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Hosted by Zoo Idaho Superintendent Peter Pruett and Idaho Museum of Natural History Director Dr. Leif Tapanila, The Nature of Idaho explores how the Gem State’s wild landscapes shape its past, present, and future. Each half-hour episode dives into nature stories from across Idaho, featuring local news from the natural world, fascinating fun facts, and lively conversations that celebrate life outdoors.Since its launch in February 2018, The Nature of Idaho has produced more than 150 original episodes and earned multiple awards for excellence in science and environmental programming.“Idaho has so much to offer—its landscapes, habitats, geology, and people are endlessly inspiring,” says Pruett.…
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Cheatgrass gets a plainspoken, practical look at how it spreads and burns.
This episode takes a clear-eyed look at cheatgrass as both a stubborn nuisance and a wildfire risk in Idaho. Dr. Kelly Hopping, an associate professor at Boise State University who specializes in human environment systems, lays out why the plant spreads so easily: it grows…
A broad look at the sagebrush sea as habitat, working land, and part of the West's future.
The episode keeps its attention on Idaho's sagebrush sea and treats it as a living system, not a backdrop. Matt Cahill, a program director at the Nature Conservancy, ties it to pronghorn, elk, and mule deer, and also to the land that supports salmon water and farms.
A grounded look at junipers, fire, and the high desert's shifting balance.
Western junipers come into focus as a way to understand how the high desert keeps changing. The strongest passages tie old-growth junipers' fire resistance and self-pruning habits to the pressures younger trees face from fire suppression and grazing, all against a landscape that…
A grounded look at Idaho's wildlife corridors and the forces that shape them.
This piece treats the High Divide as a working corridor rather than a scenic line on a map, linking the Yellowstone ecosystem with central Idaho wilderness and keeping the emphasis on movement.
A direct, Idaho-specific look at water research, monitoring, and the questions that keep surfacing.
Kendra Kaiser frames Idaho water as a public issue that keeps circling back. The discussion moves from single-source aquifers in northern Idaho to water quantity, mitigation, and hydrologic uncertainty in the east and south.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Bob McDonald anchors weekly multi-segment interviews on new research, from cricket courtship to moon missions.
Vox reporters trace how Botox, brain-speech implants, and scientific disputes actually happened.
Hosts discuss cheatgrass control and gut microbiome science with a guest expert.
Matt Cahill pegs the sagebrush sea at about 175 million acres, and he compares the number to the size of Turkey.
Before the juniper interview, The Nature of Idaho cites Northwestern University research on vivid and lucid dreams, targeted memory reactivation, and a 42 percent puzzle-solution rate versus 17 percent in a control group.
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Leif Tapanola and Peter Pruitt frame Idaho water around one question: "Will we have water when we need it?" Kendra Kaiser, director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Idaho, explains how IWERI sets research priorities across Idaho.
Hosts discuss the geology of the Snake River Plain and a study on kimchi's immune benefits.
Pam Pascali says the Mobile Museum is "the museum condensed and on the road" with 3D-printed Idaho dinosaurs.
Murphy Woodhouse says wildfire losses reflect insurance, housing, and people building in “land that thirst for flame.”
Tyler Scheibenflug says Pocatello needs "a network of people" to maintain its trail network.
Hosts discuss bison ecology and behavior with a wildlife program manager, then transition to a news segment about plastic recycling challenges.
Hosts discuss Idaho's natural world, including a guest expert on fish and a news segment about french fries and diabetes risk.
Hosts discuss grazing impacts on western lands and the happiness paradox in nature.
Hosts discuss the superb lyrebird's farming behavior in eucalyptus forests before introducing guest Josh Ritter.