Constant Wonder

George Forster didn't begin life as a revolutionary. He was an 18th-century botanist whose life ended in Paris during the Reign of Terror. In this episode, historian Andrea Wulf tells host Marcus Smith about how, as a teenager, Forster sailed with Captain James Cook through the southern hemisphere and around Antarctica. Forster developed a transcendent love for the people he met along the way. And, as Andrea Wulf followed in his footsteps, she felt the distance of 250 years collapse on itself.

George Forster grew up helping to support his family as his father’s assistant in botany and later on as a translator. When he got the chance to travel on a voyage to the southern hemisphere, he studied the wildlife and the people he met, fascinated by everything from phosphorescence to islanders' ingenious toolmaking. On his return to Europe, he brought new ideas about social equality, developed through observations of South Pacific cultures. Ultimately, though, his political activism led to his personal ruin. But to Andrea Wulf, Forster represents hope, progress, and the power of a singular mind.

Guest: Andrea Wulf, historian and author of “The Traveler: One Man’s Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris” andreawulf.com

Tim Kovar leads climbing tours high up in the canopy of massive trees. In this episode of Constant Wonder, he tells host Marcus Smith about how he used to fell trees as an arborist. But now, he's traded in his chainsaw for ropes and climbing saddles; so, instead of cutting trees down, he can take regular people high into old-growth canopies to experience unparalleled views of nature.  The trees have taught him to be more in tune with the natural world and with himself.

Tim Kovar has been climbing trees since he was a kid, when he pretended to be a master tree ninja. But these days, you'll find him climbing slowly and carefully, using a system of ropes and harnesses and always asking the tree for permission first. He quit cutting trees down after felling a centuries-old tree and hearing it cry out for help. Now, he finds a sacred peace up in the treetops, and helps others to discover it as well.

Guest: Tim Kovar, Master Tree Climbing Instructor treeclimbingplanet.com

Lea Korsgaard felt a tug toward the natural world and followed it, setting out to find all 64 species of butterfly in her native Denmark. What began as an impulse became a consuming quest that transformed her understanding of nature, mortality, grief, and joy. In this episode, Lea and host Marcus Smith revisit the journey: the small tortoiseshell butterfly that connected her to her mother’s story, the family members drawn into her search, and the exhilaration of finding out that maybe her quest hadn't been about butterflies at all.

Their conversation explores how learning to see the natural world can open us to realities larger than ourselves—and how encounters with nature can hold grief and joy at the same time.

Guest: Lea Korsgaard, author of "The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature’s Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life"

Karl Gönner was a Nazi, and his family didn't ask a lot of questions about that time in his life. In this episode of Constant Wonder, Gönner's grandson Burkhard Bilger speaks with co-host Tennery Taylor about his search for the full story of his grandfather's past.

After growing up with only a vague understanding of his grandfather's dark history, Bilger decided to search for the full truth behind his heritage. He discovered that during his grandfather's time occupying a French village, Gönner saved dozens of lives from Nazi oppression, while simultaneously leading the Hitler Youth Program. This family's history is more inspiring than they'd ever suspected.

Guest: Burkhard Bilger, author of "Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets" and staff writer at "The New Yorker"

Originally aired on August 8, 2023

Chapters:
(0:00) Meet Nazi Karl Gönner through his grandson Burkhard Bilger
(9:40) Karl Gönner as a teacher
(14:20) A Nazi in occupied France
(23:08) Discovering the "reasonable" Nazi
(31:14) Gönner's daughter and her struggle with his history
(38:10) The End of WWII
(48:12) Serendipitous inspiration in classified archives

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”