The second edition of Outside/In, a new natural-world podcast from NHPR, has hit the airwaves (if that’s the right term for a non-broadcasted show). It is sort of like an extended variant of NHPR’s long-running Something Wild segment, but with field reporting by NHPR’s Sam Evans-Brown.
The latest Outside/In is about vernal pools, those temporary wet spots that appear in woods in spring. This is a topic on which I am pretty knowledgeable, but I learned something surprising (which is a good sign for a show): You can find freshwater clams living in our vernal pools. They’re tiny things, the podcast reported, but definitely clams.
Clams? In the woods?! Far from any permanent stream or pond?!? What????
It didn’t talk about how the clams got there in the first place. I’ll have to do some follow up. Google’s no help: All I find are fried-clam shacks on the Seacoast.
(Follow: Sam pointed me to an article in the wonderful Northern Woodlands magazine about this very issue: northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/clams)
Speaking of Something Wild, I learned something interesting while flipping through literature in the NHPR waiting room: If you want to buy a sponsorship, one of those dry mentions of companies and individuals who support public radio programs, it will cost more for Something Wild than any other NHPR show. I forget the exact amounts, but I remember it was $5 more than any other program.
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