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 Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica"

Join us for conversations that invite you to discover, explore, and engage with the wonders of the world around you. New episodes available Wednesdays, starting July 5, 2023, on your favorite podcast platforms and the BYUradio app.

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 guest will examine both in this episode of Constant Wonder.

Guest: Lyanda Lynn Haupt, naturalist, speaker, and author of "Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit"

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 Conservation Through Public Health and author of "Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet"

Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / #unboundproject / We Animals Media

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 hear how he works to keep them all safe.

Photo credit: Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review

Guest: Daniel Curry, range rider and wolf advocate in Eastern Washington

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 Health Care for the Homeless Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Tracy Kidder, author of "Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People" and winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Photo credit: Bill Brett

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 Webster, author of "Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family"

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 young Sandeep would help Prem tend his beloved garden, manifests itself at the end of Prem’s life in tender exchanges between a now childlike father and a grieving son. Everyone will have something profound to gain from this episode of Constant Wonder.

Guest: Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD, Director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Hospital; author of "My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's"; contributing opinion writer for The New York Times

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 the natural world with contagious enthusiasm.

Guest: Mike Dilger, BBC presenter and author of "One Thousand Shades of Green"

Join host Marcus Smith for conversations that invite you to discover, explore, and engage with the wonders of the world around you. New episodes available Wednesdays, starting April 19, 2023, on your favorite podcast platforms and the BYUradio app.