Constant Wonder

Late-in-life debuts, comebacks, and triumphs. In this episode, "Roctogenarians" author Mo Rocca shares with Constant Wonder host Marcus Smith awe-inspiring stories of people who made major career pivots late in life.

Yasmeen Lari was a famous Pakistani architect celebrated for her work in steel, cement, and glass. In her 60s, after a massive earthquake hit her country, she began to work with locals, building humble homes of adobe, mud, and bamboo. Painter Henri Matisse, debilitated by stomach cancer in his 70s, hung up his brushes and took up scissors to continue making art. And Disney illustrator Tyrus Wong waited until he was 90 years old to receive full credit for the revolutionary work he'd done on "Bambi." Never say it's too late to succeed!

Guest: Mo Rocca, correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning," author of "Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs," and host of the "Mobituaries" podcast

Chapters:
(0:00) What Makes a "Roctogenarian"?
(3:32) A Revolutionary Disney Animator
(17:00) Origin of Mo Rocca's Obsession with Roctogenarians
(22:33) An Artist's Self-Reinvention
(32:40) Paper Plant Specimens
(36:13) From Modern to Humble Architecture

Amy Leach is an essayist and musician with a penchant for improvisation. In this episode of Constant Wonder, she and host Marcus Smith share a worldview: one filled with awe and praise for everything from puppies to porcupines. With roots in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Amy has found a more expansive view of God and the sacred.

Amy Leach is the kind of person who believes in finding what you're not necessarily looking for, be it on a walk outside or around your local Walmart. Since she was young, she's nursed a passionate love for music, but prefers to improvise over following a score. She tells stories of being transfixed by birds and bears and ibexes while looking for words to describe the indescribable. But most importantly, she finds divinity in nearly everything, even pickles.

Guest: Amy Leach, essayist and author. Her latest book is “The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations.”

Chapters:
(0:00) Meet Amy Leach
(5:13) In the Thrall of the Violin
(13:52) Spirit of the Music
(20:31) Praise for Everything
(32:44) Birding and Bearing
(38:22) Serviceable & Mysterious

What does it mean to truly listen: not just hear, but attend to the world with exquisite care? In this episode of Constant Wonder, host Marcus Smith sits down with Hank Lentfer, a sound recordist and acoustic ecologist who has spent decades capturing the natural world's most breathtaking voices from his home base in Gustavus, Alaska, gateway to Glacier Bay National Park. Lentfer shares unforgettable recordings — a humpback whale trumpeting over a mirror-calm sea, barnacles whispering as a shadow passes over them, ancient air bubbles escaping from icebergs — and the stories behind each one. But this episode is about far more than wildlife audio: along the way, he reflects on hunting as a spiritual practice, our amnesia in supermarkets, the never-ending dawn chorus that circles the globe, and caring for a mother with dementia whose face still lit up at a Hank Williams song. Lentfer's memoir "Faith of Cranes" is the throughline, and finding the sounds and stories that remind us we are not separate from the world is his life's work and the beating heart of this conversation.

Guest: Hank Lentfer, author of "Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska"

Photo Credit: Taliesin Black-Brown

Chapters:
(0:00) Meet Hank Lentfer
(9:56) Unexpected Sounds
(16:37) A Childhood of Blessed Insignificance
(26:51) Uramuro's Satisfaction
(37:08) Hunting and Amnesia Factories
(52:24) Several Awakenings

Harriet Tubman was sustained by vivid dreams and fierce spiritual faith as she risked everything—again and again—to guide enslaved people to freedom. In this episode of Constant Wonder, Harvard historian Tiya Miles explains to co-host Tennery Taylor how Tubman's intense spirituality and her connection to the natural world empowered her and shaped her into a compelling leader.

As a child, Tubman worked in swamps and timber yards, enduring grueling labor that also prepared her to flee to the North in 1849. But her own freedom was only the beginning: for the rest of her life, she dedicated herself to helping her family and friends escape slavery as well.

Guest: Tiya Miles,  author of "Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People"

Chapters:
(0:00) Introduction
(5:15) A childhood spent outdoors
(12:54) The night the stars fell
(16:41) Harriet Tubman's prayers and faith
(30:27) Working in a timber yard
(34:50) Escaping to the North
(44:35) Walking across the Ohio River
(51:27) Freeing her brothers
(1:03:08) Applying dreams

George Smith is a maintenance worker by day, but his true passion lies in tracking and monitoring peregrine falcons. In this episode, he tells host Marcus Smith about his adventures in rock climbing and checking in on his birds. George has developed methods to trap them in order to collect DNA and give them tracking microchips. This methodology has helped him to catch poachers, bring them to justice, and release the falcons back to the wild.

Lynn Schofield and Sean Peterson are scientists who discovered a peregrine falcon nest on the bell tower at the University of California Berkeley. The nest is presided over by a matriarch affectionately called “Queen Annie” and her mate. Schofield and Peterson founded Cal Falcons, a livestream of the nest that brought Annie worldwide fame.

Guests:
George Smith, Peregrine Coordinator for the Scottish Raptor Study Group https://www.scottishraptorstudygroup.org/
Lynn Schofield and Sean Peterson, biologist and ecologist with Cal Falcons https://calfalcons.berkeley.edu/

(0:00) Meet George Smith
(4:32) To Trap a Peregrine Falcon
(12:34) Poaching & Repatriation
(21:45) George’s Nest Checks
(26:37) Meet Lynne Schofield and Sean Peterson
(27:20) Cal Falcons on the Campanile
(33:23) Queen Annie

Originally aired on September 25, 2024