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Outside/In

A Righteous Gemstone

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of our listeners is in a pickle. He’s looking to buy an engagement ring but wants to make sure the diamond comes from an ethical and sustainable source. So he sent us an email asking for help.  This is our latest addition of “This, That, or the Other Thing.” It's a series about the choices we make in our lives to try and build a more sustainable world, whether they have any effect, and what we can do instead if they don't. Today… Host Nate Hegyi looks into the most sustainable ways to source that big, sparkly rock. Should it be a diamond from the ground? A diamond grown in a lab? Or maybe a different gemstone altogether?  Featuring Saleem Ali, Rachelle Bergstein and Anna Provost. Produced by Nate Hegyi. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.   SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.   LINKS Visit our website to see Justine's sapphire engagement ring. You can find a copy of Rachelle Bergstein’s book here. She was also featured on this episode about diamonds, from 99% Invisible.  The Kimberley Process helped reduce the number of conflict diamonds in the world – here’s a list of countries that are participants.  Anna Provost features a lot of her really cool Montana-mined sapphires on Instagram.  A recent study in the journal Nature found that mining diamonds produces millions times more greenhouse gas emissions than growing them in a lab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Outside In, a show where Curiosity and the Natural World Collide.

0:03.8

I am your host, Nate Hedgie, here with producers Justine Paradise and Taylor Quimby.

0:07.6

Hey.

0:08.2

Hello.

0:09.0

Hello.

0:09.3

Hello.

0:09.8

So I have gathered y'all here because we're the only members of this team that are married.

0:15.0

Although I think, Justine, you are the only one of us with an engagement ring, right?

0:19.3

Can we see it?

0:20.5

Absolutely. Here. Can you see it through this zoomy screen?

0:24.4

So beautiful.

0:26.4

Thank you.

0:27.7

We're going to have a picture of it in the show notes, if you're comfortable with that.

0:30.5

Oh, I'm happy to share. I'm very pro my ring.

0:34.6

Yeah. pro my ring.

0:51.5

Regardless of whether you were the ones proposing or being proposed to, how much time did both of you spend thinking about rings?

0:53.0

Oh, a lot.

0:53.7

Months.

1:00.1

Especially because it's the kind of thing you're thinking about in the shower and like lying in bed at night and you're like, you're weighing all these decisions.

1:03.9

And yeah, it's a significant thing.

1:04.5

Absolutely.

1:09.5

So this is something that one of our listeners, a guy named Ben Heaney, has been thinking about a lot lately. Hi, outside in.

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