Nature & Environment episodes
17 episodes so far
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22 min
Rivers in the Sea: How Ocean Currents Steer Ships, Weather and Climate
The planet's great conveyor belts of water have silently steered human destiny for millennia
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14 min
A World Without Quiet: How Silence Became the Rarest Resource on Earth
What constant noise does to our bodies and to wildlife, and the search for the last truly quiet places on Earth
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17 min
Dark Skies: The Vanishing Night and the Science of Starlight
How a century of electric light changed our view of the cosmos, and what we lose when the stars go out
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15 min
The Sixth Extinction: Why This One Is Unlike the Five Before It
What the five great extinctions of the past can tell us about the one scientists say is under way now
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17 min
Deep Time in a Drop: The Strange Science of Ice Cores
Inside the frozen archives where trapped air bubbles let scientists read Earth's climate across 800,000 years.
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16 min
Why Coral Reefs Are Cities Built by Animals the Size of Pinheads
Inside the partnership between tiny polyps and algae that builds the largest living structures on Earth.
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14 min
The Great Dying: Earth's Worst Catastrophe and the Unlikely Survivors
How a mass extinction 252 million years ago nearly ended complex life — and what rose from the ashes
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18 min
Sunken Gardens of Salt: The Strange Science of Mangroves and Tidal Forests
Trees that drink seawater, breathe through snorkels, and quietly protect coastlines, and what happens as they disappear
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19 min
Lines in the Sand: The Hidden Story of Deserts, Dunes, and the Life That Thrives There
Deserts cover a third of the land, and they are far more alive, dynamic, and strange than their empty image suggests.
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17 min
Strange Weather Underground: The Hidden Science of Earthquakes and the People Who Try to Predict Them
From ancient myths to seismometers and machine learning, the long struggle to forecast the ground beneath our feet.
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12 min
Under the Surface: The Fascinating Lives of Cave Ecosystems
Discover how caves nurture unique life forms and challenge our understanding of adaptation and survival.
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20 min
The Swarm Within: How Ant Colonies Think Without a Leader
No boss, no blueprint, yet millions of tiny insects farm, wage war, and solve problems that stump engineers.
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18 min
Rivers in the Sky: The Hidden Science of Atmospheric Currents
How invisible streams of air and moisture shape storms, harvests, and the fate of nations
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16 min
Microbial Worlds: The Unseen Architects of Life
Right now, as you listen to these words, trillions of microscopic architects are reshaping the world around you
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16 min
The Hidden Empire of Soil: Earth's Most Overlooked Ecosystem
Beneath every step you take lies a living universe that holds the fate of all life on Earth
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20 min
Rivers of Rock: The Hidden Science and Story of Glaciers
Slow-moving giants of ice carve landscapes, store ancient climate records, and supply water to billions of people.
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26 min
The Secret Life of Urban Wildlife
Picture this: It's April 2020, and the world has gone silent
Hear any of them in full
Every episode is in the Compound app; Compound+ opens the whole library.