{"podcast":{"title":"Wonder Cabinet","slug":"wonder-cabinet-7409328","podcast_index_feed_id":7409328,"rss_url":"https://publicfeeds.net/f/120/wondercabinet","website_url":"https://www.wondercabinetproductions.com","image_url":"https://f.prxu.org/120/images/68baf269-f9b6-40c1-be6c-30911ff8037b/Show_Cover-Wonder-Cabinet.png","author":"Wonder Cabinet Productions (hello@wondercabinetproductions.com)","episode_count":19,"summary":"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 Stra…","last_synced_at":"2026-08-02T10:21:12.700956+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328"},"episode":{"title":"Carlo Rovelli: Cosmic Mysteries and the Politics of Wonder","slug":"carlo-rovelli-cosmic-mysteries-and-the-politics-of-wonder","published_at":"2026-02-07T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328/carlo-rovelli-cosmic-mysteries-and-the-politics-of-wonder","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328","url":"https://wondercabinetproductions.com/carlo-rovelli-cosmic-mysteries-and-the-politics-of-wonder","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/48/dovetail.prxu.org/120/1bca3c3e-b5bc-4eae-bfd2-3f12e6e56b04/Rovelli_part_01.mp3","summary":"Carlo Rovelli’s quest to understand the nature of reality began not in a physics lab, but in youthful experiments with consciousness, political protest and a restless hunger for meaning—years before he “fell madly in love with physics.” Today, Rovelli is famous for his bestselling books, including \" Seven Brief Lessons on Physics \" and \" Reality Is Not What It Seems ,\" and his pioneering work on some of the biggest mysteries in physics, including black holes and quantum gravity. In a wide-ranging conversation, Steve Paulson talks with Rovelli about his early, profound experiences with LSD; his discovery of the \"spectacular\" beauty of general relativity and quantum mechanics; his lifelong search for purpose in both the cosmos and his own life; and why scientists need to be politically engaged. Carlo also tells us about the big idea that he’d put in our own wonder cabinet. This interview was recorded at the Island of Knowledge think tank in Tuscany, a project supported by Dartmouth College and the John Templeton Foundation. We also play a short excerpt from Anne Strainchamps’ earlier interview with Rovelli that originally aired on Wisconsin Public Radio’s To The Best Of Our Knowledge . This Wonder Cabinet episode was not funded, endorsed or affiliated with Wisconsin Public Media or the University of Wisconsin - Madison. — TTBOOK Interview — Deep time: Carlo Rovelli's white holes, where time dissolves Carlo Rovelli's Website — Official research and publications — 00:00:00 Introduction & The Chirp of Black Holes 00:04:10 Early Years in Verona 00:10:00 Falling in Love with Physics 00:17:30 Search for Truth 00:25:05 Politics of Wonder — Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at wondercabinetproductions.com , where yo…","meta_description":"Carlo Rovelli’s quest to understand the nature of reality began not in a physics lab, but in youthful experiments with consciousness, political protest an…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2261,"processing_state":"processed","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/wonder-cabinet-7409328/episodes/carlo-rovelli-cosmic-mysteries-and-the-politics-of-wonder/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328/carlo-rovelli-cosmic-mysteries-and-the-politics-of-wonder.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}