It's a lot to take in.

Kirk then shares the remarkable story of a palm tree that both flowers and fruits completely underground.

Rachel rounds out this week's show talking about the fastest moving predatory appendage in the animal kingdom. The jaws of the Trap Jaw ant closes at 143 mph.

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Giant Bird Eating Spiders

Rachel kicks off this week show with the strange colonial creatures of the sea known as "By the Wind Sailors."

Victoria makes us all a bit uncomfortable talking about giant bird-eating spiders.

Kirk encourages us to smack rocks with hammers as he explains the mysterious Ringing Rocks of Pennsylvania.

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Which Animal Smells like Buttered Popcorn?

Kirk tells us about how scientists finally discovered the identity of a frog that had puzzled the scientific community for 80 years.

Rachel tells us all about the Binturong, the bizarre bearcat that smells like buttered popcorn.

In a salute to Mother's Day, Victoria tells us about the truly strange Sea Hares and her mom's research connection to them.

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The Bone Collector Moth

Anyone fancy a yawn? Victoria did some investigation into the strange phenomenon of social yawning. Are yawns really contagious?

Kirk then brings us the story of the Bone Collector Moth. When it is a caterpillar, it creates a disguise by gluing dead bodies to itself. Yikes.

Rachel rounds out the show with brand new research showing that sharks can make sounds!

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The Lightening Tree

Victoria talks about the amazing tropical super-canopy tree the Almendro that actually seem to attract lightening in order to kill off the trees around them. Talk about a bad neighbor!

Kirk then brings us the strange story of the Ruff, a shorebird with three distinct versions of males. They each have their own distinct plumage and role in the mating dance. One of them even disguises itself as a female!

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Trees Older Than Written Language!

Kirk blows our minds with the age of Bristlecone Pines. Did you know there are living trees that predate the invention of written language?

Victoria then has a doozy of a story about White-throated sparrows developing a new secondary sex chromosome. This bizarre occurrence means there are technically four different sexes of this bird instead of the regular two.

 

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