Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
Wonder Cabinet is an independent podcast from Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, Peabody Award-winning creators of public radio's To The Best Of Our Knowledge. For 35 years, that show brought long-form conversations to 200+ stations nationwide; its interviews are now archived in the Library of Congress.Episodes feature intimate, long-form conversations with scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists who are re-imagining our relationship with the planet. Some study black holes or quantum entanglement; others map mycelial networks or count ancient tree rings. And some explore dream worlds, myths, and fairy tales to revive ways of knowing that challenge what we think we understand about the nature of reality.The name references Enlightenment-era cabinets of curiosities—private collections of shells, fossils, astronomical instruments, and saints' relics that existed at a moment when the scientific revolution was still in conversation with older ways of knowing the world. Today, another shift is taking place, as mechanistic models give way to more holistic, relational understandings of life on a sentient planet. Wonder Cabinet lives at that threshold.About the hostsAnne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson co-founded To The Best Of Our Knowledge. Steve hosts Luminous, a podcast about the science and philosophy of psychedelics, and is the author of Atoms and Eden.Learn more at wondercabinetproductions.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 9, 2026 • 45min
Why We Need Fairy Tales Now — with Sharon Blackie
Sharon Blackie, folklorist, fairy‑tale scholar and psychotherapist, reclaims fierce, wise heroines from oral tradition. She explores tales as survival maps, the imaginal world, midlife transformation, and active imagination. Short, vivid stories show relational, post‑heroic pathways and a kinship with the more‑than‑human world.
May 2, 2026 • 50min
Rebecca Henderson: Can Capitalism Save the World It’s Destroying?
Rebecca Henderson, a Harvard Business School economist and author fighting to retool business for climate and social good. She discusses how capitalism can be reshaped to serve broader purposes. She tells the Norway waste turnaround story. She shares hitting a wall in climate work and the spiritual practices that helped her return to action.
Apr 25, 2026 • 37min
Caroline Winterer: Dinosaurs, Deep Time and the American Soul
Caroline Winterer, Stanford historian of early American ideas and author of How the New World Became Old, explores how dinosaur discoveries plunged Americans into deep time. She traces how fossils reshaped national identity, mingled with faith, fueled expansionist myths, and later reframed responsibility in the Anthropocene. Short, surprising links between wonder, science, and power emerge throughout.
Apr 18, 2026 • 42min
Mary-Jane Rubenstein: Pantheism and the Godness of Nature
Mary Jane Rubenstein, a Wesleyan professor who writes on pantheism, wonder, and space culture. She explores pantheism’s history and ethics. She recounts personal moments of godness in nature. She explains the Overview Effect and critiques the billionaire space religion. Short reflections on wonder, awe, and why nature’s sanctity matters.
Apr 11, 2026 • 39min
Dekila Chungyalpa on the Sacred Feminine and the Living Earth
Dekila Chungyalpa, an environmental scientist who founded the Loka Initiative and draws on a Tibetan Buddhist upbringing in Sikkim. She discusses sacred Himalayan mountains and the feminine divine as Earth. She talks about rituals that bind people to land. She describes bridging science and diverse religious traditions to inspire climate action.
Apr 4, 2026 • 34min
Manvir Singh: Was Shamanism the First Religion?
Manvir Singh, anthropologist and writer on religion and shamanism, brings firsthand fieldwork from Siberut and global research. He describes Mentawai healing rituals, trance techniques like drumming and dance, the role of psychedelics and altered states, and argues shamanic practices may underlie early religions and influential figures in history.
Mar 28, 2026 • 42min
David George Haskell: Flowers and the Revolutionary Power of Beauty
David George Haskell, biologist and lyrical nature writer, reframes flowers as world-changing actors. He explores how beauty, scent, and reciprocity rewired ecosystems and human culture. Short, vivid stories trace floral chemistry, lost aromas, and the sensory bridges between species. The conversation invites a new way of seeing life through attraction, cooperation, and belonging.
13 snips
Mar 7, 2026 • 38min
Robert Macfarlane: The Soul of Rivers and the Rights of Nature
Robert Macfarlane, acclaimed British nature writer and explorer, reflects on rivers, animism, and the rights of nature. He travels to cloud forests, Chennai and wild Canadian waterways. Listens to mycologists and Indigenous river-keepers. Explores legal rights for ecosystems and what it means to sense a living river.
Feb 28, 2026 • 39min
Renee Bergland: The Enchanted Science of Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin
Renee Bergland, a literary scholar and historian of science, explores the surprising kinship between Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin. She traces their shared wonder of fossils, field observations, and a science that valued emotion. The conversation highlights natural magic, intertwined sensibilities, and how this outlook reshapes hope and care for the living world.
Feb 21, 2026 • 45min
George Saunders: Angels, Ghosts and the Moral Imagination
George Saunders, award-winning novelist known for Lincoln in the Bardo, reflects on death, wonder, and moral reckoning. He discusses a novel about bickering angels and a dying oil baron, how ghost stories enlarge imaginative space, the role of Buddhist practice in facing mortality, and why fiction probes complicated questions of repentance and moral judgment.
