We’re doing a bunch of LIVE SHOWS at Little Island in NYC on August 6th-7th. For free. Come join! Check out all of our performances here.

Today we’re bringing you an episode we taped LIVE at The Greene Space at WNYC. In a room filled with all types of critters — scorpions, hissing cockroaches, a tarantula named Isabel and our main star… the jumping spider. Entomologist and bug lover Dr. Sebastian Echeverri tells us all about his love for the jumping spider’s dance moves. Lulu and the audience learn about the creepy crawlies, pet them and then EAT a bug-filled snack.

Special thanks to Dr. Sebastian Echeverri for all of his insect knowledge, musician Aviva Jaye for her beautiful harp composition, and Noor Shikari for preparing over 150 delicious grasshopper tacos for us.

You can watch the full video taping of this episode here!

Check out Dr. Echeverri’s spider field guide Spiders of the United States and Canada.

If you ever find yourself in Brooklyn wanting to try some grasshopper tacos, check out Citrico on Washington Ave.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
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Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrialspodcast@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining Radiolab’s membership program, The Lab—and we’ll send you a special thank-you gift from our team!

On the outskirts of the Nevada desert, a young dog named Hades jumped his fence and ran away from home. His family lost hope, until one night, they saw Hades on the news. For almost seven months, he had been sleeping, eating and howling with a pack of coyotes.

We usually view coyotes as vicious, bloodthirsty beasts. But turns out, they can be pretty friendly. They form unlikely alliances with other animals all the time. They’re so flexible they can eat almost anything and live everywhere from open prairies to city streets, where they lurk unseen like urban ghosts.

Conservation scientist Christine Willkinson, or scrappy naturalist, tells us why a coyote’s scrappiness is its greatest superpower. In a world that rewards specialists, coyotes make a case for generalists - the ones not spectacular at any one thing, but just okay at everything.

Plus, to find these ghosts in her own city, Lulu goes on an urban coyote hunt.

Learn more about coyote friendships:

Watch a video of a coyote eagerly waiting for its badger friend under a busy highway in the Santa Cruz mountains. (2020)

Watch this video of a raccoon and coyote becoming best friends.

Read about coyotes and ravens teaming up.

Watch a coyote and bobcat befriending each other in Florida. (2015)

Watch this unlikely friendship between a coyote and a cat. (Australia, 2019)

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Joe Plourde, Lulu Miller, and Sarah Sandbach, with help from Tanya Chawla and Natalia Ramirez. Fact checking was by Natalie Middleton.

Our advisors this season are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, and Liza Demby.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.
Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrialspodcast@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining Radiolab’s membership program, The Lab—and we’ll send you a special thank-you gift from our team!

Coquí frogs are synonymous with Puerto Rican identity. Residents of the island doze off to the high-pitched calls of coquís from dusk to dawn. There are even playlists of hours of coquí calls that lull listeners to sleep.

That’s why ProducerBud Ana, a proud Puerto Rican, was confused when she saw a poster calling for the eradication of coquí frogs at a Hawaiian airport. Turns out, residents of Hawaiʻi see coquís as a nuisance, disrupting not only their sleep but their precious ecosystems.

Listen as Ana explores how different islands can view these frogs so differently, and how, despite all of our human efforts, they won’t stop singing.

Special thanks to evolutionary biologist Ana Longo and professor Noelani Puniwai for telling us about coquí frogs.

Watch a coquí frog perform its call.

Listen to Puerto Rican sleep sounds.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Joe Plourde, Lulu Miller, and Sarah Sandbach, with help from Tanya Chawla and Natalia Ramirez. Fact checking was by Anna Pujol-Mazzini.

Our advisors this season are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, and Liza Demby.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.
Listen to original music from Terrestrials on Spotify, Apple Music, or our music page.

Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrialspodcast@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question using this form!

Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining Radiolab’s membership program, The Lab—and we’ll send you a special thank-you gift from our team!