Middle schooler, Aanya, has an up-close encounter with a squirrel in the school yard, which leads her to an obsession with one of North America's most common critters. She tells host Lulu Miller all about the overlooked superpowers of squirrels, including one squirrel who lives way up in the Arctic, where the weather gets so cold the squirrels who live there drop their body temperatures down below freezing and somehow, miraculously, survive.

Host Lulu travels to Alaska to meet one of these squirrels as it sleeps, and Lulu talks with biologists Dr. Kelly Drew and Dr. Brian Barnes about why this humble squirrel holds potential for treating Alzheimers, brain injury, and even helping astronauts hibernate on the long journey to Mars.

Dr. Kelly Drew grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska and is now a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She studied psychology in college and went on to get a PhD in neuropharmacology. She directs a lab where she and her students have relieved the workings behind unprecedented resistance to brain injury during mammalian hibernation, identified cold tissue temperature as an adaptation, and defined a mechanism used by hibernating mammals to lower body temperature. She’s been the recipient of many awards including the UAF Dennis Demmert Award for supporting Native and rural students, the UAF Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching Award, and The NIH Sidney A McNairy, Jr. Mentoring Award. Contributing to advances in biomedical research, neuropharmacology, cerebral brain injury, and ischemia, Kelly is an Alaskan putting Alaska on the map. 

Check out the making of this episode here! 

This episode features a song with a cameo from Chicago-based musician Tasha. Check out our songs page for 'On The Other Side (ft. Tasha)' and more new singles every week.

Special thanks to Aanya and her mom Roli for bringing us this story, and to Amy Loeffler, Clara Goulet, Loi Goulet, Ellie Bell and Ferris Jabr, the writer who first made the “pop-squirrel" joke. We came across it in a wonderful article he wrote in Scientific American. Also, check out this Wired article by Brendan I. Koerner for more on arctic ground squirrels.

Learn more about the show, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website, Terrestrialspodcast.org.

-------

HEY GROWN-UPS!

Love the show? Leave us a rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

We're also looking for listener feedback! Share your thoughts with us here.

While you wait for the new season, subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show. Sign up here.

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @terrestrialspodcast for behind-the-scenes extras and more.

Terrestrials is made possible in part by the generosity of listeners like you. Support the show by joining Radiolab’s membership program, The Lab—and we’ll send you a special thank you gift from our team!

-------

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde and Lulu Miller, with help from Tanya Chawla, Sarah Sandbach and Valentina Powers. Fact checking by Natalie Middleton. Transcription by Caleb Codding. 

Our advisors are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Andy J. Pizza, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, Liza Demby, Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Tara Welty.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, The Kalliopeia Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation.