The Snowball: Extreme Squirrels in the Arctic (Replay)

Mar 12, 2026

A middle schooler’s backyard encounter sparks a deep dive into squirrel superpowers. Scientists reveal Arctic ground squirrels that let their bodies drop below freezing and somehow reboot each spring. Field reporting from Alaska captures frozen, slow-breathing squirrels and their astonishing brain shrink-and-regrow cycle. The story touches on medical and spaceflight possibilities tied to hibernation.

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ANECDOTE

How A Peanut Turned A Kid Into A Squirrel Expert

Anya's peanut story sparked a deep curiosity about squirrels when a schoolyard squirrel tore through her backpack to steal a peanut.
Her simple observation led her to research squirrel memory, teeth growth, and ecological roles like planting trees.

ANECDOTE

Squirrels Plant Trees By Forgetting

Squirrels forget about up to 25% of their buried seeds, which then germinate and grow into trees.
Anya frames this mix of hoarding and forgetting as a contribution that helps humans breathe.

INSIGHT

Squirrels That Go Below Freezing

Arctic ground squirrels drop their core body temperature several degrees below freezing while hibernating beneath the tundra snow.
Dr. Kelly Drew explains they line burrows with moss and fur, curl into balls, and survive months with heart rates near five beats per minute.

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Middle schooler, Aanya, has an up-close encounter with a squirrel in the school yard, which leads her to an obsession with one of North America's most common critters. She tells host Lulu Miller all about the overlooked superpowers of squirrels, including one squirrel who lives way up in the Arctic, where the weather gets so cold the squirrels who live there drop their body temperatures down below freezing and somehow, miraculously, survive.

Host Lulu travels to Alaska to meet one of these squirrels as it sleeps, and Lulu talks with biologists Dr. Kelly Drew and Dr. Brian Barnes about why this humble squirrel holds potential for treating Alzheimers, brain injury, and even helping astronauts hibernate on the long journey to Mars.

Check out the making of this episode here! Video by Amy Pearl.

This episode features a song with a cameo from Chicago-based musician Tasha. Check out our songs page for 'On The Other Side (ft. Tasha)' and more new singles every week.

Special thanks to Aanya and her mom Roli for bringing us this story, and to Amy Loeffler, Clara Goulet, Loi Goulet, Ellie Bell and Ferris Jabr, the writer who first made the “pop-squirrel" joke. We came across it in a wonderful article he wrote in Scientific American. Also, check out this Wired article by Brendan I. Koerner for more on arctic ground squirrels.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde and Lulu Miller, with help from Tanya Chawla, Sarah Sandback and Valentina Powers. Fact checking by Natalie Middleton. Transcription by Caleb Codding.

Our advisors are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Andy J. Pizza, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, Liza Demby, Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Tara Welty.

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