Sidedoor: Science & Nature

Investigate a bizarre case of primate abduction with researchers working with the Smithsonian in Panama.

Dive into the shadowy world of turtle trafficking with the Sidedoor team.

Turtles have been around for 200 million years—so why are they suddenly disappearing? 

Discover how these toothy hangers-on wormed their way into medical practices, performance art, and EVERY human cavity.

Grab your microscope and get ready to head through a very special side door of the National Zoo—behind the scenes with veterinary pathologists.

Smithsonian and NASA scientists set out to collect an asteroid sample that may hold clues to the origins of life in our solar system.

Journey back in time to the “Golden Age of Arsenic" when the deadliest killers often wore corsets.

In honor of the Zoo's newest giant pandas, listen to this Sidedoor rerun.

Smithsonian Sidedoor delves into the woolly dog's genome to learn the real story of its disappearance.

Hitch a ride on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as it scours deep space searching for black holes.

Travel back to the 1930s and learn about the mysteries behind a black hole.

Get ready for cicada broods XIII and XIX emerging at the same time. 

Head to the cloud forests of Western Panama for a cup of coffee with Sidedoor.

How does so much carbon end up in tropical forests, and how is it measured? Sidedoor visits Panama to find out. 

Follow along on a search for the elusive and rambunctious capuchin monkey on an island in the Pacific.

Celebrate February 29th with fun facts about leap years.

The Sidedoor team runs all around the Smithsonian to answer from a grab bag of listeners' questions.

We're on the hunt to learn more about North American river otters.

A goodbye to the adorable bears after fifty years of pandas at the National Zoo. 

Cellphones put the power of the world at our fingertips and it's all made possible by rocks formed millions of years ago, deep underground.

A Smithsonian researcher has made a discovery we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into.

Using artificial intelligence and good old fashioned research skills to discover the lost women of science.

Americans spend countless hours on patches of grass that don't make much sense, economically or ecologically. But why? 

We sit down with Bill Nye to get schooled on science education and comedy.

Light pollution affects all life on earth, from humans to plants and insects. Can we have the dark, without giving up the light?

America's first large space telescope went from a "billion-dollar blunder" to one of history's most important scientific instruments.

With a little help from science, the once-endangered giant panda is making a comeback.

The Sidedoor team searches for the elusive wild American ginseng—and finds that scientists, conservationists, and criminals are also on the hunt.

Discover how these toothy hangers-on wormed their way into medical practices, performance art, and EVERY human cavity.

With little remaining habitat, learn what happens when wild elephants go urban.

A celebration of the notorious periodical cicadas that crawl out of the earth by the billions every 17 years.

Go back to a time when viruses had the upper hand and learn about the vaccine that helped turn the tide in the war against infectious diseases.

Join the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s herring tagging team to learn how dam removal restores habitats for herring.

Where do black-crowned night herons fly off to in the fall? For more than a century, nobody knew. Until now.

When a highly contagious mystery illness spread through the world’s mountain gorilla population, biologists feared the entire species could be lost.

Unlock the secret lives of monarch butterflies and learn how to support them on their journey.

Meet Fred Tutman, the longest-serving Waterkeeper in the Chesapeake Bay region and the founding Patuxent Riverkeeper.

Hear the often-overlooked story of Apollo 12, one full of danger, discovery, and the power of friendship.

Three billion birds have gone missing since 1970. In this episode, we go bird-spotting with Pete Marra, and learn what each of us can do to bring birds back.

You may not know his name, but Alexander von Humboldt inspired a key part of America’s national identity through science and art.

A team of artists and scientists use DNA to try to revive the scent of a flower extinct for more than a century.

Behind the fossilized teeth, bones, and claws displayed in the National Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Hall is the story of two men and a nasty feud.

Scientists at the Smithsonian are working to protect orchids and their habitats, but first they need solve a surprisingly difficult problem: how to grow one.

Sidedoor joins forces with the National Air and Space Museum to explore the mysteries of lunar science.

Learn how Roxie Laybourne and her team helped keep the friendly skies friendly for both birds and people.

Travel to the Panamanian jungle to learn how the Smithsonian is helping some endangered frogs avoid extinction.

Explore our surprising relationship with whales through the lens of one species: the gray whale.

Grover Krantz was an accomplished anthropologist, tenured professor…and diehard Bigfoot believer?

Explore our surprising relationship with whales through the lens of one species: the gray whale.

The world’s deadliest animal isn’t the tiger, the snake, or even the alligator—it’s the mosquito.

Grab your Scooby Snacks and join Sidedoor as we journey to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to hear about unusual bones found on a dig.

Erased from the wild for three decades, the scimitar-horned oryx are back in the Central African country of Chad.

Take a peek into an unlikely relationship between an animal keeper and a white-naped crane, with high stakes for the future of an entire species.

Meet the food spies—globe-trotting scientists and explorers of the 19th-century who sought exotic crops to enhance America’s diet and help grow the economy.

In 1918, a flu pandemic killed more than 50 million people worldwide.

Explorer, scholar, and 19th-century darling Robert Kennicott seemed destined to lead a full and adventurous life.

A race with time to save Fiona the baby hippo with help from the world's largest exotic-milk repository at the Smithsonian's National Zoo.

Learn how France Glessner Lee’s "Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death" blend art and science.

The Algal Turf Scrubber harvests algae from large bodies of water and converts it to biomass, and is one of the marine ecology field’s best-kept secrets.  

A grab bag of stories from the Smithsonian Sidedoor team.

A grab bag of stories from the Smithsonian Sidedoor team.

The payoff is all in the delivery: missile mail, orangutan pregnancy, and landing a joke.