meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Outside/In

Magical Drinking

Outside/In

NHPR

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

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2018

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For thousands of years, natural spring waters have been associated with health. But recently something called the “raw water movement” has scientists and health officials reminding the public that drinking from untested springs can make you sick.  Today, we try to sort it all out: are springs a healing tonic, a source of unadulterated H20, or a passing fad and a dangerous throwback? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Picture a paved dead-end road wedged between two forested hills.

0:07.0

On one side there's a little concrete house with a metal roof, maybe four feet tall,

0:12.0

and beside it,

0:13.0

poking through a slab of broken pavement,

0:15.4

a white plastic pipe.

0:17.6

It's not what you typically think of

0:20.2

when you hear the phrase, sacred place. But residents of this town have been coming here for

0:25.1

hundreds of years to get something that these days comes freely out of your tap.

0:29.9

Can we pester you for a second?

0:31.5

Sure. That's producer Taylor Quimby talking to a guy. Can we pester you for a second?

0:32.8

That's producer Taylor Quimby talking to a guy

0:35.0

that's holding a big plastic jug underneath the pipe,

0:38.7

filling it with crisp, cold spring water.

0:41.7

Like what's the benefit, just the taste of the water?

0:43.6

I like to think it's healthier at least than the chlorinated stuff we could come out of the

0:50.9

tops.

0:51.9

I also use it when I grow a lot of vegetables and stuff in my

0:57.0

basement. So I'll use it for that. Whether you're feeding your basement vegetables or just

1:10.0

quaffing a glass from the tap, water is objectively the most important resource needed

1:16.1

for human survival.

1:17.9

So it's understandable that people will go out of their way to get the very best there is. For a lot of the town's folk of Exeter, New Hampshire, that means coming here to the

1:28.8

jailhouse spring, a spot not far from where the town founder took a residence in 1638.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.