Strange by Nature Podcast

Kirk revisits the Loneliest Tree in the World to tell us all about the (former) Loneliest Tree in the World. This week he tells us about the Tree of Ténéré.

Rachel then brings us a completely nonsense endoparasitic crustacean that lives INSIDE of sea stars. Turns out Dendrogasters are truly bizarre.

Victoria wraps things up with weird lizards that live above the arctic circle and some of the adaptations that have allowed them to li...

Victoria is up first this week and she talks about the incredibly loud Pistol Shrimp. These little creatures make a sound as loud as a jackhammer with their claw. She shares more incredible facts about these wild critters as well. We're all impressed.

Kirk is up second and also heads to the ocean and brings us the Headless Chicken Monster. What an amazing name. This sea cucumber is a fascinating deep sea creature that glows in the ...

Hello Everyone and a big THANK YOU to our patrons for making this episode possible.

Rachel starts off the show this week with another installment on her series about bears. This week, the Sun Bear. They are cool and all but they have a secret that is...just...it's so much.

Victoria gets us into a sticky situation with chameleons. We know birds build nests to keep their eggs from falling to the ground but what about chameleons? The ...

This one is wild. Kirk brings us the disturbing tale of a woman in Greece who ended up with botfly maggots living up her nose. Rachel has a hard time making it though this story but we believe in you dear listeners.

Rachel predictably goes back to the ocean and brings us a creature feature on the Blanket Octopus. These creatures have incredible differences in size between males and females.

Victoria rounds out this week's show with...

This week Victoria takes us to the depths of the Mariana Trench. After taking us to the deepest cave in the world she felt it was only fair to visit the deepest spot on Earth!

Kirk then brings us new research about how bumblebees survive having their homes flooded by spring snow melt. It turns out, they can survive for 8 days underwater!

Rachel rounds out this week's show with the mystery of The Appendix. It totally isn't because s...

What a wild ride this week. We've all heard stories of someone needing their appendix removed but what if the only surgeon available is you? Rachel brings us a horrifying tale of a doctor in Antarctica who had to remove their own appendix.

Victoria tells us the tale of African sleeping sickness. This nasty disease is spread by the tse-tse fly and humans are making strides in fighting both the disease and the flies.

Finally, Kirk br...

Kirk starts the show this week with an odd story about Perceptual Narrowing. The long and short of it is that babies are better at remembering monkeys than you are.

Rachel takes the second slot this week and bring us a story of one of the cutest little bats in the world. These odd creatures are one of the only mammals to get colors from the plants they eat. Let us introduce you to the Honduran White Bat.

Victoria gets deep at the e...

It's that time again, our annual anniversary show. Guest naturalist and friend of the show Brett Sieberer takes control of the snow and quizzes us about our past year of shows. He challenges us to pronounce nearly unpronouncable latin names, makes us make tough choices about the animals we talked about on the show and of course we play a rousing round of Eat, Ride, Jacket. Let us know which you would choose!

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Victoria starts off today's show with a completely bizarre parasite. Usually parasites are secretive and don't want to be seen but the amazing Green Banded Broodsac absolutely loves attention and goes great lengths to be seen.

Kirk is up next and, big surprise here, he has a bird story for us. It turns out that not only are New Caledonian Crows super intelligent but research...

This episode was made possible by our Patrons. Thank you!

Rachel kicks off the show this week by talking about the strange pollinators of the beautiful Red Hot Poker flowers. Turns out it is the Ethiopian wolf! This is an incredible and rare example of pollination by large mammals.

Victoria is up next and she brings us the mysterious case of the all-female population of whiptail lizards. This population survives without men and rep...

Kirk starts us off this week with the bizarre story of a form of life that literally feeds on radiation. Found growing in Chernobyl, radiotrophic fungi are strange and amazing.

Rachel tells us about a medieval potion from Bald's Leechbook containing garlic, onion, wine, and ox bile that scientists have discovered kills up to 90 percent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Victoria lets us know about Pavement Mushrooms. These edible ur...

Victoria is back with us this week and she kicks things off with a doozy of a story about a species of bark lice that has undergone a complete swapping of genitals between males and females. It's a very cool story but has frank discussions of reproductive parts so parents feel free to decide if you're ready for those discussions with your young ones.

Kirk is up next with a story about Redheads! Sure, we all know some strange redhea...

Kirk kicks things off this week with a wild story about how the magnetic field of the Earth has completely flipped in the past. The European Space Agency recently used data sonification to help people better understand this bizarre event. 

Rachel heads to South America to let us know about a new species of scorpion recently discovered that can actually shoot their venom at foes. This is the first time this behavior has been seen in...

Rachel starts us off this week with the strange Box Jellyfish. This is an animal you don't want to get mixed up with. Kirk never wants to go in the ocean again.

Speaking of Kirk, and speaking of strange, this week he's talking about Yams. Not any old yam, this one particular species does something never before seen in a plant anywhere else on Earth. It tricks birds into helping it reproduce asexually.

Join us weekly for more strang...

Hello Everyone and thanks for listening this week.

Kirk kicks things off with a story about Vampire bats that just won't learn their lesson. In fact, they aren't able to. New research shows vampire bats may be the only mammal that doesn't develop food aversions after eating bad food.

Rachel is up next and she tells us about the tricky Harlequin bug. It comes in so many colors and varieties, scientists keep falling for the trap of c...

Victoria starts us off this week with barnacles! I know, they may not sound that interesting but it turns out they are being used by researchers to help narrow the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370.

Kirk bring us the unbelievable tale of a wasp that uses pheromones to purposefully start massive ant brawls just so it can locate a butterfly. Yes, it is very weird.

Rachel rounds out this week with a look at the amaz...

Welcome to 2026! Rachel starts off the year with horrifying wasps that sting cockroaches, turn them into zombies and then lay their eggs in them so their young can devour them from the inside. You're welcome.

Victoria takes on the fascinating topic of all the animals that beat us to the idea of farming by millions of years. They even do weeding and apply fungicides. It gets wild.

Kirk heads to the ocean and discovers that some brit...

The final episode of 2025. Here's what we have for you:

Kirk kicks off the show by looking into the very strange world of insect hearing. Turns out some flies use a rotating nose to hear.

Rachel is then up and she talks about the arms race between Bats and Moths. This conflict has lead to some amazing defenses on the part of the moths.

Victoria is up third and she brings us the smallest animals on earth, Myxozoans. These little cre...

Look, we get it. This is a busy week with family for a lot of people. If you are one of those people, we sincerely hope this episode helps you hide from family and obligations and take a moment for your weird selves. We're all in this together.

On this week's show, Victoria kicks things off with a deep dive on Bats. We often think of them as predators but they are prey animals as well. She talks about some of the animals that hunt ...