Constant Wonder – Details, episodes & analysis

Join host Marcus Smith for conversations that invite you to discover, explore, and reengage with the wonders of the world around you. Find new episodes that will be available each week starting February 9th, 2022.

"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 world shift beneath his feet. The boy's passion deepened as he grew to adulthood, maturing into a deeply felt obligation to uncover these stories. Many photos of the time were preserved on calling cards ("cartes de visite") that people would hand out to others, much like the profile pictures we post on social media today. Guest: Ron Coddington, Editor and Publisher of "Military Images" magazine Cartes de visite featuring Daniel Waldo, Martin C. Clark, and Almira Newcomb McNaughton Lockwood Fales from Ron Coddington's personal collection. These images are used with his permission.

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 might have also followed suit. But (maybe to our collective relief) what we do have, instead, as a tangible reminder of our first president are several collections of cuttings from his hair. In the days before photography, a lock of hair might be the only proof that a person had access to a notable man like Washington. After his death, some pseudoscientists used Washington's hair to "prove" the biological superiority of America's founders. Others used their clippings to prove that they, too, were there at America's founding. Now, in our digital age, are these kinds of physical relics and mementos still important? Guest: Keith Beutler, author of "George Washington's Hair: How Early Americans Remembered the Founders" and professor of history at Missouri Baptist University

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

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

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

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

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"

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 changed the lives of both pets and their owners. And his own. Guest: Kwane Stewart, veterinarian and co-founder of Project Street Vet

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 simple chirps, mockingbirds learn hundreds of sounds from other birds and animals and mix them together using sophisticated musical techniques, the kind human musicians often employ. Their songs go far, far beyond anything necessary to find food, defend territory, or attract a mate. Why do they do it? Guests: David Rothenberg, author, composer, musician, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Dave Gammon, Professor of Biology, Elon University