The surprising ways we ritual

Some rituals are spiritual. Some are silly. Some are inherited, and some are self-made. Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices, walks us through how we create all sorts of meaningful, grounding rituals. And you'll hear clips from past t…

What two mothers who relinquished custody want you to understand

What happens when a mother can’t raise her children? Not out of neglect, but because systems, partners, and survival leave her no real choice? This episode challenges the assumptions we place on “non-custodial mothers.” Rebekah Spicuglia explains how immigration rules, economic pressure, and unequ…

The PEZ Factor(y)! Inside the sweetest obsession

Step into the technicolor world of PEZ! We tour the Connecticut factory where more than 12 million tiny candies are pressed each day, guided by archivist Shawn Peterson, whose personal collection helped shape the Visitor Center. Meet Brian Trauman, the Guinness World Record holder whose thousands…

Audacious at sea: Wisdom from strangers on a cruise ship

A wise woman once said, “You can tell the ocean anything, but it has to be the truth.“  Chion Wolf boards the MSC Meraviglia expecting a week of small talk and sunscreen. But the farther she gets from land, the more people become willing to hang out in the deep end to talk about love, loss, faith,…

BONUS: More stories from the cruise ship

Ahoy! Here’s a little bonus treasure from our episode, Audacious at Sea: Wisdom from Strangers on a Cruise Ship.  Chion spends a blissful vacation week aboard the MSC Meraviglia with about 5,000 fellow humans, sailing from Brooklyn to the Bahamas and back. And because we couldn’t fit everyone she …

When wild animals become family: Thumbelina the squirrel and Walnut the crane

Would you leave your family, friends, home, and job to move over a thousand miles away to take care of a pet squirrel? Meet two people who did just that for 8 year-old Thumbelina. Then, meet a birdkeeper at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who was chosen by an endangered crane to be …

BONUS: An update with Chris Crowe on his first tattoo, a giant portrait of Walnut

We recently rebroadcast our Audacious episode featuring Chris Crowe. He's a bird keeper at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia. He spent nearly twenty years as the chosen partner of an endangered white-naped crane named Walnut. She was one…

Badass elders: Women in comedy, law, and extreme body art

Some people “age gracefully.” These three women age audaciously! 91 year-old comedian, D’yan Forest, commands the stage with her ukulele and sharp wit, spinning the stories of her long life into laughter. Family law attorney Harriet Newman Cohen, 92, is the kind of lawyer who changed history for …

The best bad episode ever!

Who rejoices in making a bad episode of public radio? We do! But only the best kind of bad.  On this episode of Audacious, meet Jon from Jon Breaks Bad News, who delivers other people’s worst messages for a living. Then, the co-founders of the Golden Raspberry Awards - also known as the Razzies - …

The kidney was just the beginning: Unexpected gifts after transplants

What happens when a Brooklyn woman who identifies as queer, liberal, vegan, and an atheist donates her kidney to a conservative Christian man from Virginia? Kerry Kennedy and Joey Shervey tell the story of what it looks like when compassion outvotes everything else. Their transplant crossed party …