From a young age, Rachel Graham was interested in all kinds of marginalized animals, from snakes to bats. But when she went on a dive trip and experienced a real-life sharknado, it became clear that her future would be inextricably tied to sharks. This marked the beginning of her quest to change people’s mindsets about these fascinating and threatened creatu ... Show More
Yesterday
River Rising: Jeremy Jones, His Old Farmhouse, and Hurricane Helene
Jeremy Jones has loved exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains since childhood, and despite his world travels, his identity as a "mountain person" always brought him home. His family has lived in Henderson County for five generations—so when Hurricane Helene sent the river rising towa ... Show More
55m 6s
Jul 29
Shark Lover: Advocating for "Scary" Creatures
Snakes. Scorpions. Sharks. From a young age, Rachel Graham has always been interested in marginalized, "scary" animals. In this episode of Constant Wonder, she and host Marcus Smith discuss how she embarked on her quest to change people’s mindsets about sharks—fascinating and thr ... Show More
51m 16s
Jul 22
Fiddling with the Heart: Gaelynn Lea's Fearless Sound
Gaelynn Lea plays the violin like a cello — a technique she discovered almost by accident, one that would eventually carry her from a small-town orchestra to NPR's Tiny Desk Concert and, later, to composing the original music for Broadway's revival of Macbeth, starring Daniel Cra ... Show More
54m 16s
Jan 2023
How Sharks Devoured My Career
When Nat Geo Explorer Gibbs Kuguru was in college, he found himself trying to choose between two terrifying futures: going free diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa or, even scarier, studying for the MCAT. Since then, he’s become devoted to sharks. His genetic researc ... Show More
27m 55s
Jun 2025
Taylor Cunningham: Shamu Dreams, Underwater Photography, and Swimming with the Sharks
Send us Fan MailTaylor Cunningham is a trained marine biologist and shark diver. Growing up ten minutes from Sea World shaped what she wanted to do in life– and that was to train Shamu. In this episode, we dive into the controversy around aquariums and animals in captivity, the i ... Show More
1h 28m