Brenna Farrell

Brenna is a writer and radio maker who loves trees, stories, and people. Not necessarily in that order. She hails from the Adirondack Mountains, where she makes frequent getaways for ice-fishing, chopping wood, and chasing her toddler and husband through the mud and snow and tall grass.

 

 

Brenna Farrell appears in the following:

Poison Control

Friday, September 29, 2023

What can the birth story of an invisible network of poison experts tell us about our relationship to our poisonous planet?
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Poison Control

Friday, June 01, 2018

A phone call plunges us into a network of unsung experts, who since the 1950s have helped us navigate our poison-filled planet.
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Plant Parade

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Do you need a brain to think? And are plants much smarter than we give them credit for?

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Ghosts of Football Past

Saturday, February 03, 2018

In anticipation of Super Bowl LII (Go Eagles), we're revisiting an old episode about the surprising history of how the game came to be.
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Comments [22]

The Buried Bodies Case

Friday, June 03, 2016

How far should lawyers go to provide the best defense to the worst people?
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Comments [101]

Photos: Carlisle Football

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Here are some of our favorite photos from researching the Carlisle Indian School and its ground-breaking football program. 
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Comments [23]

Photos: Before and After Carlisle

Thursday, January 29, 2015

We were incredibly moved by the "Before and After" student photos we saw on our trip to Carlisle, PA. Here are a few of the most powerful images we came across in the archives.
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Comments [64]

American Football

Thursday, January 29, 2015

The most popular sport in the US is savage, creative, brutal & balletic. Love it or loathe it, it’s a touchstone of the American identity.  

Comments [97]

Shattering Silence and An Eye of God

Thursday, July 10, 2014

In our Morality show, we tell the story of Eastern State Penitentiary -- a radical new kind of prison engineered to crack into the hearts and minds of 19th-Century criminals, and make them feel true remorse.

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An Eyeful of Otzi

Monday, November 25, 2013

After you listen to our latest short, An Ice-Cold Case, check out these photos of Ötzi the Iceman (seriously, listen first or else this post will ruin a few surprises...).
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Comments [5]

Poop Quiz!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Our latest podcast, Poop Train, is packed with unexpected facts about what happens after New Yorkers flush. For even more sewer trivia, take our Poop Quiz.
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Comments [3]

Meet Monkbot

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Monkbot is our affectionate nickname for a mechanical man commissioned by King Philip II of Spain almost 450 years ago. We tell the clockwork model's story in our Ghost Stories episode -- if you haven't heard it, take a listen while you check out ...

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Sink Your Teeth Into Our Rabies Quiz

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Did you know the phrase "hair of the dog" comes from an old remedy for rabies? Take our rabies quiz for more factoids on the deadly virus.
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MOVIE BLOOD: Jad & Robert Get a Tour

Friday, August 02, 2013

Fake movie blood is for-real gross -- when we paid a visit to a special effects studio for our Blood episode, our executive producer nearly passed out. If you've got a weak stomach, d...
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Comments [10]

Lethal Weapons

Thursday, August 01, 2013

In the 1990s, a button-pushing New York artist took on a subject that cut him to the quick: HIV and AIDS.

Barton Benes had lost a lot of friends, including his boyfriend, and was himself HIV-positive when an everyday kitchen accident took on a surreal bent -- one that got ...

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Let's Spoon for Forty Years

Sunday, July 21, 2013

You've got them... under your skin... Well, hopefully not. But if you did get infected with blood flukes, would it make you feel better to know they're monogamous creatures, pairing up and sticking together for years, sometimes even decades? Warms the heart.

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I Like Ant Butts And I Cannot Lie

Saturday, July 20, 2013

We pay tribute to the ingenious (and stomach-churning) ways that parasites hook up with hosts in our Parasites episode. Case in point: the parasitic nematode, which turns an ant's rear end into a ripe-looking red morsel that, to a hungry bird, looks like a juicy berry.

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Seeking Cockroaches, Any Age

Friday, July 19, 2013

Are those butterflies in your stomach... or did something else worm its way into your system? In honor of our Parasites episode, we imagine how some of our favorite (most disgustingly fascinating?) parasites might look for love (and a stable host) online. Up first...the Paaarasitic Wasp!

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The Hypnotist and the Warts

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Back in the 1950's, a young doctor decided to try hypnosis on a teenager suffering from the worst case of warts he'd ever seen. And it worked...even though it turned out the boy didn'...
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Comments [41]

You Can't Read a Dog By Its Guilty Face

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Our Animal Minds show questions whether dogs feel guilt...or whether we're just reading our own meanings into those puppy dog eyes. Dog owners, if you think you've got an incriminatin...
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