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 her life partner for almost 20 years.

This episode originally aired on September 13, 2024.

Listen to an updated conversation with Chris Crowe, including his experience getting his first tattoo - a giant portrait of Walnut.

Suggested episodes:

• Wings, pouches, and snouts: The world of uncommon emotional support animals
• Birdwatching legend Peter Kaestner's journey to 10,000 birds
• Audacious kids: Stories of courage, conservation, and compassion

GUESTS:

• Christina and Michael Reyes: The human parents of Thumbelina, an eight-year-old squirrel who has more than two million followers on social media
• Chris Crowe: Birdkeeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia, and caretaker of Walnut, an endangered white-naped crane from 2004 until her death in January 2024

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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 of only 5,000 in the world, but to Chris, she was one of a kind.

Walnut's life expectancy as a bird living in captivity was 15 years. But she died at the age of 42 on January 2, 2024.

In that original episode, just five months after her death, I spoke with Chris about their life together. And from the responses we got, their life together deeply resonated with you.

Which is why we decided to rebroadcast it! But then something remarkable happened.

A few hours after we decided to publish that rerun, I saw a post from Chris on Facebook: He just got his first tattoo - a giant portrait of Walnut.

When the universe lines things up that precisely, I pay attention. So I reached out to him. I wanted to ask what moved him to get this tattoo now, how it feels to carry her on his arm, and how he’s doing as the two-year anniversary of her death approaches.

Photo and tattoo by Maggie Cho.

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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 LGBTQ+ families and plans on never stopping.

And Charlotte Guttenberg, the 77-year-old Guinness World Record holder for most-tattooed female senior citizen, started inking her body in her fifties and turned herself into a living, breathing work of art.

Suggested episodes:

• Audacious Elders
• Change of art: Stories about tattoo coverups

GUESTS:

• D’yan Forest: 91-year-old Guinness World Record holder for oldest female comedian, just released her new full-length solo show, A Gefilte Fish Out Of Water
• Harriet Newman Cohen: 92-year-old founding partner of Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP, where she is a negotiator and trial attorney who handles all aspects of matrimonial and family law. She is the author of Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds
• Charlotte Guttenberg: 77-year-old Guinness World Record holder for most tattooed female senior citizen

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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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 - celebrate Hollywood’s most spectacular cinematic failures. And finally, a few listeners share their stories of terrible dates, followed by a conversation with Rachel Lithgow. She shares her memoir, My Year of Really Bad Dates.

Suggested episodes:

• I snuck my incarcerated boyfriend out of prison in a dog crate
• Nothing goes as planned: A first-time offender’s prison story from arrest to release
• How regret teaches us to live

GUESTS:

• Jon Breaks Bad News: Creator and host of the Jon Breaks Bad News Show, delivering difficult or awkward messages on behalf of others
• John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy: Creators of the Razzie Awards
• Michelle Horsley, Maria Grove, Lindsay Ewing: Audacious listeners who had really bad dates
• Rachel Lithgow: Author of My Year of Really Bad Dates

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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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 lines and personal beliefs to create an unexpected friendship.

Then, Lindsay Vigue describes how a small flyer on the wall of a diner led her to become a living kidney donor, and then to becoming the executive director of Donate Life Connecticut.

Resources:

• Donate Life Connecticut
• National Kidney Foundation
• National Kidney Registry
• OrganDonor.gov
• Former Middletown mayor Dan Drew's TED Talk about why he donated his kidney

Suggested episode:

• The Story Of The First African American Face Transplant

GUESTS:

• Joey Shervey: Kidney transplant recipient from Moneta, Virginia
• Kerry Kennedy: Living kidney donor from Brooklyn, New York
• Lindsay Vigue: Living kidney donor and the executive director of Donate Life Connecticut

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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When does creation become prayer? And when does prayer become protest?

Artist and poet Zulynette talks about her new book, Becoming a Soft Woman with a Machete. It's equal parts gospel, therapy session, and roast.

From laughter to liberation, explore how art can be both sanctuary and sword.

Suggested episodes:

• Poet Zulynette on “Seeing in the Dark”
• The playfulness of poetry with Andrew Dean Wright
• A fireside conversation with Hartford’s “Love Poet”, Olusanya Bey
• Words over weapons: When anti-war poems go viral
• An extended conversation about forgiveness with poet David Whyte

GUEST:

• Zulynette: Poet, artist, facilitator, and author of Becoming a Soft Woman with a Machete. She is also the creator and director of the annual storytelling event, A Little Bit of Death, and the author of two other books of poetry, Seeing in the Dark, and Building a Powerhouse

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Have you ever seen Reborn Babies?

They’re these hyper-realistic-looking dolls that are collected for their extraordinary artistic accuracy… And they’re also used therapeutically for people who suffer from anxiety and depression.

Hear from a woman who uses them for just that reason. Plus, meet a painter who makes them look so real, a researcher on the Reborn community and culture, and a photographer who made these dolls a major part of her work.

This episode originally aired on September 24, 2021.

GUESTS:

• Emilie St-Hilaire is a multidisciplinary artist and doctoral candidate in the Humanities PhD program at Concordia. She studies lifelike dolls and the motivations of their collectors, rethinking non-human companionship
• Irene Golden is a Reborn artist from Spain, and the owner of Latidos Reborn
• Jamie Diamond of New York City features Reborn Babies in her series of photographs, "I Promise To Be A Good Mother" and "Mother Love", and is a collector herself
• Patrizia Bartolomei of Perth, Australia, runs the Facebook group, "My Therapy Reborn Group". She's used Reborn Babies as therapy babies since 2016

Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate

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It’s 2 a.m.; the phone rings. The caller ID says Stockholm, Sweden. The voice on the other end of the line says, “Congratulations! You’ve just been awarded a Nobel Prize!”

What goes through your mind in a moment like that?

Meet two people who received that life-altering call. Discover not only the incredible doors it opened for them, but the unexpected challenges that came with such a prestigious honor.

This episode originally aired on October 18, 2024.

Suggested episodes:

• Laugh and then think: What it's like to win the Ig Nobel Prize
• What it’s like winning a little or a lot on The Price Is Right, Wheel Of Fortune, and Jeopardy!

GUESTS:

• Andrea Ghez: Along with Reinhard Genzel, she was awarded half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy”. She is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, at the University of California, Los Angeles
• Martin Chalfie: Along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Tsien, he was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP). He is a University Professor and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. Prof. Chalfie is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Society

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