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Outside/In

Frog Sex, Tree Soap, and Other Signs of Spring

Outside/In

NHPR

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

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s that time again, when scientists everywhere hold their breath as we open our listener mailbag. It’s spring in the northern hemisphere, so the theme of the questions in this episode is “growth” — with the exception of the last question, which is… kind of the opposite. Question 1: Um, what are those frogs doing? (go to our website to see the picture) Question 2: What’s that white foam that forms on trees when it rains? Question 3: Does moss get damaged when you walk on it? Question 4: What’s the best filling for raised beds in the garden? Question 5: How long does it take for a dead squirrel to decompose? [insert image] Thanks for the excellent questions, Louise, Mihaela, Tricia, Kevin, and Nicolas! Do you have a question about the natural world? Submit it to the Outside/Inbox! Send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or call our hotline: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back. Featuring: Nat Cleavitt, Rebecca Roy, Yolanda Burrell, and Sibyl Bucheli   SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Subscribe to our FREE newsletter. Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook   LINKS Check out one of many salacious articles about frog sex, or read the somewhat less sensational study about underwater breeding chambers.  And here’s one more study about frog sex; specifically simultaneous polyandry.    CREDITS Host: Nate Hegyi Reported and produced by: Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt Mixed by Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon  Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help from Rebecca Lavoie and Justine Paradis  Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I like your check, there's like a circus noise.

0:07.0

I was singing to you, I was making beautiful music and you interrupted it.

0:11.0

Sorry.

0:12.0

Alright, it's that time where we answer your questions about the natural world.

0:18.0

In the radio business, they call this a mailbag segment and we lovingly refer to ours as the outside inbox.

0:30.0

Hey Taylor Quimby.

0:37.0

Hey Nate Hegey.

0:38.0

So spring can be an incredible season from a visual standpoint.

0:43.0

Right.

0:44.0

But this is a podcast, so what do you think are the iconic sounds of spring?

0:51.0

For me, Northeast, I definitely think peepers.

0:53.0

What are peepers?

0:54.0

Peepers, like, jeep, jeep, jeep.

0:56.0

Well, I'm not doing right.

0:57.0

You know spring peepers, the frogs?

0:59.0

Oh yeah.

1:00.0

Yeah.

1:01.0

It's a small chorus frog widespread through the Eastern United States and Canada, yeah.

1:06.0

On Google, I'm looking at one that's like the size of a finger.

1:09.0

It's like literally sitting on a guy's finger.

1:11.0

My sounds of spring are definitely birds up really, really early.

1:18.0

I think of lawn mowers.

...

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