Constant Wonder

The apex of marine archaeologist Mensun Bound's stellar career happened a year ago this week, when the expedition he spearheaded found Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" at the bottom of an Antarctic sea. This was just the latest find in a career marked by big discoveries, including a 2,500-year-old Etruscan ship and a Roman wreck weighed down by massive stone columns looted from Athens. Bound has a special term for that electric moment when he uncovers a piece of history and feels like he's connecting with the mind of its creator. He calls it "mind touch." Now, the expedition to find Shackleton's ship required a crew of experts, an icebreaker, two helicopters, and cutting edge submersible robots. But the real magic in this story is Bound's palpable connection through time to people whose stories have enriched our world. Guest: Mensun Bound, Director of Exploration on the 2019 and 2022 expeditions to locate Shackleton’s Endurance; previously Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at Oxford University; author of "The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance" Learn more about Mensun's adventures on his website: https://www.mensunbound.com/ Photo Credit: National Geographic/The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust

Being in and around water heals us emotionally. Water "evangelist" J Nichols shares his insight and his personal "water stories," when water has inspired him and also when it's healed him from trauma. As part of this episode, we're asking listeners, "What's your water story?" Tune in to Constant Wonder and find out how to share yours! Wallace J Nichols, author of "Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do" and co-author of "Dear Wild Child: You Carry Your Home Inside You" Learn more about J's lifework and mission at his website: https://www.wallacejnichols.org/122/the-blue-mind-movement.html

Dacher Keltner has been a leading researcher on the subject of awe for nearly 20 years. It’s hard to improve upon his description of the phenomenon: Awe is an emotion we feel upon encountering something so vast that it upends our sense of what is real. But when cancer took his brother’s life, Keltner personally and repeatedly experienced awe in ways that expanded the boundaries of what, even for him, is real. In this podcast episode, he visits with us about his new openness to experiences of awe that science cannot adequately account for. Guest: Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and author of "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life" Visit Dacher's website to explore more of his writing: https://www.dacherkeltner.com/

Meet Clint Edwards, a man whose hilarious honesty has brought hope and laughter to his readers in the New York Times, Washington Post, and on his popular blog: No Idea What I’m Doing. Follow his story of growing up at odds with his parents and eventually learning to raise a family of his own, all while managing mental health struggles. On this episode of Constant Wonder, learn about finding wonder in the mundane, the difficult, the hilarious, and the in-between. Guest: Clint Edwards, blogger and author of "Anxiously Ever After: An Honest Memoir on Mental Illness, Strained Relationships, and Embracing the Struggle" Visit Clint Edwards online to see more of his work: Substack blog: https://clintedwards.substack.com/about Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noideadaddyblog/?hl=en X/Twitter: https://x.com/byclintedwards?lang=en

Constant Wonder presents the second of a two-part episode on "infrasound," or sound that lies below the threshold of human hearing. Infrasound can explain seemingly inexplicable animal behavior. In part 2, we meet Hawaiian insects and African elephants that use the same technique to hear sounds not audible to the human ear. They both can hear with their feet! And while we don't hear with our feet, research on these animals may help improve hearing aids in the future—because we do actually hear with our bones. Guest: Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, instructor at Harvard Medical School, elephant expert, and co-founder and CEO of Utopia Scientific Learn more about Caitlin at her website: https://www.caitlineoconnell.com/

This is the first of a two-part episode on "infrasound," or sound that lies below the threshold of human hearing. Infrasound can warn of impending danger. In part 1, we go to Hawaii and Chile with an volcanologist who records the voices of volcanos, looking for subtle shifts in their infrasound that could signal a pending eruption. Then we go up the coast to Guatemala, to detect mudslides triggered by a volcano—before they happen, giving people time to get out of the way. Guest: Jeffrey Johnson, Associate Professor of Geoscience at Boise State University Learn more about Jeffrey's volcanologist activities at his website: https://sites.google.com/view/jeffreybjohnson/home

If snorkeling seems like something you can only do on a tropical vacation, think again. In this podcast episode, we meet a river snorkeling guide who encourages us to stick our heads in the water, right in our local streams and rivers. Keith Williams thinks you'll be amazed at the aquatic life you'll see there. Tune in to Constant Wonder and get hooked with some amazing fish tales. Guest: Keith Williams, author of "Snorkeling Rivers and Streams: An Aquatic Guide to Underwater Discovery and Adventure" and guide at Freshwater Journeys Read more snorkeling stories by Keith at https://blog.nature.org/author/keith-williams/

Storyteller Kevin Kling has overcome trauma and learned to live with disability, without ever losing sight of the hilarious–even in the horrible. We follow him from his mischievous childhood to his empathetic and inspiring performances around the world. He still laughs often, and so will you, during this episode of the "Constant Wonder" podcast. Guest: Kevin Kling, author, playwright, and storyteller Visit Kevin's website to learn more about his work, speaking events, and performances: https://www.kevinkling.com/

If you've never stopped by the side of the trail to listen to a beetle larvae chewing on a pine tree, or to the sound of the woodpecker looking for that beetle, we'll give you a chance in this podcast episode. If you've never been puzzled by the high-pitched voice of a male elk bugle, we encourage you to take the time to wonder about nature's oddities. Focusing on underappreciated sounds and sensations opens up an enormous world of insight and beauty. Guest: David George Haskell, author of "Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction" and Professor of Biology at Sewanee: The University of the South Learn more about David online: Author page: https://dghaskell.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgeorgehaskell/?hl=en

What good is a library or a museum if you can't get to it? In this episode of the podcast, Constant Wonder introduces innovators who bring inspiration to people in the most unexpected ways. We learn about the inventor of the bookmobile, a feisty librarian who allowed neither bureaucrats nor train wrecks to interfere with her mobile library. Then we meet the curator of ATM-sized museums that are popping up in unusual places and opening the world to people who may not otherwise get to visit museums. And, finally, an artist who heads up a street mosaic project staffed by volunteers with mental illness. Their work appears in neglected alleyways and neighborhood parks. Guests: Sharlee Glenn, author of "Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile" Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/sharleeglennwordweaver/ Charles Philipp, cofounder of MICRO, a distributed fleet of micro-museums Website: https://charlesphilipp.com/ Tessa Hunkin, mosaicist Website: https://www.tessahunkin.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tessahunkin/?hl=en