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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature

@strangebynaturepodcast.com
186 followers 238 following 111 posts

Life is strange. Naturally you want to hear about it. Three professional naturalists get together weekly to share the strangest science-based nature stories they can find. Come join the fun.

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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 27/04/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: There are more trees on Earth than stars in our galaxy. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Space #Trees
A person stands and stares up at a sky filled with the stars of the Milky Way. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: There are more trees on Earth than stars in our galaxy."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 17/04/2026
We have poured off the final maple syrup batch of the season at work. Not a bad year, not a great year. Pretty average. Won’t know if we won another ribbon for four more months.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 16/04/2026
Happy Spring! Strange by Nature Fact: 88% of the flowering plants on Earth are pollinated by beetles. So why do the bees get all the credit? #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Plants #Polination
An insect perches atop a purple flower. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: 88% of the flowering plants on Earth are pollinated by beetles."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 15/04/2026
Hepatica are blooming! #Spring
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 14/04/2026
DID YOU HEAR THIS EPISODE? Redheads with super powers #TeamGinger Bark Lice Genital Swap #Unexpected and JUMBOs - Jupiter Mass Binary Objects #Astronomy #Podcast #Scicomm #Science #Nature #Strange
podbean.com
Why Redheads Have Secret Powers
Victoria is back with us this week and she kicks things off with a doozy of a story about a species of bark lice that has undergone a complete swapping of genitals between males and females. It's a very cool story but has frank discussions of reproductive parts so parents feel free to decide if you're ready for those discussions with your young ones. Kirk is up next with a story about Redheads! Sure, we all know some strange redheads but did you know they may have super powers? New studies show that being a redhead may protect you in an unusual way. Rachel rounds out this week's show with JuMBOs, Jupiter Mass binary Objects. This mysterious new class of objects in space have researchers further refining what we thought was possible. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 05/04/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: Unlike other cats, tigers like playing in water. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Tiger
A tiger stares into the camera. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: Unlike other cats, tigers like playing in water."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 21/03/2026
NEW EPISODE! This week, Hear the Magnetic Reversal of the Earth's poles and learn about a newly discovered species of scorpion that can shoot venom! #strange #Science #Scicomm #podcast #geology #weird #nature
podbean.com
Flipping the Earth's Poles
Kirk kicks things off this week with a wild story about how the magnetic field of the Earth has completely flipped in the past. The European Space Agency recently used data sonification to help people...
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 16/03/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: Hummingbirds flap 4000 times per minute. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Birds
A hummingbird hovers next to a purple flower preparing to drink nectar. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: Hummingbirds flap 4000 times per minute."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 13/03/2026
Current forecast is for somewhere between 4-26 inches of snow. So…maybe?
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 13/03/2026
Lions beating mold is an OUTRAGE.
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a cartoon character says " this is an outrage " in front of a futurama logo
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 12/03/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: A humpback whale weighs 66,000 pounds. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Whales #Ocean
A humpback whale breaches the water surface through a blue wave against a purple-grey ocean sky. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: A humpback whale weighs 66,000 pounds."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 09/03/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: Cats can't taste sugar. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Cats
A grey cat head appears in profile on a black background. The cat appears to be looking up at text which reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: Cats can't taste sugar."
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Matt Chatham @chatham58.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
It will never not be weird that vast loads of fluffy frozen white hexagonal crystals falls RIGHT OUT OF THE SKY, blankets the landscape, then stays here until the heat from a star a gazillion miles away causes the white stuff to change state and disappear as if it never happened. Life is bananas.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 23/02/2026
Strange by Nature Fact: Women have more taste buds than men. #Science #Scicomm #Strange #Nature #Podcast #Animals #Humans
A woman with pink hair sticks her tongue out at the viewer. Text reads, "Strange by Nature Fact: Women have more taste buds than men."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 19/02/2026
8.25 inches of snow overnight in Victoria, MN. #mnwx
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Mike Marz @mikebmarz.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
a timelapsed video a very turbulent updraft base from a supercell thunderstorm on August 27th of 2022 near Cannon Falls, Minnesota
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 10/02/2026
Did you know? Brown bear cubs are born the size of a chipmunk! #Science #Strange #Scicomm #Nature #Animals #Podcast
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 09/02/2026
NEW EPISODE! Box #Jellyfish and Yams. Sure, seems like a #strange combination but they are weird. Box jellies carry a potent neurotoxin but what's so odd about Yams? These particular ones have learned a trick no other asexually reproducing plant has. 🧪 #Scicomm #Science #Nature #Podcast #Ocean
podbean.com
I Yam What I Yam
Rachel starts us off this week with the strange Box Jellyfish. This is an animal you don't want to get mixed up with. Kirk never wants to go in the ocean again. Speaking of Kirk, and speaking of stran...
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 04/02/2026
Cuteness overload.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 04/02/2026
Just a heads up: It’s okay to not be okay.
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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
reading about organisms that aren’t your specialty is like margins of the quorbus eplungulate, ploobular processes bent posteriorly towards the foobulum define term “eplungulate” - lacking plungae. synonym: thubulous
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Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
In 1859, Richard Carrington observed the 1st solar flare--an eruption so powerful it spawned brilliant auroras & knocked out telegraph lines around the world. We have Carrington's drawings but, amazingly, there was no known picture of the man himself--until now. 🧪🔭 academic.oup.com/astrogeo/art...
The Maull & Polyblank photograph of Richard C Carrington, with its telltale writing just visible to the right of the figure. Richard C Carrington (1826–75) was the astronomer who, on 1 September 1859, recorded the first observed solar flare, and speculated about its possible link to the extreme geomagnetic disturbance that began some 17 hours later. This, the largest known geomagnetic storm, now bears his name: the Carrington event.
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Erin Gerecke, PhD, ELS @mulledscience.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
A community science project needs your help to document light pollution in the U.S. Midwest. Just look up! 🧪 www.kcur.org/environment-...
kcur.org
Help scientists document Midwest light pollution by looking at Orion
More people participating in the citizen science project Globe At Night could help fill gaps in what astronomers know about the extent of skyglow.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 02/02/2026
If an educator made a difference in your life be sure to track them down and tell them. We're all out here blindly sending kids off into the world hoping the message sinks in. You have no idea how much it means to us when someone reaches out decades later to say they remember.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 02/02/2026
Just what we needed today. Enjoy.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 02/02/2026
NEW EPISODE! Vampire #bats are the only #mammal that doesn't develop aversions after eating bad food. Scientists keep calling the Harlequin bug a new species over and over and over again. Common side-blotched #lizards mating strategies are Rock, Paper, Scissors. #nature #podcast #scicomm #science
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Vampire Bats and Cinnamon Blood
Hello Everyone and thanks for listening this week. Kirk kicks things off with a story about Vampire bats that just won't learn their lesson. In fact, they aren't able to. New research shows vampire ba...
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Lisa @tuexplorer1.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
A beautiful Tritonia (nudibranch) from @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 600 #CliffReefs #MarineLife
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Jeff, Stopping by Woods @jeffontherock.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Chocolate tube slime mold. #Newfoundland, Canada. #myxomycetes #fungifriends
Photo of a chocolate tube slime mold fruiting  consisting of hundreds of tiny brown tubes tightly packed into roughly a rectangular shape. The slime mold is on dead wood. The background is green.
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barbisblue @barbisblue.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
 A meme showing Bill Murray holding a groundhog (from the movie Groundhog Day). The top text reads "Only in America..." and the bottom text reads "do we accept weather predictions from a rodent but deny climate change evidence from scientists."
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 28/01/2026
Some good news.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 28/01/2026
Double sun dogs yesterday.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 27/01/2026
Cave bears! Listeners will understand.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 27/01/2026
NEW EPISODE Lots of AMAZING #nature in this show. Using #barnacles to narrow the search for Malaysian Airlines flight 370. A #wasp that purposefully starts massive #ant brawls to locate a #butterfly. The Polar Bear: #Winter Survivalist. #Science #Podcast #Scicomm #Weird #Animals #Ocean
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A Six Legged Whoopin!
Victoria starts us off this week with barnacles! I know, they may not sound that interesting but it turns out they are being used by researchers to help narrow the search for the missing Malaysian Air...
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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Timeline cleans with snowflake-sized baby lagoon jellyfish. . 🎥 jelliesfarm www.instagram.com/jelliesfarm?...
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 25/01/2026
A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
A memo was released by ICE instructing agents to violate the U.S. Constitution. ICE told officers and agents that they can forcibly enter homes without warrants signed by judges. The memo was from ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, was shared with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) by two whistleblowers.
hsgac.senate.gov
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 22/01/2026
NEW EPISODE! • #Wasps that turn cockroaches into Zombies • #Animals that farm their own food • Brittle stars are covered in millions of eyes #Nature #Scicomm #Science #Podcast #Ocean #Farming #Ecology #Weird #Strange #Biology #Insects
podbean.com
A Zombie Cockroach Baby Snack
Welcome to 2026! Rachel starts off the year with horrifying wasps that sting cockroaches, turn them into zombies and then lay their eggs in them so their young can devour them from the inside. You're ...
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 22/01/2026
It got real cold here last night and it will get even colder. We got close to -20° F last night and we could hit a windchill of-50 tomorrow. Came into work this morning and noticed this aspen tree cracked open due to the cold. #mnwx #cold #winter #minnesota
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 21/01/2026
Supposed to get down to -20 tonight in our home state of Minnesota. All we have to say about that is...
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a close up of a man 's face with the words more on the bottom right
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National Wildlife Federation @nwf.org · 19/01/2026
Nothing to see here... 👀 2024 National Wildlife Photo Contest Honorable Mentions 📲: ow.ly/pcsz50XUab2 📸 Yuan Minghui 📝 Hunstman spider on bark lichens in Xishuangbanna, China
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Andrew Digby @digs.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
More #kakapo matings - another from Whenua Hou, and Te Kākahu/Chalky Island is off the mark! That's particularly exciting, as it's our low-intensity management site. Whenua Hou: Tumeke 💚 Gulliver Te Kākahu: Rimu 💚 Jack #conservation #parrots A
A male kākāpō sitting in an underground roost, amongst tree roots. Credit: Andrew Digby
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Mike Melton @mikemelton.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
White-booted Racket-tail at @montezumalodge.bsky.social #colombia #birds #hummingbirds
Green hummingbird perched on a thin branch, shown in profile with a slender bill and long tail streamers ending in oval tips, against a soft green background.
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David Proudfoot @djpthurso.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
More aurora tonight at Loch Calder, far north of Scotland
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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." -MLK As always, Dr. King's message is right on time. Today calls on all of us to hear his wisdom and put it into action.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 19/01/2026
NEW EPISODE! •A weird look at the smallest animals on Earth (hint, they are related to jellyfish) •Fruit flies rotate their noses to hear. •The Bat-Moth Arms Race for survival. The natural world is marvelous and strange. Come join us! #Nature #Podcast #Strange #Ocean #Bats #Scicomm
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The Smallest Animals on Earth
The final episode of 2025. Here's what we have for you: Kirk kicks off the show by looking into the very strange world of insect hearing. Turns out some flies use a rotating nose to hear. Rachel is th...
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Birder K @birderk.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Birdability is hiring an Outreach Program Coordinator. This part-time, remote, grant-funded contractor role will help lead the expansion of the Birdability Outreach Program into rehabilitation hospitals& outpatient programs serving people w/ spinal cord injuries. Info in link #birding #accessibility
drive.google.com
BOP Coordinator Position Job Description.pdf
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 13/01/2026
Sharing this amazing winter Blue Sky with BlueSky.
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 11/01/2026
NEW EPISODE! #Rats have been seen catching and eating flying #bats. #Birds use group mass defecation on predators until they die. The fish cannon sounds cruel but it helps migrating #fish safely fly over tall dams. Come listen! #Podcast #Science #Scicomm #Nature #Animals
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Load the Fish Cannon!
Look, we get it. This is a busy week with family for a lot of people. If you are one of those people, we sincerely hope this episode helps you hide from family and obligations and take a moment for yo...
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 11/01/2026
NEWTS!!!!!!!!!
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Strange by Nature Podcast - Your Weekly Weird Nature @strangebynaturepodcast.com · 08/01/2026
NEW EPISODE! Botulism, the rarity of blue in nature and #birds decorating their nests with scat. This episode is all over the place! #podcast #nature #science #scicomm #biology
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The Only True Blue in Nature
Rachel keeps things light as we start off the show with a discussion of Botulism toxin just in time for the holidays. Watch out for those bulging cans. Victoria is up next and she talks about how rare...
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