Threshold

Modern humans emerged into a world filled with and shaped by elephants. But for elephants, living with humans isn’t always easy. Elephants have survived by adapting to all the changes we’re making to their world. But there’s only so much they can do. In this episode, we look at how we can learn to live with—and listen to—elephants.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by d...

More than 60 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth, wiping out nearly all the dinosaurs. The only dinosaurs to live through this mass extinction were birds. In this episode, we look at how these ancient creatures learned to listen and communicate, and how listening to birds has changed us.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, si...

Birds, frogs, dolphins, and humans—we’re all big talkers. Turtles, on the other hand, are considered to be silent. Or are they? In this episode, we challenge what we know about some of our quieter planet mates. 

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Operation frog sound! Send us your frog sounds for an up...

Living together in a group is a strategy many animals use to survive and thrive. And a big part of what makes that living situation successful is listening. In this episode, we explore the collaborative world of the naked mole-rat. 

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Operation frog sound! Send us your ...

A name is essential to your identity. It’s what people call you and what you respond to—it’s part of what you understand about yourself. But do other living things call each other by names? In this episode, we look at how names work in some non-human worlds. 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentione...

We answer listener questions about the making of Season 5: Hark and of Threshold more broadly in this special AMA episode with host Amy Martin, managing editor Erika Janik, and producer Sam Moore. 

Thanks to Kraftkabel for the use of his music. You can find the whole track here.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our ...

Sometimes a place we consider quiet is just a place we haven’t taken the time to listen.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your questions about the new season, the content or how it’s made, for an upcoming behind-the-scenes episode. You can submit your questions to outreac...

If a being doesn’t have ears, can it hear? And if it doesn’t have a mouth, can it talk?  In this episode, we spend a golden afternoon conversing with the flowers, plants, and trees. 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your questions about the new season, the conte...

Listening to Threshold is free. Creating it is not.

We’ve always been committed to making the best show we can—and making it available for free. This is only possible with your financial support.

Our year-end fundraising campaign is happening now through December 31st, and each gift will be matched by our partners at Newsmatch. That means if you can give $25, we'll receive $50. It’s easy to make a tax-deductible donation at threshold...

Insects invented song. They’ve developed a multitude of ways to listen. But insects couldn’t have evolved these complex skills without plants. In this episode, we explore the interconnected acoustic lives of insects and plants. 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your ...

Sometimes we have to be loud when we want to be quiet. 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your questions about the new season, the content or how it’s made, for an upcoming behind-the-scenes episode. You can submit your questions to outreach@thresholdpodcast.org 

What is sound? And what does it mean to listen? In this episode, we take a closer look at sound: what it is, how it works, and how what you hear may not be the same as your neighbor.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

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Coral reefs are some of our planet’s most beautiful and biodiverse habitats. They’re also rich with sound, a bustling marine metropolis whose future is severely threatened by climate change. In this episode, we discover the important role of listening in coral communities. 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our news...

The planet is filled with unexpected and magical sounds… all you have to do is listen.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your questions about the new season, the content or how it’s made, for an upcoming behind-the-scenes episode. You can submit your questions to outreach@...

Beneath the water lies a whole world of sound: snorts, boops, croaks, grunts. Fish, it turns out, have a lot to say, and they’ve been communicating for a long time. In this episode, we take a dive with some of the planet’s oldest vertebrates 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

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For most of our planet’s existence, the Earth was quiet. The boisterous sounds of life we know today are a recent development, one that the growing field of bioacoustics is helping us understand and interpret. In this episode, we travel to Australia to listen to dolphins and meet the microbes that helped usher in life on the planet.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by ...

Humans are born into a wondrous planetary chorus. But today, many of us rarely hear anything other than ourselves. In this season of Threshold, we explore a world teeming with sound and ask what happens when we tune into the life all around us. Season 5 of Threshold, Hark, is coming Tuesday, November 19th.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay co...

In June 2024, the planet hit a terrifying milestone: 12 straight months of global temperatures at or above 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels. But even as the impact of climate change becomes more visible and far-reaching, the opportunity to change the trajectory of this global crisis remains possible. Hope is possible. Today, we’re sharing a conversation with writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, a leading voice on the climate c...