Transcript

The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast

From Radiolab · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 32 min · 4,934 words · 120 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast", an episode of Radiolab published October 2, 2025 (32 min, about 4,934 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including Stew Smokeoky Rousa, Dr. Dave Williams, Apollo 14, Sycamore, Sweet gum.

What this episode is about

The narrative explores the fascinating journey of "moon trees," seeds that were taken to the moon and returned to Earth, detailing the unique circumstances of their survival and growth. It highlights the story of a firefighter named Stew Rousa, whose passion for trees and knack for science led to this extraordinary connection between lunar exploration and terrestrial botany.

Key takeaways

  • From space seeds to moon trees: humanity's ambitions sprout in unexpected places.
  • Astronauts may pack memories, but Smokey chose a pocket full of potential—tree seeds over trinkets.
  • Will cosmic rays turn trees into 'super' beings? Science has more questions than answers about space growth.
  • In the cosmic context, time behaves oddly—traveling a little slower means we could literally grow younger!
  • Nature and nurture collide in space; will NASA's moon trees redefine what it means to grow on Earth?

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Stew Smokeoky Rousa, Apollo 14
  2. – 10:00: Redwood tree, Sweet gum, Sycamore
  3. – 15:00: Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell
  4. – 20:00: Sycamore, Dr. Dave Williams
  5. – 32:18: Dr. Dave Williams, Joan Gobble, Trey Corley, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

Notable quotes from "The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast"

  • Because you are bringing us a story that sounds like science fiction, like sci-fi. Yeah. Where do we start? This whole story begins all thanks to a firefighter called Stew Smokeoky Rousa.
    about Stew Smokeoky Rousa · at
  • And one day NASA tells him he's going to the moon.
    about Apollo 14 · at
  • Then we have the sycamore. Super tall, leafy ones. Lots of them in the middle of the country.
    about Sycamore · at
  • 6 5 4 3 2 1 Blastoff. Goodbye Smokey. Goodbye. What are the other names of the other astronauts?
    about Alan Shepard · at
  • Yes. Yes. So the email finds its way to Dr. Dave Williams, who is a planetary scientist at NASA. And he doesn't know.
    about Dr. Dave Williams · at
  • Retired. Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Marie Henderson, third grade teacher Joan Goal, and former third grade student Trey Corley. Support for Terrestrials is provided by…
    about Trey Corley · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Stew Smokeoky Rousa — Person · Primary historical subject (Apollo 14 command module pilot; origin of 'moon trees') · 1 mention · first at
    He carried hundreds of tree seeds on Apollo 14; those seeds became the 'moon trees' that anchor the episode’s narrative.
  • Dr. Dave Williams — Person · Referenced expert (NASA scientist who initiated moon tree recovery effort) · 2 mentions · first at
    He received the inquiry that triggered the modern rediscovery effort, created a website to collect sightings, and helped reconstruct locations of moon trees.
  • Alan Shepard — Person · Referenced astronaut (Apollo 14 lunar surface crew) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as one of the Apollo 14 astronauts who landed on the Moon while Roosa remained in lunar orbit; used to contrast 'on the Moon' vs 'alone in orbit.'
  • Edgar Mitchell — Person · Referenced astronaut (Apollo 14 lunar surface crew) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as the other Apollo 14 moonwalker; part of the mission context for how the seeds traveled to lunar orbit and back.
    Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard.
  • Joan Gobble — Person · Referenced educator (third-grade teacher who contacted NASA) · 1 mention · first at
    As the teacher who emailed NASA after a student noticed a 'Moon Tree' plaque, she is a key link in the chain that revived the forgotten story.
    Nobody remembers even at the Girl Scout camp like what this was. So she tells her third grade class teacher, Miss Gobble about it. Miss Gobble emails NASA.
  • Trey Corley — Person · Referenced participant (former third-grade student who noticed moon tree plaque) · 1 mention · first at
    Credited as the former student whose observation at a Girl Scout camp helped spark the rediscovery and documentation of moon trees.
  • Dr. Marie Henderson — Person · Referenced expert (NASA scientist; acknowledged contributor) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in credits as a NASA scientist who contributed to the episode’s reporting/background on moon trees.
    Williams who did so much work to uncover this map of moon trees. He has recently retired. Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Marie Henderson, third grade teacher Joan Goal, and…

Companies & orgs

  • Arthur Vining Davis Foundations — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Student Trey Corley. Support for Terrestrials is provided by the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the Templeton Foundation. Thank you. And one more…

Concepts & topics

  • Sycamore — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
  • Sweet gum — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. He brought a big handful. Five types of seeds. Sweet gum. Leafy trees from the east coast of the US. Lobaly pine. They're from the south.
  • Redwood tree — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    We have the redwood tree. Oh, those big giants on the west coast that are too big to even hug.
  • Douglas fir — Concept · 1 mention
  • Loblolly pine — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Oh, wait. You're listen. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. You're listening to Radio Lab.

Radio Lab from Wy 3 2 1. Imagine that you're teeny teeny tiny and you have this hard shell, but inside that hard shell is everything you need to start growing to 200 ft tall. And you are all set to be an Earthling until somebody launches you, hurls you toward the moon. and you travel 250,000 m, the farthest that any living thing has ever been. You see the far side of the moon where all there is stars. And then you start falling back, back, back toward the earth at faster speeds where nobody is sure if you'll survive.

But when you hit the soil, you feel the warm sun and you unfurl from your shell. You have become a moon tree.

A moon tree. Yes. All right. Now is the part where I make you sing the theme song with me.

Terrestrials. Terrestrials. We are not the worst. We are the best. 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 song bud.

If you believe to the moon, and today we are joined by one of our favorite storytellers, one of the people who fact checks our terrestrials episodes to make sure everything we're saying is true. Uh, can you please introduce yourself?

Hello, I'm Natalie Middleton. So, it's funny that you are the person on our team who who kind of certifies truth because you are bringing us a story that sounds like science fiction, like sci-fi. Yeah. Where do we start? This whole story begins all thanks to a firefighter called Stew Smokeoky Rousa.

Ooh, Smokey is his middle name. That's his nickname. His nickname Smokey. Okay. Smokey the firefighter. Originally born in Colorado in 1933. Red head, freckles, tall, kind of lanky, prankster. He was whips smart, really good at math, and he absolutely loved trees. And after high school, he got a job with the Forest Service trying to fight this fungus called blister rust, which is a fungus that is really hard for trees to survive. So, you're saying he loved them so much his actual job was to protect them from getting sick?

Yeah. And so, every summer after that, he would go and fight fires. What he became was called a smoke jumper.

A smoke jumper. That sounds a little scary. It's pretty dangerous. So, they're jumping out of planes with a parachute basically into the fire.

Wow. Are they wearing like fireman gear? like the jacket. It's actually kind of similar to like an astronaut suit.

H. And at some point as he's floating through space, he wonders what it would be like to float through space. Higher space, outer space. So, first he learns how to fly a plane. Yes. Then he trains and becomes an astronaut. He just kind of went up higher in the sky. Okay.

And one day NASA tells him he's going to the moon. Apollo 14. And his job? He's going to be the pilot. Wa. He's flying the the the the spaceship.

Yes. Wow. Go Smokey. It's a big job. So the year is 1971. The spacecraft is all loaded up with gear and fuel, and each astronaut gets to bring with them one little bag. It's not big. It's like almost like a pocket size. It's made of a special type of glass

that won't melt until it's hotter than over 1,000° F. Woah. That's like a furnace. Very fireproof.

And what can they put in there? Does it like their their license and toothbrush?

Yes. So astronauts actually just get to bring whatever is meaningful to them. A What would you bring?

Oh, so I have a a daughter that's two. She drew a train and Yeah, I would probably bring that. What did Smokey bring?

So, out of everything that he could have thought to take on Earth, he chose to take tree seeds.

Back to his love of trees. He can't shake it. Yeah. He brought a big handful. Five types of seeds. Sweet gum. Leafy trees from the east coast of the US. Lobaly pine. They're from the south.

Loblly, lobly lobly. That's fun to say. We have the redwood tree. Oh, those big giants on the west coast that are too big to even hug.

Then we have the sycamore. Super tall, leafy ones. Lots of them in the middle of the country.

The last one is the Douglas fur. H. It's like a Christmas trees are often Douglas furs, right?

Yes. They chose trees that could be grown all across the whole entire country. Yeah.

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 Smokeoky's hand.

Wow. 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 to the spacecraft. 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.

Had no one ever taken one up? No. So, this was the first time, huh? And he had a scientific question.

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

Would it survive? Yeah. Would it survive? Would it grow differently? Would it look like a totally different kind of tree? Because, as Natalie explained, they knew that space affected humans. When you're out in space, you're exposed to stronger radiation from the sun and galactic cosmic rays. And this radiation can wiggle its way into your DNA, the blueprint that tells your body how to grow and potentially warp things. Plus, the lowered gravity can weaken your bones and muscles. And oddly, because of something about how time works in space, you age just a tiny bit slower,

which I still don't really understand, but I got to keep moving on with the story.

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? Did he have any hypothesis on how it space travel might affect growth of these?

I I I looked I there's nothing that indicates what he thought except that he thought it was a cool idea.

Okay. Well, lucky for you, Natalie, I put the question to a bunch of children. Oh. And would you like to hear some of their answers?

Yes, I would. 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?

So, as an arch and then turn into spirals. Trying to go upwards a little higher because of just like the generally lower gravity on the moon.

Yeah. And there's also going to be berries, golden berries, brindberry, a brineberry,

maybe like blue leaves. Um, and white trunks. Ooh. And it looks like a palm tree. But

it looks like a what tree? A palm tree. Oh, a pal Oh, it's like a palm tree, but like white and gray. But inside of the coconuts is um is a piece from the moon.

Ooh. Is it hard or soft inside? taste like yogurt and probably have a little metal in it. Then at the end of them there were like little moon like half crescent and full crescent and stuff like that. And if you touch one you'll start to feel like tingly in your hand. And if you give one to your animal, your animal will get this little moon shape on its forehead and then they'll be able to like fly and stuff. Oh my god, Lulu. These are so I don't I just put the question out. Isn't this great?

It just catches imagination, doesn't it? It's so fitting, Lulu, because it's really thanks to a third grader that we even know about this story. Wait, what?

Yeah, that story plus blastoff after the short break. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Blastoff. Goodbye Smokey. Goodbye. What are the other names of the other astronauts?

Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard. Goodbye, Ed. Goodbye, Alan. Goodbye fireproof bag full of seeds. The fuel ignites and on the outside the spacecraft 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. And then in one instant, it suffers ties from Earth. And suddenly the seeds and the astronauts are floating in zerog. And Smokey aligns his measurements and lurches the spacecraft toward the moon.

Stuart, how's your peanut butter? Not enjoying any peanut butter. This is audio from the actual space flight.

Incredible. God, this is really a wild place up here. For 4 days, they soar through space as that little moon in the sky grows bigger and bigger and bigger.

It seems so close. Looks like you just reach out and touch it until they are right next to it.

Still, we just got word that uh your family is listening to you and they're outside looking up at that great big moon.

I'm sure we'd all like to be up there with you. Over. And then Stu aka Smokey. Yeah, I wish it could be.

Releases Allan and Ed from the spacecraft to go land on the moon. Nothing like being up to your armpits in lunar dust.

They get to go walk on the moon. Yes. Lucky Allen. Lucky Ed. Yeah. Not only do they get to frolic around in moon dust, Allan brought a makeshift golf club and golf balls to hit. Because of the gravity, you barely have to tap it and it just flies.

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

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 important, but it sounds less fun.

Okay, but you'll see why I say that. So, the command module, so that's what Smokey is in.

Steu Russo aboard Kittyhawk. Okay, he's going to continue to orbit around it eighth revolution of the moon.

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

15 20th revolution of the moon orbiting and orbiting and orbiting the 22nd lunar revolution 23. Bruce is still apparently asleep.

I think he orbits 32nd reth 34 times. The moon. The moon. Wow. And what happens when you're orbiting the moon is that you end up going into the moon's shadow.

Now passing over the back side of the moon 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 Kittyhawk

and everyone on the moon. Literally, it's Stew Smoky Rousa and these seeds in his pocket are the only living things in that corner of the world.

Yeah. Okay, Natalie, you're not selling me. I'm so You're just like You are the most alone person of the entire living human race. You're cold, but guess this, you're also clammy and it's pitch dark

and the other guys are like having fun bouncing playing golf on the moon. 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

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. But he can't admire the infinite void forever because he's starting to run out of gas. So he brushes by the moon, picks up Allan and Ed.

Thanks, bro. Lurches the spacecraft back toward Earth. We'll see you on the other side. Over. then starts dive bombing toward it, traveling at over 16,000 miles per hour until they splash down in the Pacific Ocean under these three huge orange and white parachutes.

Huh. So, the seeds made it back to Earth. They traveled so far and then during the decontamination process, the cleaning process, there was a an extreme change in pressure and the bag of seeds explodes.

Oh no. So the seeds just exploded all over the place and everybody thought that they had killed them. But the show must go on. The science must go on. So they sent them to Forest Service green houses where they planted all the seeds and soil. the sycamore seeds, which looked like tiny green pistachio nuts, and the Douglas furs, which looked like scales plucked from a pine cone, and the sweet gums and lobly pines, and the mighty redwood, which all begins in a tiny package that looks a little like a flattened corn kernel.

They watered them and let the sun shine its warm rays. And then they waited and they waited and almost all of them came up.

Wa. And so that's how many little saplings are growing. The estimate is 420 to 450

of the 500. Yeah. And are they seeing any difference in that growth? I I think about our kids and all the hypotheses and the spiral arms and the low gravity and the crescent like was there were they seeing any difference at first?

Actually there was no difference. At first but trees famously long living take a long 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. There was a moon tree planted at the White House,

at state capitals, at NASA centers, at a governor's mansion, a military fort, but then they also got planted in front of a junior high at a Girl Scout camp right outside of a cemetery.

So, just all of these places all over with regular people. Yeah. Did anyone like one in their yard?

Yes. People actually did. No, just like Diane in in Nebraska or whatever. Yes, there there are moon trees at private residences.

How cool. 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 have the ceremony and then go along their merry way. And over time, people started to forget that these were moon trees. Time presses on. The Berlin Wall falls and the Mount St. Helens volcano erupts and the trees keep growing, holding their secret inside. And Smoky Rousa 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.

Yeah. It just says like Moon Tree 1976. Huh. Nobody remembers even at the Girl Scout camp like what this was. So she tells her third grade class teacher, Miss Gobble about it. Miss Gobble emails NASA. Just it just says, "Hey NASA, dear NASA question."

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

Oh. And he told me that nobody remembered. Wow. And that there was no official record of where the trees had been planted. So Dave decides NASA should go on a recovery mission of sorts and he starts a website that basically says if you have a moon tree or you know of a moon tree let me know.

Wow. 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. Slowly he's collected locations of these moon trees. Um

as people have kind of rediscovered them in their own backyards and made kind of like a map.

He didn't make a map. I made a map. You made a map? Yeah. It's pretty cool. Wait, really?

Yeah. Cool. In my map, you can spin the Earth and then you can like click on your to see what moon tree is close to you. And we have linked this on our website and right here in the episode description. Just click on Natalie's moon tree map. There we go.

And Natalie for about 63 miles. Continue straight. We're going to go find our moon tree now.

Realized there was one not too far from her in California in a town by the sea called San Louis Abyspo. Cool little surfing town. I'm walking down some stairs and I see a little creek and it took me a while to find it. Holy cow, I found it. The plaque was very small. Like I could see how people kind of just walk right by. And I'm going to try to hug it. See if I can get my hands around it. Oh my gosh. Not even not even halfway around. And it smells so good. And when I saw it, it was just it I actually got kind of emotional. Um

like I I went up to its trunk and I like touched its bark and I started to cry.

Why? Um space exploration is one of those things where not that many people get to experience it. M

um and yet it's something that humans have wondered about for millennia. Ever since we could wonder, we were looking at the stars.

Mhm. 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. It's a deep thing. So for you the thing is like is it almost like access? It's like almost getting to touch the moon.

It's poignant. I don't know. I don't know a more of a kitty word for that. It's like um

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

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

and that they've traveled so much farther than I will ever travel. Yeah. And then I looked up and it just it 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.

Um I kind of went and sat on a bench nearby and there was this whole construction crew that was on lunch break and they all went and sat under the leaves of this moon tree. And I'm pretty sure they had no idea that it had been to the moon. I want to know the truth tangled in your roots. The things you've been through that make you you. I want to know the truth tangled in your roots. Every leaf, every tree holds a history. Tangled in the room. Did you flow through the shadows alone? Surrounded by a silence that no one else tangled in the room.

Were you lost in the ocean of stars where it all fades the dark and the air goes cold in the room? Did you go to the dark side of the moon? Would you talk about the feeling? Talk about the vehicle in the room. Are you back down on the ground now? Just waiting around now. I'm in a tune and waiting to bloom. Tangled in your roots. The things you've been through that make you you. I want to know the truth. Tangled in your roots. Every leaf, every tree holds a history. Tangled in the roof. Spinning towards the star. Your branches spin towards the stars. Spirals of leaves defy gravity. Spinning towards the stars. Yeah, this journey will travel on. This spindle of secrets sprouts from a sea. I want to know the truth tangled in your roots. The things you've been through that make you you. I want to know the truth tangled in your roots.

Every leaf, every tree holds a history tangled in the roots. Alan Gofinsky. He is a good tree. Uh he's a great one. Anyway, also I have some very exciting news, which is that we have acquired moon tree seeds. They are technically the seeds of moon trees, making them what NASA calls half moon tree seeds, but they are still very cool and we are going to have a contest to give one away. That's right. To compete, all you have to do is draw us a picture of a moon tree. What you think it would look like? how a journey to the moon and cosmic rays might affect its growth and we will pick our favorite and the winner will get a half moon tree seed. The baby of a tree that went to the moon. Uh a real one that you can, you know, plant and see if it grows. You could put it on a shelf. You could give it a kiss. You could put it under your pillow for good luck. I don't know. But that's what we're going to do. That's

our contest. Submit your drawing of a moon tree to us by New Year's Day, January 2026. Just email it to terrestrials wnyc.org. That address one more time.

T E R R E S T R I A L S Wyc.org. And there's nothing else cool about to happen.

What's that? Excuse me, I have a question. Me two. Me three. Me four. The Badgers listeners with badgering questions for the expert. Are you ready? Yes.

Hi, I'm Alex Winter, also known as Bill from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Most triumphant. My question is, is it true that time moves differently in space? Like if I had a twin and he went to space, would we be different ages?

Oh, yeah. Earth ages faster. Oh, so if you went to space, you'd be younger. So Scott Kelly and his brother Mark Kelly are identical twin astronauts that did a science experiment. Basically Scott went up and stayed for almost a year in space.

Wa. And because of something known as the twin paradox, time passed more slowly for Scott up in space than for his brother Mark here on Earth. And what that means is that Scott returned to Earth younger than his brother Mark. How much younger?

8.6 milliseconds younger. I don't understand, but I like it. Hi, I'm Tommy. I'm 11 years old and my question is, would NASA ever plant seeds in space?

They did. They did. Uh-huh. So, they were called like the veggie experiments. Um,

okay. In recent years, astronauts took vegetable seeds up to the International Space Station

to see if they could grow them in hopes of like if and when we kind of push our way out to Mars, the astronauts are going to have to grow their food, like they're not going to be able to pack all the food they need,

right? Of course. So Scott Kelly, the twin, part of what he was doing in space for that whole year was trying to grow plants. Oh my gosh. Yeah. But it's hard because watering them. So when you water plants in space, the water beads up in microgravity and it makes it really hard for it to reach the roots. And so you have to sort of like force it into the soil. And NASA also was making him wear gloves so that he wouldn't accidentally get a mold or something from the soil. But the thing was is that with the gloves on, he couldn't tell if the flowers were getting enough water or too much water.

Oh, like he couldn't feel the soil kind of. Yeah. So finally he um he broke the rules

and he took off the gloves. He took his gloves off. Oh, so he could feel the soil.

Yeah. And a little while later, check this out. Oh my gosh. You are showing me a picture of these gorgeous orange flowers. Are these the Are these Did these bloom out in space?

Yeah, these are called Zenyas and they bloomed in space. Twinkle, twinkle, little

Hi, my name is Theo and I'm 9 years old. Does NASA have plans to keep studying moon trees?

So, the Aremis mission recently took seeds again to the moon. So, Moon Trees part two.

Yeah, Moon Trees part two. Okay. And I have one last question. By this point, have they located all of Smokeoky's original, you know, 450 moon trees?

No, there's just over a hundred that they know the locations of now. Oh, so most of them are still missing.

Most of them are still out there growing and nobody knows that they went to the moon. But you can look for them. Look for their little plaques and if you find one, drop an email to natalie@nataliemiddleton.org so that she can add its location to her map and more people can also touch the moon via tree. Natalie, I love knowing that this whole forgotten treasure map of trees with this lunar secret inside was unearthed by a third grader. Thanks to a third grader. All right, that is where we're going to leave it. Don't forget what secrets, what other worldly truths you might unearth for all of us if you just stay curious. Ask questions. Don't pretend you know the answers. Just say simply, "What is this? What is that? What are you?" Terrestrials was created by me, Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by the very Looney like Lunar Tanya Chala with sound design treats spelled T R E E by Joe Pl. Our

executive producer is Sarah Samach. Our team also includes Alan Gfinsky, Anna Gonzalez, and Mera Bert Winonic. Factecking by Diane Kelly who is always rooting for the truth. Special thanks to Suman Pvac who first nurtured this story at Orion magazine. You can check out Natalie's gorgeous essays about moon trees and the space zenyas over at orionagazine.org. Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Dave Williams who did so much work to uncover this map of moon trees. He has recently retired. Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Marie Henderson, third grade teacher Joan Goal, and former third grade student Trey Corley. Support for Terrestrials is provided by the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the Templeton Foundation. Thank you. And one more time, you can find all the links we talked about today. How to enter the contest to win a moon tree seed, how to find a moonree near you, and how to

submit a location of a moon tree if you find one. All that on our website, terrestrialsspodcast.org. Uh just search for the episode, The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us. Oh, and finally, if you visit a moon tree, uh, snap a picture with it and tag us on social media at terrestrialsodcast. We'd love to see you. All right, that'll do it for today. See you in a couple spins of this dirty old planet of ours. Bye.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast"?

Lulu Miller (Host), Natalie Middleton (Guest), Stew Smoky Rousa (Guest), Dr. Dave Williams (Guest), Alan Gofinsky (Host), Diane Kelly (Guest), Joan Gobble (Guest), Trey Corley (Guest).

What is "The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast" about?

The narrative explores the fascinating journey of "moon trees," seeds that were taken to the moon and returned to Earth, detailing the unique circumstances of their survival and growth. It highlights the story of a firefighter named Stew Rousa, whose passion for trees and knack for science led to this extraordinary connection between lunar exploration and terrestrial botany.

What is mentioned in this Radiolab episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Stew Smokeoky Rousa, Dr. Dave Williams, Apollo 14, Sycamore, Sweet gum, Redwood tree. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us | Terrestrials Podcast"?

The episode runs 32 min; the transcript is about 4,934 words in 120 timestamped sections.

More from Radiolab

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.