This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by the North Face and its new Apex

flex GTX, a waterproof soft shell jacket. But before we get to that, I want to tell you

a quick story about something that's not a jacket.

It happened a few years ago on a freelance assignment for the local newspaper.

I was writing about stuff you could still do outside in that last gasp of summer before it started raining again.

It was not the sort of story that I expected to inspire a letter, but at some point in this list of swimming holes and Frisbee golf courses, I insinuated

that the return of the rain was a sad thing. I know I did that because a few weeks later I got

a note from the Rain Lady, an anonymous letter

who whenever someone at the newspaper described Rain in a negative way, she would respond with

an impassioned, often profane letter scolding them and celebrating the benefits of rain.

I remember there were lots of exclamation points in the letter I got,

lots of underlined words.

It was like a handwritten YouTube comment section, taking me to task for what I thought was a universal truth.

Rain sucks.

Her argument was that wet gray weather actually makes the world beautiful and livable.

And while I think we all know that's true, it still sort of came as a shock.

No one thinks about rain that way. Which brings us back to this new jacket, the Apex Flex GTX from North Face.

It combines a stretchy comfortable fabric with Gore-Tex waterproofing. It's a jacket designed to be so comfortable and well-made

that you'll want it to rain, just like the rain lady, though hopefully you'll be a little

more polite about the whole thing.

Okay, on the show. From Outside magazine and PRX, this is the science of survival.

Hey everybody, as we get going here I should say that this episode contains

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