Germany was still burning witches when Maria Sibylla Merian daringly filled her 17th-century home with spiders, moths, and all kinds of toxic plants. Bold choices saved her from accusations of witchcraft–and from a mundane life. Merian’s fascination with metamorphosis led her all the way to the rainforests of South America, where she recorded countless new species, 130 years before Darwin!

Guest Kim Todd is the author of four books of literary nonfiction, including Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Tinkering with Eden: a Natural History of Exotic Species in America, Sparrow, and her newest work, Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters,” which dives into the lives of undercover journalists who exposed societal ills in the 1880s and 1890s. Todd was raised in California, educated in Montana, and after moving from coast to coast and landing many places in between, now lives in Minneapolis. She is on the faculty at the MFA program at the University of Minnesota.

Music for this episode was provided by Aaron Kenny, Kevin MacLeod, Emmit Fenn, Daniel Foster Smith, Sir Cubworth, and Doug Maxwell.

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