You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey everybody, Maddie here.

Today we've got something fun for you from another NPR podcast, Ted Radio Hour.

It's from a recent show exploring far off worlds.

In this excerpt, they take us on a journey to Antarctica, the coolest place on Earth.

Host Manouche Samarote talks to wildlife filmmaker Ariel Waldman about her search for microscopic

life there.

It's a glimpse into what it takes to do science in extreme environments and the weird and

wonderful life that thrives there, featuring one of my favorite critters of all time, the

Tartagrade.

If you haven't heard of these tough little moss piglets before, you are in for a treat.

Alright, that's coming up next.

Today on the show, we are venturing through the looking glass, extending our perception

and exploring strange new worlds, including here on Earth.

So when you land on the packed snow runway in McMurdo, yeah, you don't see anything.

It's just snow.

So there's no trees, there's no bushes, there's no grass, there's none of that.

As people think of Antarctica as really desolate, it's covered with over a mile of ice in many

locations.

It's the coldest continent, it's also extremely dry, it's a polar desert.

But the thing that I feel like a lot of people don't know about Antarctica is that it's

really brimming with life in a lot of different locations.

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