{"podcast":{"title":"EarthDate","slug":"earthdate-7713094","podcast_index_feed_id":7713094,"rss_url":"https://feeds.blubrry.com/feeds/3957418.xml","website_url":"http://blubrry.com/3957418/","image_url":"https://assets.blubrry.com/coverart/1400/3957418-201603.jpg","author":"Switch Energy Alliance","episode_count":300,"summary":"EarthDate is a short-format weekly audio program delivering concise, science-based stories about the Earth: its geology, environments, and the processes that shape our planet over deep time and today. Beginning in 2026, EarthDate is managed by Switch Energy Alliance and hosted by SEA's founder Dr. Scott W. Tinker. Together, we explore earth systems, natural resources, and their relevance to everyday life, with a focus on clear, accessible science education for broad audiences. EarthDate is written and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Harry Lynch, and researched by Lynn Kistler. We search for captivating stories to remind listeners that science can enlighten, educate and entertain.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/earthdate-7713094"},"episode":{"title":"Hearing, Speaking Plants","slug":"hearing-speaking-plants","published_at":"2026-05-18T14:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/earthdate-7713094/hearing-speaking-plants","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/earthdate-7713094","url":"https://blubrry.com/3957418/153852933/hearing-speaking-plants/","audio_url":"https://media.blubrry.com/3957418/content.blubrry.com/3957418/EarthDate_S14_E19.mp3","summary":"It might surprise you to know that plants can hear, and even speak, in their own unique ways. Scientists have discovered that some plants respond to the sound of water. They found that the roots of common garden peas will actively grow toward vibrations made by running water—even if it’s within a pipe and unreachable by them. In related tests, they played recordings of the wingbeats of bees and moths to several species of flowers. The flowers responded within three minutes by producing more nectar to draw in the pollinating insects. Conversely, new studies have shown that plants emit sounds when they’re under stress and/or damaged: sort of like the plants are crying. When stressed by drought, or cut by researchers, several unrelated species of food crops emitted chirps, up to 35 times per hour. These noises were ultrasonic, much too high for human ears, but picked up by scientific microphones. When brought down in pitch to be intelligible by us, they sound like bubble wrap popping. The scientists surmised it comes from air bubbles expanding and bursting in the plant’s vascular system. The researchers then used this data to create a machine learning algorithm and were able to listen to other plants and successfully determine what stresses they were under. In the future, this could lead to acoustic crop monitoring—which could give plants the water they’re crying out for.","meta_description":"It might surprise you to know that plants can hear, and even speak, in their own unique ways. Scientists have discovered that some plants respond to the s…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":120,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/earthdate-7713094/episodes/hearing-speaking-plants/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/earthdate-7713094/hearing-speaking-plants.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}