Jane Lindholm
Host and Executive Producer, But Why and Special ProjectsJane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
Jane joined Vermont Public in 2007 to expand Vermont Edition from a weekly pilot into the flagship daily newsmagazine it is today. She has been recognized with regional and national accolades, including several Murrow, PRNDI and GRACIE awards. In 2016 she started the nationally recognized But Why, which takes questions from kids all over the world and finds interesting people to answer them.
Before returning to her native Vermont, Jane served as director/producer for the national business program Marketplace, based in Los Angeles. Jane began her journalism career in 2001, when she joined National Public Radio (NPR) as an Editorial/Production Assistant for Radio Expeditions, a co-production of NPR and the National Geographic Society. During her time at NPR, she also worked with NPR's Talk of the Nation and Weekend Edition Saturday.
Jane graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Anthropology and has worked as writer and editor for Let’s Go Travel Guides. She has had her photojournalism picked up by the BBC World Service and her reporting has aired on NPR, APM and the CBC. Her hobbies include photography, running, beekeeping and wandering the woods and fields of New England. She lives in Addison County with her family.
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Why is it that some people have allergies when others don’t, even if they’re in the same family? How do allergies work? Can you be allergic to water? Why are some people allergic to cats and dogs? Can you grow out of your allergies? We’re joined by pediatrician and allergy researcher Dr. Ruchi Gupta to answer the dozens of questions kids have sent us on this topic. Plus we learn about promising treatments being developed to help relieve allergy suffering. -
What are eels? And why are some eels electric? We head to Poughkeepsie, New York to learn about eels with Chris Bowser, Hudson River estuary educator with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Plus we learn about electric eels. Electric eels have captured the imagination of many people, but they’re not actually considered eels by the scientific community. They’re a type of knife fish, more closely related to catfish and carp. But they are electric! So we’ll tackle why they’re electric and how they create electricity. David de Santana, of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, tells us what it’s like to study electric eels in the Amazon. -
Why do people spend so much time on social media? But Why answers kids' questions about social media and screen time and we learn about how to be a good citizen online with Devorah Heitner, author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and Growing Up In Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World, coming in September. -
Why do wolves howl at the moon? Do wolves have different howls? How were wolves domesticated into dogs? How do wolves run fast for so long? What kind of habitats do wolves prefer? Why are people scared of wolves? Do they eat people? How do we protect them? But Why visits the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York, where education director Regan Downey answers kid questions about these apex predators. -
Do bears ever live in cities? Why do so many crows gather together on winter nights? How many raccoons are there in cities? What’s the deal with so many maple trees in Vermont? Why are flowers different colors? How are snakes born with venom? Why do some foxes turn white in the winter and others don’t? Where is a good place to observe wildlife? How do urban wild places support wildlife in cities? Naturalist Teage O’Connor answers questions from Burlington classrooms in this special live episode of But Why. -
Why are babies small and grownups big? Why are babies so helpless, instead of little versions of adults? Do babies know they're babies? How do babies grow? How do babies learn to talk?Kids have been sending us lots of questions about babies! This week we're learning more about the development of the human brain with Celeste Kidd, professor of psychology and primary investigator at the Kidd Lab at the University of California Berkeley.Download our learning guides: PDF | Google Slides | Transcript -
A rebroadcast of a 2011 conversation between Jane Lindholm and cartoonist Ed Koren, who died last week. -
Why do people have blood, what is it, and what does it do? How do our bodies make new blood? Is it red or blue? Why does blood taste like metal? And why do we have different blood types? Our listeners have a lot of questions about blood. We learn about blood with UVM Medical Center and Larner College of Medicine pathologist Dr. Sarah Harm. -
How do water slides work and how are they built? Why do you have to be a certain age or height to go down a water slide? Where does the water in water parks come from? And which is easier to design and build: a water slide or a roller coaster? First we did a little research of our own at Jay Peak Pump House Water Park. (And by “research” we mean “going down the water slides.”) And to teach us more about what’s actually happening when you take your thrill ride, we talked with water slide engineers Songyi Moon and Kelly Sall at WhiteWater West. -
In this episode: part two of parentisms- you know, the things adults like to say that may or may not be true. So many of these sayings have to do with food: Eating carrots will improve your vision. Drinking coffee will make you shorter. Don’t swallow watermelon seeds or they’ll grow in your stomach. We do a little fact checking on this generational eating advice with Dr. Nusheen Ameenuddin of the Mayo Clinic. And we explore a few other sayings you sent us, like why do parents always say, “Next time” when they really mean “No”? And what the heck does it mean to keep your eyes peeled?
