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Season Watch Podcast sponsored by Sugar Lake Lodge
Season Watch

Immerse yourself in nature (and, possibly, a pile of ants)

By Charlie Mitchell,
Heidi Holtan
Published August 21, 2026 at 12:11 PM CDT
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A group of winged Labor Day ants scuttles around near a crack in pavement.
Contributed
/
iNaturalist user Rachel Baxter
A group of winged Labor Day ants scuttles around in Hibbing on July 30, 2024.

Co-hosts Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell ponder the behavior of a wasp and discuss John Latimer's party tricks.

Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Have you ever felt the siren call of a deep pile of winged ants?

Staff Phenologist John Latimer has.

Immediately upon seeing a writhing mound of winged insects, he sunk his hand into the pile to see what the ants would do. (They just crawled on him.)

Co-hosts Charlie Mitchell (phenology coordinator) and Heidi Holtan (director of content and public affairs) enjoy tales of John Latimer's quirks, get outside to hear crickets, and think about domesticating red squirrels.

We hear from visitors to Sugar Lake Lodge, Saara Miller, and John Latimer.

Attributions

  1. Outdoor audio by Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell.
  2. SpeakPipe voice memo by Saara Miller.
  3. The Sugar Lake Lodge phenology talkback and John Latimer's phenology report originally aired on KAXE.
  4. This episode was produced by Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan.

Love the podcast? How do you immerse yourself in nature? Let us know! Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

Tags
Season Watch Season Watch PodcastKAXENorthern MinnesotaPhenologySummer phenology
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Charlie Mitchell
Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.<br/><br/><br/>With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)
See stories by Charlie Mitchell
Heidi Holtan
For more than two decades, Heidi Holtan has helped shape the sound of KAXE. Since joining the station in 2002 as a volunteer music programmer, she has worn many hats including the weekly book program, Realgoodwords, hosting the Morning Show, creation and host of the weekly call-in program Between You and Me, serving as Outreach Producer. Program Director, News Director and currently Director of Content and Public Affairs.
See stories by Heidi Holtan
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