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That's Just Wild: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Fresh Air
Steve Backshall, Lizzie Daly and Sarah Roberts bring you a wildly entertaining nature show filled with adventure, behind-the-scenes stories, and fascinating facts. Think: unexpected encounters, jaw-dropping science, and nature like you’ve never heard it before. Every Tuesday join adventurer, explorer and broadcaster Steve Backshall, wildlife biologist Lizzie Daly, and journalist Sarah Roberts as they dive deep into the wonders of the natural world. From braving Arctic extremes to swimming with sharks, each episode begins with a bold superlative—Flamboyant, Freezing, Venomous—and unfolds into their remarkable tales of the wild. Then, every Friday, it’s your turn. Our Q&A episodes tackle your most need-to-know nature questions—from how not to become bear food to how long is an elephant’s trunk? Because the world is wild, its wonders are endless—and we’re here to tell the stories that prove it.
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- May 7, 202624 min
Q&A: Ancient Fish Eyes, Chowing Chimps and the Deserts That Mimic Mars
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve, Sarah and Lizzie tackle more of your wildest questions one last time, as the show wraps up — going out with a curious bang (and probably a few weird facts for good measure). 💥🐾✨🌊 Ever noticed how things seem to vanish into the distance underwater? We explore whether marine animals see the same murky limits we do — or if life beneath the surface has evolved to see further, clearer, and in ways we can barely imagine. 🐠👀🐜 We always hear about the strongest creatures for their size… but what about the weakest? We take a closer look at sloths — famously slow, surprisingly weak, and spending most of their lives hanging from their toes. 🌿 🌳🌵🦂🪲Are there places on Earth so extreme that life simply can’t survive? We head to scorching deserts in northern Chile and the Lut Desert — some of the closest environments to Mars — where, against all odds, microbes still find a way to thrive. 🔥🧬A huge thanks to all our wonderful listeners — while we’re wrapping things up here, the series isn’t going anywhere, so you can dip back into all our favourite (and slightly wild) episodes anytime 🎧✨Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- May 5, 202636 min
Moist: Slime Highways, Snot Bubble Beds, and a Legendary Orca Sighting
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve, Sarah and Lizzie dive headfirst into the wonderfully weird and surprisingly soggy side of the natural world 💧💧💧🐜 Honey ants take food storage to another level — with a special cast that swells up with nectar until they’re completely immobile, hanging from the nest ceiling like living reservoirs, ready to feed the colony when times get tough. 🍯🧪 Hagfish unleash one of the strangest defences in the animal kingdom — producing up to 20 litres of slime in seconds. This bizarre mucus expands in seawater, clogging the gills of predators and making a swift escape possible. Slippery doesn’t even cover it. 🐍💨🐸 The ultimate survivalist? Meet the water-holding frog — capable of storing huge amounts of water in its body, going into a state of stasis, and surviving underground for up to five years without drinking in extreme drought conditions. 🌵💧📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- May 1, 202622 min
Q&A: Vertical Sleepers, Sky Dances and the Infamous Worm Dance
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve and Lizzie tackle more of your wildest questions!🐦 Mesmerising murmurations & the “rule of 7”… how do starlings move as one without crashing mid-air? We unpack the simple behavioural rules behind those hypnotic sky dances — and why each bird only needs to track a handful of neighbours. 🌅✨🐛 Ever seen gulls doing a strange little “worm dance”? We get into the surprisingly clever ground-drumming behaviour that tricks worms into the surface — and why it works so well. 🌊👀🌙 Do sperm whales really sleep vertically? We explore the bizarre world of “upright” sleepers in the animal kingdom — and what this unusual behaviour tells us about life beneath the surface. 🐋💤📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 28, 202636 min
Sleepy: Mucus Cocoons, Sky Sleepers, and the World’s Best Micro-Nappers
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve, Sarah and Lizzie, drift into the drowsiest corners of the natural world 🌙😴🛌 Sleep is risky business, so animals have evolved some seriously creative solutions. From extreme sleepers to near-insomniacs, the animal kingdom does things wildly differently 🐾Discover sloths dozing high in branches too flimsy for predators to reach 🦥🌿, African pixie frogs that can disappear into a mucus cocoon for up to seven years 🐸⏳, and parrotfish that wrap themselves in their own slimy sleeping bags 🐠Plus, we explore the science of sleep deprivation—where staying awake for just 16 hours can impair you as much as alcohol 🧠⚠️🍷And don’t miss the mysterious sleep abilities of creatures like the common swift, which can remain airborne for months at a time without properly landing 🕊️☁️📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 24, 202623 min
Q&A: Seriously Smart Chimps, Snake hoods and a Very Quiet Rainforest
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve and Lizzie tackle more of your wildest questions!🐒 Seriously smart chimps, artistic animals & nature’s creative side… from painting primates to musical whales and masterpiece-making bowerbird—but are they really making “art” like we do? 🎨🐋🐦 Can different bird species “talk” to each other? We dive into the surprising world of shared alarm calls—how robins, sparrows and others team up to warn of danger, and why learning bird calls might change the way you experience nature. 🌿👂🌙 Why do so many animals come alive at night? Nearly 70% of mammals are nocturnal—think stealthy panthers and city-dwelling rats adapting to a world after dark. 🌆🦝📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 21, 202632 min
Systems: Dust Crossing Oceans, Shrinking Iguanas and a Tiny Earth Experiment
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve, Sarah and Lizzie dive into the natural systems that keep our planet running — the hidden forces connecting oceans, weather, and life itself 🌍✨🌊 The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt keeps our planet in motion — a vast, globe-spanning current system circulating water, heat, and nutrients across the seas… quietly shaping climates and life on Earth.🌦️ From swirling weather systems to extreme survival hacks, marine iguanas can actually shrink their bodies during tough times — tightening their energy use when food runs scarce. Adapt or shrink trying.🛰️ And from space, a surprising link: NASA satellites reveal Saharan dust crossing the Atlantic to fertilise the Amazon rainforest — while experiments like Biosphere 2 attempt to recreate Earth itself under glass.📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 17, 202622 min
Q&A: Goats on Wheels, Luscious Long Necks and Poo Is Power
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve and Lizzie tackle more of your wildest questions!🦣 Do animals support their young with disabilities? From African wild dogs to elephants and chimpanzees, we explore the surprisingly compassionate side of the animal kingdom. ❤️🌍🦒 Ever wondered why giraffes have such ridiculously long necks—and who else is in the long-neck club? From swans and ostriches to alpacas and even bizarre insects (yes, really), plus prehistoric creatures that make giraffes look short… this one stretches way back in time. 🦢✨💩 Can animal poo actually be useful? From fuel to survival hacks, we uncover the true value of poo—including why baby koalas have to eat their mum’s to grow up healthy. Nature gets weird. Fast. 🤯🌱🔍 And finally—Steve’s favourite animal tracking facts from Africa. Because sometimes, the distance between droppings (and how far they fell…) tells you everything you need to know. 🐾📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 14, 202637 min
Invincible: Mesmeric Meerkats, Mongoose vs. Cobra Showdowns, and Regenerating Worms
This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve and Lizzie dare to explore natural world’s toughest survivors — the creatures that refuse to die, defy the odds, and redefine what it means to be truly invincible 💪🦎 Olms lurk in dark cave systems with the incredible ability to regenerate lost limbs and even organs — and can live for over a century… while planarian worms take things even further, rebuilding entire heads, brains, and tails from tiny fragments.🦂 Mesmerising meerkats go head-to-head with some of the world’s most venomous scorpions, while the famously fearless honey badger squares up to just about anything — from snakes to lions, hyenas… even crocodiles.🧬 And the tardigrades — microscopic, oddly adorable “water bears” that can survive being frozen, boiled, and even blasted into space. Cute… but nearly indestructible. 🚀✨📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About That's Just Wild
Steve Backshall, Lizzie Daly and Sarah Roberts bring you a wildly entertaining nature show filled with adventure, behind-the-scenes stories, and fascinating facts. Think: unexpected encounters, jaw-dropping science, and nature like you’ve never heard it before. Every Tuesday join adventurer, explorer and broadcaster Steve Backshall, wildlife biologist Lizzie Daly, and journalist Sarah Roberts as they dive deep into the wonders of the natural world. From braving Arctic extremes to swimming with sharks, each episode begins with a bold superlative—Flamboyant, Freezing, Venomous—and unfolds into their remarkable tales of the wild. Then, every Friday, it’s your turn. Our Q&A episodes tackle your most need-to-know nature questions—from how not to become bear food to how long is an elephant’s trunk? Because the world is wild, its wonders are endless—and we’re here to tell the stories that prove it.
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