Constant Wonder

As a teenager, Walt McLaughlin told his parents he'd been talking to God in the woods, and he ended up in a psychiatric ward on Thorazine. Years later a philosophy degree had done nothing to assuage his existential anxiety, so he hitchhiked west — and eventually flew alone into Alaska's Endicott River Wilderness with a .44, no radio, and two-and-a-half-weeks worth of food.

On this episode of Constant Wonder, the writer and erstwhile hiking guide tells host Marcus Smith how a death wish that had shadowed him since adolescence finally broke — on a rain-soaked escarpment, with a raven croaking at him from a branch — and how he came to accept that the world is harsh yet beautiful. Walt McLaughlin lives in northern Vermont, close to the New England woods and wilds he loves. There he's proprietor of the small indie press Wood Thrush Books, online at woodthrushbooks.com.

This episode includes a first-person account of depression and a suicide attempt.

Guest: Walt McLaughlin, publisher and author, “Cultivating the Wildness Within”; “Arguing with the Wind: A Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness”; and “Confronting the Unknowable: Essays on God, Nature and Being Human”

What if protecting humans is the key to protecting wildlife? In this episode, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka tells host Marcus Smith how people living near African nature preserves can unknowingly pass illnesses to nearby mountain gorillas—and how she's working with local communities to shield these endangered animals from disease and habitat loss.

As Uganda's first wildlife veterinarian, Kalema-Zikusoka pioneered the use of "One Health" in gorilla conservation—an approach that treats human, animal, and environmental health as interconnected, rather than separate concerns. By investing in the health and economic security of nearby communities, she keeps gorillas healthy too. The payoff is a thriving gorilla tourism industry that benefits the entire country.

Guest: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health and author of "Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet"

Chapters:
(0:00) Meet Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
(8:28) A Lonely Childhood
(17:29) To Become a Wildlife Vet
(22:46) Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
(32:44) What is One Health?
(46:27) How to End Poaching

Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / #unboundproject / We Animals Media

Originally aired May 24, 2023

Note: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka's mother, Canon Hon . Rhoda Kalema, passed away in 2025.

Flowers, believe it or not, are nature's greatest revolutionaries. In this episode of Constant Wonder, biologist David George Haskell and host Marcus Smith discuss how flowers turned enemies into allies and used ultra-precise adaptations to survive an intensely competitive natural world.

By exploring the floral connections that draw him closer to his mother and great-great-grandfather, David also examines how flowers have changed in just a few short decades. He makes the case for following a single bloom's growth and decay over the course of several months, and describes the benefits of keeping a floral diary—an easy way for anyone to become more attentive to the subtle turning of the seasons.

Guest: David George Haskell, author of "How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature's Revolutionaries"

Chapters:
(0:00) Meet David George Haskell
(7:21) Searching for orchids with his mother
(13:52) Glimpses of himself in his great-great-grandfather
(21:56) Why are flowers revolutionaries?
(31:05) Balancing cooperation and conflict
(34:59) Tracking a magnolia bloom
(44:42) David's floral diary

They are like street musicians, busking with words instead of instruments. Typewriter poets Kathleen Rooney and Allison Fragakis share with Constant Wonder's Tennery Taylor how they write poems-on-demand for complete strangers.

Whether at a farmer's market, tucked between the stacks at a library, or as entertainment at a wedding, typewriter poets surprise customers with a keepsake that reflects unexpected insight into a stranger's life. (Or maybe it's a poem about a burrito! These poems don't have to be serious.) Kathleen Rooney and Allison Fragakis share their creativity and love of community through impromptu poetry sessions on typewriters.

Guests:
Kathleen Rooney, co-founder of "Poems While You Wait"; English professor at DePaul University; author of "Man Overboard!" and other books https://kathleenrooney.com/

Allison Fragakis, songwriter, author, artist, and poet. Her album "Pass the Dream" is available August 21, 2026 https://www.writingallison.com/

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 toward his old farmhouse, it threatened more than a house. In this episode of Constant Wonder, Jeremy joins host Marcus Smith to share what it took to rebuild, and how the experience reconnected him to his neighbors, his family, and a history in these mountains that runs deeper than he'd realized.

Guest: Jeremy Jones is a professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, and the author of books "Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries" (Blair, 2025) and "Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland" (Blair, 2014).