Strange by Nature Podcast

Rachel's up first this week with a deep dive on the largest toothed whale in the world, the Sperm whale. How did they get that weird name? You'll have to listen to find out.

Kirk shares the bizarre story of the time Idaho parachuted 76 beavers into a remote wilderness as part of operation Beaver Drop. It's an amazing story with some long-term benefits you can even see from space!

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This week, Kirk starts us off with an unbelievable story about a recent science expedition to one of the most remote jungles in the world where scientists bizarrely discovered a terrestrial shrimp. That's right a shrimp that lives on land. 

Rachel is up next and tells us about a beautiful and rare phenomenon, hair snow. This strange creation requires a fungus and exactly the right weather. When they come together, something magical happens.

Victoria rounds out the show by doing a run-down on the most successful predators on earth. Sure, there are tigers and wolves and birds of prey but can you guess the animal with an astounding 95% hunting success rate? 

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This week, Victoria spins a tale of a mystery creature inflicting terrible pain swimmers and the strange unorthodox researcher who solved the mystery. Kirk then tells us about strange obelisks living in our mouths. Rachel rounds out the week by diving down 16,000 feet under the ocean to track down a bizarre eel with a giant mouth.

 

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It's that time again, the end of another year of Strange by Nature. So, as usual, we're joined by professional naturalist Brett Sieberer and he takes over the show to quiz us about the past year of shows and other bizarre nature knowledge. Yes, we play the ever popular game, Eat, Ride, Jacket.

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This week Rachel kicks of the show talking about the bizarre theoretical phenomenon of Spaghettification, the process of your body being stretched out into a line of sub-atomic particles inside a black hole.

Victoria then takes us to the ocean where we learn about how the ear-wax plugs of whales can teach us about their life-histories.

Kirk then wraps it all up by telling us about the horrific experience of bing stung by the most painful plant in the world, the Gympie-Gympie.

 

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This week Kirk kicks us off with a discussion of Samurai Crabs and realizes they sound familiar because of a strange childhood connection involving a cartoon rabbit. 

Rachel then dives into prions and Chronic Wasting Disease. Fear not, she has good news. 

Victoria rounds out this week by telling us about the missing continent of Zealandia. 

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Victoria kicks off this week with a charged up salute to caffeine. Sure, you can find it in Coffee and Tea but there are other plants from around the world with caffeine including a Holly from North America.

 

Kirk is up next and he shares multiple examples of times humans have unintentionally caused the evolution of species.

 

Rachel rounds out this week's episode with a Valentine's treat of pearls. Where do they come from? Why do they exist?

 

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This week we Rachel and Kirk both head to the ocean but or very different reasons.

 

Rachel tells us all about the Portuguese Man-O-War, one of the strangest creatures in the sea. Upon hearing the story, Kirk decides he may never swim in the ocean again.

 

Kirk brings us back to the sea again with a story about the time his ship almost fell victim to the North Sea and then fills us in on the phenomenon of Rogue Waves that can reach 95 feet in height. That's some big waves!

Surf's up!

 

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This week Kirk kicks things off with details of a fascinating study that determined which perfume tigers find most alluring. The implications for research are surprisingly useful.

 

Rachel takes on a listener suggestion and covers new research into the bizarre ability of Reindeer to eat while they sleep!

 

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This week Victoria starts us off by having us think about dinosaurs and why we haven't updated our portrayals of them based on new science. It turns out, T-Rex probably had lips.

 

Kirk then tells the tale of a time in the far distant past when birds ate our ancestors.

 

Rachel wraps things up this week with the bizarre tale of a moth with a surprising diet.

 

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