Close Encounters with Mato Tipila

Become a sustaining member today. For $5 a month, we'll send you an Outside/In baseball cap. The first 250 people to donate during our fall fund drive will also receive a "ginkgo love" sticker. Support Outside/In today! As of late, Endless Thread co-host Ben Brock Johnson has been obsessed with a rock in Wyoming, a lot like the protagonist of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But you won't find Ben in the kitchen, making a replica of the rock out of mud and chicken wire. Instead, you'll find him and co-host Amory Sivertson in this episode, traversing Reddit and TikTok, YouTube, and the actual state of Wyoming to find out why hundreds of thousands of people have been drawn to a monolith that has so many names and meanings. This episode is part of Endless Thread’s latest 4-part series called Parks! SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!). Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook. Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). CREDITS Outside/In is hosted by Nate Hegyi. Our team includes Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon. Our Executive Producer is Rebecca Lavoie. This episode of Endless Thread was produced by Ben Brock Johnson, co-hosted by Amory Sivertson, and produced by Samata Joshi, Grace Tatter, and Quincy Walters It was mixed and sound-designed by Paul Vaitkus. Endless Thread is a production of WBUR. Outside/In is a production of NHPR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices