A magician spins a black top hat to show their audience it’s empty. Then, with the wave of a wand and a few magic words, PRESTO: a snow white rabbit pokes its ears over the brim.

Compared to sawing a person in half, pulling a rabbit out of a hat is a joyful bit of magic that entertainers have been doing for more than 200 years. But after the applause dies down, one is left wondering: where did the rabbit come from? And where did it go?

Today, in honor of the Easter Bunny (who doesn’t actually appear in this episode), we’re pulling a handful of rabbit stories out of our proverbial hat. But be warned: these are dark tales of disappearing pets, occult eugenicists, and animal sacrifice. The secrets behind some magic tricks are more shocking than others.

Featuring Nicole Cardoza, Gwyne Henke, Suzanne Loui, Sally Master, Ana DiMaria, Tanya Singer, and Meg Crane.

Produced by Nate Hegyi, Marina Henke, Kate Dario, and Justine Paradis. For full credits, photos, and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

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LINKS

Join us for NHPR’s 3rd Annual Climate Summit! The theme is “Healthy Connections,” and we’ve got a great lineup of speakers and breakout sessions PLUS a trivia night. And the best part? It’s all FREE. Learn more and register here.

Check out this video of magician and storyteller Nicole Cardoza performing for a group in Chicago in 2024.

You can check out Gwyne Henke’s childhood rabbit poetry on our website.

Tanya Singer reported on the history of Project Angora for Tablet. You can also learn more about Helena Weinrauch and her blue sweater here.

Read more about the history of pregnancy testing in this paper on Egyptian grain method, rabbit tests, and more, and in A Woman’s Right to Know by Jesse Olszynko-Gryn, available as a free ebook from MIT Press.

The story of Meg Crane’s Predictor test can also be found in the excellent Designing Motherhood, a book and exhibit on human reproduction through the lens of design.

Pagan Kennedy’s New York Times article, which prompted Meg Crane to start sharing her story—and Pagan’s follow-up, which does include Meg.

Allergies have been documented in historical records dating as far back as 2,400 years ago, when Hippocrates wrote about “hostile humors” in some people who suffered badly after eating cheese. But why do we experience them to begin with? What even is an allergy? Are allergies on the rise? And why are some mere nuisances, while others are deadly?

This episode is a roundup of allergy stories—from the mundane to the frightful—and a round up of allergy questions we’re asking Dr. Theresa MacPhail, author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, to answer for us.

Featuring Beni Osei Duker, Theresa MacPhail, Dwayne Smith, and Lily Ko.

Produced by Felix Poon. For a transcript and full list of credits, go to outsideinradio.org.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

Check out Theresa MacPhail’s book, Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World.

Read up on the different hypotheses on why we get allergies in the first place:

• The parasite hypothesis
• The toxin hypothesis
• The hygiene hypothesis
• The old friends hypothesis

Learn about the history of the EpiPen.

Venom is full of dualities. According to the UN’s World Health Organization, snakebite envenoming causes somewhere between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths per year, and even that is likely an undercount. Yet research into venom has yielded treatments for diabetes, cancer, erectile dysfunction, and even the celebrity favorite diabetes slash diet drug, Ozempic.

In this episode, we explore the world of venom, where fear and fascination go hand-in-hand, and the potential for healing comes with deadly stakes.

This is part II of our “Things That Can Kill You” miniseries, which also explores poison and allergies.

Featuring Sakthi Vaiyapuri. Thanks to Iva Tatić for her question.

Produced by Justine Paradis. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

SUPPORT

To share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show’s hotline and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-844-GO-OTTER. No question is too serious or too silly.

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram, BlueSky, Tiktok, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

Here’s more on Sakthi Vaiyapuri’s community awareness programs in India and his team’s research on the socioeconomic impacts on rural populations in Tamil Nadu

The UN’s World Health Organization’s fact sheet on snake envenoming as a high-priority neglected tropical disease

A great breakdown on why snakebite deaths are undercounted and the problem of missing data, written by global health researcher Saloni Dattani on Substack

A Nature article on potential advances in antivenom

Check out this Science Friday film on the cool research on cone snails and the non-opoiod painkillers derived from their venom.

More on Ozempic and lots of other innovations with roots in venom research (New York Times)