Constant Wonder

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 Family's English Castle"

Geoff Wellens, historian

Bob Wall, caretaker of Hopwood Hall; historical and heritage building specialist

Zena Howard, PR & Communications for Hopwood DePree and Hopwood Hall Estate

Want to keep up with the renovations? Visit Hopwood DePree's YouTube channel to see updates on the castle's repairs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmP4mhZrjgdfqQRzPQ9mXwA

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: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive"

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: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive"

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 Herzog, psychologist; author of "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight about Animals"; blogger at "Animals and Us" blog in Psychology Today

Simon Barnes, author of "The History of the World in 100 Animals"

Madi Vazquez, veterinary nurse

Visit Hal online: https://halherzog.com/

Explore Simon's other writing at his website: https://simonbarnesauthor.co.uk/biog/

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 different from our present.

Guest: Cassandra Quave, author of "The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines" and Associate Professor of Dermatology and Human Health at Emory School of Medicine

Visit Cassandra online to learn more about her work: https://www.cassandraquave.com/

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-naturalist, and Professor of music and philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology

Emily Doolittle, composer, zoomusicologist, and Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Learn more about David's work at his website: https://davidrothenberg.wordpress.com/

Visit Emily online to learn about her compositions: https://emilydoolittle.com/

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 childhood home to stay connected to his hometown in the story “Detroit Guitar,” recorded live in the Apple Seed studio

(25:32) Host Sam Payne connects with his Greek grandparents by learning to cook Greek food in today’s entry in The Radio Family Journal

(34:03) Two New York pals connect to their heritage by performing Torah stories for families as a duo called The Bible Players

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 childhood home to stay connected to his hometown in the story “Detroit Guitar,” recorded live in the Apple Seed studio

(25:32) Host Sam Payne connects with his Greek grandparents by learning to cook Greek food in today’s entry in The Radio Family Journal

(34:03) Two New York pals connect to their heritage by performing Torah stories for families as a duo called The Bible Players

Extended version of our conversation with Jackie Higgins.

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 Jackie's work by visiting her online at her website https://jackiehiggins.co.uk/

and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackiehiggins_/?hl=en