Threshold

Humans have filled the world with so much noise that the only sounds many of us often hear  on a daily basis are  our own. But all this sound isn’t great for our planetmates and it isn’t great for us…

Homo sapiens joined the story of life on Earth just 300,00 years ago.  So when and how did we start making music and creating languages? In this episode, we explore these signature sounds and discove…

Elephants communicate through a variety of calls, trumpets, and rumbles. But despite being some of the largest land animals on Earth, elephants  can also be incredibly quiet. In this episode, we open…

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…

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 the…

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 pl…

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 collaborat…

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 e…

Listening and looking for loons.

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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. 

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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 t…

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 nonp…

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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 …

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 …

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 nonp…

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 …

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 tod…

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 wi…

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 …