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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 hosts

Anne 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.

Copyright 2026 by 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 hosts

Anne 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.

Copyright 2026 by Wonder Cabinet Productions
15hr 33min
Thumbnail for "Tree Thinking with Robert Moor".
Robert Moor is a “tree person.” He says when you spend a lot of time in trees, time slows down - and branching and pruning can become life lessons.
Thumbnail for "The Ecowomanist Theology of Rev. Dr. Melanie L. Harris".
A founder of ecowomanism on Black ancestral land wisdom, generational memory and healing through earth-honoring faiths.
Thumbnail for "Poetry Against Despair with Christian Wiman".
Poet Christian Wiman reflects on everyday wonders, his ambivalence about religion, a long struggle with cancer, and how he finds joy in suffering.
Thumbnail for "Chasing Wilderness with Cal Flyn (and Gary Snyder)".
Cal Flyn journeys to some of Earth's most forbidding landscapes in search of an ancient, dangerous idea: wilderness. And Gary Snyder on inner wildness.
Thumbnail for "The Conscious Universe: Panpsychism with Philip Goff".
What if consciousness isn't just in our minds but throughout the cosmos? Philosopher Philip Goff makes the case for the radical theory of panpsychism.
Thumbnail for "The Spiritual Ecology of Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee".
Emergence Magazine founder and Sufi teacher Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee on rediscovering the sacred in ocean waves, birdsong and the living Earth.
Thumbnail for "An Evening of Wonder with Alan Lightman".
Can science explain transcendence? Physicist Alan Lightman reflects on extraordinary moments in nature and the transformative power of awe and wonder.
Thumbnail for "Rewilding Attention with D. Graham Burnett".
Historian D. Graham Burnett on how Big Tech is "fracking" our attention — and the grassroots movement fighting to take it back.
Thumbnail for "Christof Koch on the Cosmic Toad".
“It was like an earthquake,” says neuroscientist Christof Koch, speaking of the mystical experiences that upended his views on consciousness and even reality.
Thumbnail for "Why We Need Fairy Tales Now — with Sharon Blackie".
“Stories are spells,” Sharon Blackie says. “They change things.” Maybe that’s why fairy tales — old, new, fractured and retold — are having a resurgence. As uncertainty rises and old ways disintegrate, fairy tales offer a roadmap to cultural transformation and re-enchantment.
Thumbnail for "Rebecca Henderson: Can Capitalism Save the World It’s Destroying?".
Can capitalism save the world it’s destroying? Harvard economist and climate activist Rebecca Henderson makes a surprising case for reforming it.
Thumbnail for "Caroline Winterer: Dinosaurs, Deep Time and the American Soul".
Dinosaur bones reshaped how Americans see themselves — and their continent. Historian Caroline Winterer traces the deep time revolution and its darker consequences.
Thumbnail for "Mary-Jane Rubenstein: Pantheism and the Godness of Nature".
For some people, the natural world isn’t just beautiful—it’s holy. Mary-Jane Rubenstein traces the history of pantheism and the deep roots of wonder.
Thumbnail for "Dekila Chungyalpa on the Sacred Feminine and the Living Earth".
What if the Earth is sacred—and climate is a spiritual crisis? Dekila Chungyalpa on the feminine divine and faith-led climate action.
Thumbnail for "Manvir Singh: Was Shamanism the First Religion?".
Can shamans really enter unseen worlds and speak with spirits? Anthropologist Manvir Singh investigates this ancient practice in remote Indonesia.
Thumbnail for "David George Haskell: Flowers and the Revolutionary Power of Beauty".
What can flowers teach us about survival? Celebrated biologist and writer David George Haskell reframes flowers as agents of transformation—creatures that turned conflict into collaboration and remade the living world.
Thumbnail for "Robert Macfarlane: The Soul of Rivers and the Rights of Nature".
What if a river is alive–and we’ve forgotten how to recognize it? Robert Macfarlane explores animism and the global “rights of nature” movement.
Thumbnail for "Renee Bergland: The Enchanted Science of Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin".
Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin shared an enchanted view of nature. Could “natural magic” restore wonder to science?
Thumbnail for "George Saunders: Angels, Ghosts and the Moral Imagination".
Novelist George Saunders talks about creative inspiration, his fascination with ghost stories, and why dying may be the ultimate experience of wonder.
Thumbnail for "Rebecca Solnit: Hope After the End".
As institutions unravel, Rebecca Solnit argues despair is a mistake—and that a more compassionate, just world is already being born.
Thumbnail for "Carlo Rovelli: Cosmic Mysteries and the Politics of Wonder".
Carlo Rovelli’s quest to know the nature of reality began not in a physics lab, but in youthful experiments with consciousness and political protest.
Thumbnail for "Sophie Strand: Ecological Storytelling and Mythic Imagination".
A conversation with writer Sophie Strand on illness, ecology, myth, and why wonder begins in soil, decay, and our kinship with all living things.
Thumbnail for "Introducing 'Wonder Cabinet'".
From the creators of "To the Best of Our Knowledge" comes a new podcast about the mystery of the cosmos and the deep intelligence of the Earth.
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