Constant Wonder

Stella Levi, age 100, grew up on the island of Rhodes in a community of Sephardic Jews who had lived there for over 500 years. She survived the Italian and German occupations and the deportation of her entire community to Auschwitz. Decades later, Levi met Michael Frank, a writer living in New York City. This chance encounter led to weekly meetings for over six years. In this episode of Constant W...

Ever since "Dracula," bats have been seen as terrifying threats that carry disease. They're actually essential to our agriculture and industry. In this episode of Constant Wonder, you'll meet an expert who can set the record straight. No wonder he's known as "The Batman of Mexico"; he's been obsessed with the flying mammals since he was young! Guest: Rodrigo Medellin, Professor of Ecology at the N...

Christopher Clark always had a sharp sense of humor. But when he was diagnosed with ALS and gradually became paralyzed, he also refined and shared a sense of awe at the miracle of living, even though—and maybe because—his own body was dying. His widow, Lisa Valentine Clark, tells his story to Constant Wonder, in an episode you won't want to miss. Guests: Lisa Valentine Clark, host of "The Lisa Sho...

A young field biologist, whose peripatetic childhood left her feeling rootless, searches for a sense of home in some of the world's wildest places. She works in extreme conditions in Antarctica, studying prey and predators, birds, and seals. In the process, she discovers fragility and terror, and, ultimately, the magic of life. Guest: Naira de Gracia, field biologist and author of "The Last Cold P...

Lyanda Lynn Haupt's mission is to connect people with nature in their everyday lives. In her own life, that's led to sitting in the dark alongside a moose, walking barefoot in a prehistoric Celtic tomb, and adopting a starling. Sometimes, as can happen when backpacking alone in the wilderness, encounters with nature can be scary as well as inspiring. But awe includes both fear and wonder, and our...

People living on the edge of African nature preserves can pass their diseases to gorillas living there. In this episode of Constant Wonder, a wildlife vet practices "One Health" by investing in the health and economic security of humans to ensure primates stay healthy, too. The result is robust gorilla tourism that benefits the entire country. Guest: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder and CEO of...

Daniel Curry had had recurring dreams about wolves, long before he chose to devote his career to helping them. After working with captive wolves for several years, he became a "range rider," a human intermediary between predators and the cattle they might want to eat. In this episode of Constant Wonder, we'll discover Curry's extraordinary empathy for both domestic and wild creatures, and we'll he...

Daniel Curry had had recurring dreams about wolves, long before he chose to devote his career to helping them. After working with captive wolves for several years, he became a "range rider," a human intermediary between predators and the cattle they might want to eat. In this episode of Constant Wonder, we'll discover Curry's extraordinary empathy for both domestic and wild creatures, and we'll he...

In this episode, meet Dr. Jim O'Connell, a tireless physician who has spent nearly four decades caring for the unhoused population of Boston. We'll also learn about some of his enterprising and generous patients, who've formed a community that watches out for one another on the streets. Finding redemption and hope amid tragedy, on Constant Wonder. Guests: Jim O'Connell, MD, President of Boston Hea...

Meet a tireless physician who has spent nearly four decades caring for the unhoused population of Boston. We'll also learn about some of his enterprising and generous patients, who've formed a community that watches out for one another on the streets, as they find redemption and hope amid tragedy. Guests: Jim O'Connell, MD, President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and Assistant Pro...

As a young White girl in Ohio, Rachel Jamison had imagined what life was like for her pioneer ancestors, and she peppered her grandparents with questions about her past. Decades later, she and her family discovered a connection to a prominent early American Black intellectual and met their living Black relatives. The full story of her past had been hiding in plain sight. Guest: Rachel Jamison Webs...

Prem Jauhar was a world-class agricultural scientist—an inspiration to his son Sandeep, our guest, who became a cardiologist. When the elderly father Prem started behaving oddly, Sandeep and his two siblings grew frustrated and confused. It’s a classic family story of grown children struggling together to help a parent beset with Alzheimer’s. A beautiful father-son bond, established early on when...

Get to know BBC personality and naturalist Mike Dilger, from his passion for birds and wildlife, to his adventures in the cloud forests of Ecuador. In this podcast episode, we explore Mike's early experiences with birdwatching, his quest to find 1,000 different plant species in a single year, and his heartwarming proposal story, involving a ladder, a ring, and some chickens. Mike Dilger celebrates...

As a young woman from the East Coast, Sasha Reed had never been camping before when she was introduced to the Arizona desert by her future husband. She fell in love with both, and crouching on the dry ground she noticed and became obsessed with fragile communities of organisms known as "biocrust." This led her into a scientific field, biogeochemistry, that would shape her professional life. With i...

In 1863 on the South Dakota frontier, a Lakota Indian elder and a US army colonel had a tense and deadly encounter. They could not have known that their children would marry each other, and thus create a welded and complex legacy that generations of their descendants would work to reconcile. Guest: Philip J. Deloria, Professor of History at Harvard University

Dying patients often profess to see deceased loved ones around them in the days and weeks before they pass. So often that hospice care doctor Chris Kerr decided to make a scientific study of the phenomenon. He found that while the medical community typically views death as defeat, there is actually a great deal of spiritual growth right there at the end of life. This podcast episode invites you to...

The apex of marine archaeologist Mensun Bound's stellar career happened a year ago this week, when the expedition he spearheaded found Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" at the bottom of an Antarctic sea. This was just the latest find in a career marked by big discoveries, including a 2,500-year-old Etruscan ship and a Roman wreck weighed down by massive stone columns looted from Athens. Bound has a...

Being in and around water heals us emotionally. Water "evangelist" J Nichols shares his insight and his personal "water stories," when water has inspired him and also when it's healed him from trauma. As part of this episode, we're asking listeners, "What's your water story?" Tune in to Constant Wonder and find out how to share yours! Wallace J Nichols, author of "Blue Mind: The Surprising Science...

Dacher Keltner has been a leading researcher on the subject of awe for nearly 20 years. It’s hard to improve upon his description of the phenomenon: Awe is an emotion we feel upon encountering something so vast that it upends our sense of what is real. But when cancer took his brother’s life, Keltner personally and repeatedly experienced awe in ways that expanded the boundaries of what, even for h...

After cancer takes his brother's life, Dacher Keltner repeatedly experiences awe in ways that expand the boundaries of what, even for him, is real. Guest: Dacher Keltner, founding director, Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley; author, "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life" Visit Dacher's website to explore more of his writing: https://www.dacherkeltner.co...

Meet Clint Edwards, a man whose hilarious honesty has brought hope and laughter to his readers in the New York Times, Washington Post, and on his popular blog: No Idea What I’m Doing. Follow his story of growing up at odds with his parents and eventually learning to raise a family of his own, all while managing mental health struggles. On this episode of Constant Wonder, learn about finding wonder...

Constant Wonder presents the second of a two-part episode on "infrasound," or sound that lies below the threshold of human hearing. Infrasound can explain seemingly inexplicable animal behavior. In part 2, we meet Hawaiian insects and African elephants that use the same technique to hear sounds not audible to the human ear. They both can hear with their feet! And while we don't hear with our feet,...

This is the first of a two-part episode on "infrasound," or sound that lies below the threshold of human hearing. Infrasound can warn of impending danger. In part 1, we go to Hawaii and Chile with an volcanologist who records the voices of volcanos, looking for subtle shifts in their infrasound that could signal a pending eruption. Then we go up the coast to Guatemala, to detect mudslides triggere...

If snorkeling seems like something you can only do on a tropical vacation, think again. In this podcast episode, we meet a river snorkeling guide who encourages us to stick our heads in the water, right in our local streams and rivers. Keith Williams thinks you'll be amazed at the aquatic life you'll see there. Tune in to Constant Wonder and get hooked with some amazing fish tales. Guest: Keith Wi...

If snorkeling seems like something you can only do on a tropical vacation, think again. In this podcast episode, we meet a river snorkeling guide who encourages us to stick our heads in the water, right in our local streams and rivers. Keith Williams thinks you'll be amazed at the aquatic life you'll see there. Tune in to Constant Wonder and get hooked with some amazing fish tales. Guest: Keith Wi...