STUDIO LULU: 3, 2, 1

NATALIE: Imagine that you're teeny teen tiny and you have this hard shell but inside that shell is everything you need… to start growing to 200 feet tall.

LULU: *gasp*

 

LULU: and you are all set to be an earthling, until somebody launches you, hurls you toward the moon

 

NATALIE: And you travel 250 thousand miles, the farthest any living thing has been, you see the far side of the moon where all there is is stars

LULU: And then you start falling. Back back back towards the Earth at faster speeds where no one is sure if you'll survive… 

 

LULU: But when you hit the soil…

NATALIE: You feel the warm sun, and you… unfurl from your shell

 

STUDIO LULU: You have become…

NATALIE: A moontree.

 

NEW LULU: A MOOOOOON tree.

Natalie: yup!

 

LULU: Alright now is the part where I make you sing the theme song with me 

 

THEME: Terrestrials terrestrials we are not the we are not the worst we are the- 

 

NATALIE: Best reals! 

 

LULU: Yes you got it. Terrestrials is a show where we uncover the strangeness waiting right here on planet Earth. I am your host Lulu miller joined as always by my songbud. 

 

ALAN: Hooddeee hoooo.

 

LULU: ALAN

 

ALAN: We’re going to the moon!

 

LULU: today we are joined by one of our favorite storytellers who also happens to be a person who fact checks our Terrestrials episode to make sure everything we're saying is true. Uh can you please introduce yourself?

NATALIE: Hello, I'm Natalie Middleton.

 

LULU: so it's funny that you are the person on our team who kind of certifies truth because you are bringing us a story that sounds like sci-fi, like science fiction!

NATALIE: Yeah (laughs)

 

LULU: Where do we start?

NATALIE: I want to begin with a firefighter… called Stew Smokey Rusa.

LULU: Oooh, Smokey's his middle name?

NATALIE: That's his nickname, yeah.

LULU: Smokey. Okay, Smokey the Firefighter.

NATALIE: Originally born in Colorado in 1933, redhead, freckles, tall, kind of lanky, prankster. He was whip smart, really good at math. And he absolutely loved trees. 

LULU: And after high school, he got a job with the forest service trying to fight this fungus.. called blister rust.

NATALIE: which is a fungus that is really hard for trees to survive. 

 

LULU: So you're saying he loved them so much his actual job was to protect them from getting sick? 

 

NATALIE: Yeah. And so every summer after that, he would go and fight fires. What he became is called a smoke jumper,
LULU: A ssssmoke jumper? That sounds a little scary.

 

NATALIE: It's pretty dangerous. So they're jumping out of planes, with a parachute, basically into the fire 

LULU: Wow are they wearing like fireman gear? Like the jacket?

NATALIE: It's actually kind of similar to like an astronaut suit.

 

LULU: Hm! 

LULU: And at some point as he’s floating thru space he wonders what it would be like… to float thru space. Higher space.  

 

STUDIO LULU: OUTERSPACE

 

STUDIO LULU: So first, he learns how to fly a plane, 

 

NATALIE: Yes

STUDIO LULU : then becomes an astronaut.

NATALIE: He just kind of went up higher in the sky (laughter)

 

STUDIO LULU: And one day, NASA tells him 

STUDIO LULU: He’s going to the moon on the next mission.

NATALIE:  Apollo 14.

 

STUDIO LULU: And his job?

NATALIE: He's going to be the pilot.

LULU: Whoa. He's flying the spaceship?

NATALIE: Yes.

LULU: Wow. Go smokey!

NATALIE: it's a big job.  

LULU: So the year is 1971

LULU: the spacecraft is all loaded up with gear and fuel. And each astronaut gets to bring with them one little bag. 

NATALIE: It's not big. It's like um, um, almost like a pocket size. 

 

STUDIO LULU: it’s made of a special type of glass. 

 

NATALIE: it basically won't melt until it’s hotter than 1200 degrees Fahrenheit

 

LULU: Whoa. That's like a furnace. 

 

NATALIE: Very fireproof. 

 

LULU: And what can they put in there is it like their license and toothbrush?
NATALIE: Yeah, so- so astronauts actually just get to,

 bring whatever is meaningful to them.

 

LULU: Awh. What would you bring? 

 

NATALIE: Oh (laughs). So I have a daughter that's two. She drew a train. And yeah, I would probably bring that. 

 

LULU: Hmmm. What did Smokey bring?

 

NATALIE: So out of everything that he could have thought to take on Earth… He chose to take tree seeds.

LULU: Back to his love of trees. He can't shake it! 

 

NATALIE: Yeah.

 

LULU: He brought a big handful of five types of seeds.

 

NATALIE: sweet gum.

LULU: leafy trees from the east coast of the US.

NATALLIE: loblolly pine. they're from the South.

 

LULU: Loblolly loblolly loblolly -that is a fun word

 

NATALIE:  We have the redwood tree.

LULU: UGH. big old pine treesyou can't even hug it so wide.

 

NATALIE: Then we have the sycamore.
 

LULU: super tall leafy ones, lots of them in the middle of the country.

NATALIE: Yes. The last one is the Douglas fir.
 

LULU: Oh, it's like a- Christmas trees are often like douglas firs, right?

NATALIE: Yes, they chose trees that could be grown all across the whole entire country. And they put them in this aluminum metal canister. Very small. It fits in the palm of your hand. So 500 of these seeds fit in the palm of Smokey’s hand

 

LULU: Wow. 

LULU: And so the day of the launch, he puts this canister of seeds in his little white fireproof bag, waves to the masses, and steps on the spacecraft. 

NATALIE: From a scientific standpoint, people just didn't know what would happen to a plant or a seed if you took it up into deep space.

LULU: Had no one ever taken one up before? 

 

NATALIE: No, so this was the first time. 

 

LULU: Huh. And he had a scientific question:

Natalie: what would happen if we brought another living thing up into space with us that's different than us?

LULU: Like would it survive?

NATALIE: Yeah, would it survive? Would it grow differently? Would it look like a totally different kind of tree? 

 

LULU: Because as Natalie explained, they knew that space affected humans

 

NATALIE: when you're out in space, you are exposed to stronger radiation from the sun,and galactic cosmic rays

NEW  LULU: FWOO FWOO And this radiation can change your DNA.. the blueprint that builds your body, which means you [or: your limbs and skin and organs] could start growing differently.. In warped ways

// WONKY GROWING SFX

 

LULU: plus the lowered gravity can weaken your bones and muscles, And oddly bc of something about how time works in space, you age just a tinnnnny bit slower!

 

(CUCKOOOOO CLOCK splaying and degrading SOUNDS) 

WHICH I STILL DONT REALLY UNDERSTAND, BUT I GOTTA KEEP MOVIN’ ON WITH THE STORY

 

[LULU: WILD!]

…

LULU: And so Smokey (and some of his fellow tree-lovers at the forest service) wondered would space have an effect on the cells and DNA inside… Trees?

 

LULU:did he have any hypotheses on how it space, space travel might affect growth?

NATALIE: So I, I, I looked, I, there's nothing that indicates what he thought, except that he thought it was a cool idea. (laughs)

 

LULU: Okay. Well, lucky for you, Natalie, I put the question to a bunch of children. 

 

NATALIE: Oh! 

 

LULU: And would you like to hear some of their answers? 

 

NATALIE: Yes! I would. 

 

it would have, maybe it would have to grow not with any water.  

 

It would probably have different needs instead of like water, maybe something else, different chemicals helping it grow.  

 

Maybe it would have to be growing on no gravity.  

 

So how would that make the tree look different?  

 

JUDE: So the

ODESSA: Branches would arch and then

JUDE: turn into spirals…

Upwards a little. Trying to go upwards a little higher because it's just like the generally lower gravity.

And there’s also gonna be berries. Silver berries, golden berries, and a brined berry. 

 

Maybe like blue leaves 

 

With like long branches 

 

And white trunk. And it looks like a palm tree but l

 

LULU: It looks like a what tree? 

 

A palm tree 

 

LULU: oh it’s like a palm tree 

 

but like white and gray. But inside of the coconuts is a piece from the moon. 

 

LULU: Ooh. Is it hard or soft inside?

 

Tastes like yogurt. 

 

and probably have a little metal in it.

 

then at the end of them, they were like a little- Moon like half crescents and full crescents and stuff like that. 

 

And if you touch one, you'll start to feel like tingling in your hand. 

 

And if you give one to your animal, um, your animal will get this little moon shape on its forehead and then they'll be able to fly and stuff. 

 

NATALIE: Oh my god Lulu these are so-

LULU:   don’t- I just put the question out, isn't it great?

NATALIE:it just catches imagination, doesn't it?

LULU: Mm

NATALIE: Wow and you know what’s so fitting. IT’s actually a THIRD GRADER - that is going to play a HUGE part in this story.

 

LULU: WAIT WHAT?

NATALIE: Yup

LULU: That story - plus blast off after this short break.

 

LULU: Ten 

 

NATALIE: Nine

 

LULU: Eight 

 

NATALIE: Seven 

 

LULU: Six

 

NATALIE: Five four three two one. 

 

LULU: (explosion sound)

 

NATALIE: Blast off. 

 

LULU: Goodbye Smokey! Goodbye - what are the other names of the other astronauts

LULU: Who were the other astronauts?  

NATALIE: Um. Edgar Mitchel and Alan Shepard.

LULU: Goodbye Ed, goodbye Alan, goodbye fireproof bag full of seeds!! Weee

 

NATALIE: Yeah! (laughs)

STUDIO LULU: The fuel ignites. And on the outside it looks pretty slow. But on the inside? Everything is rattling, the metal rivets are groaning and the seeds in the canister are bumping into each other. There’s all this pressure from gravity trying to pull the spacecraft down.

LULU: And then, in one instant, it severs ties from Earth. 

NATALIE: And suddenly the seeds and the astronauts are floating in ZeroG

LULU: And smokey aligns his measurements and lurches the spacecraft, toward the moon!

CONTROL CENTER: Stuart how is your peanut butter?

STUART: Not enjoying any peanut butter.

LULU: This is audio from the actual spaceflight! 

Incredible.

Really a wild place up here. 

LULU: For four days they soar through space - as the little moon in the sky gets bigger and bigger and bigger

STUART: It seems so close. It’s like you can just reach out and touch it. 

NEW LULU: Until they are right next to it.

Control Center: BEEP: Stu, we just got word that your family is listening to you and they're outside looking up at that great big framawer moon, // I'm sure we'd all like to be up there with you. //over//

LULU: And then Stu, aka Smokey,

STU: Yeah, I wish you could be."

LULU: releases Alan and Ed from the spacecraft, to go land on the moon.

ALAN: Nothing like being up to your armpits in lunar dust. 

MUSIC FADES OUT

 

LULU: they get to go walk on the moon? 

 

NATALIE: Yes- 

 

LULU: Lucky, Alan. Lucky, Ed. 

 

NATALIE: (laughs) Yeah,

LULU: And not only did they get to frolic in moon dust, Alan also golfballs and … a makeshift golfclub to hit em.

 

NATALIE: because of the gravity, you barely have to tap it and it just flies.

 

ALAN: Miles and miles and miles!

 

LULU: I’m just picturing like, SINGING it's Alan and Ed playing on the moon, bouncing, feeling doin what they do. And Smokey doesn't get to go.

 

NATALIE: (laughs) Yeah.. Well, that's what I thought, but actually, for every moon mission where people land on the moon, there's one astronaut that stays in orbit around the moon. And it's a really important job because that's everybody's-

LULU: It's important, but it sounds less fun! 

 

NATALIE: Okay,. But you’ll see why I say that so - the command module, so that's what Smokey is in.

 

Stu Roosa aboard Kitty Hawk

LULU: Okay.

NATALIE: He's going to continue to orbit around. 

 

8th revolution of the moon

 

NATALIE: He's going to take pictures. He's going to do all these science experiments while he's

 

15th

 

19th

 

20th revolution of the moon

 

NATALIE: orbiting and orbiting and orbiting. 

 

22nd lunar revolution

 

23

 

Roosa’s still apparently asleep. 

 

NATALIE: I think he orbits 

 

32nd revolution

 

34th

 

NATALIE: 34 times. 

 

LULU: *Gasp* The moon?

NATALIE: The moon. 

 

LULU: Wow. 

 

NATALIE: And what happens when you're orbiting the moon is that you end up going into the moon's shadow, 

 

Now passing over the backside of the moon. 

 

NATALIE: which is called the far side of the moon. And when you do that, everything gets really dark. You can't see the sun. It's cold, the temperature drops, things get like really clammy. And then you also lose contact with everyone on earth 

 

We have had loss of signal with the command module.  

 

NATALIE: and everyone on the moon  literally it's Stu Smokey Roosa and these seeds in his pocket…

 

LULU: Are the only living things in that corner of the world.

 

NATALIE: Yeah 

 

MUSIC STOPS

 

LULU: Ok, Natalie you're not selling me I'm- 

 

NATALIE: well let me let me let-

 

LULU: You're just like you are the most alone person of the entire living human race. Yeah, you're cold, but get this. You're also clammy and it's pitch dark. 

 

NATALIE: (laughs) Okay, so 

 

LULU: And the other guys are like having fun bouncing playing golf on the moon. 

 

NATALIE: (laughs) So yes, I left out the best part. So when you're going around, what happens is you suddenly see just this sheet of stars. 

 

MUSIC

 

NATALIE: That just goes on forever and ever and ever. The astronauts that have experienced that have just like plunged into that side of space that no one ever gets to see. 

 

STUDIO LULU: But he can’t admire the infinite void forever because…. He’s startin’ to run outta gas, so he — brushes by the moon, picks up Alan and Ed, 

 

[thanks bro!] 

 

LULU: lurches the spacecraft back toward Earth [and starts divebombing toward it, traveling at a speed of over 16 THOUSAND miles an hour…  Until

NATALIE: They splash down in the Pacific Ocean under these three huge orange and white parachutes 

LULU: Huh. 

NATALIE: So the seeds have made it back to earth. They traveled so far. And then during the decontamination process, there were weird changes in pressure and the bag of seeds… explodes.

LULU: Huh! Oh no (cries) 

 

NATALIE: So the seeds just exploded all over the place and everybody thought that they ..killed them that they ..killed them

LULU: But the show must go on. The science must go on. So they sent them to forest service greenhouses where they planted all the seeds in soil. The sycamore seeds which looked like tiny green pistachio nuts and the douglas firs, like scales plucked from a pinecone, and the sweet gums, and loblollly pines,

and the mighty redwood, which all begins in teensy package that looks like a flattened corn kernel.

And they watered them. And let the sun shine its warm rays.

And then they waited.

And they waited.

And …

SFX: Grow sound

NATALIE: Almost all of them came up.

LULU: *Gasp* 

LULU: Whoa, so and so that's how many little- how many little saplings are growing?

NATALIE: So the estimate is 420 to 450.

LULU: Of the 500?

NATALIE: Yeah.

LULU: And are they, seeing any difference in that growth? I think about our kids and all the hypotheses and the spiral arms and the low gravity and the crescents, like was there, were they seeing any difference at first?

NATALIE: Actually there was no difference. 

 

LULU: At first.. Anyway, but trees, famously… lonnnng living. Take a lonnnng time to grow. Sometimes  hundreds of years to reach their full height, so  to continue the experiment, NASA planted the baby moon trees … all over the country

NATALIE: There was a moon tree planted at the White House. 

 

LULU: Huh! 

 

LULU: At state capitols.

 

NATALIE: at NASA centers 

 

LULU:  [a governor's mansion, a military fort]

NATALIE: but then they also got planted in front of a junior high. at a Girl Scout camp. 

 

LULU: Huh! 

NEW NATALIE: right outside a cemetery.

NATALIE: So just all of these places all over with regular people got these moon trees. 

 

LULU: Yeah did anyone like just get one in their yard?

NATALIE: (laughs) Yes, people actually did, yes.

LULU: Really? No! Just like Diane in Nebraska or whatever.

NATALIE: Yes, there are moon trees at private residences.

LULU: HA HAHA HA how cool

NATALIE: Yeah. The funny thing is though, so when they would do these ceremonies, sometimes they would put a plaque in, but other times they would just kind of have the ceremony and then go along their merry way. and over time, people started to forget that these were moon trees.

 

STUDIO LULU: Time presses on. 

The Berlin Wall falls and the Mt. St. Helens volcano erupts 

And the trees keep growing.

Holding their secret inside. 

And Smokey Roosa dies and you are born.

And the moon keeps shining.

And the experiment is (mostly) forgotten. 

Until one day a little girl in Indiana, notices something funny at her Girl Scout camp. A sycamore tree with a little plaque. 

NATALIE: Yeah, it just says like moon tree 1976. 

 

LULU: Huh!

 

NATALIE: Nobody remembers even at the Girl Scout camp, like what this was. 

 

LULU: Wow..

 

LULU: So she tells her third grade class teacher Ms. Goebel about it. 

 

NATALIE: Ms. Goebel emails NASA. 

 

LULU: Haha! Just says, hey, NASA! Dear NASA. Question. 

 

NATALIE: Yes (laughs) So the email finds its way to Dr. Dave Williams, who is a planetary scientist at NASA. And he doesn't know.

LULU: oh!

Natalie: And he told me nobody remembered

LULU: [wow]. 

 

NATALIE: There was no official record of where the trees had been planted. So Dave decides NASA should go on a recovery mission! And he starts a website that says if you have a moontree…If you have a moon tree or you know of a moon tree, let me know." 

 

LULU: Wow.

 

NATALIE: And he- yeah. And he started getting these emails from people who were like, "Hey, there's a moon tree in my plaza, in my town. There's a moon tree in front of the hospital where I went. HUH Slowly, he's collected locations of these moon trees as people have kind of rediscovered them in their own backyards.

LULU: And made kind of like a map?

NATALIE: He didn't make a map. I made a map,

 

LULU: *Gasp*  You made a map?

NATALIE: Yeah, it's pretty cool. 

 

LULU: Wait really?

 

NATALIE: Yeah (laughs)

LULU: Cool!!!

 

NATALIE:in my map, you can spin the earth and then you can like click on your to to see what Moontree is close to you. 

 

LULU: We have this linked in our episode description + on our webpage, it’s called “Natalie’s Moontree Map”

MUSIC

*Ignition*

NATALIE: Here we go

 

LULU: And Natalie

 

SIRI: For about 63 miles, continue straight

NATALIE: We’re gonna go find our moontree now.

 

LULU: realized there was one, not too far from her in California,  in a town by the sea called…

NATALIE: San Luis Obispo

LULU: Cool little surfing town.

NATALIE: I’m walking down some stairs and I see a little creek

NATALIE: And it took me a while to find it. 

NATALIE: Holy cow… I found it

NATALIE: the plaque was very small, like I can see how people kind of just walk right by. 

NATALIE: And I’m gonna try to hug it, see if I can get my hands around it. Oh.. oh my gosh not even- not even half way around. And it smells so good

 

MUSIC

NATALIE: And when I saw it, it was just I actually got kind of emotional um..
LULU: huh
NATALIE: like I went up to its trunk and I like touched its bark and I started to cry (laughs) Um.
LULU: WHY

NATALIE: Space exploration is one of those things where not that many people get to experience it. Um and yet it's something that humans have wondered about for millennia ever since we could or we were looking at the stars and the moon. So to be able to touch a living thing that has actually traveled all the way to the moon and back and survived, um, it's a deep thing. 

 

LULU: so for you, the thing is like, is it almost like access? It's like almost getting to touch the moon? 

 

NATALIE: it's poignant. I don't know, I don't know more of a kid- kiddie word for that. It's like um-

LULU: Well, how would you describe poignant for someone who doesn't know what it means?

 

NATALIE: I would say it's like a joyful kind of ache. We usually tend to think of trees as rooted. And so to realize that these are travelers 

 

BIRD/NATURE SFX

 

NATALIE: and that they've traveled so much farther than I will ever travel. 

LULU: Yeah.

NATALIE: And then I looked up and it just has redwood trees have these huge kind of feathered branches that are just so beautiful. and there were like little threads of spider silk that were like catching the sun little rainbows of spider silk there was like a squirrel jumping around up there there were birds, and then i went and sat on a bench and just… watched.   And there was a whole construction crew.

MUSIC IN

NATALIE: there was a whole construction crew that was on lunch break and they all went and sat under the leaves of this moon tree. 

BIRD SFX

NATALIE: And I'm pretty sure they had no idea that it had been to the moon,  

MUSIC w BEAT IN

(23:15)

BALLAD

LULU: Alan Goffinski - made that song. And I have some very exciting news, which is that we have acquired some moontree seeds! Or rather they are the seeds - from moontree seeds, making them what nasa calls HALFMOON tree seeds - and we are going to give them away. We’re gonna have a contest, draw us a picture of a moon tree, what you think it would look like, how a journey to the moon and cosmic rays - fwoo fwoo - might affect its growth. And we will pick our favorite and the winner… will get a halfmoon tree seed. A real one! … that you can plant see if grows, you could… put on a shelf, give it a kiss, put it under your pillow for goodluck, I dunno! But that’s what we’re gonna do that’s our contest. 

 

Submit your drawing to us by new years day January 2026, just email it to Terrestrials at wnyc.org. That address one more time : Terrestrials at wnyc.org

And there is nothing else cool about to happen–

[BADGER MUSIC] 

LULU: Listeners with badgering questions for the expert. You ready?

NATALIE: Yup!

Alex Winter: This is alex winter from bill and teds

LULU: GASP. MOST TRIUMPHANT!

Alex Winter: IS IT TRUE THAT TIME MOVES DIFFERENTLY IN SPACE. LIKE IF YOU HAD A TWIN AND THEY WENT TO SPACE, WE’D BE DIFFERENT AGES?

 

Natalie: Oh yeah. Earth ages faster, 

 

Lulu: so, oh, so if you went to space, you'd be younger?

 

Natalie: so, um, Scott Kelly and his brother Mark Kelly are identical twin astronauts that did. That did A science experiment. Basically Scott went up and stayed for almost a year in space. 

 

LULU: Whoa. 

 

NATALIE: And because of the twin paradox. paradox… it turns out… technically SCOTT THE SPACE TWIN returned YOUNGER 

 

NATALIE: blah
ADD LULU: how much younger
8 miliseconds
LULU: I don’t understand, but i like it!

BADGER: Hi, I’m Tommy, I’m 11 years old. And my question is, would NASA ever plant seeds in space?

 

NATALIE: They did. 

 

Lulu: They did?

 

Natalie: uhhuh. So they were called like the veggie experiments.
LULU: Okay.
NATALIE: In recent years, astronauts took vegetable seeds up to the International Space Station
LULU: Woa.
NATALIE: to see if they could grow them in hopes of, like, when, if and when we kind of push our way out to Mars.  The astronauts are gonna have grow their food, like they're not gonna be able to pack all the food they need
LULU: Right. Right uuuh right

NATALIE: Yeah So. Scott Kelley, the twin, part of what he was doing in space for that whole year - was.... trying to grow plants.

 

LULU: Oh my gosh.

NATALIE: Yeah but it’s hard - because watering them, ya know, water in microgravity doesn't seep down through the soil… it turns into these beads, that you have to like FORCE into the soil. And also, NASA made him wear gloves so he wouldn’t accidentally get a mold that could have been in the soil. But with the gloves on, he couldn’t tell if the flowers were getting enough water, so… finally he, uhhh–

LULU: Broke the rules? ripped off his, the gloves??

 

NATALIE: He took his gloves off!!! Ha ha ha

 

Lulu: So he could touch the soil?

NATALIE: Yeah, and a little while later, check this out– [photo]

LULU: oh my gosh, these gorgeous orange flowers, zinnias. BLOOMING IN space!

Twinkle twinkle little zinnia…

 

BADGER: Hi my name is Theo and I’m 9 years old. Does NASA have any plans to keep studying moontrees?

 

NATALIE: So the Artemis mission recently took seeds again to the moon. 

 

LULU: So Moon Trees part two!

NATALIE: Yeah, Moon Trees part two.

MUSIC

LULU: Okay I have one last question, by this point have they located all of smokey’s original, ya know 450 moontrees?

NATALIE: No, there's just over a 100 that they know the locations of now.

 

LULU: Oh. So most of them are still missing?!

NATALIE: Most of them are still out there growing and nobody knows that they went to the moon. 

 

LULU: But you can look for them, look for their little plaques, and if you find one, drop an email 

LULU: drop an email to Natalie at nataliemiddleton.org  so she can add it to the map and let people also touch the moon…. Via tree.

BADGER MUSIC OUT

 

LULU: Natalie, I love knowing that this whole forgotten treasure map of trees with this lunar secret inside - was unearthed by.. A third grader?

NATALIE: thanks to a third grader.

LULU: Alright that is where we’re gonna leave it. Don’t forget what secrets, what otherworldly truths, you might unearth for all of us, if you just stay curious. Ask questions. Don’t pretend what to know, and say simply, what is this? 

Terrestrials was created by me Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla, with sound design by Joe Plourde. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Alan Goffinski, Ana González, and Mira Burt-Wintonick. Factchecking by Diane Kelly who is always ROOTin for the truth.

Special thanks to Sumanth Prabhaker who first nurtured this story at Orion Magazine. There’s a gorgeous essay about moon trees and about space zinnias, both by Natalie - check em out at orionmagazine dot org

Thanks also to NASA Scientist Dr. Dave Williams who has recently retired. NASA Scientist Dr. Marie Henderson, Joan Goble, Tre Corely.

Support for Terrestrials is provided by the Simons foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis foundations, and The templeton foundation - thank you!

One more time - you can find all the links we talked about today
How to submit a moontree drawing for chance to win a halfmoon seed/
How to find a moontree near you.
And how to submit a location of a Moon Tree if you find one.
ALL THAT ON OUR WEBSITE - terrestrialspodcast.org - search for this episode: 

It’s called The Travelers: The MOONTREES HIDE AMONG US

Oh! And if you visit a moontree, snap a picture and tag us on social media. @terrestrialspodcast. We’d love to see ya! 

See u in a couple spins of this dirty old planet of ours.