Points North
Points North is an award-winning podcast about the land, water, and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. Through narrative, sound-rich journalism that is deeply rooted in a sense of place, each episode entertains, informs, and surprises listeners everywhere.
Natural Sciences
Science
Personal Journals
Society & Culture
Social Sciences
Nature
Documentary
News
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 17 minutes
- Episodes
- 98
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
Hopes and Fishes
In one of the most polluted parts of Lake Michigan, whitefish are thriving. Some people wonder if we should try to replicate that environment elsewhere to save the iconic species. But that could mean…
00:22:05 |
Fri 12 Sep 2025
Pushing the Boundary
In the early 1800s, a group of politicians decided part of the Ohio border should move farther north. It started a decades-long border fight between Michigan and Ohio. There were winners. There were …
00:23:28 |
Fri 29 Aug 2025
The Pink Prairie Mascot
In 2014, a group of botanists discovered that a very rare plant native to the Kankakee River in Illinois, had vanished from its only known native habitat in the world. That set off a quest to bring b…
00:19:31 |
Fri 15 Aug 2025
My Little Slime
What would happen if our devices were alive? Would it change the way we treat them? One researcher in Chicago wanted to find out. So she made a smartwatch that has to be fed and watered to work.
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00:18:18 |
Fri 01 Aug 2025
A Good, Not Great Lake
Lake Champlain is more than 16 times smaller than Lake Ontario, the smallest Great Lake. But in 1998, Congress designated Lake Champlain as the sixth Great Lake, teeing off a historical and cultural …
00:22:00 |
Fri 18 Jul 2025
Once in a Blue Moon
Blue moon ice cream, this quintessentially Midwestern, bright blue dessert, is a mystery. No one can agree on what it tastes like, and no one with the info will say. We try to find out.
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00:30:04 |
Fri 04 Jul 2025
Scratching the Right Itch
Ron Reimink knew how uncomfortable and annoying swimmer’s itch could be. He spent much of his adult life trying to eradicate it in lakes across northern Michigan. Then one day, he realized he was com…
00:21:42 |
Fri 20 Jun 2025
Presenting The Dirtbag Diaries: Winter Vacation
Emily Ford goes on a winter vacation. She doesn’t go to some warm beach location, though. She sets out to thru-hike Wisconsin’s 1,200 mile Ice Age Trail.
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00:33:18 |
Fri 06 Jun 2025
The Good Thief?
Tom Farnquist is in the business of preserving underwater artifacts and displaying them in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The problem is, a lot of those artifacts were technically stolen from the …
00:18:23 |
Fri 23 May 2025
The Longest Paddle
After Traci Lynn Martin’s mom died, she knew she couldn’t keep putting off her dream: becoming the first person to kayak around the Great Lakes in one year.
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00:23:47 |
Fri 09 May 2025
My Lakes Are Better Than Your Lakes
Minnesota and Wisconsin are bitter rivals at just about everything. So in 2019, when Wisconsin’s secretary of tourism claimed her state had more lakes than Minnesota, the embers of an age-old debate …
00:16:20 |
Fri 25 Apr 2025
Between Myth and Migration
Cougars are making a comeback. The iconic wildcat hasn’t had a breeding population in the Great Lakes states since the early 1900s, but now they’re moving east. Experts say they could be back soon. S…
00:25:12 |
Fri 11 Apr 2025
Some Things Never Change
Inside rustic cabins and yurts at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park there are log books. For more than 70 years, visitors have written in them. We went into this time capsule to see if pe…
00:27:19 |
Fri 28 Mar 2025
Bear Trouble
When a black bear in Minnesota woke up from hibernation in the middle of winter and attacked three people and a dog, researchers were left with one question: Why?
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00:18:02 |
Fri 14 Mar 2025
Presenting REAP/SOW: Buzzkill
Americans stepped up to do something about dying bees. Beekeeping is all the rage right now. But what if all those backyard colonies are making the problem worse?
00:28:55 |
Fri 28 Feb 2025
Back to the Boundary Waters
Erik Grams has been taking trips to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota for over 30 years. It’s his favorite place in the world. But last year, during a fishing trip, there was a fatal accident that lef…
00:23:04 |
Fri 14 Feb 2025
A Sticky Solution for Microplastics
Microplastics are everywhere. But after accidentally combining materials in a lab, scientists at the University of Michigan are on the cusp of discovering a new method to capture and remove microplas…
00:19:36 |
Fri 31 Jan 2025
Big Abe’s Net
One calm September day, Big Abe LeBlanc set his fishing net in Lake Superior. Then he called law enforcement and turned himself in. What happened next changed fishing in the Great Lakes forever.
00:22:17 |
Fri 17 Jan 2025
The Squeaky Sand Phenomenon
On April 8, 2024, Meghan Hetfield and her partner Roni Pillischer witnessed a total solar eclipse over Lake Ontario. But in the middle of this intense and beautiful experience, something else kept gr…
00:13:36 |
Fri 03 Jan 2025
Complete With His Language
Kenny Pheasant first became a teacher of Anishinaabemowin at 14 years-old, teaching customers from behind the meat counter at a grocery store. Now, it's his life mission to get more people speaking t…
00:14:21 |
Fri 20 Dec 2024
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