Letters to Earthlings

The Ice Cream Lady Cometh

In the last few weeks several people have reached out to tell me that listening to Hark [https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/season05] is causing them to pay more attention to the sounds of the more-than-human voices around us. To me, this feedback is true nourishment. Downloads, donations, press and prizes and all that sort of thing: necessary, valuable, appreciated. But knowing the work is actually impacting how people relate to the living world? That’s the end-all, be-all for me. That’s why I make the show; to help myself and hopefully other people open up to and feel and think about and delight in and grieve over and just connect to our beautiful, powerful home planet. If you’re one of those people who has reached out recently—or ever—thank you. I have zero expectations of hearing from listeners, but when I do, it really means something. One of things that was important to me in making Hark was to avoid a “nature good / people bad” dichotomy. First of all, because people are nature and nature is people. But also because with all the ugly, aggressive, thoughtless noise our species is making right now, it’s easy to fall into an overly simplistic, finger-waggy narrative, and forget all the ways that humans add lovely and interesting sounds to this world too. One of those sounds rolled past my door a few minutes ago, so I decided to share it here. This is 30-ish seconds of me pausing to listen to a fellow human, unknown to me but appreciated from afar. Well, not too far, really. She passes through my neighborhood, and I look up from doing dishes in my kitchen, writing on my front stoop, or pulling weeds in my yard. And I smile. Thanks, Ice Cream Lady. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe [https://letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Welcome to The Corridor

Next week, Threshold [https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/] will be releasing The Corridor, a new series about a stretch of land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that is often referred to as Cancer Alley. Over seven episodes, The Corridor examines how this part of Louisiana became a center of industry and an epicenter of disease, with some communities facing cancer risks among the highest in the nation. Hosted by Jaha Nailah Avery and written and produced by Erika Janik and Sam Moore, this series connects the dots between current battles for environmental justice and the history of slavery and segregation. It’s the story of a place, and the people who live there and love it. It’s also the story of products all of us use every day, and the industries that depend on the rest of us to not get interested in the question of who and what gets sacrificed in the process of making them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe [https://letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Bufo bufo

I’ve been recording the voices of a lot of big, dramatic, eye-and-ear-catching creatures lately — cranes, geese, swans. But on one recent night, when I wandered down to the water’s edge in the darkness, someone a bit more mysterious and shy was making itself heard. Tentatively. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe [https://letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Swans are Back

Whoop! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe [https://letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Ladybirds Sing Too

Related links: * Threshold Conversations: Feminism in the Wild, with Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer. Listen here [https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/conversations-ambika-kamath-melina-packer]. * One of Michelle Hall’s most important papers: Female song is widespread and ancestral in songbirds [https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4379], Odom, K., Hall, M., Riebel, K. Nature Communications (2014). * A more recent paper Michelle was involved in: Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60810-5], Odom, K.J., Araya-Salas, M., Benedict, L. et al. Nature Communications (2025). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe [https://letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]