Audacious with Chion Wolf

The latest episode of our show featured my conversations with kids who are doing amazing things in this world. Give it a listen! Here are two more conversations with kids who have big ideas. You’ll hear about an 8-year-old’s invention - well, it’s still technically in the development stage - "The Everything Maker", and two kids tell us about cool solutions for dipping OREO cookie...

Kids see things differently. Solutions to problems are one big idea away. “What if” is an enthusiastic refrain! And expressing yourself means making art, and asking ALL of the questions! If you’re an older kid who’s forgotten what that drive, that passion, that confidence feels like, all you have to do is keep listening! Today, you’re gonna meet eight young people who think and act BIG in this swi...

It’s one thing to have a hard time with parenthood. But what if you wholeheartedly regret it?  Hear from two parents who feel this way, and find out how they balance feeling full of regret while wanting to make sure their kids are well taken care of. And is it really possible to love someone whom they regret bringing into existence? You’ll also meet a woman who knew she was regretted, and find out...

There is a very special reason why you’re hearing a rebroadcast of this show: This episode of Audacious just won a Gracie Award! The Gracie Awards are a part of the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, and they recognize "exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment." Thank you so much! Imagine you’ve got breasts. It shouldn’t be too...

Hey! If you’re listening to this bonus feature, you’ve probably listened to the show we just did featuring executive producer Catie Talarski’s documentary of a year in the life of two people with end-stage Cystic Fibrosis. I was so moved by the documentary and so intrigued by how it sounded that I wanted to interview Catie about how she made it. Support the show: https://www.wnpr...

When you have Cystic Fibrosis - a genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections - a lung transplant can be a life-saving surgery. But what if you’re not sure you want it? And if you do get it, what new challenges will they present to your newly-extended life?  Hear an audio documentary by Audacious Executive Producer Catie Talarski that follows two CF patients for one year as they grapple...

What happens when you do a DNA test from a company like Ancestry.com or 23andme, and you get some life-shattering information, like your sibling is really your half-sibling, or that you may have a life-altering medical condition, or that you thought you were half Black, but the test says you’re barely Black at all. Before you spit in that tube, hear from people who’ve been stunned and spun around...

When you call 911, it most likely means you’re having a stressful, unpredictable, scary experience. It could be the worst day of your life, or someone else’s.  But what’s it like on the other side of that call?  Hear about life as an emergency dispatcher here in Connecticut, throughout the country, and even during the massive temporary city in the desert that is Burning Man. GUESTS: Clayton Northg...

If you listen to public radio, you recognize Chris Thile’s name. He was the host of Live From Here !  And if you’re like me, you knew him from at least one of his gazillion other music projects, like his band Punch Brothers. I’ve been following his work for over 10 years, simultaneously singin’ my heart out to his recordings, while being totally mind-boggled at his man...

This is the first installment of Audacious Little Things! Meet an anthropologist who explains why she thinks the human animal delights in making miniatures of things, and then meet a sculpturist dubbed “The 8th Wonder of the World” whose art requires a microscope to see. Find out how one kind of protozoan earned itself the title of “The Immortal Jellyfish”. Plus, what researchers think is going on...

When I say BLINK! What do you think?  Of that American POW who blinked the word “TORTURE” in Morse code live on Vietnamese television?  Or do you think of someone with locked-in syndrome who can only communicate by blinking?  Or do you think about the idea of a universal eye language that uses blinks? Today on Audacious, you'll hear about all that, plus a headset that measures the blinking of long...

What if, in order to do your job, you had to change your voice?  Meet an actress who’s an accent expert, a man who is the dubbed-over voice of Peter Griffin and Will Smith in Germany, and a news anchor who went viral when she brought her anchor voice home. GUESTS: Amy Walker is a Los Angeles-based actress, singer and accent chameleon Ian Odle is a German voice dubber, known best for his work as th...

The art of tattooing has been traced back 7,000 years. While the significance or reason behind the oldest-known tattoos are total speculation, we do know that often, they were applied as sacred rites, and awarded as a signifier of adulthood. In Ancient Egypt, it’s likely they were used as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth. And in the ancient Greco-Roman world, they were appl...

Not everyone who is trans wants to change their voice. Some do. Either way, what do the voices - the actual voices - of trans and non-binary people tell you about who they are? Today, you’ll meet a trans woman whose work adapting her voice led her to help others. Also, hear from a transfemme non-binary yoga teacher who uses Vedic Chanting to feel centered, and to feel closer to their voice. You’ll...

Hear about the 5000 year history of billboards, and meet the man behind the “I LOVE YOU JESUS” billboards on I-84 and I-91 here in Connecticut.  And hear about a technology that focuses the audio of a billboard directly to you and only you.  Plus, why one Baltimore resident chose to propose to his girlfriend with a billboard (and how it went). GUESTS: Gino Sesto is the founder of Dash Two , a Digi...

Guy Walker Wolf III died on February 13th, 2021. He was 77 years old. There are many ways to describe Guy, but I’d say we who knew him would all agree that he could be described as the captain of his own ship. And he was my stepfather. I’ve known him since I was 11. Throughout the process of his death at home, I was compelled by the people who were a part of guiding us through it. So today, I’m go...

You know how you can, for the most part, remember what happened to you yesterday? Well what if you were able to remember almost EVERY day that clearly? All the way back to when you were very young? How would your day-to-day choices be affected, knowing that you’ll remember what you did forever? Do we all have our memories stored inside our brains like they do, but we don’t have a way to access the...

Whether you’re superstitious or, as Michael Scott from The O  says, “a little stitious”, on today’s show about superstitions, you’ll learn a lot about humanity. The author of a book about superstitions from around the world joins us, as well as an expert about anxiety on the difference between superstitious beliefs and OCD or trauma responses. You’ll hear superstitions from Lauren Komrosky, Katy T...

As part of our Reports From Recovery series, today we’re hearing from two women whose heroin addictions shook up their lives, and put them right up close to the edge of existence. If you’re struggling with addiction, you can find resources at SAMHSA , the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. GUESTS: Jaime Wyatt is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter. She’s been sober for ov...

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor. It moves closer to midnight depending on how close we are to human-made global catastrophe through climate change, nuclear weapons, and pandemics fueled by misinformation and failed leadership. Y’know, the typical folly of humankind. Find out what time it is from two members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. GUESTS: Sharon Squassoni is a research professor at...

Fill in the blank: Love is… Patient. Kind. Love is Work. Hard to find. But if you wanna put your finger on what makes up “long-lasting love”, you’re gonna need some wisdom to fill in those blanks. So today, meet three couples who’ve been together for over 50 years. GUESTS: Angela and Grant Loavenbruck of Rockport, Maine, have been married for 55 years Emery Austin Smith and Vivian Ashton Smith of...

What do the ways we train our dogs say about us? You’ll hear about how dogs are trained to search and rescue, dating back to some of our earliest wars. How they’ve been trained by authority figures for hundreds of years to bite - and hold - and sometimes kill. And how the street dogs of Moscow were trained to fly into space - even though it meant their certain doom. GUESTS: Blake Stilwell is a for...

With the world the way it is, it’s no wonder we spend so much of our time watching television and movies. From sci-fi flicks like Star Trek, to unscripted reality shows like Queer Eye, to comedy dramas like Schitt’s Creek, we are basking in the very best distractions. And while the actors tend to take center stage, this hour, you’ll enjoy the second installment of a series in which we honor the fo...

I love Reddit. This mostly-anonymous giant internet bulletin board has a plethora of communities called subreddits, which bring all sorts of interests together. One of my favorite subreddits is Act Like You Belong, where you’ll see a lot of stories about how, if you put on a hard hat, carry a clipboard, and walk with urgency, you can get through a lot of doors that you normally wouldn’t. (a chef’s...

There’s not a lot of great headlines in the news lately. Y’know, between a contentious election, rioting in the Capitol, a raging pandemic, and lots and lots of dangerous misinformation. This hour, well… in every hour of Audacious, misinformation is banned, and different headlines get the attention they deserve. Today, we celebrate FIRSTS in recent scientific observation and achievement. Hear from...