TV shows and movies set in places like field offices, courtrooms and hospitals entertain us, sure... But they also tell us something - about crime, medicine, danger, and heroism. So who makes sure they don’t get it wrong? 

Meet three entertainment consultants whose real jobs exist far beyond the screen: a former FBI profiler behind Criminal Minds, an ER doctor, who advised on The Pitt, and NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, who worked on the Amazon film Space Cadet. 

They reveal what Hollywood gets right, what it often misses, and the surprising responsibility that comes with shaping what millions of people believe.

Suggested episodes:

• Behind The Screens: Hollywood Hairstyling, Coordinating Intimacy, And Illustrating The Great British Bake Off 
• Becoming fluent in English by watching 3 hours of American and British television every day
• Behind The Screens: Dressing Schitt’s Creek, Special Effects Make-Up, and Casting Queer Eye 
• Stunt performers David Holmes and Jonathan Goodwin on life after paralysis 
• When actors teach: Embodying the lives of an enslaved woman and a medical patient 
• Who decides? Ethicists help doctors and patients answer big, nuanced questions 

 

GUESTS: 

• Jim Clemente: Former FBI special agent and prosecutor, who spent more than 20 years working in criminal behavioral profiling and became an entertainment consultant, writer, and producer on the Criminal Minds series
• Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah: Emergency medicine physician, EMS medical director, and educator, who also serves as a medical consultant for the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, The Pitt
• Nicole Stott: NASA astronaut, engineer, artist, and author, who spent more than 100 days living and working in space. She also consults on film and television, including the Amazon movie Space Cadet

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Meet two influential voices in autism advocacy whose lives and work have reshaped how the world understands neurodiversity. 

Dr. Temple Grandin - a scientist, author, and animal behavior expert - reflects on growing up autistic, thinking in pictures, and building a career by leaning into the way her mind works. 

And Dr. Kerry Magro, an autism advocate, speaker, and consultant on Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum, shares his path from being nonverbal to becoming a public voice for autism, and why accurate representation can change lives.

Suggested episode:

• A conversation with 12 year-old Sophie Rupolo, who has Williams Syndrome, and her mom

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Temple Grandin: Scientist, author, and professor whose work in animal behavior has transformed livestock handling around the world. Her life and thinking were introduced to a global audience through the HBO film Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, and through her books, including Thinking in Pictures, which helped change how autism is understood by clinicians, families, and the public
• Dr. Kerry Magro: Autism advocate, professional speaker, and author who was nonverbal until age 2.5 and did not speak in complete sentences until age 7. He is a consultant on Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum and works with schools, companies, and media organizations to challenge stereotypes and promote accurate, human portrayals of autistic lives

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Some rituals are spiritual. Some are silly. Some are inherited, and some are self-made.

Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices, walks us through how we create all sorts of meaningful, grounding rituals.

And you'll hear clips from past two years of Audacious guests who have shared the rituals that matter most to them, from morning journaling and bedtime affirmations to pre-show sign-slapping.

Whether you've already got your rituals down pat, or are still developing your own special routine, this episode shows you how to honor the sacred in the everyday.

This episode originally aired on May 17, 2025.

Suggested episodes:

• Forgiveness: How we define it and how it defines us 
• Life advice, one Audacious guest at a time
• Kitchen objects with a story. Listen at your own whisk
• Why you so salty? The anger episode
• Change Of Art: Stories About Tattoo Coverups
• Awe yeah! Exploring the magic of mind-blowing moments

GUESTS: 

• Casper ter Kuile: author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices. He holds Master's degrees in Divinity and Public Policy from Harvard University, and is a co-founder of Sacred Design Lab. He also co-hosts the podcast, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
• Audacious guests who shared their personal rituals (in order of appearance): Dean Edwards, Jessica Jin, Kristen Geez, Anna Holland, Lena Khalal Tuffaha, Chris Crowe, Bruce W Brackett, Moon Ribas, Azie Dungey, Pony Tromper, Mary Elizabeth Kelly, Paul Marcarelli, Brad White, Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Dr. Gale Ridge, Mehdi Hasan, Stephanie Courtney, Rosanna Ramos, Sonya Horton, Greg Viloria, Ronnie “Woo Woo” Wickers, Zarna Garg, Jada Star, Luis Mojica, RoseMarie Wallace, Mindy Glickman, David Roche, Paul Gladis, and Arwen, Aidan, and Willow Gladis Perez-Sauquillo     

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What happens when a mother can’t raise her children? Not out of neglect, but because systems, partners, and survival leave her no real choice?

This episode challenges the assumptions we place on “non-custodial mothers.” Rebekah Spicuglia explains how immigration rules, economic pressure, and unequal power led to her relinquishing custody of her son, Oscar, and how she channels her grief after his murder into research on gun violence and family separation.

And from Cameroon, Marie Abanga shares why escaping abuse meant leaving her three young sons behind.

For a full transcript of this episode, click here.

Suggested episodes:

• Life after Parkland: A victim's dad turns to art and activism
• The weight of family secrets: Finding freedom in the truth
• The reality of 'Forever Parenting' when your child needs lifetime care

GUESTS: 

• Rebekah Spicuglia: bereaved mother, writer, advocate, and PhD student in Health Policy & Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She focuses on gun violence and family separation, drawing on her own lived experience to inform her work
• Marie Abanga: Cameroonian author and mental health advocate whose 2011 decision to give up custody of her children guides her mission to support others facing loss, stigma, and recovery

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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Step into the technicolor world of PEZ!

We tour the Connecticut factory where more than 12 million tiny candies are pressed each day, guided by archivist Shawn Peterson, whose personal collection helped shape the Visitor Center.

Meet Brian Trauman, the Guinness World Record holder whose thousands of dispensers trace a lifetime of joyful obsession.

Hear Emily Tracy’s tender, funny, heartbreaking story about the PEZ tattoo she got to honor her mother.

And the hosts of PEZamania, the world’s largest PEZ convention, talk about how nostalgia and candy become community.

 

Suggested episodes:

• Discovering delight - and despair - in dumpster diving

• We have to talk about cuddle parties

• Take a tour of the John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal

• Pawn queens: Tales and treasures from women pawn shop owners

• Audacious at sea: Wisdom from strangers on a cruise ship

 

GUESTS: 

• Shawn Peterson: Company archivist and historian at PEZ Candy, Inc. in Orange, CT. He manages the PEZ Visitor Center, where much of the collection on display comes from his own personal archive. He is also the author of PEZ: From Austrian Invention to American Icon and Collector’s Guide to PEZ: Identification and Price Guide

• Brian Trauman: Owns the world's largest Pez collection and holds the Guinness World Record for “largest candy dispenser collection.” He has been collecting since 1999 and owns more than 6,400 dispensers 

• Morgan Rhinehart and Landon Proctor: hosts of PEZamania in Ohio – the longest running collector convention in the world, established in 1991

• Emily Tracy: Manchester resident who memorialized her PEZ-collecting mom with a tattoo of her head on top of a PEZ dispenser

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A wise woman once said, “You can tell the ocean anything, but it has to be the truth.“ 

Chion Wolf boards the MSC Meraviglia expecting a week of small talk and sunscreen. But the farther she gets from land, the more people become willing to hang out in the deep end to talk about love, loss, faith, sobriety and stories they’ve been holding onto for years.

When they speak, the ocean listens. And in this hour, so do you.

Listen to a BONUS track featuring more voices from the ship: Latisha from the Bronx; Vincent Ferrito and Lauren Englemann from Brooklyn, NY; Brittney and Jeana Lockhart from New Bedford, MA; Henry Armbrister, Barbara Williams, Dellie Maycock, and Giovanni Ferguson from Nassau, Bahamas.

Suggested episodes:

• The Big E: What it takes to create 17 days of magic
• Life advice, one Audacious guest at a time
• It's A Brand Nude Day! 
• Discovering delight - and despair - in dumpster diving
• Welcome to the Punderdome! We're entering NYC's punniest pun competition
• SOLD! Audacious Auctioneers

Plus, Advice on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, a project Chion did interviewing passengers on a 48-hour train ride

GUESTS: 

• A segment: Keith Miller from Long Island, NY; Kevin Luong from New York, NY; Vin Panday from Ontario, Canada; Jessica Struble from Holly, PA; Ruby Selver from Turks and Caicos; and Marty and Mary Pasternak from Buffalo, NY
• B segment: Mike Turner from Levittown, PA; Brian Martignetti from El Paso, TX; Darrell Floyd from New Haven, CT; and Randy Deveaux and Sylvia Wilson from Nassau, Bahamas
• C segment: Joe and Valerie Leone from Blue Bell, PA; Tommy and Cindy Lazarz from Ware, MA; John and Ada Sue Siler from Richmond, VA; and Javier and Angela Mahon from Brooklyn, NY

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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Ahoy! Here’s a little bonus treasure from our episode, Audacious at Sea: Wisdom from Strangers on a Cruise Ship. 

Chion spends a blissful vacation week aboard the MSC Meraviglia with about 5,000 fellow humans, sailing from Brooklyn to the Bahamas and back. And because we couldn’t fit everyone she talks with into the on-air version, this bonus gives you even more of their voices and stories.

Somewhere in between sunrise coffees and late-night pizza buffets, Chion asks passengers - and a few locals in Nassau, Bahamas - to share their favorite piece of life advice.

That opens the door to conversations that go way beyond advice, and into the values that people have carried with them much of their lives.  

GUESTS:

• Latisha from the Bronx

• Vincent Ferrito and Lauren Englemann from Brooklyn, NY

• Brittney and Jeana Lockhart from New Bedford, MA

• Henry Armbrister, Barbara Williams, Dellie Maycock, and Giovanni Ferguson from Nassau, Bahamas

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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Would you leave your family, friends, home, and job to move over a thousand miles away to take care of a pet squirrel? Meet two people who did just that for 8 year-old Thumbelina.

Then, meet a birdkeeper at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who was chosen by an endangered crane to be her life partner for almost 20 years.

This episode originally aired on September 13, 2024.

Listen to an updated conversation with Chris Crowe, including his experience getting his first tattoo - a giant portrait of Walnut.

Suggested episodes:

• Wings, pouches, and snouts: The world of uncommon emotional support animals
• Birdwatching legend Peter Kaestner's journey to 10,000 birds
• Audacious kids: Stories of courage, conservation, and compassion

GUESTS: 

• Christina and Michael Reyes: The human parents of Thumbelina, an eight-year-old squirrel who has more than two million followers on social media
• Chris Crowe: Birdkeeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia, and caretaker of Walnut, an endangered white-naped crane from 2004 until her death in January 2024

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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We recently rebroadcast our Audacious episode featuring Chris Crowe. He's a bird keeper at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia. He spent nearly twenty years as the chosen partner of an endangered white-naped crane named Walnut. She was one of only 5,000 in the world, but to Chris, she was one of a kind. 

Walnut's life expectancy as a bird living in captivity was 15 years. But she died at the age of 42 on January 2, 2024.

In that original episode, just five months after her death, I spoke with Chris about their life together. And from the responses we got, their life together deeply resonated with you. 

Which is why we decided to rebroadcast it! But then something remarkable happened.

A few hours after we decided to publish that rerun, I saw a post from Chris on Facebook: He just got his first tattoo - a giant portrait of Walnut.

When the universe lines things up that precisely, I pay attention. So I reached out to him. I wanted to ask what moved him to get this tattoo now, how it feels to carry her on his arm, and how he’s doing as the two-year anniversary of her death approaches.

Photo and tattoo by Maggie Cho.

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Some people “age gracefully.” These three women age audaciously!

91 year-old comedian, D’yan Forest, commands the stage with her ukulele and sharp wit, spinning the stories of her long life into laughter.

Family law attorney Harriet Newman Cohen, 92, is the kind of lawyer who changed history for LGBTQ+ families and plans on never stopping.

And Charlotte Guttenberg, the 77-year-old Guinness World Record holder for most-tattooed female senior citizen, started inking her body in her fifties and turned herself into a living, breathing work of art.

Suggested episodes:

• Audacious Elders
• Change of art: Stories about tattoo coverups

GUESTS: 

• D’yan Forest: 91-year-old Guinness World Record holder for oldest female comedian, just released her new full-length solo show, A Gefilte Fish Out Of Water
• Harriet Newman Cohen: 92-year-old founding partner of Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP, where she is a negotiator and trial attorney who handles all aspects of matrimonial and family law. She is the author of Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds
• Charlotte Guttenberg: 77-year-old Guinness World Record holder for most tattooed female senior citizen

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.