BBC Earth Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

BBC Earth Podcast

BBC Earth

Society & Culture

Tv & Film

Frequency: 1 episode/30d. Total Eps: 50

Each week the BBC Earth podcast brings you entertainment, humour, an abundance of amazing animal stories and unbelievable unheard sounds. Explore the world of animals with superpowers, deep dive into death, hear from heroes passionately protecting the planet and get expert insights into corners of the natural world you’ve never explored before.

Hosted by zoologists Rutendo Shackleton and Sebastian Echeverri, each episode features special guests including the world’s most respected scientists and naturalists, stars of film and television, nature Instagrammers and more.

Listen, laugh and learn – whether you’re a nature lover, nature curious or haven’t yet realised nature is for you, there’ll be a story here to captivate your ears.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - placesAndTravel
19/08/2026
#43
🇬🇧 Great Britain - placesAndTravel
19/08/2026
#22
🇫🇷 France - placesAndTravel
19/08/2026
#72
🇬🇧 Great Britain - placesAndTravel
18/08/2026
#34
🇫🇷 France - placesAndTravel
18/08/2026
#39
🇨🇦 Canada - placesAndTravel
17/08/2026
#61
🇬🇧 Great Britain - placesAndTravel
17/08/2026
#57
🇩🇪 Germany - placesAndTravel
17/08/2026
#93
🇬🇧 Great Britain - placesAndTravel
16/08/2026
#56
🇩🇪 Germany - placesAndTravel
16/08/2026
#44

Spotify

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Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://www.instagram.com/bbcearth
43 shares

https://twitter.com/bbcearth
31 shares
http://www.twitter.com/bbcearth
12 shares

https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/
29 shares
http://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/
12 shares
https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth
2 shares

RSS feed quality and score

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RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 89%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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Ghosts

Season 5 · Episode 12

Tuesday, December 20, 2022 • Duration 38:35

The show takes a spooky turn as we go on a ghost hunt through the natural world. Sebastian shares his adventures finding fossils – the traces of animals that once lived, and Rutendo talks about her experiences in The Cradle of Humankind, the South African UNESCO World Heritage site containing early human fossils.

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon there is a species of wild dog so rarely sighted it has become known as the ‘ghost dog’. We hear from Renata Leite Pitman, one of the few scientists to successfully track down and study the elusive creature as it moves quietly through the forest.

Gravedigger turned ecologist Dan Flew leads Rutendo and Sebastian through Bristol’s Arnos Vale Cemetery in the dead of night, for a close and thrilling encounter with some of the UK’s rarest bats.

We venture to the world’s most northerly permanently inhabited place, Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle, where TikToker Cecilia Blomdahl reveals the magical secrets of this isolated yet beautiful landscape, on a trip out on her boat with her dog Grim.

And we hear rare recordings of the Northern White Rhino, sadly now extinct in the wild, a recently departed ghost of a more biodiverse world.

Credits:

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton.

This episode was produced by Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.

The researcher was Seb Masters.

The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer and the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton.

Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

Special thanks to:

Renata Leite Pitman for the feature on the ghost dogs.

Dan Flew for leading the bat walk in Bristol.

Cecilia Blomdahl for her report from Svalbard.

Martyn Stewart for providing the sounds of the Northern White Rhino.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Order and chaos

Season 5 · Episode 11

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 • Duration 29:10

The difference between order and chaos can depend on your perspective. The systems and processes that drive the natural world might seem random in close-up, whether it’s an ant wandering around near its nest, or a wildebeest charging through the water. But if you zoom out, you can see how these small activities combine to form part of a bigger picture.

The Darwin Tree Of Life project is an attempt to bring order to nature by sequencing the DNA of every living thing in the UK, a staggering 70,000 species. The research team explains how they’ll keep on target by doing a little light sequencing before their morning coffee.

We fly high with one of nature’s most stunning visual displays of order, murmuration, learning from Professor Mario Pesendorfer how this magical movement comes together, and how birds move in perfect sync with no leader.

And wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson – who has helped to create some of the BBC’s best-loved nature documentaries – takes us on a trip to Maasai Mara, where the annual rains bring a natural order to the migration patterns of wildebeest.

Credits:

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton.

This episode was produced by Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.

The researcher was Seb Masters.

The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer and the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton.

Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

Special thanks to:

Caroline Howard, Liam Crowley and Mark Blaxter for the feature on the Darwin Tree of Life Project.

Mario Pesendorfer for sharing his insights into murmurations.

Superpowers

Season 5 · Episode 2

Monday, October 10, 2022 • Duration 31:23

Rutendo and Sebastian get to indulge their passions for nature AND superheroes, as they look at real-life superpowers in nature.

Rutendo explores how these superpowers inspire fictional worlds and heroes with Mike McHargue, a science advisor/world builder for film and television. Mike helps writers and film-makers integrate accurate and consistent science into their stories, and together he and Rutendo invent a brand new superhero.

Rats seem unlikely superheroes but in Tanzania they’re being trained to save lives. Their acute sense of smell means they can detect landmines, and sniff out illegal wildlife being trafficked in shipping containers. We drop in on their training at non-profit organisation, APOPO.

Sebastian’s favourite superhero is Spiderman, whose spider-sense gives him advance warning of impending danger. This superpower is used every day by real spiders whose special leg hairs can sense vibrations. Web-building spiders use this superpower to build a mental map of the world around them by detecting and decoding the tiny vibrations created by anything that touches their web. Through a special program designed by experts at MIT, we hear a digital version of this experience, turning the web into a musical instrument with thousands of unique notes.

Credits:

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton.

This episode was produced by Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.

The researcher was Seb Masters.

The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer and the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton.

Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

Special thanks to:

Isabelle Szott, Lily Shallom & Said Mshana from APOPO and producer Charles Kombe for the recordings.

Safari

Season 5 · Episode 1

Monday, October 3, 2022 • Duration 34:48

You don’t need to be on an African Savanna to enjoy a safari. Rutendo and Sebastian explore how to have a nature adventure wherever you are.

On the isle of Bute in Scotland, Nature Instagrammer Lucy Lapwing takes us on an immersive walk through her local woodland. It’s a wonderfully damp, fresh day, and the forest is dripping with lichen and bright lime green moss as Lucy points out local birds and wildlife.

Rutendo and Sebastian go in search of spiders in Bristol, and with the ingenious use of an electric toothbrush, tempt a rather large specimen out of a city wall.

Their special guest is Eric Stonestreet, the Emmy award-winning actor best known for playing Cameron Tucker in the ABC mockumentary sitcom Modern Family. A huge nature-fan, Eric describes some of his favourite animal encounters.

And finally, we hear how patience and stillness are key to noticing the amazing nature all around us, as sound recordist Melissa Pons shares some of her haunting recordings of wolves in Portugal.

Credits

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton .

This episode was produced by Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.

The researchers were Seb Masters and Dawood Quereshi.

The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer, the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton, and the Project Co-ordinator was Linda Barber.

Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

Special thanks to…

Interviewee Eric Stonestreet.

Lucy Lapwing for her report from the Isle of Bute.

Field recordist Melissa Pons for the wolf soundscape.

Series trailer

Season 5

Monday, September 26, 2022 • Duration 02:22

Listen, laugh and learn – whether you’re a nature lover, nature curious or haven’t yet realised nature is for you, there’ll be a story here to captivate your ears.

Credits

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton.
This episode was produced by Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.
The researchers were Seb Masters and Dawood Quereshi.
The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer, the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton, and the Project Co-ordinator was Linda Barber.
Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.
The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

Special thanks to...

Simon Watt
Mamadou Ndiaye
Paula Kahumbu
Tarun Nayar
Lucy Lapwing
Steve Simpson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Finding what doesn't want to be found

Season 4 · Episode 12

Tuesday, April 13, 2021 • Duration 32:37

In the final episode of series 4, we’re digging into some of the more elusive corners of our planet.

To begin, we’re on a bear hunt deep in the Bornean rainforest. Guiding us is Siew Te Wong, who is the world’s foremost authority on a bear we know very little about. The sun bear is the smallest bear in the world and, as Wong has discovered for himself, tracking them can draw up some unexpected discoveries.

Next we’re turning our attention upwards, to the sky at night. Or, to be more precise, to the sounds that come from it. Magnus Robb explores what birdsong can tell us about the extraordinary migration routes of these animals.

To end, we sit still to see the visible changes over time to our glaciers. Using past and present technology, Kieran Baxter brings to life some of the unprecedented declines in our natural world.

Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.

As ever, we love hearing from you on social media, so do share with us your favourite episode so far or a story that amazed, surprised or moved you…

Website: www.bbcearth.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbcearth

Hosted on Acast. See for more information.

Saving the world's rarest marine mammal

Season 4 · Episode 11

Tuesday, April 6, 2021 • Duration 32:07

In this episode, we’re delving into the topic of extinction. We'll be finding out about some of the animals who are critically endangered, meeting the people trying to rescue them, and exploring species who may be able to make miraculous comebacks.

Perhaps one of the most endangered species is the vaquita, a small sea mammal with a population of less than 20. We hear from some extraordinary people weathering threats and tragedies in an attempt to bring these ‘pandas of the ocean’ back from the brink.

According to US Department of Agriculture researcher, Dr Samuel Ramsey, every discovery is built upon a discovery that came before it. Yet some of those discoveries can be found in the most unexpected of places. For Samuel, understanding his father’s health issues provided the key to discovering why honeybee populations are on the decrease.

And to finish, we’re asking one of the biggest questions in paleontology: how did birds evolve from dinosaurs? To help us explore this topic, we’ve got the help of Jingmai O’Connor whose work in China has helped shed light on the distant link between the extinct dinosaur and ballooning bird populations.

Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.

As ever, we love hearing from you on social media, so do share with us your favourite episode so far or a story that amazed, surprised or moved you…

Website: www.bbcearth.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

The artists of the animal kingdom

Season 4 · Episode 10

Tuesday, March 30, 2021 • Duration 28:44

In this episode, we’re displaying the most impressive artists of the animal kingdom. From tiny visual masterpieces, to animals that can dance to a beat, we’re shining a spotlight on the art that can be found in nature.

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, there’s a tiny structure that (if you’re able to spot it) catches your eye. The intricate silk henge is a mini masterpiece, and for some time nobody could say exactly what it was or why it existed. Phil Torres takes us on his journey of discovery and demystification.

Next we’re exploring whether animals can dance to a beat and, if so, why? To help us try and answer that, we hear from Henkjan Honing, professor of Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam.

Finally, we turn our attention to Northern Australia’s great bowerbird. What can the males' elaborate constructions teach us about perspective?

Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.

As ever, we love hearing from you on social media, so do share with us your favourite episode so far or a story that amazed, surprised or moved you…

Website: www.bbcearth.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbcearth

Hosted on Acast. See for more information.

I became part of a lionesses family

Season 4 · Episode 9

Tuesday, March 23, 2021 • Duration 31:55

While nature is full of beauty and wonder, it also has a deadly side. In this episode, we're getting a brush with death and exploring how nature can be both a source of comfort and a source of danger.

Prosanta Chakrabarty spends his time studying different species of fish in some of the world's most hostile spots. He leads us into a deep, dark cave in Madagascar where he and his team didn't just discover a new species, but also discovered a new illness.

We’ll be introduced to the unlikely ‘assassins of the sea’: cone snails. Mande Holford explains how these extraordinary creatures can both kill and cure us.

And finally, we hear how a lioness chose to share her most intimate moments of life and death with African wildlife expert, Gareth Patterson.

Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.

As ever, we love hearing from you on social media, so do share with us your favourite episode so far or a story that amazed, surprised or moved you…

Website: www.bbcearth.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbcearth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What the deep ocean can teach us about life

Season 4 · Episode 8

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 • Duration 26:06

We’re exploring the parts of our world that require us to look a little deeper. From the depths of our oceans to the canopies that grace our skylines, we’ll be venturing into unfamiliar pockets of nature with the people who have carved a life out of choosing to study the things that many of us can’t see.

First up, we meet Matthew Doogue who finds solace in capturing small things. He tells us how photographing the tiniest creatures has helped him find a greater sense of happiness.

We also travel to the bottom of the ocean, and discover how even in the most extreme environments fragments of life persist. What can this alien environment teach us about life’s limits and extraordinary capabilities?

And finally we head upwards into the canopies of trees with ecologist Nalini Nadkarni. She invites us to to experience canopy life, and reflects upon what it can teach us about relationships and recovery.

Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.

As ever, we love hearing from you on social media, so do share with us your favourite episode so far or a story that amazed, surprised or moved you…

Website: www.bbcearth.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbcearth

BBC Earth Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

BBC Earth Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Instagram1

Twitter2

Facebook3

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Instagram1

Twitter2

Facebook3

Apple Podcasts

Spotify