Constant Wonder

Flowers, believe it or not, are nature's greatest revolutionaries. In this episode of Constant Wonder, biologist David George Haskell and host Marcus Smith discuss how flowers turned enemies into allies and used ultra-precise adaptations to survive an intensely competitive natural world.

By exploring the floral connections that draw him closer to his mother and great-great-grandfather, David also examines how flowers have changed in just a few short decades. He makes the case for following a single bloom's growth and decay over the course of several months, and describes the benefits of keeping a floral diary—an easy way for anyone to become more attentive to the subtle turning of the seasons.

Guest: David George Haskell, author of "How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature's Revolutionaries"

Chapters:

(0:00) Meet David George Haskell

(7:21) Searching for orchids with his mother

(13:52) Glimpses of himself in his great-great-grandfather

(21:56) Why are flowers revolutionaries?

(31:05) Balancing cooperation and conflict

(34:59) Tracking a magnolia bloom

(44:42) David's floral diary

They are like street musicians, busking with words instead of instruments. Typewriter poets Kathleen Rooney and Allison Fragakis share with Constant Wonder's Tennery Taylor how they write poems-on-demand for complete strangers.

Whether at a farmer's market, tucked between the stacks at a library, or as entertainment at a wedding, typewriter poets surprise customers with a keepsake that reflects unexpected insight into a stranger's life. (Or maybe it's a poem about a burrito! These poems don't have to be serious.) Kathleen Rooney and Allison Fragakis share their creativity and love of community through impromptu poetry sessions on typewriters.

Guests:

Kathleen Rooney, co-founder of "Poems While You Wait"; English professor at DePaul University; author of "Man Overboard!" and other books https://kathleenrooney.com/

Allison Fragakis, songwriter, author, artist, and poet. Her album "Pass the Dream" is available August 21, 2026 https://www.writingallison.com/

Jeremy Jones has loved exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains since childhood, and despite his world travels, his identity as a "mountain person" always brought him home. His family has lived in Henderson County for five generations—so when Hurricane Helene sent the river rising toward his old farmhouse, it threatened more than a house. In this episode of Constant Wonder, Jeremy joins host Marcus Smith to share what it took to rebuild, and how the experience reconnected him to his neighbors, his family, and a history in these mountains that runs deeper than he'd realized.

Guest: Jeremy Jones is a professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, and the author of books "Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries" (Blair, 2025) and "Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland" (Blair, 2014).

Snakes. Scorpions. Sharks. From a young age, Rachel Graham has always been interested in marginalized, "scary" animals. In this episode of Constant Wonder, she and host Marcus Smith discuss how she embarked on her quest to change people’s mindsets about sharks—fascinating and threatened creatures that regularly fill her with awe.

From being surrounded by a real-life sharknado to swimming alongside curious whale sharks, Rachel has had many peaceful, once-in-a-lifetime encounters with these megafauna.  As part of her work with the non-profit conservation organization MarAlliance, she partners with local fishermen and coastal communities to protect vulnerable marine wildlife.

Guest: Rachel Graham, Founder and Executive Director of MarAlliance

Chapters:

(0:00) A real-life sharknado

(9:43) Mr. Facey the whale shark

(18:16) The dangers of overfishing

(26:10) Childhood nature adventures

(34:47) Caring for hammerheads

(45:03) How old can sharks get?

Originally aired November 9, 2022

Gaelynn Lea plays the violin like a cello — a technique she discovered almost by accident, one that would eventually carry her from a small-town orchestra to NPR's Tiny Desk Concert and, later, to composing the original music for Broadway's revival of Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. In this episode of Constant Wonder, she talks with Marcus Smith about her unconventional technique, the unexpected opportunities it opened up, and how her songwriting continues to evolve.

Gaelynn Lea was born into a family of artists, with musical parents and an early start in youth theater. But everything changed in elementary school, when an orchestra teacher encouraged her to try holding the violin like a cello — a small discovery that would shape the rest of her career.

Guest: Gaelynn Lea is a violinist, songwriter, composer, disability advocate, and author of "It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect: A Memoir."

Photo credits to Mike Madison

Dino Martins is an entomologist who finds beauty in every bug. In this episode of Constant Wonder, he tells host Marcus Smith about his passion for parasites and how a lifetime of studying creepy-crawlies draws on both scientific and spiritual knowledge.

Dino Martins grew up in Kenya, surrounded by wildlife and the insects that feed on them. Seeing parasitic wasps colonize caterpillars taught him the value of paying close attention, and he can enthrall even a skeptic with the marvels of the tsetse fly. He winningly argues that parasites and other predators are full of wonder and worthy of our fascination.

Guest: Dino Martins, entomologist, evolutionary biologist, and author of “Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites”

Visit our Substack for a look at Dino Martins’ art! https://bit.ly/4eZekFN

(0:00) Meet Dino Martins

(8:34) A Childhood Full of Creatures

(25:10) A High-School Dropout?

(30:45) The “Ick” Factor

(33:43) Coexistence & Control

(44:34 Spirituality in Spiders

(49:14) Parasitic Paradoxes

Late-in-life debuts, comebacks, and triumphs. In this episode, "Roctogenarians" author Mo Rocca shares with Constant Wonder host Marcus Smith awe-inspiring stories of people who made major career pivots late in life.

Yasmeen Lari was a famous Pakistani architect celebrated for her work in steel, cement, and glass. In her 60s, after a massive earthquake hit her country, she began to work with locals, building humble homes of adobe, mud, and bamboo. Painter Henri Matisse, debilitated by stomach cancer in his 70s, hung up his brushes and took up scissors to continue making art. And Disney illustrator Tyrus Wong waited until he was 90 years old to receive full credit for the revolutionary work he'd done on "Bambi." Never say it's too late to succeed!

Guest: Mo Rocca, correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning," author of "Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs," and host of the "Mobituaries" podcast

Chapters:

(0:00) What Makes a "Roctogenarian"?

(3:32) A Revolutionary Disney Animator

(17:00) Origin of Mo Rocca's Obsession with Roctogenarians

(22:33) An Artist's Self-Reinvention

(32:40) Paper Plant Specimens

(36:13) From Modern to Humble Architecture

Originally aired July 24, 2024

Amy Leach is an essayist and musician with a penchant for improvisation. In this episode of Constant Wonder, she and host Marcus Smith share a worldview: one filled with awe and praise for everything from puppies to porcupines. With roots in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Amy has found a more expansive view of God and the sacred.

Amy Leach is the kind of person who believes in finding what you're not necessarily looking for, be it on a walk outside or around your local Walmart. Since she was young, she's nursed a passionate love for music, but prefers to improvise over following a score. She tells stories of being transfixed by birds and bears and ibexes while looking for words to describe the indescribable. But most importantly, she finds divinity in nearly everything, even pickles.

Guest: Amy Leach, essayist and author. Her latest book is “The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations.”

Chapters:

(0:00) Meet Amy Leach

(5:13) In the Thrall of the Violin

(13:52) Spirit of the Music

(20:31) Praise for Everything

(32:44) Birding and Bearing

(38:22) Serviceable & Mysterious

What does it mean to truly listen: not just hear, but attend to the world with exquisite care? In this episode of Constant Wonder, host Marcus Smith sits down with Hank Lentfer, a sound recordist and acoustic ecologist who has spent decades capturing the natural world's most breathtaking voices from his home base in Gustavus, Alaska, gateway to Glacier Bay National Park. Lentfer shares unforgettable recordings — a humpback whale trumpeting over a mirror-calm sea, barnacles whispering as a shadow passes over them, ancient air bubbles escaping from icebergs — and the stories behind each one. But this episode is about far more than wildlife audio: along the way, he reflects on hunting as a spiritual practice, our amnesia in supermarkets, the never-ending dawn chorus that circles the globe, and caring for a mother with dementia whose face still lit up at a Hank Williams song. Lentfer's memoir "Faith of Cranes" is the throughline, and finding the sounds and stories that remind us we are not separate from the world is his life's work and the beating heart of this conversation.

Guest: Hank Lentfer, author of "Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska"

Photo Credit: Taliesin Black-Brown

Chapters:

(0:00) Meet Hank Lentfer

(9:56) Unexpected Sounds

(16:37) A Childhood of Blessed Insignificance

(26:51) Uramuro's Satisfaction

(37:08) Hunting and Amnesia Factories

(52:24) Several Awakenings

Harriet Tubman was sustained by vivid dreams and fierce spiritual faith as she risked everything—again and again—to guide enslaved people to freedom. In this episode of Constant Wonder, Harvard historian Tiya Miles explains to co-host Tennery Taylor how Tubman's intense spirituality and her connection to the natural world empowered her and shaped her into a compelling leader.

As a child, Tubman worked in swamps and timber yards, enduring grueling labor that also prepared her to flee to the North in 1849. But her own freedom was only the beginning: for the rest of her life, she dedicated herself to helping her family and friends escape slavery as well.

Guest: Tiya Miles,  author of "Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People"

Chapters:

(0:00) Introduction

(5:15) A childhood spent outdoors

(12:54) The night the stars fell

(16:41) Harriet Tubman's prayers and faith

(30:27) Working in a timber yard

(34:50) Escaping to the North

(44:35) Walking across the Ohio River

(51:27) Freeing her brothers

(1:03:08) Applying dreams