{"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":"George Saunders: Angels, Ghosts and the Moral Imagination","slug":"george-saunders-angels-ghosts-and-the-moral-imagination","published_at":"2026-02-21T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328/george-saunders-angels-ghosts-and-the-moral-imagination","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wonder-cabinet-7409328","url":"https://wondercabinetproductions.com/george-saunders-angels-ghosts-and-the-moral-imagination/","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/48/dovetail.prxu.org/120/2526ee68-626b-4340-a4bf-4ee672e98d6f/Saunders_mix_01.mp3","summary":"What if dying is not an ending, but a moment of radical clarity? In his new novel \"Vigil,\" George Saunders conjures a strange and often comic world of bickering angels visiting a dying, deeply flawed man—debating and waiting to see whether he can face the truth about himself before it’s too late. In this conversation, Steve Paulson talks with Saunders about the evolution of his ideas about death and the possibility of an afterlife. Dying, he says, may be “the ultimate experience of wonder,” and he believes ghost stories can open powerful imaginative spaces for novelists. Saunders reflects on his own Buddhist practice as he considers these life-and-death questions, and he tells us why he thinks fiction is uniquely suited to grappling with complex moral issues and why Tolstoy and Chekhov are his personal sources of inspiration. Saunders is the author of such celebrated books as “Tenth of December,” “Pastoralia,” and the Booker Prize-winning “Lincoln in the Bardo.” His nonfiction book about the great Russian writers is “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.” This interview was recorded at the Central Library in downtown Madison shortly before Saunders spoke at the Wisconsin Book Festival. — To the Best of Our Knowledge — On his short story collection “Tenth of December. To the Best of Our Knowledge : Reflecting on “Lincoln in the Bardo.” Substack Story Club with George Saunders — 00:00:00 Introduction and Reading from Vigil 00:07:50 The Plane Crash and Death Obsession 00:15:00 The Writing Process and Wonder 00:24:30 Moral Accountability in Fiction 00:32:20 Chekhov, Succession, and Accuracy 00:40:00 Kindness, Criticism, and Final Thoughts Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at https://wondercabinetproductions.com, where you…","meta_description":"What if dying is not an ending, but a moment of radical clarity? In his new novel \"Vigil,\" George Saunders conjures a strange and often comic world of bic…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2675,"processing_state":"processed","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/wonder-cabinet-7409328/episodes/george-saunders-angels-ghosts-and-the-moral-imagination/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/george-saunders-angels-ghosts-and-the-moral-imagination.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}