Constant Wonder
Stay in tune with our phenomenal world. Join us for explorations of science, art, history, and more. We're on a quest to find awe and wonder in all nature—human or wild, vast or small. Encounters that move us beyond words. Hosted by Marcus Smith, Constant Wonder is a production of BYUradio.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 50 minutes
- Episodes
- 190
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
The Unfinished Story of America's Anthem
A true national anthem isn't set by law: it's chosen by the people, often emerges out of conflict, and its meaning shifts over time. All of that and more is true of The Star-Spangled Banner. But stil…
00:52:46 |
Wed 29 Jun 2022
Tomatoes That Leave Earth Behind
This greenhouse in the Utah desert seems to be right out of science fiction, where yummy tomatoes grow without soil and produce for nearly an entire year. The greenhouse gets heat and CO2 from a natu…
00:40:09 |
Wed 22 Jun 2022
A Passion for the Past
"The past is never dead," wrote William Faulkner. "It's not even past." Ron Coddington was a young boy at a flea market one Saturday, when he stumbled on a book of Civil War-era photos and felt his w…
00:26:31 |
Wed 15 Jun 2022
Body, Soul & Memory: What would you do with a lock of George Washington's hair?
An old friend of Benjamin Franklin always regretted not having asked the founding father if he could taxidermize his body. He thought Franklin might have agreed, and then maybe George Washington migh…
00:34:32 |
Wed 08 Jun 2022
Downton Shabby
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 dis…
00:53:28 |
Wed 01 Jun 2022
ARCHIVE BONUS: The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
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 crea…
00:27:05 |
Wed 25 May 2022
It's Complicated: Our Fraught Relationships with Animals
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 ownersh…
00:55:05 |
Wed 18 May 2022
Superplants vs. Superbugs
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 s…
01:06:34 |
Wed 11 May 2022
Animal Duets
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 …
00:52:50 |
Wed 04 May 2022
Roots of Belief Featuring: The Apple Seed
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) D…
00:55:03 |
Wed 27 Apr 2022
Our Animal Superpowers
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 …
00:29:00 |
Fri 22 Apr 2022
BONUS: Our Animal Superpowers (Extended Version)
Extended version of our conversation with Jackie Higgins.
00:46:32 |
Fri 22 Apr 2022
Street Vet
He walked the streets in secret, a veterinarian in his off-hours, looking to help the pets of the homeless. Now his work in the subject of the tv show "Street Vet." He describes how his work has chan…
00:25:21 |
Wed 20 Apr 2022
Mockingbirds
Darwin hated peacocks because he couldn't explain their excess beauty. He likely would have hated mockingbirds for the excessive complexity of their songs. Where many birds are content with a few sim…
00:49:37 |
Wed 13 Apr 2022
Sprouting a Seed That Survived the Roman Siege
This seed could symbolize the resilience of an entire people. Atop a lonely desert fortress near the Dead Sea, a Judean date seed lay inert for over 2,000 years. We talk to the scientists who brought…
00:40:36 |
Wed 06 Apr 2022
To Rescue an Animal, You've Got to Think Like One
Giraffe's don't like to swim, so how do you get them off an island that's flooding? How do keepers feed a violent, orphaned baby elephant that's been traumatized by humans? The answer is to think lik…
00:52:50 |
Wed 30 Mar 2022
Living Boldly with Blindness
When Daniel Kish was a toddler, he got around. One night he climbed out of his window and made his way over multiple chain link fences, but the neighbors knew who he was. "All the neighbors knew who…
00:55:19 |
Fri 25 Mar 2022
The Real Batman
Daniel Kish is blind and he navigates the world kind of like a bat—making clicking sounds with his mouth and, from the echoes he gets back, building a picture of the world he's moving through. "The s…
00:31:19 |
Wed 23 Mar 2022
Our Team
Larry Doby, Sr., became the second Black player in the MLB, and his home run during the '48 World Series turned the series around for the Indians. Behind him stood the team's free-thinking owner, Bil…
00:52:20 |
Wed 16 Mar 2022
Flavor: More Than a Matter of Taste
We examine why flavor is our "most neglected sense" and we meet a restaurant owner who, in the spirit of the fictional "Babette's Feast," is spreading the message that "Food Is Love."
00:52:50 |
Wed 09 Mar 2022
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