Wonder Cabinet

By Wonder Cabinet ProductionsSociety & Culture Philosophy

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per episode

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Wonder Cabinet episodes

March 04, 2023 As Read By The Author
As audio producers, one of the most fun things we get to do is bring the soundscape of a novel to life — cue the monsters, the storms, the footsteps of a creature emerging slowly from the ocean. So that’s what we’re bringing you today: Great writers, epic sound design.
Original Air Date: July 03, 2021
Interviews In This Hour:
Nnedi Okorafor's Alien Invasion of Lagos — Neil Gaiman Brings Us To The End Of The World — A Not So Distant Future in the N.K. Jemisin's 'Broken Earth' Trilogy — Ann Patchett on 'State of Wonder' — Richard Powers on Writing the Inner Life of Trees — Lorrie Moore on Bringing Characters To Life With Brevity — Kelly Link on 'Pretty Monsters' — Mark Sundeen on 'The Making of Toro'
Guests:
Nnedi Okorafor, Neil Gaiman, N. K. Jemisin, Ann Patchett, Richard Powers, Lorrie Moore, Kelly Link, Mark Sundeen
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52 min
February 25, 2023 How Should We Tell Our History?
America is in the midst of a new debate over how we tell our history. You can see it everywhere – in arguments over critical race theory and AP history classes, in museums and state capitals, in the news and on talk radio. It’s fueled in part by an emerging generation of public historians who are re-shaping our national narratives.
Original Air Date: February 25, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
Uncovering The Blind Spots In Historical Narratives — Columnist Jamelle Bouie on dispelling 'civic myths' with American history — How 'Praise Houses' Reclaim A Lost Piece of Black History
Guests:
Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Jamelle Bouie, Charmaine Minniefield
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52 min
February 18, 2023 Walk With Me
We all know we should walk more. The evidence just keeps accumulating – walking makes us healthier, happier, smarter, more relaxed, more resilient – not to mention longer-lived. But even with the best of intentions, sometimes we all need a little push to get out the door.
Original Air Date: July 30, 2022
Interviews In This Hour:
Walking the footsteps of trailblazing women — Human feet are terrible, evolutionarily speaking — Walk the earth
Guests:
Annabel Abbs, Jeremy DeSilva, John Francis
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52 min
February 11, 2023 Against Capitalism
Radical politics and radical movements are on the rise everywhere. Against racial violence, and climate change; against gender inequality, corporate greed, low wages, oil pipelines, opioids. Maybe at heart they all have a common cause. Maybe they're all — in one way or another — a rebellion against capitalism.
Original Air Date: February 11, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
The Communist Manifesto still inspires — The radical philosopher mapping the crises of capitalism — Are we living through a 'hinge point' moment?
Guests:
China Miéville, Nancy Fraser
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53 min
February 04, 2023 Shapeshifting
There are old folktales and legends of people who can become animals. Animals who can become people. And there’s a lesson for our own time in those shapeshifting stories — a recognition that the membrane between what's human and more-than-human is razor thin.
Human identity cannot be separated from our nonhuman kin. From forest ecology to the human microbiome, emerging research suggests that being human is a complicated journey made possible only by the good graces of our many companions. In partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature and with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation, To The Best Of Our Knowledge is exploring this theme of "kinship" in a special radio series.
To learn more about the Kinship series, head to ttbook.org/kinship.
Original Air Date: November 20, 2021
Interviews In This Hour:
Reclaiming the fierce women who are shapeshifters — How a man turned into a raven — Shapeshifters, shamans and the 'New Animism' — Horror author Stephen Graham Jones on what our monsters say about us
Guests:
Sharon Blackie, David Abram, Chris Gosden, Stephen Graham Jones
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52 min
January 28, 2023 How To Be An Ethical Traveler
Before the pandemic upended all world travel, we aired a show about what it means to be an ethical traveler. Between masks and vaccinations, COVID-19 has added even more to the ethical baggage we carry with us when we travel. But part of recovering from the pandemic involves getting back out there and seeing the world.
So before you take your next trip abroad, we thought we would revisit some thoughts and advice in that episode. Safe journeys.
This show was produced in partnership with AFAR Magazine, whose May/June 2019 issue on ethical traveling inspired this episode.
Original Air Date: May 25, 2019
Interviews In This Hour:
Trying Not To Ruin The World When You Visit — A Personal Code of Travel Ethics — How to Lessen Your Environmental Impact When You Travel — Traveling Abroad Without Falling Into Guilt Trips — To Travel Well, Be Willing To Listen, Play, Leave The Notebook Behind
Guests:
Elizabeth Becker, Dave Eggers, Kathryn Kellogg, Anu Taranath, Barry Lopez
Further Reading:
Afar Magazine: Making the World Better, One Traveler at a Time—Afar Magazine: 4 Ways to Explore Venice Responsibly—Afar Magazine: Are We Loving Venice to Death?—Afar Magazine: How to Photograph People When You Travel (Without Being Disrespectful)
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, kathryn kellog, anu taranath, barry lopez
52 min
January 21, 2023 You're Not Ok. That's Ok.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, producer Charles Monroe-Kane made 300 yard signs that read "You're not ok. That's ok." He put them on his porch. Soon they were gone.
Original Air Date: June 18, 2022
Interviews In This Hour:
The story of a pandemic yard sign — Author Susan Cain on how bittersweetness adds flavor to daily life — 'Artists anticipate things because they work in the realm of the imagination': Creating in a pandemic time loop — What would you put in your bomb shelter?
Guests:
Charles Monroe-Kane, Susan Cain, Alissa Wilkinson, Mary Laura Philpott
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52 min
January 14, 2023The Spirit of Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known — a legend in the NFL, MLB, NCAA, and in the Olympics. Today he is being celebrated by a new generation of Native Americans.
Rapper Tall Paul’s album is called, “The Story of Jim Thorpe." Tall Paul is an Anishinaabe and Oneida Hip-Hop artist enrolled on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota.
Biographer David Maraniss is the author of "Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe."
Activist Suzan Shown Harjo is the recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee.
Patty Loew is the director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
Original Air Date: January 14, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
Was Jim Thorpe the greatest athlete who ever lived? — The white man's trophy — A hero who looks like me
Guests:
Tall Paul, Suzan Shown Harjo, Patty Loew, David Maraniss
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52 min
January 07, 2023 The Hidden Geometry of Everything
The human brain is naturally mathematical. But there’s one particular kind of math people have surprisingly strong feelings about — geometry. It's the secret sauce of mathematics — different from everything else, and applicable to everything from gerrymandering to human evolution to romance novels.
Original Air Date: May 28, 2022
Interviews In This Hour:
The 14th dimension, AI that writes romance novels, and other things explained by geometry — Did shapes make us human?
Guests:
Jordan Ellenberg, Stanislas Dehaene
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52 min
December 31, 2022 Time Beyond The Clock
Clocks and calendars chop time into increments – minutes, hours, days, years. It’s efficient, and it helps us get to meetings on time. But when we invented artificial time, we gave up natural time, and a deep sense of connection to the larger universe. What does time feel like when you stop counting it?
Original Air Date: January 04, 2020
Interviews In This Hour:
Alexander Rose on The Clock of the Long Now — Reclaiming Time — The Eternal Moment — Brian Swimme on Organic Time — Laura Williams on a Tidal-Powered Moon Clock — What It Looks Like To Live For 600K Years
Guests:
Alexander Rose, Douglas Rushkoff, Wade Davis, Brian Swimme, Laura Williams, Rachel Sussman
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52 min

About Wonder Cabinet

From the publisher's feed

Wonder Cabinet is an independent podcast from Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, Peabody Award-winning creators of public radio's To The Best Of Our Knowledge. For 35 years, that show…