Sidedoor: Masters of Disguise (Season 1, Ep. 4)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

Tales of deception and trickery: A sneaky orchid seeks sexually frustrated pollinator; a battle fought by decoys; and a gender-bending zombie invasion of the Chesapeake Bay.

Sidedoor: A Podcast from the Smithsonian
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

With the help of biologists, artists, historians, archaeologists, zookeepers, and astrophysicists, host Lizzie Peabody sneaks listeners through Smithsonian’s side door to search for stories that can’t be found anywhere else.

Sidedoor: Special Delivery (Season 1, Ep. 2)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

The payoff is all in the delivery: sending mail via cruise missile; preparing a strong-willed orangutan for primate parenthood; and failing to land a joke from the “gag file” of Phyllis Diller.

Sidedoor: Tech Yourself (Season 1, Ep. 1)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

The 4-1-1 on what’s behind your selfie; an artist’s computer simulation shows humans aren’t as unique as we think; and how the invention of standardized time made America tick.

Sidedoor: Butting Heads (Season 1, Ep. 5)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

Squabbles big and small: A dining room turns two besties into lifelong enemies; a researcher embraces the panda craze; and why some dinosaur skulls were built to take a beating.

Sidedoor: Shake It Up (Season 1, Ep. 8)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

Transforming things we take for granted: An astronomer who has turned the night sky into a symphony, an architecture firm that has radically rethought police stations, and an audiophile who built a successful record company on underappreciated sounds.

Sidedoor: The Hungry Hungry Hippo Baby (Season 2, Ep. 11)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

“A hippo, an orangutan, and a scientist walk into a milk bar…” or so our story goes.

Sidedoor: Murder Is Her Hobby (Season 2, Ep. 10)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

Using the skills that high-society ladies were expected to have—like sewing, crafting, and knitting—Frances Glessner Lee revolutionized the male-dominated world of crime scene investigation.

Sidedoor: The Mean, Green, Water-Cleaning Machine (Season 2, Ep. 4)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

The Algal Turf Scrubber (ATS) is one of the marine ecology field’s best-kept secrets.

Sidedoor: If These Bones Could Talk (Season 2, Ep. 1)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

Search for Robert Kennicott’s name in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History collection records and you’ll find his handprint everywhere from anthropology to mammals.

Sidedoor: Killer Viruses and One Man’s Mission to Stop Them (Season 2, Ep. 18)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

This week on Sidedoor we go back to a time when the viruses were winning, and we remember one man, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, whose vaccine virtuosity helped turn the tide in the war against infectious diseases.

Sidedoor: America’s First Food Spy (Season 2, Ep. 19)
Sidedoor (Smithsonian)

In the 1800s, the American diet was mostly made up of meats, potatoes, cheese, and perhaps the occasional green bean. Fruits and other veggies? Not so much.