Constant Wonder

There's plenty of warfare in animal kingdom, even within a species: battalions of mongooses square off against each other, hermit crabs evict each other in the quest for the perfect shell, ravens rally their brothers to back them up in a rumble. Sounds almost like West Side Story. But all of this conflict actually leads to more peace and harmony, not less. Guest: Lee Alan Dugatkin, author of "Powe...

A true national anthem isn't set by law: it's chosen by the people, often emerges out of conflict, and its meaning shifts over time. All of that and more is true of The Star-Spangled Banner. But still, it was sung by four generations of Americans before it became our official anthem. It's been translated into 40 languages, requires extraordinary athleticism to sing, and has long been both an objec...

This greenhouse in the Utah desert seems to be right out of science fiction, where yummy tomatoes grow without soil and produce for nearly an entire year. The greenhouse gets heat and CO2 from a natural-gas power plant to which it is linked by a sort of umbilical cord. Within this bubble of clean, warm air, bumblebees pollinate the vines, and wasps fend off parasites. Whether you hope to build a c...

"The past is never dead," wrote William Faulkner. "It's not even past." Ron Coddington was a young boy at a flea market one Saturday, when he stumbled on a book of Civil War-era photos and felt his world shift beneath his feet. The boy's passion deepened as he grew to adulthood, maturing into a deeply felt obligation to uncover these stories. Many photos of the time were preserved on calling cards...

An old friend of Benjamin Franklin always regretted not having asked the founding father if he could taxidermize his body. He thought Franklin might have agreed, and then maybe George Washington might have also followed suit. But (maybe to our collective relief) what we do have, instead, as a tangible reminder of our first president are several collections of cuttings from his hair. In the days be...

Meet the improbable rescuer of a dilapidated English manor house: Hopwood DePree, a Hollywood producer having a mid-life crisis. He'd heard rumors about his family's ancestral castle, and when he discovers that it really exists–but in a shocking state of disrepair–he goes all in to save it. Guests: Hopwood DePree, author of "Downton Shabby: One American's Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Famil...

In Auschwitz, twenty-five Jewish slaves used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust. The Upper Tailoring Studio, run by the commandant's wife, Hedwig Höss, and a prisoner, Marta Fuchs, was created to design, cut, and sew popular fashions for the Nazi elite. But it was also the means of saving Jewish women from the gas chambers. Guest: Lucy Adlington, author of "The Dressmakers of Auschwitz:...

Why do some cultures object to dogs the way that we object to rats? And why do we object to rats? Simon Barnes says they're our brothers. We explore who's really domesticating whom in the pet ownership process, why we choose to protect certain wild animals over others, how there's no such thing as the natural world, and many other assumptions about our relationships with animals. Guests: Hal Herzo...

After losing a leg as a toddler and struggling with repeated infections, Cassandra Quave became obsessed, even as a young child, with preventing infection. That obsession has led her from Florida's swamps to the Peruvian Amazon in pursuit of plants that can defeat antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Her stories are personal, riveting and inspiring, and they offer hope for a medical future that's quite...

Clarinet duets with laughing thrushes, nightingales, whales and cicadas. Philosopher and ornithologist David Rothenberg poses the question: do birds make music, or do they just make sounds to defend a territory or attract a mate? We also talk to a zoomusicologist in Scotland, and we listen to a trio of two oboes and a dog. Guests: David Rothenberg, musician, composer, author, philosopher-naturalis...

Constant Wonder is giving listeners a sneak peak of another BYUradio show, The Apple Seed. In this episode, a musician and a couple of actors take unlikely approaches to sharing scripture. (4:58) Detroit storyteller and blues guitarist Robert B. Jones talks about how he became an ordained minister (9:51) Rev. Jones tells the story of he built his guitar from the wood from different parts of his ch...

Meet the crustacean that packs the biggest punch in the animal kingdom and the river-dweller that could be called a "swimming tongue." We investigate animal superpowers to celebrate what marvels our fellow creatures are, and also to remind ourselves of our own often-neglected senses. Guest: Jackie Higgins, author of "Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses" Learn more about...

Extended version of our conversation with Jackie Higgins.

He walked the streets in secret, a veterinarian in his off-hours, looking to help the pets of the homeless. Now his work in the subject of the tv show "Street Vet." He describes how his work has changed the lives of both pets and their owners. And his own. Guest: Kwane Stewart, veterinarian and co-founder of Project Street Vet Learn more about Kwane's work online: Street Vet: https://drkwanestreet...

Darwin hated peacocks because he couldn't explain their excess beauty. He likely would have hated mockingbirds for the excessive complexity of their songs. Where many birds are content with a few simple chirps, mockingbirds learn hundreds of sounds from other birds and animals and mix them together using sophisticated musical techniques, the kind human musicians often employ. Their songs go far, f...

This seed could symbolize the resilience of an entire people. Atop a lonely desert fortress near the Dead Sea, a Judean date seed lay inert for over 2,000 years. We talk to the scientists who brought that tree to life, named it Methusaleh, and rejuvenated an extinct species. Guests: Elaine Solowey, Director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies R....

Giraffes don't like to swim, so how do you get them off an island that's flooding? How do keepers feed a violent, orphaned baby elephant that's been traumatized by humans? The answer is to think like an animal. Meet some empathetic rescuers who had to get creative to save the animals in their care. But their efforts paid off, and, turns out, the humans' lives were better for it, too. Guests: David...

When Daniel Kish was a toddler, he got around. One night he climbed out of his window and made his way over multiple chain link fences, but the neighbors knew who he was. "All the neighbors knew who the blind kid belonged to," he says. As a kid, Daniel climbed trees, rode bikes, and swam in pools. Today he is one of the world's leaders in human echolocation and does pretty much whatever he wants....

Daniel Kish is blind and he navigates the world kind of like a bat—making clicking sounds with his mouth and, from the echoes he gets back, building a picture of the world he's moving through. "The sonic environment is incredibly alive," says Kish, who lost his eyes to cancer when he was barely one year old. He doesn't just get around. He reveals in the physical beauty of the world. "Domes are pre...

Larry Doby, Sr., became the second Black player in the MLB, and his home run during the '48 World Series turned the series around for the Indians. Behind him stood the team's free-thinking owner, Bill Veeck, who wanted to upend the sport, opening his doors to Negro league players and bringing a carnival atmosphere into the stands. Baseball would never be the same again. Guests: Larry Doby, Jr., so...

We examine why flavor is our "most neglected sense" and we meet a restaurant owner who, in the spirit of the fictional "Babette's Feast," is spreading the message that "Food Is Love."

When a two-year-old baby orca lost her mother, rescuers in Washington State and Canada rallied to get her home to her grandmother and extended family. Nothing was easy about this rescue, but the results exceeded expectations. Now living a normal life with her clan, Springer is the mother of two with a third on the way. Here is an intimate tale told by people who were there. Guest: Donna Sandstrom,...

With a hint of magic and the lure of buried wisdom, Ancient Egypt has, like a mysterious and powerful magnet, for millennia pulled on the collective imagination of the West. But almost as gripping as the story of Egypt itself is the story of Egyptomania, the tale of how that fascination took hold, the bold adventurers who unearthed antiquities, the clashing empires that fought over these ancient p...

Mollusks cultivate underwater gardens, cuttlefish become invisible, and tiny fish run spas for predators. Meanwhile, some ingenious humans work to protect the underwater world that most of us rarely see. Photograph from UNDERWATER WILD by Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck. Copyright © 2018, 2021 by Quivertree Publications. Reprinted by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishe...

When a comet crashes into Jupiter, the first to see it are amateurs at the Vatican Observatory in Rome, who can't restrain themselves from shouting and dancing. Far to the north, an aurora hunter backs into a freezing river in Iceland and barely notices his frigid feet. His eyes are on the skies. Miracles, mindfulness, and celestial wonder. Guest: Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, S.J., Director of the...