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Life is strange, naturally you want to hear about it. Strange by Nature is your guide to the strange, weird and unbelievable side of nature. Professional naturalists present weekly curated stories about just how strange nature can get.
Episodes
Wednesday Dec 04, 2024
Wednesday Dec 04, 2024
We're almost to 200 episodes! Hold your horses though, we have one more episode here in ONEderland.
This week, Kirk brings us a completely bizarre story about a possible solar powered hornet. Is the Oriental Hornet really solar powered? Kirk dives into the details.
Rachel then introduces us to the largest whale in the world, the Blue Whale. The animal is so hard to understand size-wise that she has to resort to some absolutely strange comparisons. Which body part weighs as much as a bumper car? You'll have to listen to find out.
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Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
We've got a full episode this week to get some of you though family time on Thanksgiving. Put in the ear buds and enjoy some anti-social you time.
Rachel kicks us off with the fascinating story of a long-long extinct plant brought back to live with an ancient seed found on an archeological dig. Only problem is, we aren't 100% sure what it is.
Victoria then untangles the issue of intersex. Sure, there are people with XX or XY chromosomes, but what happens when you get different combinations than what we learned about in high school biology?
Kirk rounds out this week with the unbelievably strange Undertaker Bird aka the Maribou Stork; a bizarre carrion-eating five foot tall stork that's seems like something out of a Dr Seuss book.
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Wednesday Nov 20, 2024
Wednesday Nov 20, 2024
This week, Kirk takes us back to the end of the dinosaur age and how the asteroid impact may have set up just the right conditions to create the world's first farmers. Ants, it turns out, beat humans to the idea of agriculture by about 65 million years.
Rachel then takes us to one of the most remote islands in the world, Nightingale Island, to hear about the amazing effort going to to save the endemic Wilkins's Bunting. It is a monumental task that included saving forests by raising and introducing killer wasps.
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Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Fresh off Halloween and still on a sugar high, Rachel and Kirk dive into the mysteries of the planet.
Rachel heads back to the ocean to visit the Twilight Zone and talk about the bizarre Barrel-eyed fish. This fish has a see-through head and looks like something out of Avatar or some other sci-fi alien movie. Truly bizarre.
Kirk also delves into the waters of the ocean to bring us some fresh research on comb sea jellies and their incredible regenerative properties. Scientists cut them in half and discovered they merged bodies with their neighbors to survive. It is an incredible story that makes us think about what it means to be able to tell when your body ends and your neighbor's begins.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Kirk kicks things off this week with a mysterious sound being heard in Tampa, Florida. What is it? Likely the sound of hundreds of mating black drum fish. Keep it weird Florida.
Rachel then presents us with a pretty little Puss Caterpillar. It looks harmless enough but just touching it can make you feel like your bones are breaking. Do not touch.
Victoria surprises us this week with a miracle healing substance we've know about for over a century but don't currently use very often. The Human Placenta!
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Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
It's finally here, the Halloween Episode for 2024.
Victoria starts things of with, brace yourself, flying leeches. That's right, we finally have confirmation of a story that goes back almost 700 years. There really are flying leeches.
Keeping with the unintentional blood-sucking flying creature theme, Kirk brings us the Vampire Finch, a bird that drinks blood to survive on dry desert islands.
Rachel rounds out this week's show by making us afraid of ever going near water again. Sure, we need it to survive, but water can harbor a whole host of nasty parasites and diseases to ruin your day.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Oct 23, 2024
Wednesday Oct 23, 2024
What an appropriate subject for the week before Halloween! Rachel brings us the very creepy Crypt-keeper Wasp. This parasitic wasp eats you alive inside your home and then forces you to dig a tunnel so it can escape by bursting through your forehead. All completely normal yes?
Kirk takes a turn to the humorous side by putting biologist's sense of humor on display when it comes to silly scientific names for plants and animals. From a fungus named after Spongebob to a Trilobite named after Han Solo, scientists sometimes like to wave their freak flag.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Monday Oct 14, 2024
Monday Oct 14, 2024
This week, Kirk brings us a mystery. Last September, the Earth rang like a bell for nine days and a team of 56 scientists from around the world spent a year investigating why. The story the uncovered involves the collapse of a mountain and a mind-boggling large tsunami. Our world is bizarre.
Rachel was up next with a story of giant 440 lb jellyfish that have been overwhelming fishermen when up to 1,500 of them at a time are showing up in fishing nets. Yes, they sting. They are absolutely astounding and more may be on the way.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Oct 09, 2024
Wednesday Oct 09, 2024
Rachel kicks things off this week with the amazing Wombat butt. Sure, Kirk talked about the strange square shaped poo of the Wombat many episodes ago but he didn't talk about their armored butt and how they use it for defense. Thanks for the update Rachel!
Victoria is next and she once again treads familiar ground on the show by talking about extremophiles. We've discussed them before but this time they aren't lurking in the depths of the ocean they are in your home microwave. New research shows us what creatures an survive this extreme environment.
In a strange coincidence this week, not only did Rachel add to one of Kirk's old topics but Kirk revisited one of Rachel's. Rachel had previously talked about a poisonous bird and so Kirk did a deep dive on all of the rest of the poisonous birds in the world. Some are truly bizarre.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Oct 02, 2024
Wednesday Oct 02, 2024
So much to unpack here this week. Kirk starts us off with a story about bears in Yellowstone eating 40,000 moths to get ready for winter.
Rachel then takes us into Piranha infested waters to separate myth from science.
Victoria rounds out the week with surprising new research on extra nipples and breasts. What can we say, it was a weird week.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!