Overheard at National Geographic

By National Geographic

Come dive into one of the curiously delightful conversations overheard at National Geographic’s headquarters, as we follow explorers, photographers, and scientists to the edges of our big, weird, beau... more

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The podcast currently has 160 episodes available.

Best of Overheard at National Geographic

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Trapped in the icy waters of the Northwest Passage
For centuries, the Northwest Passage, the long-sought sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through northern Canada, was a holy grail of Arctic exploration. Even now, sailing through it isn’t guaranteed. Mark Synnott, a National Geographic Explorer, writer, and adventurer, attempted to sail his own boat through the Northwest Passage to retrace the doomed 1845 expedition of British explorer Sir John Franklin. None of the Franklin expedition’s 129 men made it home, but what exactly happened remains a mystery. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? Get the inside scoop on Mark’s Northwest Passage voyage and see gorgeous photos in the August issue of National Geographic. Watch Explorer: Lost in the Arctic, premiering August 24 on National Geographic and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. And to go even deeper, Mark will tell the full story in his book Into the Ice, coming fall 2024 from Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group. Also explore: On paper, Sir John Franklin’s expedition seemed to lack for little. There were ironclad ships, steam engines, libraries totaling 2,900 books, and even animal companions—two dogs and a monkey. Here’s how it all went wrong. Explore another polar expedition gone wrong—Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica aboard Endurance—in the Overheard episode “What the Ice Gets, the Ice Keeps.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
July 11, 202335min
Number 2: Playback: Modern Lives, Ancient Caves
There’s a lost continent waiting to be explored, and it’s right below our feet. We’ll dig into the deep human relationship to the underground—and why we understand it from an instinctive point of view, but not so much from a physical one. (Hint: We’re afraid of the dark.) In an episode originally published November 2021, National Geographic photographer Tamara Merino will take us subterranean in Utah, Australia, and Spain, where modern-day cave dwellers teach us how to escape the heat. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? Go below ground with National Geographic Explorer Tamara Merino to see how these communities have been living—quite comfortably—for a very long time. In Vietnam photojournalist and National Geographic Explorer Martin Edström created 360 images of the world’s largest cave, Son Doong. It’s so big that a forest grows inside of it. Ever zip-line to a remote island? Cartographers did, 30 miles west of San Francisco. What did they see when they mapped the hard-to-reach landform known as the Farallon Islands? Caves. China is home to some of the most intricate cave systems on the planet. These explorers used a laser scanner to capture never before seen images of undocumented caves. Also explore: South Dakota is famous among cavers for its web of cave mazes. Take a look at what they’ve found under the Black Hills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
July 04, 202329min
Number 3: Playback: Rooting, from Into the Depths
National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts is inspired by the stories of the Clotilda, a ship that illegally arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in 1860, and of Africatown, created by those on the vessel—a community that still exists today. The archaeologists and divers leading the search for the Clotilda lay out the steps it took to find it. In this last episode of the Into the Depths podcast, which published in March 2022, Tara talks to the living descendants of those aboard the ship. She admires their enormous pride in knowing their ancestry, and wonders if she can trace her own ancestors back to a ship. She hires a genealogist and visits her family’s small hometown in North Carolina. The surprising results bring a sense of belonging to a place that she never could have imagined. Want more? Check out our Into the Depths hub to listen to all six episodes, learn more about Tara’s journey following Black scuba divers, find previous Nat Geo coverage on the search for slave shipwrecks, and read the March 2022 cover story. And download a tool kit for hosting an Into the Depths listening party to spark conversation and journey deeper into the material. Also explore: Dive into more of National Geographic’s coverage of the Clotilda with articles looking at scientists’ ongoing archaeological work, the story that broke the discovery of the ship, and the documentary Clotilda: Last American Slave Ship. Meet more of the descendants of the Africans trafficked to the U.S. aboard the Clotilda, and find out what they’re doing to save Mobile’s Africatown community in the face of difficult economic and environmental challenges. Read the story of Kossola, who later received the name Cudjo Lewis, in the book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” by author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Learn more about the life of abolitionist Harriet Jacobs, author of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” who escaped Edenton, N.C., through the Maritime Underground Railroad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
June 20, 202345min
Number 4: Playback: This Indigenous Practice Fights Fire with Fire
For decades, the U.S. government evangelized fire suppression, most famously through Smokey Bear’s wildfire prevention campaign. But as climate change continues to exacerbate wildfire seasons and a growing body of scientific research supports using fire to fight fire, Indigenous groups in the Klamath Basin are reviving cultural burning practices that effectively controlled forest fires for centuries. In an episode originally published June 2022, National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan introduces us to people bringing back this cultural practice and teaching the next generation how to use fire. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? If you want to hear more from Kiliii, you can also listen to a previous Overheard episode where he shares stories from the many weeks he spent camping on sea ice with Native Alaskan whale hunters. And if you’re dying to see his photography, check out his website to see portraits of Indigenous people, Arctic wildlife, and more. Also explore: To learn more about Margo Robbins and her efforts to revive cultural burns, check out our article on the subject. The practice of cultural burning is just one of many subjects that Kiliii and writer Charles Mann covered about the ways Indigenous groups are trying to reclaim sovereignty. Read that cover story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
June 27, 202330min
Number 5: How queer identity shapes Nat Geo Explorers
Why would a scientist brave the stench of a car full of rotting meat on a 120-degree day? What can a unique whistling language teach us about humans’ connection to the natural world? And how does queer identity shape the research of National Geographic Explorers? In this episode celebrating Pride, we hand the mic to two Explorers: Christine Wilkinson, who studies hyenas and other large carnivores and created the TikTok series “Queer is Natural,” and Rüdiger Ortiz-Álvarez, whose soundscapes from the Canary Islands encourage us to slow down and listen to the world around us. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? Why do some people prefer LGBTQIA+ instead of LGBT? See how society’s understanding of diverse sexual identities and gender expressions has grown more inclusive—and so has the acronym used to describe them. Before the Nazis rose to power, a German institute cemented itself as gay liberation’s epicenter. Discover the great hunt for the world's first LGBTQ archive. Although a large group of LGBTQ people celebrating their sexual orientation in public had been unthinkable just a few years before, the first Pride parades began in 1970 as marches commemorating the 1969 Stonewall uprising. See more National Geographic coverage of Pride at natgeo.com/Pride. Also explore: Learn more about spotted hyenas, which live in female-led clans of up to 80 individuals. Practice your whistling and head to La Gomera in the Canary Islands, home to the Silbo Gomero whistling language and Garajonay National Park. Find Christine Wilkinson’s “Queer is Natural” series on her TikTok, @scrappynaturalist. And follow along with Rüdiger Ortiz-Álvarez on his Instagram, @rudigerortiz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
May 30, 202334min