Latest Exhibits Podcast Episodes
The Lost Woolly Dog
Sidedoor - June 19, 2024 04:00 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsFor thousands of years, fluffy white dogs could be found across the Pacific Northwest. Their exceptionally soft, crimpy hair was shorn like sheep’s wool, spun into yarn, and woven into blankets and robes by indigenous women who carefully tended them in communities across Coast Salish te...
Cosmic Journey II: Voyage into the Abyss
Sidedoor - June 05, 2024 04:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsHitch a ride on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as it scours deep space for some of the most enigmatic and misunderstood objects in the universe: black holes. What are they good for? Absolutely something. This is the second episode of a two-part journey celebrating the 25th anniversary o...
Cosmic Journey I: "Stellar Buffoonery"
Sidedoor - May 22, 2024 04:00 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsBlack holes could unlock the mysteries of creation and live at the heart of nearly every galaxy. But these invisible balls of extremely dense matter have never been fully understood, especially when they were only a theory. We travel through a cosmic wormhole back to the 1930s to learn ...
Cicadapalooza
Sidedoor - May 08, 2024 04:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThe cicadas are back for some fun in the sun, and this time, they’re louder than ever! For the first time since 1803, Broods XIII and XIX will be emerging at the same time, covering the American South and Midwest with trillions of cicadas. As Smithsonian entomologist Floyd Shockley read...
The Birds and the Beans
Sidedoor - April 24, 2024 04:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratings"God in a cup." "Perfection." "The world's best coffee." Panamanian geisha coffee has been called many things, but never Smithsonian Bird Friendly certified. That might soon change, however, as researchers from Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bird...
Dude, Where’s my Carbon?
Sidedoor - April 10, 2024 04:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIf you’ve bought a plane ticket recently, you’ve probably had the option to pay a few extra dollars to offset your carbon emissions. That money might go toward planting some trees… but how many trees? Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are trying to answer this v...
Monkeyin' Around on the Devil's Island
Sidedoor - March 27, 2024 04:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIt started as a rumor in the cafeteria of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama: monkeys on an island in the Pacific were doing something no one had ever seen them do before. But when researchers went searching for these elusive capuchin monkeys, they discovered more que...
Face Value
Sidedoor - March 13, 2024 04:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsMoney is power. But who's on our money - or isn’t - can be just as powerful. While Lady Liberty has graced American coins and dollars for most of our history, it wasn’t until the 1970s that a real woman appeared on a circulating American coin. But that's about to change. Congress recent...
Jeepers Leapers!
Sidedoor - February 28, 2024 05:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsDid you know a person born on February 29 is called a "leapling"? This special episode is hopping with Leap Day trivia! Like, why do we need an extra day every four years anyway? And will I get paid for working an extra day in February? It's the lowdown on Leap Day in an episode that's ...
Til Death Do Us Part?
Sidedoor - February 14, 2024 05:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThey say love is eternal. What about heartbreak? This Valentine’s Day, we bring you some of Japanese theater’s most popular tales of scorned lovers seeking vengeance from beyond the grave — with a burning passion. Guests: Frank Feltens, Curator of Japanese Art at the Smithsonian’s Na...
To Sidedoor, With Love
Sidedoor - January 31, 2024 05:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsFrom brontosauruses with bronchitis to birds on a wire to flying space rocks and a botched heist at 20 thousand feet. In this episode, Lizzie and Sidedoor producer James run all around the Smithsonian to answer listeners' questions from the Sidedoor mailbag. Guests: Lynn Heidelbaugh, ...
Tails of Bravery
Sidedoor - January 17, 2024 05:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsAs long as there have been wars, animals have joined their human companions on the battlefield. But a few have served so bravely they’ve been memorialized at the Smithsonian. In honor of these furry and feathered war heroes, we bring you the tales of dogs, cats and birds who went above ...
The Milkmaid Spy
Sidedoor - January 03, 2024 05:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsVirginia Hall dreamed of being America’s first female ambassador. Instead, she became a spy. Joining the ranks of the U.S.’s first civilian spy network, she operated alone in occupied France, where she built French Resistance networks, delivered critical intelligence, and sold cheese to...
Auld Lang What?
Sidedoor - December 20, 2023 05:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIt’s a song we often hear at the start of the new year. But what does “auld lang syne” even mean? And how did it come to be associated with New Year's Eve? With a little musical sleuthing, we find Charlie Chaplin might have something to do with it… Guests: James Deutsch, curator of fo...
Welcome Back, Otter
Sidedoor - December 06, 2023 05:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsNorth American River Otters are popping up in places they haven't been seen in decades and nobody really knows why. As we search for answers we discover a trail of fish heads, poop splats and cuddle parties. Guests: Katrina Lohan, head of the Coastal Disease Ecology Laboratory at the ...
Wrinkled Radicals
Sidedoor - November 22, 2023 05:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen Maggie Kuhn was forced to retire from the job she loved at age 65, her colleagues gave her a sewing machine as a parting gift. Outraged, she shut the sewing machine in a closet and, instead, stitched together the first-ever movement against ageism in the U.S. The Gray Panthers woul...
Farewell Giant Pandas
Sidedoor - November 08, 2023 05:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsAll three Giant Pandas are leaving the Smithsonian's National Zoo for China by the end of the year. What's up with that?! We sat down with the director of the Zoo, Brandie Smith, to find out why the pandas are leaving, and whether China plans to send more. This might truly be the end of...
Resurrected: Spooked at the Smithsonian
Sidedoor - October 25, 2023 04:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThe Smithsonian Institution was founded on principles of reason and scientific inquiry. So why is the Smithsonian home to countless tales of unexplained phenomena and—dare we say—ghost sightings? Inspired by an apparition at the National Museum of American History, we creak across museu...
CSI: Southern Pacific
Sidedoor - October 11, 2023 04:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsLooks like these criminals used correct postage, 'cause justice is about to be delivered. Okay, there are no snappy one-liners in this crime scene investigation, but there are explosions, collisions, manhunts and even a cow who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the centennial...
Cellphones Rock
Sidedoor - September 27, 2023 04:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsCellphones put the power of the world at our fingertips. With the touch of a finger, you can instantly connect with your doctor, have food delivered to your office or simply obliterate your niece at Words with Friends. And it's all made possible by rocks formed millions of years ago, de...
The 'Gentle Anarchy' of the Muppets
Sidedoor - September 13, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIcky Gunk. Moldy Hay. Kermit. You might recognize one of these names. Before Kermit joined Miss Piggy and Big Bird, he was kicking it with Sam and Friends — a local tv show in Washington, D.C. that launched Jim Henson's career. We journey back to 1955 to figure out how this eccentric ca...
It's Season 10!
Sidedoor - September 06, 2023 04:00 - 1 minute ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsSidedoor returns for its tenth season on Wednesday, September 13th!
A Wild Ride on the Pony Express
Sidedoor - August 30, 2023 04:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn 1860 the fastest way to get a message to a family member, partner, or colleague wasn’t by text but by hoof…specifically, a pony’s. In just ten short days the Pony Express delivered mail between St. Louis and Sacramento. To find out what it was like to travel this legendary trail, the...
The Hungerford Deed
Sidedoor - August 17, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen a 200-year-old legal document anonymously arrived at his office, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives conservator William Bennett assumed it would be full of boring legal jargon. Instead, he found a juicy tale of family betrayal that would forever change what we thought we knew about...
Tyrannosaurus FX
Sidedoor - August 02, 2023 04:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen you imagine the sound of a dinosaur, you probably think of a scene from the Jurassic Park movies. How do sound designers make these extinct creatures sound so believably alive? And what does modern paleontology tell us about what dinosaurs REALLY sounded like? This guest episode of...
Special: People Eating People
Sidedoor - July 19, 2023 04:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsA Smithsonian researcher has made a discovery we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into — what might be the earliest evidence of our human ancestors eating each other. This conversation is a special update from our past episode 'Did Meat Make Us Human?' Bon appétit!
The Toxic Book of Faces
Sidedoor - July 05, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsBefore the invention of photography, only the rich could afford to have portraits of themselves. But in the early 1800s, a device called the physiognotrace democratized portraiture, making it possible or everyday people to have their images captured in silhouettes. A man named William B...
Building a Movement
Sidedoor - June 21, 2023 04:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsAmerica has a long history of clustering heavy industry and toxic facilities in communities where people of color live. But in the 1980s, a series of events sparked a movement to fight back against these environmental injustices. We trace the history of the environmental justice movemen...
Recording the World
Sidedoor - June 07, 2023 04:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn 1948, Moses Asch set out with an ambitious project: to document the world’s sounds! 75 years later, that project has grown into one of the world’s most eclectic, iconic and LARGEST repositories of recorded sound… from American folk music, to sounds of everyday life, and even a serena...
The Funk List
Sidedoor - May 24, 2023 04:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWomen have long fueled America's greatest scientific achievements. But when you go searching for information about these women scientists, you'll likely come up short. Only 19% of articles on Wikipedia are about women. In the field of science, this difference is even more pronounced. Bu...