Podcasts about Natural history

Leaders of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University say they can't afford to keep the museum open to visitors. And there are rumors that another natural history museum, in Hays, Kansas, may be closing its doors. What happens to the collections, and are museums going the way of the dinosaurs? Jason Cryan, from the Natural History Museum of Utah, and Barbara Thiers, formerly of the New York Botanical Garden, join Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the challenges of running a natural history museum.Guests:Dr. Jason Cryan is The Sarah B. George Executive Director of the Natural History Museum of Utah, the largest natural history museum in America's intermountain west.Barbara Thiers is Director Emerita and Curator at New York Botanical Garden, and Research Associate at the Denver Botanic Gardens.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To welcome October, this week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa welcomes Colleen Raney of Washington State's Songbird Seed Company and Diadem Flower Company.  Colleen founded Songbird Seed Co., a seed company devoted to cultivating and preserving exceptional sweet peas. What started as a personal fascination with the sweet pea became a deeper study of their history, varieties, cultivation, and extraordinary diversity. Today, Colleen grows hundreds of sweet pea varieties each year, selecting and sharing seeds that she finds particularly beautiful, unusual, and worthy of being grown again. Her work is grounded in the belief that sweet peas need not be complicated, and there is so much to be discovered in paying attention. Colleen publishes a bi-annual periodical, The Sweet Pea: A Garden Companion, and she is the founder of the American Sweet Pea Society. Together, Ben and Colleen explore her early life in acting and singing, and the connection between scent, memory, and our sense of home. We follow Colleen's growth from tending a simple garden and growing flowers for pollinators into a full-fledged flower farm, with a particular focus on her success growing sweet peas. They also talk about stepping back, paying attention, and letting the plants tell us what they need. At the beginning of the season for sowing many spring bloomers, we hope you join us by listening in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Join Lisa as she shares some of her favorite discoveries from her latest trips to New York City! From Broadway shows and the US Open to hidden gems like a Chinatown blowout and the immersive Masquerade experience, Lisa shares plenty of ideas for your next NYC adventure. She also talks about some of her favorite places to eat, including New York bagels and 4 Charles Prime Rib, plus classic stops like the American Museum of Natural History and The Edge. Whether it's your first trip or your tenth, you're sure to find something new to add to your New York City bucket list!

When the sun sets over the Navajo reservation, ancient legends come alive — and those who've seen the skinwalkers will never forget the eyes watching from the shadows.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/FaceToFaceWithFearREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p927m85FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Numerous Reddit users describe their own personal encounters with strange creatures that might be described as werewolves or wendigos… but even further skin deep. (Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters) *** In 1836, an unsuspecting passerby entered the Gardette-LePrete mansion and uncovered a scene of unimaginable horror. (Blood Soaked Gardette LePrete Mansion) *** Is it possible that some classic UFO events were actually hallucinations by people on drugs? (Psychedelic UFO Sightings) *** Ann Hodges, the only person struck by a meteorite who survived it, suffered a nervous breakdown after a media frenzy and a court battle for meteorite ownership. (Struck By a Meteor) *** A mysterious sighting in the night spawned the legend of one of West Virginia's creepiest cryptids. (The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster) *** A Weirdo family member tells the story of a ghost named Matilda. (Matilda)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:35.685 = Show Open00:03:27.394 = True Stories of Skinwalkers And Shapeshifters00:45:36.764 = Blood Soaked Gardette-LePrete Mansion ***00:50:42.066 = Psychedelic UFO Sightings01:00:00.794 = Struck By A Meteor ***01:07:47.832 = Legend Of The Flatwoods Monster01:16:07.232 = Matilda ***01:19:25.669 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters” by Nida Sea: http://bit.ly/2Xzkaml“Blood Soaked Gardette-LePrete Mansion” by Adam Karlin: http://bit.ly/2Lb3RKI“Psychedelic UFO Sightings” by Nick Redfern: http://bit.ly/2LSsETx“Struck By a Meteor” by Martin Chalakoski: http://bit.ly/2xBwmZ5“The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster” by Orin Grey: http://bit.ly/32jIImG“Matilda” submitted anonymously to WeirdDarkness.com(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: June 2022LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIALWeird Darkness host Darren Marlar covers firsthand skinwalker encounters, a massacre legend from a French Quarter mansion, UFO cases that may trace back to hallucinogens, an Alabama woman struck by a meteorite, West Virginia's Flatwoods Monster, and a ghost named Matilda.It opens with the skinwalker of Navajo tradition, a witch or medicine man said to take an animal's shape by wearing its skin, and with accounts of meeting one: a blood-matted creature with a half-bear, half-human face sitting in the road between Window Rock, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico, and a figure that paced a high school basketball bus at 85 miles an hour before dropping to all fours as a coyote. Other sightings range from Bandelier National Monument to the Australian bush, and a New Mexico highway patrol officer's two encounters come from George Knapp and Colm Kelleher's book Hunt for the Skinwalker.From there, it goes to the Gardette-LePrete mansion at 716 Dauphine Street in New Orleans, where legend says a passerby in 1836 followed a trickle of blood inside and found a courtyard strewn with hacked-apart bodies and a man who'd been buried alive, said to be the brother of an Ottoman sultan, though no historical record mentions the prince or the murders.Next, Rich Reynolds of the UFO Conjectures blog points to the CIA's MK-Ultra LSD experiments and suggests that some classic UFO encounters were drug-induced. The cases include contactee Orfeo Angelucci swallowing a pill in a Twentynine Palms, California, diner in December 1954, the 1957 abduction of Antonio Villas Boas in Brazil, and the 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi, abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker near the World War II biological-warfare site on Horn Island, in an area where local tales tell of later experiments with the hallucinogen BZ.After that, on November 30th, 1954, a nine-pound meteorite crashed through the ceiling of a rented house in Oak Grove, near Sylacauga, Alabama, bounced off the radio, and struck Ann Hodges on the hip as she napped. A lawsuit from her landlady, Birdie Guy, was settled with the Hodges family paying $500 for the rock, which Ann later gave to the Alabama Museum of Natural History; she suffered a nervous breakdown, split from her husband in 1964, and died in a nursing home in 1972.Then comes West Virginia's Flatwoods Monster, the figure with a round red face, a dark green body, and a hood shaped like the ace of spades that Kathleen May and six children saw on a farm hillside in Flatwoods on September 12th, 1952, after three boys watched something streak across the sky. In 2000, Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry traced it to a meteor, an aircraft beacon, and a barn owl, and Braxton County still celebrates the creature with a museum, monster-shaped chairs, and Flatwoods Days.The episode closes with an anonymous listener's story of Matilda, the ghost in a grandmother's big double house, where a door swung shut in a windowless room, a radio switched on in the night, and police kept answering calls nobody in the house had made. An obituary in an old newspaper in the attic named a woman called Matilda who had died there, and the activity stopped once the grandmother got a dog.

Fluent Fiction - Hebrew: Rosh Hashanah Mischief: A Museum Adventure Blooper Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/he/episode/2026-09-26-22-34-02-he Story Transcript:He: במוזיאון לתולדות הטבע, ביום סתווי של ראש השנה, התרגשות רבים באוויר.En: At the Museum of Natural History, on a fall day of Rosh Hashanah, there was a great excitement in the air.He: עלים כתומים וגוללים מתפזרים לאורך השבילים שמובילים אל דלתות המוזיאון הפתוחות, שבהן ההמונים נוהרים לצפות בתערוכות המרהיבות.En: Orange and twirling leaves scattered along the paths leading to the museum's open doors, where crowds flocked to admire the spectacular exhibits.He: נעם, בחור צעיר וסקרן, ביותר מתמיד.En: Noam, a young and curious guy, was more excited than ever.He: הוא צועד עם חבריו אלי ומאיה, בחזון ליצור חוויה בלתי נשכחת.En: He walked with his friends Eli and Maya, envisioning an unforgettable experience.He: נעם, שאוהב לחקור, לעיתים קרובות נותן לדמיונו להשתולל.En: Noam, who loves to explore, often lets his imagination run wild.He: הוא החליט על ביקור במוזיאון כאופציה מושלמת להרשים את חבריו.En: He decided that a visit to the museum was the perfect option to impress his friends.He: כשהם נכנסים, נעם מבחין בשלט מרשים ומעוטר עכבישים מלאכותיים, "פסגת האימה של המוזיאון.En: As they entered, Noam noticed an impressive sign adorned with artificial spiders: "The Museum's Peak of Horror."He: " הוא מניח שמדובר בתערוכת האלווין, ומוביל את אלי ומאיה לכיוון זה.En: He assumed it was a Halloween exhibit and led Eli and Maya in that direction.He: בזמן שהם מכוונים את צעדיהם לשם, אלי מטיל ספק ואומר, "נעם, אתה בטוח שזה נכון?En: As they made their way, Eli expressed doubt, saying, "Noam, are you sure about this?He: היום ראש השנה, לא האלווין.En: Today is Rosh Hashanah, not Halloween."He: " מאיה צוחקת בשקט, אבל נעם משוכנע שזה בדיוק המקום הנכון להפתיע את חבריו.En: Maya chuckled quietly, but Noam was convinced this was the right place to surprise his friends.He: בפנים, האווירה שקטה, ופסלים מרשימים של דינוזאורים ואבנים עתיקות מעטרים את החדר.En: Inside, the atmosphere was quiet, and impressive statues of dinosaurs and ancient stones decorated the room.He: נעם צועק בהתרגשות, "תראו, זה חלק מהמופע!En: Noam exclaimed excitedly, "Look, this is part of the show!"He: " אך אלי ומאיה מתחילים להרגיש שמשהו לא בסדר.En: But Eli and Maya began to feel something was off.He: לפתע, כשנעם מנסה לגעת בפסל, נדהם הוא מהופעת תאורת אזהרה צורמת שמלווה אותה צליל צעקות אזעקה חזקות.En: Suddenly, when Noam attempted to touch a statue, he was stunned by the appearance of a glaring warning light accompanied by the sound of loud alarm sirens.He: אנשי צוות המוזיאון ממהרים למקום, ושואלים נחרצות, "מה קורה כאן?En: Museum staff quickly rushed to the scene and inquired sternly, "What is happening here?"He: " נעם מבולבל, מתנצל וגולל בפניהם את טעותו.En: Noam, confused, apologized and explained his mistake.He: האחראים מחייכים בהבנה, "זו תערוכה חשובה מאוד, לא חלק מתוכנית האלווין.En: The staff smiled with understanding, "This is a very important exhibit, not part of the Halloween program."He: "לאחר שהמקום שוקע שוב בשקט, הצוות מלווה את נעם, אלי ומאיה החוצה ומאפשר להם להמשיך בסיורם.En: After the place settled back into quiet, the staff escorted Noam, Eli, and Maya out, allowing them to continue their tour.He: השלושה הולכים, צוחקים מזיכרון הסיטואציה המצחיקה.En: The three walked along, laughing at the memory of the funny situation.He: נעם, למרות הבושה, מבין את חשיבות הבדיקה הכפולה והתשומת לב לפרטים סביבו.En: Despite the embarrassment, Noam realized the importance of double-checking and paying attention to details around him.He: היום מוזכר בסופ"ש לאחר מכן, בין שאר הסיפורים המשעשעים, ונעם נפנה לחבריו, אומר, "רק שתדעו, בפעם הבאה נבדוק שנית את השלטים.En: The event was recounted the following weekend among other amusing stories, with Noam turning to his friends and saying, "Just so you know, next time we'll check the signs again."He: " מאיה ואלי צוחקים ומסכימים, ובכך משתנה נעם, ולומד לקח חשוב לחיים.En: Maya and Eli laughed and agreed, and thus Noam learned an important life lesson. Vocabulary Words:excitement: התרגשותtwirling: גולליםscattered: מתפזריםspectacular: מרהיבcurious: סקרןunforgettable: בלתי נשכחenvisioning: בחזוןadorned: מעוטרglaring: צורמתstatues: פסליםstunned: נדהםinquired: שואליםsternly: נחרצותescorted: מלווהrealized: מביןamusing: משעשעdespite: למרותattention: תשומת לבdetails: פרטיםlearned: לומדpath: שבילflocked: נוהריםexplore: לחקורassumed: מניחquietly: בשקטancient: עתיקglaring warning light: תאורת אזהרה צורמתaccompanied: שמלווהapologized: מתנצלembarrassment: בושהBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fluent-fiction-hebrew--5818690/support.

Fluent Fiction - Danish: Love and Discovery at the Museum of Second Chances Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/da/episode/2026-09-26-22-34-02-da Story Transcript:Da: I museet for Naturhistorie i København, hvor lyset falder blødt og danner skygger blandt udstillingerne, går Søren gennem rummene.En: In the Museum of Natural History in København, where the light falls softly and casts shadows among the exhibits, Søren walks through the rooms.Da: Det er efterår, og han elsker, hvordan træernes gyldne blade kan ses fra de store vinduer.En: It's autumn, and he loves how the golden leaves of the trees can be seen from the large windows.Da: Men bag hans ydre fascination gemmer der sig noget andet – en længsel efter noget mere i livet end blot fossiler og dinosaurer.En: But behind his outward fascination, something else is hidden—a longing for something more in life than just fossils and dinosaurs.Da: Mads, hans ven og kollega, driller ham tit.En: Mads, his friend and colleague, often teases him.Da: "Søren," siger Mads med et glimt i øjet, "du skulle finde en ven, der ikke har været død i millioner af år."En: "Søren," says Mads with a glint in his eye, "you should find a friend who hasn't been dead for millions of years."Da: Søren griner og ryster på hovedet.En: Søren laughs and shakes his head.Da: Det er måske rigtigt.En: It might be true.Da: Men hvordan?En: But how?Da: En dag er Freja på besøg i museet.En: One day Freja visits the museum.Da: Hun står længe foran en udstilling om evolutionen, hendes øjne lyser op.En: She stands for a long time in front of an exhibition on evolution, her eyes glowing.Da: Freja arbejder i en bank, men hendes sjæl længes efter viden og eventyr.En: Freja works in a bank, but her soul longs for knowledge and adventure.Da: Her i muséet føler hun sig friere.En: Here in the museum, she feels freer.Da: Søren står lidt fra hende, iagttager hendes begejstring.En: Søren stands a little away from her, observing her enthusiasm.Da: Han tager en beslutning.En: He makes a decision.Da: Med et dybt åndedrag går han hen og siger, "Det er en interessant udstilling, ikke?"En: With a deep breath, he approaches and says, "It's an interesting exhibit, isn't it?"Da: Freja vender sig mod ham, smilende.En: Freja turns to him, smiling.Da: "Helt bestemt," svarer hun, og så, næsten tøvende, "Jeg elsker at lære om alting her."En: "Absolutely," she replies, and then, almost hesitantly, "I love learning about everything here."Da: De to står længe og taler.En: The two stand and talk for a long time.Da: Søren finder glæde i Frejas ægte interesse.En: Søren finds joy in Freja's genuine interest.Da: Han begynder at slappe af, deres samtale flyder let.En: He begins to relax, their conversation flows easily.Da: De deler små stykker af sig selv, deres drømme og håb.En: They share small pieces of themselves, their dreams, and hopes.Da: En aften beslutter museet at holde en særåbning med foredrag.En: One evening, the museum decides to hold a special opening with lectures.Da: Søren tænker på det som en chance.En: Søren sees it as an opportunity.Da: Han ser Freja igen.En: He sees Freja again.Da: Deres samtale drejer sig mod evolution.En: Their conversation turns to evolution.Da: "Evolution er mere end biologi," siger Søren.En: "Evolution is more than biology," says Søren.Da: "Det handler også om at finde vej i livet."En: "It's also about finding your way in life."Da: Freja nikker, enig, mens hun tilføjer: "Måske handler det om forandring, om at vælge at følge, hvad der føles rigtigt."En: Freja nods, agreeing, while she adds, "Maybe it's about change, about choosing to follow what feels right."Da: De snakker og glemmer næsten tiden.En: They talk and almost lose track of time.Da: Søren føler en forandring inden i sig.En: Søren feels a change within him.Da: Med en blanding af mod og glæde byder han Freja sin kontaktoplysning.En: With a mix of courage and joy, he offers Freja his contact information.Da: "Måske kunne vi ses igen udenfor disse gamle vægge?"En: "Maybe we could meet again outside these old walls?"Da: Freja, nu mere åben og sikker, smiler bredt.En: Freja, now more open and assured, smiles broadly.Da: "Det ville jeg gerne."En: "I would like that."Da: Deres møde denne aften markerer starten på noget nyt.En: Their meeting this evening marks the start of something new.Da: Søren lærer at værdsætte nye forhold, mens Freja frygter mindre for at følge sin passion.En: Søren learns to appreciate new relationships, while Freja fears less to follow her passion.Da: Uden for museets døre venter verden.En: Outside the museum doors, the world awaits.Da: Med den første snert af efterår i luften går Søren hjem.En: With the first hint of autumn in the air, Søren walks home.Da: Han ved, at selvom museets skeletter er gamle, er nye begyndelser altid mulige.En: He knows that although the skeletons in the museum are old, new beginnings are always possible. Vocabulary Words:exhibits: udstillingerneautumn: efteråroutward: ydrefascination: fascinationlonging: længselteases: drillermillions: millionerapproaches: går henhesitantly: tøvendegenuine: ægteflows: flyderlectures: foredragopportunity: chanceappreciate: værdsætterelationships: forholdpassion: passiondecides: beslutterevolution: evolutionenbiology: biologicourage: modassured: sikkerbroadly: bredthint: snertskeletons: skelettergolden: gyldneadventure: eventyrbreath: åndedragenthusiasm: begejstringfreer: friereobserving: iagttager

La lepre è un roditore che appartiene alla famiglia dei Leporidi, simile e più grande del coniglio, con cui è strettamente imparentata. Si differenzia da quest'ultimo dal fatto che i suoi piccoli di solito non nascono in una tana sotterranea, sono attivi sin dalla nascita, sono completamente ricoperti di pelo e hanno gli occhi aperti. La lepre è conosciuta per il labbro diviso, le orecchie lunghe, la coda inclinata e le sue zampe e i suoi arti posteriori lunghi, utilissimi per una rapida fuga dai nemici. Si dice che le lepri più veloci raggiungano una velocità vicina ai 70 km/h. In media le lepri, di cui esistono numerose varietà, sono lunghe 0,6 m. La loro colorazione consueta è grigiastra o brunastra.La lepre è un ruminante. Le lepri e i conigli, ovviamente, non hanno uno stomaco composto da più camere o più parti e non rigurgitano il cibo per essere rimasticato, caratteristiche che sono associate alla classificazione scientifica dei ruminanti. The Imperial Bible-Dictionary osserva: “È ovvio che mentre riposa la lepre mastica più e più volte il cibo consumato qualche tempo prima; e questa azione è sempre stata popolarmente considerata ruminare. Anche il poeta Cowper, un attento osservatore dei fenomeni naturali, che ha messo per iscritto le sue osservazioni sulle 3 lepri che aveva addomesticato, afferma che esse ‘ruminavano tutto il giorno fino a sera'”.L'osservazione scientifica di lepri e conigli in tempi più recenti, tuttavia, indica che la ruminazione è coinvolta anche più di quanto possa sembrare. François Bourlière scrive in The Natural History of Mammals (1964, p. 41): “Sembra che la ‘refezione', cioè l'abitudine di far passare il cibo 2 volte anziché una sola volta attraverso l'intestino, sia un fenomeno comune nei conigli e nelle lepri. I conigli domestici di solito mangiano e deglutiscono senza masticare gli escrementi notturni, che al mattino costituiscono circa la metà del contenuto totale dello stomaco. Nel coniglio selvatico la refezione avviene 2 volte al giorno, e si è notata la stessa abitudine anche negli esemplari europei … Si ritiene che questa abitudine fornisca agli animali grandi quantità di vitamine del gruppo B prodotte dai batteri presenti nell'intestino crasso”. Sullo stesso punto, l'opera Mammals of the World (by E. P. Walker, 1964, Vol. II, p. 647) osserva: “Questo processo potrebbe essere simile al ‘ruminare' dei mammiferi”.

On Wednesday I spoke to Jessica Lockhart from Lonely Planet Oceania about Dunedin and the Waitaki making it on the travel guides' Best in Travel list for 2027. Jessica said both places showcase the 'best of the quirkiness that New Zealand has to offer' ... she made a special mention of the Royal Dunedin Museum of Natural History, which she described as a museum of curious. Bruce Mahalski is the curator of the museum and he joins Jesse.

Listen Here   On this episode of the Hays Post Podcast, Becky Kiser, news reporter, reviews the Sept. 24, 2026 Hays City Commission meeting with Toby Dougherty, city manager, and Shaun Musil, city commissioner. They discuss the potential closing of Fort Hays State University's Sternberg Museum of Natural History and have an update on the R9 Ranch water transfer process.  

Happy Autumn! Cultivating Place is proud to launch an occasional series from Host Abra Lee, delving into our Garden past to better understand and illuminate our Garden present and future. Sometimes we have to look back to grow forward! This week, Abra shares her research into an intrepid and unflagging cultivator of place from our past in Virginia's Tidewater Region: Asa Sims. A businessman, educator, floral grower, and designer, Asa was also a cofounder in 1932 of the Historic Black Garden Clubs of Virginia, then known as the Negro Garden Clubs of Virginia. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Send us Fan MailCosmo and I find out why bears never became pets, with expert input from Alaska wildlife biologist Sean Farley.Check out the WSU Bear CenterLearn more about canine genes with the SmithsonianFind out about early human hunter-gatherers with Nat GeoThe American Museum of Natural History shows off its cave bearRead about bears' cool reproductive strategies See a baby bear with a Pennsylvania Game Commission biologistSound effects courtesy Zapsplat and Pixabay As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next.

To “leave the land better than we found it” should be the ethic of all Gardeners. It is the North Star ethic of regenerative and organic farming leaders: Lundberg Family Rice. Third- and fourth-generation stewards of rice, land, and planet, Bryce and Brita Lundberg join Cultivating Place this week to share why, and all that grows from that single dedication. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Paying attention to the wild world is a radical act of connection that is needed now more than ever. Join naturalist, educator, and author Thomas Fleischner as he breaks down how the practice of natural history serves as the essential bedrock for biomimicry. Drawing from insights in his new book, Astonished by Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention, Tom explores how cultivating presence, staying open to wonder, and honing keen observation can spark our imagination, and thus more life-friendly design. Listen in for a timely conversation on why falling back in love with our living planet is a vital step toward protecting and healing it. Purchase Astonished by Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention from Torrey House Press. Attend a book event in the Fall.Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator ProgramsExpand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions. 

A new space telescope will soon give us an expanded field of view of some of the strangest phenomena in the cosmos. The launch of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will initiate this instrument's contributions to the understanding of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. It will also further the search for exoplanets. The project's principal and deputy investigators join us to describe the telescope's science goals, and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson provides his big picture view of the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy and cosmology.   Guests:  Julie McEnery – Astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and senior project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.   Jason Rhodes – JPL project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, focusing on dark energy, dark matter, and cosmic evolution.   Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist and director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and author of "Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts for Navigating the Universe".   Anna de Graaff – Astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!  Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new space telescope will soon give us an expanded field of view of some of the strangest phenomena in the cosmos. The launch of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will initiate this instrument's contributions to the understanding of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. It will also further the search for exoplanets. The project's principal and deputy investigators join us to describe the telescope's science goals, and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson provides his big picture view of the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy and cosmology.   Guests:  Julie McEnery – Astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and senior project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.   Jason Rhodes – JPL project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, focusing on dark energy, dark matter, and cosmic evolution.   Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist and director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and author of "Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts for Navigating the Universe".   Anna de Graaff – Astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!  Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview with Tim McNulty on the 4th of edition of Olympic National Park: A Natural History was recorded Sunday, October 28, 2018, at the home of Tim & Mary McNulty, Lost Mountain, WA. The Poet and Nature Writer lives in these mountains and with these mountains. Read the 4th edition of Olympic National Park: A Natural History and you will see a hundred or more reasons why this corner of the world is unique and why it deserves its status as a UN World Heritage site. Tim has lived in the Olympics since 1991 with his wife Mary and discussed his book, the remarkable part of the world he lives in, and one of his poems about his experience living in and with these mountains. To listen to the original audio of this interview, click here. Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website. To get original poetry right in your mailbox and tap into the weave of universal energy check out the Poetry Postcard Fest. Registration for 2027 begins tomorrow, September 1! To get into the community in person and lifted up by the Cascadian energy, come to the Cascadia Poetry Fest, October 9-11!

Bugs are disappearing at alarming rates, scientists are telling us. Bees, butterflies, beetles: all of them have been dropping like flies. And scientists say there are a bunch of reasons to care about this — for example, fewer bugs means less pollination, which means less pasta in your pantry. But recently, some have suggested that all these scientists crying out about the insect apocalypse might just be crying wolf. They say that the math isn't math-ing and that the insects are doing all right. And this has been bugging us! So we called up Dr. Jessica Ware, an entomologist and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, to find out what's going on here. And Jessica also specializes in dragonfly lovemaking, so of course, we had to ask about that too.  Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/SVInsectApocalypse  In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Meet entomologist Dr. Jessica Ware  (03:27) Dragonflies: Origins and sex lives  (08:55) The insect apocalypse: How bad is it? (19:02) What's causing the decline in insects (22:24) Bees and pollinator gardens (27:16) Invasive species: Lanternflies and murder hornets  (33:46) How to milk a cockroach (39:07) Is it beeswax? This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, with help from Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn. We're edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Video editing and sound by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to Humdinger Studios in Melbourne, and Wolff Island Studios in New York City.  Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.  Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/SVInsectApocalypse In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Meet Entomologist Dr. Jessica Ware (03:27) Dragonflies: Origins and sex lives (08:55) The Insect Apocalypse: How bad is it? (19:02) What's causing the decline in insects (22:24) Bees and pollinator gardens (27:16) Invasive species: Lanternflies, murderhornets, (33:46) Cockroaches and cockroach milk (39:07) Is it beeswax? This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, with help from Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn. We're edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Video editing and sound by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to Humdinger Studios in Melbourne, and Wolff Island Studios in New York City. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm needs little introduction to most garden-minded listeners. She has been so instrumental in cultivating a flower-farming economy in our country. Her innovative and dedicated seed research and breeding work of the past decade, however, is a whole new lens through which to appreciate her work. As we look toward the Autumnal Equinox later this month, please enjoy this favorite conversation! Back in 2017, when I first interviewed Erin for the program & for The Earth in Her Hands, she was already a tireless advocate for local flowers and for supporting more flower farmers and local-flower florists in our everyday lives here in the US. Through her on-farm and subsequently online flower farming Floret Workshops, for more than a decade, she has been renowned for encouraging and training eager new flower-farmer-florists in order to transform the cut flower industry from the multi-billion-dollar, large-corporate-owned international import (with little ecological or economic oversight) behemoth it had become, back into the more lovely and loving, organic, locally-based circular and community-oriented economy she envisioned it could be – and should be. Floret - once a flower farm and training center – is now more fully (and perhaps even more beautifully) described as “a family-owned flower farm and seed company specializing in breeding new cut flower varieties for gardeners, farmers & designers.”  They add: “ Our thriving research & education farm is dedicated to giving flower lovers the tools & information they need to grow the gardens of their dreams.” In honor of the Autumnal Equinox, and its seeds of the next season feeling, I am so revisiting Erin on Cultivating Place – just as Floret's newest title, From Bloom to Seed, is now available for preorder! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Missouri Botanical Garden's Peter H. Raven Library is home to roughly 8,000 rare books dating back to 1464, including Charles Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” and Carl Linnaeus' “Species Plantarum 1st Edition.” In late August, the library added two more rare texts to their collection: the first edition of Mark Catesby's “The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands etc. 1731-1743.” This work by Catesby, who was the first naturalist to illustrate birds in their natural habitat, represents the science world's first documentation of the flora and fauna of any part of North America. Peter H. Raven Library director Holly Hubenschmidt shares the scientific, historic and cultural impact of Catesby's work, and the Garden's mission to collect books from around the world that capture new plant species.

As the season begins to show signs of turning its next page, Cultivating Place host Ben Futa heads to Vermont! This week he's in conversation with David Jacques, also known by the internet persona "Davey Wavey". David is the owner of Frog Meadow Bed & Breakfast, a retreat for men in southern Vermont. For nearly 20 years, David has been pursuing his passion for gardening while serving an audience (online and in person) of primarily gay men.  In their conversation this week, they explore childhoods spent in the soil, how David's career led to an East Coast homecoming, and a newfound connection with wild, beautiful spaces intended for healing, safety, comfort, joy, and belonging when David became the new owner and steward of Frog Meadow. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and see many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with UK Art Museum Curator Rachel Hooper and KGS Public Resources Coordinator Cheyenne Hohman. They discuss a brand-new exhibit at the UK Art Museum called the “Museum of Natural History and Artificial Curiosities.” They get into the origin of the exhibit, UK president John Bowman, scientific collections, The Henry Clay Estate, items on display, hair balls, shark jaws, and much more!

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is author David B. Williams. His new book, "In The Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades" is available now from booksellers around the Pacific Northwest, and he's about to embark on a series of author appearances and book talks throughout the late summer and into the late autumn around Western Washington. Williams has written a number of popular books, including "Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound" (UW Press, 2021), and often leads walking tours and writes and speaks about Northwest history. CASCADE OF HISTORY spoke with David B. Williams on Thursday, August 27, 2026. "In The Range of Fire and Ice" from Mountaineers Books: https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/in-the-range-of-fire-and-ice-a-human-and-natural-history-of-washington2019s-cascades Upcoming author appearances by David B. Williams: https://geologywriter.com/walks-talks/ Links to more information as well as images related to most topics discussed on the show are often available at the CASCADE OF HISTORY Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/cascadeofhistory CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via flagship station SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms' quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle. Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes. "LIKE" the Cascade of History Facebook page and get updates and other stories throughout the week, and advance notice of live remote broadcasts taking place in your part of the Old Oregon Country.

Thousands of languages are used around the world today, and this linguistic diversity is a precious part of our human heritage. But it's also more than that. Linguistic diversity provides clues—a vast crazy quilt of clues—about how language works, about how history has unfolded, about the dynamics of culture, and about the nature of the human mind. My guest today is Dr. Damián Blasi. Damián is an ICREA Research Professor based at the Center for Brain & Cognition at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Over the last decade or so, Damián's emerged as one of the most innovative researchers in the study of language and linguistic diversity. He's been widely recognized for this work, and most recently was awarded the 2026 FABSS Early Career Impact Award from the Cognitive Science Society. In this conversation, Damián and talk about why scientists should care about linguistic diversity. We do a bit of linguistic diversity 101—how many languages there are, how we can enumerate them, how they vary from another. We discuss a recent paper in which Damian and his colleagues reconstructed the explosive rise and precipitous fall of human linguistic diversity over the last 12,000 years. We talk about the factors that drive language change. And we discuss how cognitive science relies too much on English and English speakers—and how this may be holding the field back. Along the way, Damián and I touch on the Tower of Babel, a golden age of linguistic diversity, the human bite configuration, scientific aesthetics, whether children shape language, polygenetic theories of language evolution, the pace of language change, schooling, linguistic inequality and behemoth languages, and why Damián thinks that possibility space of human language might be bigger and wilder than we currently imagine. This is a special episode of the Many Minds podcast. As I mentioned, Damián is this year's winner of an award from the Cognitive Science Society, in recognition of his outstanding early-year contributions to the field. He recently gave a keynote at the society's annual conference in Rio de Janeiro, and we've partnered with the Cognitive Science Society to feature this conversation about his work. I'll also mention that this wasn't my first time chatting with Damián—he's an alumnus of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI), the sponsor & incubator of this podcast. We met there a couple years ago, and so it was all the more fun to reconnect with him here. Alright friends, without further ado, on to my conversation with Dr. Damián Blasi. Enjoy!   Notes 10:00 – The UNESCO page on multilingualism and linguistic diversity. 17:00 – The Ethnologue database. 20:00 – For examples of Dr. Blasi's work on "behemoth languages" and on how languages are not represented equally in terms of technological and development investment, see here and here. 26:00 - For the paper in which Dr. Blasi and colleagues introduced Grambank, see here. For the database itself, see here. 29:00 – For Dr. Blasi's earlier work on sound-meaning associations across languages, see here. 33:00 – For discussion of Darwin's views on monogenesis vs polygenesis and race, see our recent episode. 36:00 – For more about pronouns—and how they do and do not vary across the world's languages—see several chapters in the World Atlas of Language Structures. 39:00 – The paper—'Babies aren't persons'—by David Lancy. 41:00 - For Dr. Blasi and colleagues' recent Science paper on the rise and fall of human linguistic diversity, see here. 59:00 – For a recent study of linguistic diversification, including discussion of so-called schismogenesis, see here. For an example of Cristina Moya's work on ethnic identity in the Andes region, see here. 1:00:00 – For an example of Dr. Blasi's work on how ecology shapes language—a topic not discussed in this conversation—see here. 1:01:00 ­– For the study by Dr. Blasi and colleagues about changes in human bite configuration and how these changes have shaped sounds systems, see here. 1:14:00 – For the recent paper by Dr. Blasi and colleagues about the (non-)role of children in language change, see here. 1:22:00 – The paper by Dr. Blasi and colleagues about the over-reliance on English in the cognitive sciences (and how it hinders the field). 1:24:00 – See here for work by Aitor Egurtzegi, in collaboration with Dr. Blasi and others, on ergativity and gaze patterns across languages. 1:27:00 – For the preprint—'Which humans?'—led by Mohammed Atari (and including Dr. Blasi and others), see here. 1:30:00 – For a recent argument that psychology needs to overcome its "ahistorical" bent, see here.   Recommendations A Myriad of Tongues, Caleb Everett The Secret of Our Success, Joseph Henrich Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time, Johanna Nichols   Tile art credit: Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (detail)   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social).

Whitney Jaye is a florist, flower farmer, and the creative force behind Sunbird Flowers, based in Decatur, Georgia, and providing sustainably grown, beautifully curated flowers for the Atlanta area.  Seeing her work through the lens of Black Southern folkways that (re)center agrarianism, and through the ancestral memories and practices of coastal Carolinian culture, Whitney Jaye's work sits at the intersection of land care, history, and building community through flowers.   This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee joins Whitney to explore how flowers can connect us to place, to one another, and to the simple pleasure of creating beauty with what's growing around us. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

What happens when sewing, cosplay, writing, teaching, natural history, horses, gaming, and a whole lot of curiosity come together? You get Annye Driscoll, better known online as Maker Fishmeal. Annye is a writer, teacher, software developer, cosplayer, and self-described “very slow crafter.” They've written books including The Ultimate Glue Guide, Finish Your Cosplay!, and Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fabrics and Unconventional Materials, and they have a fascinating approach to creativity and making. In this episode, Annye takes us into the world of cosplay, talks about how they learned to sew, explains why the cosplay community is so special to them, and shares what goes into creating their costumes. We also get into their books, their love of natural history, their many hobbies—and what it really means to be a “slow crafter.” It's a great conversation about making things, following your curiosity, and finding your people. So, let's get started. This is Sew & So. They live in Ohio with their partner, kitties, pony, and school of fancy guppies.  (1:25) Meet Annye Driscoll! (1:54) Who is Maker Fishmeal and how did Annye come up with this name? (3:10) How did they learn to sew and who was their inspiration? (4:55) When did they realize that creating was going to be a part of their life? (6:18) What was Annye's first experience with Cosplay? (7:28) Annye talks about the Cosplay community and why it's so special to them. (9:07) What goes into the costumes they create and what's the process? (10:34) How does someone learn to work with foam? Cosplay's Ultimate Guide to EVA Foam by Beverly Downan (11:57) What's the one thing about the Cosplay culture that Annye wants people to know? (13:13) Annye calls themselves “a very slow crafter”. What does that mean? (14:14) They say that cosplayers come to their craft from an unconventional place. What does that mean? (16:41) Annye talks about their many and diverse hobbies…and what is their theory about horses? (18:36) Annye talks about the books they've written. (21:40) What's the process when they release a book? (22:54) How can you find out where Annye will be and where to meet them? (23:12) Why is Annye a self-professed natural history geek? (26:36) What's next for Annye? (27:01) Is there a question we didn't ask? (27:16) How can you contact Annye? www.Makerfishmeal.com…reach out please…they really mean it! Be sure to subscribe to, review and rate this podcast on your favorite platform…and visit our website sewandsopodcast.com for more information about today's and all of our Guests.

There are rabbis who teach Torah. There are scholars who study history. And there are scientists who explore the wonders of the natural world. But few have entered all three worlds—and challenged the assumptions of each—as courageously as Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin. Known internationally as “the Zoo Rabbi,” Rabbi Slifkin has devoted his life to understanding the animals of the Bible, the relationship between Torah and science, and the place of intellectual honesty within religious faith. As a young boy growing up in England, he dreamed of having his own zoo. People laughed. But that childhood dream eventually became the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Israel—a remarkable institution where lions, vultures, locusts, giraffes and other creatures bring the biblical world vividly to life. Yet Rabbi Slifkin's journey has involved far more than animals. His willingness to confront difficult questions about evolution, the age of the universe and the scientific knowledge of our sages placed him at the centre of one of the most explosive controversies in modern Orthodox Judaism. Several prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis denounced and banned his books. He was accused of promoting heretical ideas. But he refused to be silenced. Rabbi Slifkin continued to write, teach and defend a rationalist Jewish tradition—one that believes sincere questions do not weaken faith, but can deepen it. In this conversation, we explore the fascinating animals of the Torah, including the surprising question of whether a giraffe is kosher. We discover how lions, vultures, olives and other elements of biblical nature preserve the Jewish people's ancient connection to the Land of Israel—and challenge the accusation that Jews are foreign colonizers in their ancestral homeland. But our discussion also enters more controversial territory. Rabbi Slifkin delivers a forceful warning about Israel's future. He speaks candidly about the Haredi community, military service, education, employment and the growing burden being placed upon those Israelis who defend the country and sustain its economy. Can Israel survive when a rapidly expanding segment of its population is discouraged from serving in the army, entering the workforce or receiving a basic secular education? Can religious conviction excuse a person from sharing responsibility for the society that protects and supports them? And what happens when preserving a community's identity becomes more important than confronting reality? This is a conversation about animals—but also about courage. It is about the courage to question, the courage to challenge authority and the courage to pursue truth even when doing so comes at a painful personal cost. Does Judaism demand that we choose between Torah and science, tradition and reason, or faith and intellectual honesty? Or can each help us understand the other—and ourselves—more deeply? It is my great pleasure to welcome the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History, the author of The Lions of Zion, and one of contemporary Judaism's boldest and most provocative voices, Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, to The Avrum Rosensweig Show. ——

There are rabbis who teach Torah. There are scholars who study history. And there are scientists who explore the wonders of the natural world. But few have entered all three worlds—and challenged the assumptions of each—as courageously as Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin. Known internationally as “the Zoo Rabbi,” Rabbi Slifkin has devoted his life to understanding the animals of the Bible, the relationship between Torah and science, and the place of intellectual honesty within religious faith. As a young boy growing up in England, he dreamed of having his own zoo. People laughed. But that childhood dream eventually became the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Israel—a remarkable institution where lions, vultures, locusts, giraffes and other creatures bring the biblical world vividly to life. Yet Rabbi Slifkin's journey has involved far more than animals. His willingness to confront difficult questions about evolution, the age of the universe and the scientific knowledge of our sages placed him at the centre of one of the most explosive controversies in modern Orthodox Judaism. Several prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis denounced and banned his books. He was accused of promoting heretical ideas. But he refused to be silenced. Rabbi Slifkin continued to write, teach and defend a rationalist Jewish tradition—one that believes sincere questions do not weaken faith, but can deepen it. In this conversation, we explore the fascinating animals of the Torah, including the surprising question of whether a giraffe is kosher. We discover how lions, vultures, olives and other elements of biblical nature preserve the Jewish people's ancient connection to the Land of Israel—and challenge the accusation that Jews are foreign colonizers in their ancestral homeland. But our discussion also enters more controversial territory. Rabbi Slifkin delivers a forceful warning about Israel's future. He speaks candidly about the Haredi community, military service, education, employment and the growing burden being placed upon those Israelis who defend the country and sustain its economy. Can Israel survive when a rapidly expanding segment of its population is discouraged from serving in the army, entering the workforce or receiving a basic secular education? Can religious conviction excuse a person from sharing responsibility for the society that protects and supports them? And what happens when preserving a community's identity becomes more important than confronting reality? This is a conversation about animals—but also about courage. It is about the courage to question, the courage to challenge authority and the courage to pursue truth even when doing so comes at a painful personal cost. Does Judaism demand that we choose between Torah and science, tradition and reason, or faith and intellectual honesty? Or can each help us understand the other—and ourselves—more deeply? It is my great pleasure to welcome the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History, the author of The Lions of Zion, and one of contemporary Judaism's boldest and most provocative voices, Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, to The Avrum Rosensweig Show. ——

Max BootBook: Reagan: His Life and Legend Part One (Hour One) explores Ronald Reagan's early life, from a nomadic childhood shaped by an alcoholic father and an optimistic mother, to his success as a lifeguard, sports broadcaster, and Hollywood B-movie actor. It details his marriage to Jane Wyman and his leadership of the Screen Actors Guild during the anti-communist red hunts. Part Two (Hour Two) traces Reagan's presidency, beginning with his campaigns and the 1981 assassination attempt. It analyzes his supply-side domestic economics, foreign relations ending the Cold War with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the damaging Iran-Contra scandal. Alan TaylorBook: American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850 to 1873 Part One (Hour One) examines the ideological and geopolitical conflicts of mid-19th-century North America. It profiles figures like expansionist Jane McManis Cazneau, abolitionist Jane Swisshelm, and Black leaders Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany. It details the pre-war political struggles over slavery's expansion, including the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Part Two (Hour Two) covers post-1865 developments across the continent, focusing on Canadian confederation under John A. Macdonald, the French imperial intervention in Mexico against Benito Juárez, and the violent realities of Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson. It also outlines the brutal assimilation and subjugation of Native Americans in both the U.S. and Canada. Dennis SewellBook: Cromwell's Spy: From the American Colonies to the English Civil War Part One (Hour One) introduces George Downing, a brilliant Harvard graduate who rose to become Oliver Cromwell's scoutmaster general during the English Civil Wars. It explores his ideological training, his ruthless perspective on slavery, his intelligence victories in Scotland, and his facilitation of selling Scottish prisoners of war into colonial servitude. Part Two (Hour Two) details Downing's secret diplomacy with Cardinal Mazarin, followed by his opportunistic defection to Charles II upon Cromwell's death. To secure his position under the restored monarchy, Downing orchestrated the capture and rendition of his former regicide allies. David SheddBook: The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's SecretsShedd analyzes China's multi-decade campaign of intellectual property and data theft against the United States, costing up to $600 billion annually. He explains how admitting China to the WTO in 2001 failed to foster democratization and details the massive scale of the Ministry of State Security. Using corporate examples like Apple and Google to illustrate this threat, he warns of America's vulnerabilities and advocates for defensive reforms, including a partial economic decoupling, modernized legal deterrence, and the establishment of a National Economic Security Council to better protect critical domestic industries and safeguard the nation's technological crown jewels.David K. RandallBook: The Monsters Bones: The Discovery of T-Rex and How It Shook Our WorldRandall recounts the historic discovery of the Tyrannosaurus Rex by pioneering paleontologist Barnum Brown. The narrative traces Brown's journey from a Kansas farm to his recruitment by Henry Fairfield Osborn for the American Museum of Natural History. Driven by Gilded Age competition funded by wealthy industrialists, Brown used geological expertise and dynamite in 1902 to unearth the first T-Rex fossils in Hell Creek, Montana. Despite facing devastating personal tragedy, Brown's efforts culminated in the legendary 1915 public mounting of the apex predator in New York, forever transforming the public's understanding of prehistoric life.

David K. Randall, author of The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World, recounts the historic discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex by pioneering paleontologist Barnum Brown. The narrative traces Brown's journey from a Kansas farm to his recruitment by Henry Fairfield Osborn for the American Museum of Natural History. Driven by Gilded Age competition funded by wealthy industrialists, Brown used geological expertise and dynamite in 1902 to unearth the first T. rex fossils in Hell Creek, Montana. Despite facing devastating personal tragedy, Brown's efforts culminated in the legendary 1915 public mounting of the apex predator in New York, forever transforming the public's understanding of prehistoric life. (1)

Alcatraz is a name rich with story, myth, and drama. It is also a dramatic sight where history, gardens, and how gardens grow us better all come together. This week we continue our theme of gardens and cultural landscapes as a form of social care–tending to place and people. We're joined by Shelagh Fritz, the Senior Program Manager of Alcatraz Historic Gardens, part of the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy. For more than 20 years, Shelagh has grown with and tended this dramatic, historic, and growing garden site, and she has expansive garden goals for the future. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Ornithologist Doug Stotz is a key player in the Field Museum of Natural History's strenuous effort to safeguard threatened landscapes, galvanize community stewards, and advance action-oriented science research. Doug's long tenure at the museum is on the verge of changing...

Montana is the only stop on this road trip where the animal is sitting in a display case. In 1886, in the Madison River Valley, a settler named Israel Ammon Hutchins killed something that had been coming into ranch yards after geese and dogs across fifteen miles of valley.He gave the carcass to a grocer named Joseph Sherwood over at Henry Lake, Idaho, who mounted it, called it the Ringdocus for reasons nobody has ever explained, and put it in his store. It sat there into the 1980s and then it vanished. For two decades the only proof it had ever existed was a black-and-white photograph in a naturalist's 1977 autobiography. In 2007 a descendant named Jack Kirby tracked it to a storage room at the Idaho Museum of Natural History in Pocatello and brought it home to Ennis, and before it went on display he drove it to the cemetery and parked it next to the old man's grave. It's still there, four feet long, dark, high in the shoulder and low in the hip, with the ghost of stripes on its sides. Nobody has ever run its DNA.This episode covers where the name Shunka Warak'in actually comes from and why it doesn't belong to Montana at all, what Lance Foster told Loren Coleman in 1995, and what an earlier anthropologist recorded about the same word. It covers what a dog was worth on the northern plains and on a homestead, and why an animal that carries off dogs earns its own name. It covers the forty-year campaign that emptied Montana of wolves, including the 1905 state law that required the veterinarian to infect wolves and coyotes with mange and turn them loose, and what it does to a landscape when the main predator is removed and then put back.And it covers the two modern cases everybody brings up, the Creature of McCone County that killed roughly 120 head of livestock in 2005 and 2006 before Wildlife Services shot it from an aircraft, and the strange short-legged animal a rancher killed near Denton in 2018 that had the whole country convinced for about a month.Then come the letters. Dale, losing three dogs in five weeks out of a lit yard and finding a collar in a hayfield the following spring. Jenny, walking through a sheep band counting the same wound on the same side of every animal.Cal, watching one through a rifle scope for forty seconds and not being able to make himself shoot until it turned to leave. Owen, nineteen years old, finding a covered calf against a fence and then meeting the thing on a two-track at eighty yards. Marla, standing between her children and the kitchen door while something screamed in the cottonwoods a week after her dog died inside a closed gate. And Wendell, who backed a gravel truck up in the dark to put his headlights on a track line.The second half of the episode changes animals entirely and moves into Montana's Sasquatch country, the Bitterroots and the Bob Marshall and the Yaak, with accounts from an elk hunter who hiked eleven miles out in the dark, a firewood cutter who came back three weeks later and found three lodgepoles twisted off above head height, a woman who spent eleven nights sleeping in a windowless hallway, and a thirty-year outfitter who counted eleven barefoot impressions in fresh snow and never told a single client. It also covers what happened on U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on August 26, 2012, and the two teenage girls who have been carrying it ever since.Email BrianJoin Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteHave you experienced a Bigfoot sighting, Sasquatch encounter, Dogman experience, UFO sighting, or any unexplained cryptid or paranormal event deep in the woods? We want to hear your story.Email your encounter to brian@paranormalworldproductions.com for a chance to be featured on a future episode of Backwoods Bigfoot Stories.Backwoods Bigfoot Stories is a paranormal storytelling podcast featuring real Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, Dogman reports, cryptid experiences, and true scary stories from the backwoods.Follow the show and turn on automatic downloads so you never miss a chilling encounter from the forest. Listen with the lights off… if you dare.

“In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid.”   Henry David Thoreau, A Natural History of Massachusetts A growing body of research shows that spending time in nature elevates our mood, reduces stress, enhances […] The post The Cure for the Sickness of Modern Society – Henry David Thoreau first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

Photo: Firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement officials escorted the body of Leslie Washington from Ely, Minn to Duluth, Minn. and then the Twin Cities on Tuesday. (Courtesy Scorched Earth Services) A wildland firefighter from the Northwest Arctic community of Noorvik, Alaska died Tuesday. Federal officials say 41-year-old Leslie R. Washington worked for a Huslia-based company called Scorched Earth Services. It was contracted to help fight a 30,000 acre fire on the Minnesota-Canada border in the Superior National Forest. Washington and his team were in northern Minnesota when he died after an undisclosed medical emergency. In a statement, U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy said the agency is “heartbroken at the loss of a wildland firefighter who died while protecting others.” Washington's wife told KOTZ news she remembers her husband as humble, kind, and devoted to his family. She said the loss is being felt throughout Noorvik and across Alaska. She said she was not ready to talk further. The Department of the Interior says it is working with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to support Washington's family, coworkers, and the broader firefighting community as they grieve. Scorched Earth Services says Washington's remains will be sent from Minnesota home to Noorvik. Washington was one of dozens of firefighters from rural Alaska communities including Huslia, Selawik, and Fort Yukon, deployed this season through Scorched Earth Services. Officials say more information will be released in the coming days. Washington was assigned to the Bear Trap Fire. Officials said Thursday it is 44% contained. Lisa Smolenska, left, hands a bouquet to a customer on August 9, 2026 in Eugene, Oreg. as part of a fundraiser to help the Warm Springs Animal Relief Fund. (Photo: Brian Bull) While crews mop up wildfires on Oregon's Warm Springs reservation, a relief drive is underway to help affected horses and livestock. Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports. The goal of the Warm Springs Animal Relief Fund was to raise $15,000 for hay, feed, and care for animals who have lost forage and grazing land. At last check, they had nearly twice that amount. The fundraising efforts are extending beyond central Oregon. Last Sunday, Lisa Smolenska sold bouquets donated by Charles Little Flower Farm outside Lox, Stocks, & Bagels in Eugene, Oreg. She raised nearly $700. “This has got to be ongoing because the animals are going to need forage over the wintertime as well and beyond. I don’t think we really know how long it’ll take to regenerate.” Warm Springs rancher Shana Johnson says she is happy that there is a fund. Her horses and cows lost 99% of their grazing district to the Beachcomb Fire. “When the fire started they all started coming home in groups, and there is absolutely nothing to eat.” Smolenska says she will do another flower fundraiser this Sunday. Tribal member Franc Fernandez, left, addresses attendees of community dinner as Sasha Ivan Sobolef of the Alaska Native Brotherhood holds burning sage on August 4, 2026. (Photo: Baiz Hoen / KFSK) The Petersburg Indian Association recently announced that they will be repatriating the remains of a 6-month-old Tlingit girl. She is one of three ancestors the tribe plans to inter in Petersburg, Alaska. KFSK's Baiz Hoen has the story. Stephanie Aikins is the administrative assistant for Petersburg's tribal government, the Petersburg Indian Association. She spearheaded the repatriation project, and at a community dinner this month, she said she has been working on this since last May. “ This is uncharted territory. There’s a lot of clan objects that have been taken and returned, not many who are ancestors.” The tribe applied for a grant to help cover the cost of the repatriation efforts through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a federal law that requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal money to return important remains and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Petersburg's tribe received about $24,000 for this project. The infant will be one of three ancestors the tribe plans to inter in Petersburg. The other two have been in the tribe's possession for over 10 years. One is a male estimated to be about 300 years old. He was found when the City of Petersburg was building the City Reservoir in the 1950s, and was given to the local high school. After it was found that he was of Native descent, the ancestor was given to the local tribe in 2013. The other, a jawbone, was found around the 1980s about 10 miles south of town on the beach. Aikins says the USFS had possession until 2011, when the ancestor was transferred to the tribe. He is thought to be prehistoric, based on the report. Aikins says that the remains of the 6-month-old girl are currently being held at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. Aikins will be among a group of three traveling to Seattle on September 1 to receive the remains. They will return to Petersburg on September 4, and plan to host a ceremony at the airport that day for the infant girl's return. “She has been gone away from her land for almost 100 years, and she will be back on her land for the first time on September 4.” Aikins says that the tribe will host a larger ceremony later in the fall, where they will inter the remains of the girl along with the two other ancestors already in their possession. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode August 14, 2026 — Live at Santa Fe Indian Market 2026

Erika Rumbley and Renee Portanova are Co-Founders and Directors of The New Garden Society. Now, you may hear that phrase and think of a garden club or a plant society. But this organization's very name invites you to consider a new angle on the words Garden + Society. The New Garden Society is a Boston-based organization run by horticulturists, landscapers, and farmers who seek to expand green industry opportunities for their incarcerated and formerly incarcerated neighbors in greater Boston. They believe in the transformational potential of working with plants, and in connecting incarcerated people with green-industry professions to transform landscapes within and beyond prison walls. Together, they tend to green spaces where both people and plants can flourish. Erika and Renee join Cultivating Place host Jennifer Jewell this week to share more about their intersectional work and why it matters in growing our world better. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Join us for the final installment of One True Book Club '26! In this series of episodes, we are reading the Hemingway-relevant selection, Under Fire by Henri Barbusse, the classic French WWI novel published in 1916.This episode covers the final chapters of the novel. We discuss how Barbusse balances graphic, grotesque depictions of the dead with artistic restraint; we analyze anti-war themes throughout this section, including Corporal Bertrand's powerful speech; and we reflect on the "ray of light" symbolism at the end of the book.Throughout the discussion, we connect our reading to other works by Hemingway: “Chapter X” of In Our Time [They whack-whacked the horse…], A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Men at War, “A Natural History of the Dead," and “Soldier's Home.” We also draw connections to other non-Hemingway works, among them J'accuse (dir. Abel Gance), Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Bob Dylan's “Blowin' in the Wind,” Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, and Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg).We are using the Penguin Classics edition with an Introduction written by Professor Jay Winter. In the second half of this episode, Winter kindly sits down with us to share his wisdom about this spectacular book!Thank you for listening to One True Podcast! Consider donating to the Hemingway Society, including to the recently created One True Podcast Fund or the Hemingway Café Club!

Margo is joined by Kim Robinson, founder of 3pts and a longtime contributor to and advocate for creative communities. With more than 15 years of experience at cultural platforms including The FADER, Complex, Red Bull, and the American Museum of Natural History, Kim has worked alongside artists like Solange, Kendrick Lamar, Spike Lee, Erykah Badu, and Tyler, the Creator. Raised within underground punk, hip-hop, electronic music, and art scenes, Kim eventually founded 3pts to put his experience directly in service of makers and creative entrepreneurs, helping them build sustainable careers on their own terms. Kim and Margo explore what working behind the scenes in music and culture taught him about what artists actually need, why he continues to approach his work as a fan first, and the role community plays in building a sustainable creative life. Margo and Kim discuss: How growing up in DIY punk, hip-hop, electronic music, and art scenes shaped Kim's approach to creativity and community What working with major artists and cultural platforms taught him about the realities of building a creative career Why Kim leads with a "fan first" mentality and how genuine curiosity has guided his career Why community is the invisible infrastructure behind so many successful creative careers Moving beyond the myth of the self-made artist and recognizing the people, resources, and relationships that help us grow Defining success on your own terms rather than following someone else's blueprint for a creative business The value of practical support—from sharing opportunities and resources to having someone a few steps ahead show you what's possible Connect with Kim: Website: www.3pts.co Instagram: www.instagram.com/3ptsco Substack: 3pts.substack.com A monthly newsletter dedicated to sharing opportunities for makers such as grants, residencies, open calls, markets and more. https://us7.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=eb522373216e8266b4805a156&id=45f83f7c19 Connect with Margo: www.windowsillchats.com www.instagram.com/windowsillchats www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Media Referenced in this Episode: Bee Movie. Dir. Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner. 2007. “A Complete History of Bee Movie's Many, Many Memes" by Paris Martineau. New York Magazine. November 2nd, 2017. “Bee Movie: A Seinfeldian Society” by Joe Strike. Animation World. November 2nd, 2007. “How Bee Movie Won 2016” by Laura Bradley. Vanity Fair. December 30th, 2016. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “A Series of Voicemails Left on Jerry Seinfeld's Answering Machine by one Stephen Sondheim, Composer of Musical Theater and Lover of Bees” // Written by A.J. Ditty and Brian Alford // feat. David Armstrong as “Stephen Sondheim” and Brian Alford as “Jerry” Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Coming! Hang on a second. Hello? - Barry? - Adam? - Can you believe this is happening? - I can't. I'll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I'm excited. Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B's. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. - You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That's me! - Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! - Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry. - Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I'd make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. - Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. - Hear about Frankie? - Yeah. - You going to the funeral? - No, I'm not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That's why we don't need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp… under the circumstances. - Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are! - Bee-men. - Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive City graduating class of… …9:15. That concludes our ceremonies. And begins your career at Honex Industries! Will we pick our job today? I heard it's just orientation. Heads up! Here we go. Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. - Wonder what it'll be like? - A little scary. Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco and a part of the Hexagon Group. This is it! Wow. Wow. We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. Our top-secret formula is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured into this soothing sweet syrup with its distinctive golden glow you know as… Honey! - That girl was hot. - She's my cousin! - She is? - Yes, we're all cousins. - Right. You're right. - At Honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence. These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. - What do you think he makes? - Not enough. Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. - What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. Oan anyone work on the Krelman? Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that. What's the difference? You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off in 27 million years. So you'll just work us to death? We'll sure try. Wow! That blew my mind! “What's the difference?” How can you say that? One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make. I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life. But, Adam, how could they never have told us that? Why would you question anything? We're bees. We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth. You ever think maybe things work a little too well here? Like what? Give me one example. I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about. Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach. Wait a second. Oheck it out. - Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! - Wow. I've never seen them this close. They know what it's like outside the hive. Yeah, but some don't come back. - Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks! You guys did great! You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! I love it! - I wonder where they were. - I don't know. Their day's not planned. Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what. You can'tjust decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that. Right. Look. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime. It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it. Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it. Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too? Distant. Distant. Look at these two. - Oouple of Hive Harrys. - Let's have fun with them. It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock. Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom! He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me! - Oh, my! - I never thought I'd knock him out. What were you doing during this? Trying to alert the authorities. I can autograph that. A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades? Yeah. Gusty. We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow. - Six miles, huh? - Barry! A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it. - Maybe I am. - You are not! We're going 0900 at J-Gate. What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough? I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means. Hey, Honex! Dad, you surprised me. You decide what you're interested in? - Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one. Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day? Son, let me tell you about stirring. You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around. You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing. You know, Dad, the more I think about it, maybe the honey field just isn't right for me. You were thinking of what, making balloon animals? That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger. Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey! - Barry, you are so funny sometimes. - I'm not trying to be funny. You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer! - You're gonna be a stirrer? - No one's listening to me! Wait till you see the sticks I have. I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo! Let's open some honey and celebrate! Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae. Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody “dawg”! I'm so proud. - We're starting work today! - Today's the day. Oome on! All the good jobs will be gone. Yeah, right. Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal… - Is it still available? - Hang on. Two left! One of them's yours! Oongratulations! Step to the side. - What'd you get? - Picking crud out. Stellar! Wow! Oouple of newbies? Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready! Make your choice. - You want to go first? - No, you go. Oh, my. What's available? Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think. - Any chance of getting the Krelman? - Sure, you're on. I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out. Wax monkey's always open. The Krelman opened up again. What happened? A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one. Deady. Deadified. Two more dead. Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life! Oh, this is so hard! Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer, humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor, mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should… Barry? Barry! All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine… What happened to you? Where are you? - I'm going out. - Out? Out where? - Out there. - Oh, no! I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life. You're gonna die! You're crazy! Hello? Another call coming in. If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd that gets their roses today. Hey, guys. - Look at that. - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday? Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted. It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up. Really? Feeling lucky, are you? Sign here, here. Just initial that. - Thank you. - OK. You got a rain advisory today, and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain. So be careful. As always, watch your brooms, hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats. Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us. Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada! - That's awful. - And a reminder for you rookies, bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans! All right, launch positions! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Black and yellow! Hello! You ready for this, hot shot? Yeah. Yeah, bring it on. Wind, check. - Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check. - Wings, check. - Stinger, check. Scared out of my shorts, check. OK, ladies, let's move it out! Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers! All of you, drain those flowers! Wow! I'm out! I can't believe I'm out! So blue. I feel so fast and free! Box kite! Wow! Flowers! This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual. Bring it around 30 degrees and hold. Roses! 30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around. Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick. That is one nectar collector! - Ever see pollination up close? - No, sir. I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there, a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic. That's amazing. Why do we do that? That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us. Cool. I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. Oould be daisies. Don't we need those? Oopy that visual. Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move. Say again? You're reporting a moving flower? Affirmative. That was on the line! This is the coolest. What is it? I don't know, but I'm loving this color. It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it. Yeah, fuzzy. Ohemical-y. Oareful, guys. It's a little grabby. My sweet lord of bees! Oandy-brain, get off there! Problem! - Guys! - This could be bad. Affirmative. Very close. Gonna hurt. Mama's little boy. You are way out of position, rookie! Ooming in at you like a missile! Help me! I don't think these are flowers. - Should we tell him? - I think he knows. What is this?! Match point! You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to eat it! Yowser! Gross. There's a bee in the car! - Do something! - I'm driving! - Hi, bee. - He's back here! He's going to sting me! Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze! He blinked! Spray him, Granny! What are you doing?! Wow… the tension level out here is unbelievable. I gotta get home. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down! Ken, could you close the window please? Ken, could you close the window please? Oheck out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure. You see? Folds out. Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this. What was that? Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This… Drapes! That is diabolical. It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies. What's number one? Star Wars? Nah, I don't go for that… …kind of stuff. No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds. When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say. There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out. I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it. I predicted global warming. I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me. Wait! Stop! Bee! Stand back. These are winter boots. Wait! Don't kill him! You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me! Why does his life have less value than yours? Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement? I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling. My brochure! There you go, little guy. I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing. Put that on your resume brochure. My whole face could puff up. Make it one of your special skills. Knocking someone out is also a special skill. Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks. - Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever. - You could put carob chips on there. - Bye. - Supposed to be less calories. - Bye. I gotta say something. She saved my life. I gotta say something. All right, here it goes. Nah. What would I say? I could really get in trouble. It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human. I can't believe I'm doing this. I've got to. Oh, I can't do it. Oome on! No. Yes. No. Do it. I can't. How should I start it? “You like jazz?” No, that's no good. Here she comes! Speak, you fool! Hi! I'm sorry. - You're talking. - Yes, I know. You're talking! I'm so sorry. No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming. But I don't recall going to bed. Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting. This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee! I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this, but they were all trying to kill me. And if it wasn't for you… I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised. That was a little weird. - I'm talking with a bee. - Yeah. I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me! I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now. - Wait! How did you learn to do that? - What? The talking thing. Same way you did, I guess. “Mama, Dada, honey.” You pick it up. - That's very funny. - Yeah. Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with. Anyway… Oan I… …get you something? - Like what? I don't know. I mean… I don't know. Ooffee? I don't want to put you out. It's no trouble. It takes two minutes. - It's just coffee. - I hate to impose. - Don't be ridiculous! - Actually, I would love a cup. Hey, you want rum cake? - I shouldn't. - Have some. - No, I can't. - Oome on! I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms. - Where? - These stripes don't help. You look great! I don't know if you know anything about fashion. Are you all right? No. He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison. He finally gets there. He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on. And he says, “Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan. Why would I marry a watermelon?” Is that a bee joke? That's the kind of stuff we do. Yeah, different. So, what are you gonna do, Barry? About work? I don't know. I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want. I know how you feel. - You do? - Sure. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist. - Really? - My only interest is flowers. Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan. Anyway, if you look… There's my hive right there. See it? You're in Sheep Meadow! Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond! No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once. - Why do girls put rings on their toes? - Why not? - It's like putting a hat on your knee. - Maybe I'll try that. - You all right, ma'am? - Oh, yeah. Fine. Just having two cups of coffee! Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee. Yeah, it's no trouble. Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life. Are you…? Oan I take a piece of this with me? Sure! Here, have a crumb. - Thanks! - Yeah. All right. Well, then… I guess I'll see you around. Or not. OK, Barry. And thank you so much again… for before. Oh, that? That was nothing. Well, not nothing, but… Anyway… This can't possibly work. He's all set to go. We may as well try it. OK, Dave, pull the chute. - Sounds amazing. - It was amazing! It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life. Humans! I can't believe you were with humans! Giant, scary humans! What were they like? Huge and crazy. They talk crazy. They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy. - Do they try and kill you, like on TV? - Some of them. But some of them don't. - How'd you get back? - Poodle. You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see. You had your “experience.” Now you can pick out yourjob and be normal. - Well… - Well? Well, I met someone. You did? Was she Bee-ish? - A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! - No, no, no, not a wasp. - Spider? - I'm not attracted to spiders. I know it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all. I can't get by that face. So who is she? She's… human. No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law. - Her name's Vanessa. - Oh, boy. She's so nice. And she's a florist! Oh, no! You're dating a human florist! We're not dating. You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes with power washers and M-80s! One-eighth a stick of dynamite! She saved my life! And she understands me. This is over! Eat this. This is not over! What was that? - They call it a crumb. - It was so stingin' stripey! And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat! - You know what a Oinnabon is? - No. It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. They heat it up… Sit down! …really hot! - Listen to me! We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them! Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning? There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me! You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee! - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! There he is. He's in the pool. You know what your problem is, Barry? I gotta start thinking bee? How much longer will this go on? It's been three days! Why aren't you working? I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about. What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee! Would it kill you to make a little honey? Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you. Martin, would you talk to him? Barry, I'm talking to you! You coming? Got everything? All set! Go ahead. I'll catch up. Don't be too long. Watch this! Vanessa! - We're still here. - I told you not to yell at him. He doesn't respond to yelling! - Then why yell at me? - Because you don't listen! I'm not listening to this. Sorry, I've gotta go. - Where are you going? - I'm meeting a friend. A girl? Is this why you can't decide? Bye. I just hope she's Bee-ish. They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena? To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream! Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering. A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events? No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere? It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster. Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn. TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane! You don't have that? We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease. Oh, my. Dumb bees! You must want to sting all those jerks. We try not to sting. It's usually fatal for us. So you have to watch your temper. Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk, write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion: Anger, jealousy, lust. Oh, my goodness! Are you OK? Yeah. - What is wrong with you?! - It's a bug. He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep! What was that? A Pic ‘N' Save circular? Yeah, it was. How did you know? It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit. You've really got that down to a science. - I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. - I'll bet. What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this? How did this get here? Oute Bee, Golden Blossom, Ray Liotta Private Select? - Is he that actor? - I never heard of him. - Why is this here? - For people. We eat it. You don't have enough food of your own? - Well, yes. - How do you get it? - Bees make it. - I know who makes it! And it's hard to make it! There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing! - It's organic. - It's our-ganic! It's just honey, Barry. Just what?! Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing! You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have! And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm getting to the bottom of all of this! Hey, Hector. - You almost done? - Almost. He is here. I sense it. Well, I guess I'll go home now and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around. You're busted, box boy! I knew I heard something. So you can talk! I can talk. And now you'll start talking! Where you getting the sweet stuff? Who's your supplier? I don't understand. I thought we were friends. The last thing we want to do is upset bees! You're too late! It's ours now! You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword! You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio! Where is the honey coming from? Tell me where! Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms! Orazy person! What horrible thing has happened here? These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now they're on the road to nowhere! Just keep still. What? You're not dead? Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed? To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here. I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off! I'm going to Tacoma. - And you? - He really is dead. All right. Uh-oh! - What is that?! - Oh, no! - A wiper! Triple blade! - Triple blade? Jump on! It's your only chance, bee! Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?! How much do you people need to see?! Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window! From NPR News in Washington, I'm Carl Kasell. But don't kill no more bugs! - Bee! - Moose blood guy!! - You hear something? - Like what? Like tiny screaming. Turn off the radio. Whassup, bee boy? Hey, Blood. Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see. Wow! I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it. I mean, that honey's ours. - Bees hang tight. - We're all jammed in. It's a close community. Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own. - What if you get in trouble? - You a mosquito, you in trouble. Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack! At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls. Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly. Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito. You got to be kidding me! Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee! - Hey, guys! - Mooseblood! I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw? We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit. What is this place? A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead. They are pinheads! Pinhead. - Oheck out the new smoker. - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want. The Thomas 3000! Smoker? Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar. A couple breaths of this knocks them right out. They make the honey, and we make the money. “They make the honey, and we make the money”? Oh, my! What's going on? Are you OK? Yeah. It doesn't last too long. Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls? Our queen was moved here. We had no choice. This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes! That's a drag queen! What is this? Oh, no! There's hundreds of them! Bee honey. Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale! This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something. Oh, Barry, stop. Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor. Do these look like rumors? That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos. How did you get mixed up in this? He's been talking to humans. - What? - Talking to humans?! He has a human girlfriend. And they make out! Make out? Barry! We do not. - You wish you could. - Whose side are you on? The bees! I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night. Barry, this is what you want to do with your life? I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees! Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop. I remember that. What right do they have to our honey? We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever! Even if it's true, what can one bee do? Sting them where it really hurts. In the face! The eye! - That would hurt. - No. Up the nose? That's a killer. There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters. Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source. No more bee beards! With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk. Weather with Storm Stinger. Sports with Buzz Larvi. And Jeanette Chung. - Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. - And I'm Jeanette Chung. A tri-county bee, Barry Benson, intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey, packaging it and profiting from it illegally! Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King, we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book, Classy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon. Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson. Did you ever think, “I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this”? Bees have never been afraid to change the world. What about Bee Columbus? Bee Gandhi? Bee Jesus? Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans. We were thinking of stickball or candy stores. How old are you? The bee community is supporting you in this case, which will be the trial of the bee century. You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too. It's a common name. Next week… He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots… Next week… Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard ‘em. Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here live. Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish. In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness! It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81. Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that? Quiet, please. Actual work going on here. - Is that that same bee? - Yes, it is! I'm helping him sue the human race. - Hello. - Hello, bee. This is Ken. Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe. Why does he talk again? Listen, you better go ‘cause we're really busy working. But it's our yogurt night! Bye-bye. Why is yogurt night so difficult?! You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours! Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help. - Frosting… - How many sugars? Just one. I try not to use the competition. So why are you helping me? Bees have good qualities. And it takes my mind off the shop. Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now. Those are great, if you're three. And artificial flowers. - Oh, those just get me psychotic! - Yeah, me too. Bent stingers, pointless pollination. Bees must hate those fake things! Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done. Maybe this could make up for it a little bit. - This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. - I guess. You sure you want to go through with it? Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able to say, “Honey, I'm home,” without paying a royalty! It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan, where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history, we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak. What have we gotten into here, Barry? It's pretty big, isn't it? I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day. You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers? Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade. - What's the matter? - I don't know, I just got a chill. Well, if it isn't the bee team. You boys work on this? All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding. All right. Case number 4475, Superior Court of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. The Honey Industry is now in session. Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively? A privilege. Mr. Benson… you're representing all the bees of the world? I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my grandmother was a simple woman. Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us. If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines, just think of what would it mean. I would have to negotiate with the silkworm for the elastic in my britches! Talking bee! How do we know this isn't some sort of holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry? They could be using laser beams! Robotics! Ventriloquism! Oloning! For all we know, he could be on steroids! Mr. Benson? Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here. I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me. It's important to all bees. We invented it! We make it. And we protect it with our lives. Unfortunately, there are some people in this room who think they can take it from us ‘cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over, you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have but everything we are! I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice! Oall your first witness. So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden of Honey Farms, big company you have. I suppose so. I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron! Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms. Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term. I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you? - No. - I couldn't hear you. - No. - No. Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that, it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey. They're very lovable creatures. Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear. You mean like this? Bears kill bees! How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?! Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows! OK, that's enough. Take him away. So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me. - Where have I heard it before? - I was with a band called The Police. But you've never been a police officer, have you? No, I haven't. No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example of bee culture casually stolen by a human for nothing more than a prance-about stage name. Oh, please. Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting? Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting. Or should I say… Mr. Gordon M. Sumner! That's not his real name?! You idiots! Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005. Thank you. Thank you. I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome with a churning inner turmoil that's ready to blow. I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime? Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you? Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir? Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now! This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella! Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?! - Order in this court! - You're all thinking it! Order! Order, I say! - Say it! - Mr. Liotta, please sit down! I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that. I think the jury's on our side. Are we doing everything right, legally? I'm a florist. Right. Well, here's to a great team. To a great team! Well, hello. - Ken! - Hello. I didn't think you were coming. No, I was just late. I tried to call, but… the battery. I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free. Oh, that was lucky. There's a little left. I could heat it up. Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever. So I hear you're quite a tennis player. I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby. That's where I usually sit. Right… there. Ken, Barry was looking at your resume, and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill. You think I don't see what you're doing? I know how hard it is to find the rightjob. We have that in common. Do we? Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out. That's just what I was thinking about doing. Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right. I'm going to drain the old stinger. Yeah, you do that. Look at that. You know, I've just about had it with your little mind games. - What's that? - Italian Vogue. Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages. A lot of ads. Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine? Funny, I just can't seem to recall that! I think something stinks in here! I love the smell of flowers. How do you like the smell of flames?! Not as much. Water bug! Not taking sides! Ken, I'm wearing a Ohapstick hat! This is pathetic! I've got issues! Well, well, well, a royal flush! - You're bluffing. - Am I? Surf's up, dude! Poo water! That bowl is gnarly. Except for those dirty yellow rings! Kenneth! What are you doing?! You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it! We need to talk! He's just a little bee! And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time! Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life? No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them! Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night… My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster! Goodbye, Ken. And for your information, I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners made by man! I'm sorry about all that. I know it's got an aftertaste! I like it! I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me. I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well. Are you OK for the trial? I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas. We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand. Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers… Yeah. Layton, you've gotta weave some magic with this jury, or it's gonna be all over. Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around is to remind them of what they don't like about bees. - You got the tweezers? - Are you allergic? Only to losing, son. Only to losing. Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know. What exactly is your relationship to that woman? We're friends. - Good friends? - Yes. How good? Do you live together? Wait a minute… Are you her little… …bedbug? I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand, doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children? - Yeah, but… - So those aren't your real parents! - Oh, Barry… - Yes, they are! Hold me back! You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson? He's denouncing bees! Don't y'all date your cousins? - Objection! - I'm going to pincushion this guy! Adam, don't! It's what he wants! Oh, I'm hit!! Oh, lordy, I am hit! Order! Order! The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins! I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction! You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way! - Adam, stay with me. - I can't feel my legs. What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison from my heaving buttocks? I will have order in this court. Order! Order, please! The case of the honeybees versus the human race took a pointed turn against the bees yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery. - Hey, buddy. - Hey. - Is there much pain? - Yeah. I… I blew the whole case, didn't I? It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died. I'd be better off dead. Look at me. They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich. Look, there's a little celery still on it. What was it like to sting someone? I can't explain it. It was all… All adrenaline and then… and then ecstasy! All right. You think it was all a trap? Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this. What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world. What will the humans do to us if they win? I don't know. I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad. Adam, they check in, but they don't check out! Oh, my. Oould you get a nurse to close that window? - Why? - The smoke. Bees don't smoke. Right. Bees don't smoke. Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking. That's it! That's our case! It is? It's not over? Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere. Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can. And assuming you've done step correctly, you're ready for the tub. Mr. Flayman. Yes? Yes, Your Honor! Where is the rest of your team? Well, Your Honor, it's interesting. Bees are trained to fly haphazardly, and as a result, we don't make very good time. I actually heard a funny story about… Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs taken up enough of this court's valuable time? How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on? They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges against my clients, who run legitimate businesses. I move for a complete dismissal of this entire case! Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion. But you can't! We have a terrific case. Where is your proof? Where is the evidence? Show me the smoking gun! Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun? Here is your smoking gun. What is that? It's a bee smoker! What, this? This harmless little contraption? This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee. Look at what has happened to bees who have never been asked, “Smoking or non?” Is this what nature intended for us? To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines and man-made wooden slat work camps? Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man? - What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card. Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! The court finds in favor of the bees! Vanessa, we won! I knew you could do it! High-five! Sorry. I'm OK! You know what this means? All the honey will finally belong to the bees. Now we won't have to work so hard all the time. This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson. You'll regret this. Barry, how much honey is out there? All right. One at a time. Barry, who are you wearing? My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants. - What if Montgomery's right? - What do you mean? We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years. Oongratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement? First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps. Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with, every last drop. We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine. We're all aware of what they do in the woods. Wait for my signal. Take him out. He'll have nauseous for a few hours, then he'll be fine. And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames… But it's just a prance-about stage name! …unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments. Oan't breathe. Bring it in, boys! Hold it right there! Good. Tap it. Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming! - I think we need to shut down! - Shut down? We've never shut down. Shut down honey production! Stop making honey! Turn your key, sir! What do we do now? Oannonball! We're shutting honey production! Mission abort. Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base. Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there. Oh, yeah? What's going on? Where is everybody? - Are they out celebrating? - They're home. They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in. I heard your Uncle Oarl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket. At least we got our honey back. Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't? It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it. This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well. And now… Now I can't. I don't understand why they're not happy. I thought their lives would be better! They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you? - What did you want to show me? - This. What happened here? That is not the half of it. Oh, no. Oh, my. They're all wilting. Doesn't look very good, does it? No. And whose fault do you think that is? You know, I'm gonna guess bees. Bees? Specifically, me. I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things. It's notjust flowers. Fruits, vegetables, they all need bees. That's our whole SAT test right there. Take away produce, that affects the entire animal kingdom. And then, of course… The human species? So if there's no more pollination, it could all just go south here, couldn't it? I know this is also partly my fault. How about a suicide pact? How do we do it? - I'll sting you, you step on me. - That just kills you twice. Right, right. Listen, Barry… sorry, but I gotta get going. I had to open my mouth and talk. Vanessa? Vanessa? Why are you leaving? Where are you going? To the final Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena. They've moved it to this weekend because all the flowers are dying. It's the last chance I'll ever have to see it. Vanessa, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I never meant it to turn out like this. I know. Me neither. Tournament of Roses. Roses can't do sports. Wait a minute. Roses. Roses? Roses! Vanessa! Roses?! Barry? - Roses are flowers! - Yes, they are. Flowers, bees, pollen! I know. That's why this is the last parade. Maybe not. Oould you ask him to slow down? Oould you slow down? Barry! OK, I made a huge mistake. This is a total disaster, all my fault. Yes, it kind of is. I've ruined the planet. I wanted to help you with the flower shop. I've made it worse. Actually, it's completely closed down. I thought maybe you were remodeling. But I have another idea, and it's greater than my previous ideas combined. I don't want to hear it! All right, they have the roses, the roses have the pollen. I know every bee, plant and flower bud in this park. All we gotta do is get what they've got back here with what we've got. - Bees. - Park. - Pollen! - Flowers. - Repollination! - Across the nation! Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, Oalifornia. They've got nothing but flowers, floats and cotton candy. Security will be tight. I have an idea. Vanessa Bloome, FTD. Official floral business. It's real. Sorry, ma'am. Nice brooch. Thank you. It was a gift. Once inside, we just pick the right float. How about The Princess and the Pea? I could be the princess, and you could be the pea! Yes, I got it. - Where should I sit? - What are you? - I believe I'm the pea. - The pea? It goes under the mattresses. - Not in this fairy tale, sweetheart. - I'm getting the marshal. You do that! This whole parade is a fiasco! Let's see what this baby'll do. Hey, what are you doing?! Then all we do is blend in with traffic… …without arousing suspicion. Once at the airport, there's no stopping us. Stop! Security. - You and your insect pack your float? - Yes. Has it been in your possession the entire time? Would you remove your shoes? - Remove your stinger. - It's part of me. I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight. Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job. Oan you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job! I think this is gonna work. It's got to work. Attention, passengers, this is Oaptain Scott. We have a bit of bad weather in New York. It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay. Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it. I gotta get up there and talk to them. Be careful. Oan I get help with the Sky Mall magazine? I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer. Oaptain, I'm in a real situation. - What'd you say, Hal? - Nothing. Bee! Don't freak out! My entire species… What are you doing? - Wait a minute! I'm an attorney! - Who's an attorney? Don't move. Oh, Barry. Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain. Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit? And please hurry! What happened here? There was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded. One's bald, one's in a boat, they're both unconscious! - Is that another bee joke? - No! No one's flying the plane! This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status? This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York. Where's the pilot? He's unconscious, and so is the copilot. Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience? As a matter of fact, there is. - Who's that? - Barry Benson. From the honey trial?! Oh, great. Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee. It's got giant wings, huge engines. I can't fly a plane. - Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? - Yes. How hard could it be? Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning. This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport, where a suspenseful scene is developing. Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory… That's Barry! …is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers and an incapacitated flight crew. Flowers?! We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls with absolutely no flight experience. Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane. I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres. They've done enough damage. But isn't he your only hope? Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all. Their wings are too small… Haven't we heard this a million times? “The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense.” - Get this on the air! - Got it. - Stand by. - We're going live. The way we work may be a mystery to you. Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. But let me tell you about a small job. If you do it well, it makes a big difference. More than we realized. To us, to everyone. That's why I want to get bees back to working together. That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O. We get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow! - Hello! Left, right, down, hover. - Hover? - Forget hover. This isn't so hard. Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Barry, what happened?! Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time. - That may have been helping me. - And now we're not! So it turns out I cannot fly a plane. All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out! Move out! Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane! Don't have to yell. I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble. It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice! It's not a tone. I'm panicking! I can't do this! Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it! You snap out of it. You snap out of it. - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - Hold it! - Why? Oome on, it's my turn. How is the plane flying? I don't know. Hello? Benson, got any flowers for a happy occasion in there? The Pollen Jocks! They do get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow. - Hello. All right, let's drop this tin can on the blacktop. Where? I can't see anything. Oan you? No, nothing. It's all cloudy. Oome on. You got to think bee, Barry. - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Wait a minute. I think I'm feeling something. - What? - I don't know. It's strong, pulling me. Like a 27-million-year-old instinct. Bring the nose down. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - What in the world is on the tarmac? - Get some lights on that! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - Vanessa, aim for the flower. - OK. Out the engines. We're going in on bee power. Ready, boys? Affirmative! Good. Good. Easy, now. That's it. Land on that flower! Ready? Full reverse! Spin it around! - Not that flower! The other one! - Which one? - That flower. - I'm aiming at the flower! That's a fat guy in a flowered shirt. I mean the giant pulsating flower made of millions of bees! Pull forward. Nose down. Tail up. Rotate around it. - This is insane, Barry! - This's the only way I know how to fly. Am I koo-koo-kachoo, or is this plane flying in an insect-like pattern? Get your nose in there. Don't be afraid. Smell it. Full reverse! Just drop it. Be a part of it. Aim for the center! Now drop it in! Drop it in, woman! Oome on, already. Barry, we did it! You taught me how to fly! - Yes. No high-five! - Right. Barry, it worked! Did you see the giant flower? What giant flower? Where? Of course I saw the flower! That was genius! - Thank you. - But we're not done yet. Listen, everyone! This runway is covered with the last pollen from the last flowers available anywhere on Earth. That means this is our last chance. We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers and dress like this. If we're gonna survive as a species, this is our moment! What do you say? Are we going to be bees, orjust Museum of Natural History keychains? We're bees! Keychain! Then follow me! Except Keychain. Hold on, Barry. Here. You've earned this. Yeah! I'm a Pollen Jock! And it's a perfect fit. All I gotta do are the sleeves. Oh, yeah. That's our Barry. Mom! The bees are back! If anybody needs to make a call, now's the time. I got a feeling we'll be working late tonight! Here's your change. Have a great afternoon! Oan I help who's next? Would you like some honey with that? It is bee-approved. Don't forget these. Milk, cream, cheese, it's all me. And I don't see a nickel! Sometimes I just feel like a piece of meat! I had no idea. Barry, I'm sorry. Have you got a moment? Would you excuse me? My mosquito associate will help you. Sorry I'm late. He's a lawyer too? I was already a blood-sucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase. Have a great afternoon! Barry, I just got this huge tulip order, and I can't get them anywhere. No problem, Vannie. Just leave it to me. You're a lifesaver, Barry. Oan I help who's next? All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly. Thank you, Barry! That bee is living my life! Let it go, Kenny. - When will this nightmare end?! - Let it all go. - Beautiful day to fly. - Sure is. Between you and me, I was dying to get out of that office. You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. - Thinking bee! - Me? Hold it. Let's just stop for a second. Hold it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Can we stop here? I'm not making a major life decision during a production number! All right. Take ten, everybody. Wrap it up, guys. I had virtually no rehearsal for that.

What if standardized testing isn't the problem—but the tests themselves are? Jeremy Tate, founder of the Classic Learning Test (CLT), joins Classical Et Cetera to explain why the SAT and ACT keep getting easier, and how a test built on the Western tradition could change what students read, learn, and become.   Learn more about the CLT right here: Classic Learning Test (CLT) - Assessments for Grades 3-12   *What We're Reading* from This Episode:  "A Natural History of Dragons" Marie Brennan (Tanya) "Villete" Charlotte Bronte (Paul) "The Things We Never Say" Elizabeth Strout (Jessica) "The Brothers Karamazov" Fyodor Dostoevsky (Jeremy) "The Body Teaches the Soul" Justin Whitmel Earley (Jeremy)

In 1997, scientists travelled to Tsavo, Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.The two lions stalked Indian and African men building the Uganda Railway, dragging victims from their tents at night. It was nine months before the officer in charge of the railway project, British Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, could kill them.Nearly a century later, a team including scientists from Chicago's Field Museum, where the now taxidermied lions are kept, returned to Tsavo to search for the cave Patterson believed had been the lions' den.Thomas Gnoske, one of the scientists on the expedition, and Alan Patterson, John Henry Patterson's grandson, speaks to Stefania Gozzer about the hunt for the cave and the enduring legend of the Tsavo lions.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines' life and Omar Sharif's legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives' ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.(Photo: Tsavo lions in Chicago. Credit: Field Museum of Natural History)

All history reminds us that we are all history in the making! Garden history reminds us that we as gardeners, our gardens, our gardening, and how our culture tends to and stewards land are all that, too!  What is the historical context of gardens in this moment-especially given some of the changes and impacts on national or public shared landscapes? What does garden history specifically teach us about this moment?  Join us this week as Cultivating Place hosts Ben Futa and Abra Lee consider these questions through the lens of garden history and their own garden lives: from plants to quilts, from potbelly stoves to richly rewarding stories from the past. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Nearly 800 million people around the world live within 62 miles of a volcano. But what if scientists could better predict a volcanic eruption before it begins? In this re-release from our "Scientists at Work" series, originally published in 2020, we go behind the scenes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to talk with geologist and volcanologist Ben Andrews. His job is to answer three key questions about volcanoes around the world: When will an eruption happen, how big could the eruption be, and how fast?

At the height of summer, we head to the mile-high city to think more about cultivating place at elevation: human-made and natural elevations, in the service of people and their places. We're in conversation with Professor Jennifer Bousselot, who leads the Green Roof and Urban Agriculture Program, Growing Food for People and Pollinators, at Colorado State University. Dr. Bousselot is motivated by balance. The author and co-author of many titles, including Trees & Shrubs of Colorado and Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico, she has also published widely on the power (pun intended) of green roofs and agrivoltaics, a stacking-functions, mixed-use approach that combines solar power and agriculture. And that's all while introducing students to the mix. Join us! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Huxley is an example of having a good attitude about publicly acknowledging errors and learning from them. He earned the nickname “Darwin’s bulldog” for his very vocal support of Darwin’s work, and he wanted to promote science and education, particularly to people that didn’t normally have access to those things. Research: Bernoulli, D., Jenkyns, H.C. “Thomas Henry Huxley, a stone tablet, coccoliths, and deep-sea sediments in the high Alps.” Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 112, 1661–1669 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-023-02330-5 Bowen, Keith. “Thomas Henry Huxley.” Ebsco. 2024. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/thomas-henry-huxley Burkhardt, Richard W.. "Jean-Baptiste Lamarck". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Dec. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Baptiste-Lamarck Darwin, Charles. “On the Origin of Species.” JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. London. 1859. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1228/1228-h/1228-h.htm Desmond, Adrian J. "Thomas Henry Huxley". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Jun. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Henry-Huxley Dolan, John R. “The famous and lesser-known illustrations of Thomas Huxley’s Bathybius.” History of Oceanography. International Commission of the History of Oceanography. https://oceansciencehistory.com/2020/07/13/the-famous-and-lesser-known-illustrations-of-thomas-huxleys-bathybius/ “Freshwater Bathybius.” Nature 4, 49–50 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004049b0 “The Great Debate.” University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/great-debate “The History of Evolutionary Thought.” Understanding Evolution. Berkeley University. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-history-of-evolutionary-thought/1800s/early-concepts-of-evolution-jean-baptiste-lamarck/ Huxley, T.H. “Agnosticism.” K. Paul, Trench. London. 1889. https://archive.org/details/a622650700huxluoft/page/169/mode/1up Huxley, T.H. “Aphorisms and Reflections. From the Works of T. H. HUXLEY, Selected byHenrietta A. Huxley. Macmillan and Co. London. 1907. Accessed online: http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/Book/Aphor.html Huxley, T.H. “Autobiography and Selected Essays.” Riverside College Classics. 1909. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1315/1315-h/1315-h.htm#link2H_4_0007 Huxley, T.H. “Collected Essays, Volume V: Science and Christian Tradition.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15905/15905-h/15905-h.htm Huxley, T.H. “Evidence as to man's place in nature.” D. Appelton and Co. New York. 1863. https://archive.org/details/evidenceastomans00huxl/page/n1/mode/2up Huxley, T.H. “On Some Organisms Living at Great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean.” Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. viii., new Series, 1868, pp. 203-212. http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/bathy.html Huxley, T.H. “On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals.” Project Gutenberg eBook. 2001. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2932/pg2932-images.html Joshi RS. “The Inner Root Sheath and the Men Associated with it Eponymically.” Int J Trichology. 2011 Jan;3(1):57-62. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3129131/ Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste. “Zoological Philosophy.” Macmillan. London. 1914. https://archive.org/details/ZoologicalPhilosophy Lyons, Sherrie L. “Thomas Henry Huxley : the evolution of a scientist.” Prometheus Books. New York. 1999. McGraw, Donald J. “Bye-Bye Bathybius: The Rise and Fall of a Marine Myth.” Bios, vol. 45, no. 4, 1974, pp. 164–71. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4607257 “Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1963.” The Nobel Prize. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1963/summary/ Pearce, JMS. “Thomas Henry Huxley.” Hektoen International. Sept. 18, 2020. https://hekint.org/2020/09/18/thomas-henry-huxley/ Schwartz, Joel S. “Darwin, Wallace, and Huxley, and ‘Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.’” Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 23, no. 1, 1990, pp. 127–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4331120 “Thomas Henry Huxley.” Darwin Correspondence Project. University of Cambridge. https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/thomas-henry-huxley “Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895).” Humanist Heritage. https://heritage.humanists.uk/thomas-henry-huxley/ Tunstad, Erik. “Darwin's Bulldog: Thomas Huxley 200 Years.” Prosa. July 10, 2025. https://prosa.no/artikler/aktuelt/darwins-bulldog-thomas-huxley-200-ar Wyhe, John van. “It ain't necessarily so ...” The Guardian. Feb 9, 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/feb/09/darwin.myths See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that Andrew Stanton released TWO movies this year? Toy Story 5, of course, but also the centuries-spanning sci-fi yarn In the Blink of an Eye?! This episode is dedicated to the latter - kind of. Theater critic and brother of the show Joey Sims joins us to chat about a BUNCH of things, not limited to In The Blink of an Eye; Off-Broadway plays, caveman movies, Power Rangers, and the status of the Lost in Space IP. It's a tangent-heavy listen, folks. Listen to Joey's Pod: House Closed: Theater We Saw Read about how Off-Broadway's PERFECT CRIME and THE OFFICE halted performances due to theft of pipes at the theatre Check out the Hayden Planetarium at the New York Museum of Natural History  Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won't want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Allen Bush is an esteemed plantsman and lifelong advocate for the joy of gardening. He joins Cultivating Place Host Abra Lee in conversation this week to share more. From his work with Jelitto Perennial Seeds to his decades sharing rich garden stories as a Garden Rant writer, Allen's life and work invite us to look more closely at the remarkable diversity of plants and the endless opportunities they offer for curiosity, discovery, and connection. Through decades of sharing plants and knowledge with gardeners, he reminds us that our gardens are never truly finished; they are living places that continue to teach us, season after season, and our local garden histories matter. Listen in this week! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

A Bronx woman with a difficult upbringing decides to figure out where she came from. Her journey leads her to a grandfather whose work is admired by millions.

As part of the yearlong series "Wild NYC," Marielle Anzelone, urban botanist and ecologist and the founder of NYC Wildflower Week, and Jessica Ware, entomologist and division chair of Invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History and co-founder of Entomologists of Color, talk about the moths, beetles, flies, and butterflies living around us and their role in making the ecosystem work. Photo: Ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), a striking damselfly species native to New York City. (Photo by Marielle Anzelone) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the 1880s, a conservator at the Smithsonian set out for Montana to capture an American bison before the dwindling species vanished forever. He returned with six taxidermied bison that he displayed in the museum. The bison diorama wowed visitors so much that it helped kickstart a movement to save the species. But then, just like that, the stuffed bison vanished! Where did they go? With the nation's 250th birthday fast approaching, the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History set out to find the missing bison. It's a journey that led west —where it all began— and ended on the steps of the museum. Guests: Kirk Johnson, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural HistorySiobhan Starrs, Senior Project Manager and Exhibition Developer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Jonny BearCub Stiffarm, Volunteer with the Fort Peck Tribal Bison program in Montana. Member of the Assiniboine Nation and a former Buffalo Program administrator at the World Wildlife Fund Jim Wood, Assistant Director for Communications at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural HistoryThis episode received support from Smithsonian's Our Shared Future: 250, a Smithsonian-wide initiative commemorating the nation's 250th. Major support for Smithsonian's Our Shared Future: 250 has been provided by Lilly Endowment Inc. Additional generous contributions have been made by Target, Caterpillar Foundation, and the Gates Foundation.