Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, would you consider yourself beautiful? How do you define beauty, anyway? Hear from a fashion model with decades in the industry, a model who uses a wheelchair, and two non-binary models about what beauty means to them. GUESTS: Jennifer Gimenez is a model, entrepreneur, actress, and advocate for those in recovery Bri Scalesse is a model and disability advocate living in New York City Oskar Sinclair is a genderqueer femmeborg who is a model, artist, and se...
Aug 27, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 55
What’s it like to get in the Guinness Book of World Records? What if it’s for the size of your mouth ? Or the amount of toothpicks you can fit in your beard ? Or for achieving the Longest Melody Played By A Model Train? On this episode, hear about the guts and glory of Guinness! GUESTS: Samantha Ramsdell from Stamford, CT, holds the Guinness World Record for biggest female mouth Joel Strasser of Olympia, Washington, holds 10 Guinness World Records, including most toothpicks in a beard Thomas Cer...
Aug 20, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 54
This program originally aired on January 15, 2021. I love Reddit. This mostly-anonymous giant internet bulletin board has a plethora of communities called subreddits, which bring all sorts of interests together. One of my favorite subreddits is Act Like You Belong, where you’ll see a lot of stories about how, if you put on a hard hat, carry a clipboard, and walk with urgency, you can get through a lot of doors that you normally wouldn’t. (a chef’s jacket works well for this, too) Today, a love l...
Aug 13, 2021•50 min
Today’s episode of Audacious is not appropriate for children or for those who are particularly sensitive to the topic of sexual assault. Right now, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. And more than 90% of those victims know their perpetrator in some way. You’ve maybe heard the saying, “Hurt people hurt people”. But what makes a person want to hurt - to sexually abuse - a child? Hear from a man who did just that and spent 7 years in prison. Today, he's the auth...
Aug 06, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 53
How do auctioneers do what they do? Meet some of the best in the business, including a 102 year-old auctioneer - America’s oldest. Plus, hear what it was like for the guy who auctioned off that $28 million seat on the rocket ship, Blue Shepherd. And find out what happens when a lead charity auctioneer for Christie’s teams up with Bruce Springsteen. Finally, find out how I did when I tried my hand at auctioneering for the first time! GUESTS: Steve Little has been an auctioneer for 31 years, most ...
Jul 30, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Being an identical twin is pretty cool! You’ll hear from a pair of 5 year-old twins about how they help people tell them apart. Plus, what if you didn’t know you had an identical twin until you were 25 years old? And how would you be different if, when you were a teenager many decades ago, your identical twin died? GUESTS: Lucy & Layla Castonguay are 7.5 year-old identical twins who live in Bristol, CT Samantha Futerman & Anaïs Bordier found out at the age of 25 that they were identical ...
Jul 23, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 51
What kind of person works in Antarctica? Meet a chef, a supply technician, a physician, and a man who has worked on the continent for over 25 years, including at the world’s most southerly post office and convenience store. GUESTS: Toni Traub is a Supply Technician & “Wastie” at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station Lisa Minelli is a sous chef at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station Ted Lee is the station physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station Tudor Morgan is the Expedition Team...
Jul 16, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 50
There have been fewer than 50 full face transplant recipients in the world. And up until 2019, there had been zero done for African-Americans. By the time Robert Chelsea changed all that, he’d already rejected a face offered to him over a year earlier. The skin shade was too light. Today, meet Robert and his godson, Everick Brown, and hear the story of what happened. You’ll also hear about the progress being made in organ and tissue donorship within Black and Brown communities in America, with D...
Jul 09, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Do you ever look back on something you did and wonder, “Why did I do that?” Meet people who’ve robbed gas stations, abused lab animals, and sent death threats via Twitter, and find out why they did it. GUESTS: Issy Sorley of Newcastle, England, made headlines in 2013 for being imprisoned after making threats to two women on Twitter Rama Ganesan is a writer, an anti-caste activist, and an animal-rights activist who worked in animal research labs for 10 years Kevin McShane of Huntington, Long Isla...
Jul 02, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 48
The latest episode of our show featured my conversations with kids who are doing amazing things in this world. Give it a listen! Here are two more conversations with kids who have big ideas. You’ll hear about an 8-year-old’s invention - well, it’s still technically in the development stage - "The Everything Maker", and two kids tell us about cool solutions for dipping OREO cookies in milk, and using take-out containers as plates! Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/l...
Jun 25, 2021•10 min
Kids see things differently. Solutions to problems are one big idea away. “What if” is an enthusiastic refrain! And expressing yourself means making art, and asking ALL of the questions! If you’re an older kid who’s forgotten what that drive, that passion, that confidence feels like, all you have to do is keep listening! Today, you’re gonna meet eight young people who think and act BIG in this swirling, chaotic, beautiful, beastly world. GUESTS: Chelsea Phaire of Danbury, CT, is an 11-year-old p...
Jun 25, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 47
It’s one thing to have a hard time with parenthood. But what if you wholeheartedly regret it? Hear from two parents who feel this way, and find out how they balance feeling full of regret while wanting to make sure their kids are well taken care of. And is it really possible to love someone whom they regret bringing into existence? You’ll also meet a woman who knew she was regretted, and find out why she thinks we should be more open about it. GUESTS: Jenna Abetz is an Associate Professor in the...
Jun 18, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 46
There is a very special reason why you’re hearing a rebroadcast of this show: This episode of Audacious just won a Gracie Award! The Gracie Awards are a part of the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, and they recognize "exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment." Thank you so much! Imagine you’ve got breasts. It shouldn’t be too hard to imagine, because most every human being has’ em! And that means that most of us are candida...
Jun 11, 2021•50 min
Hey! If you’re listening to this bonus feature, you’ve probably listened to the show we just did featuring executive producer Catie Talarski’s documentary of a year in the life of two people with end-stage Cystic Fibrosis. I was so moved by the documentary and so intrigued by how it sounded that I wanted to interview Catie about how she made it. Support the show: https://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jun 04, 2021•8 min
When you have Cystic Fibrosis - a genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections - a lung transplant can be a life-saving surgery. But what if you’re not sure you want it? And if you do get it, what new challenges will they present to your newly-extended life? Hear an audio documentary by Audacious Executive Producer Catie Talarski that follows two CF patients for one year as they grapple with the choice to pursue lung transplants. Then, she catches up with one of the subjects 10 years l...
Jun 04, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 45
What happens when you do a DNA test from a company like Ancestry.com or 23andme, and you get some life-shattering information, like your sibling is really your half-sibling, or that you may have a life-altering medical condition, or that you thought you were half Black, but the test says you’re barely Black at all. Before you spit in that tube, hear from people who’ve been stunned and spun around by DNA tests. GUESTS: Randye & Rick Kaye are siblings who found out that their biological dads w...
May 28, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 44
When you call 911, it most likely means you’re having a stressful, unpredictable, scary experience. It could be the worst day of your life, or someone else’s. But what’s it like on the other side of that call? Hear about life as an emergency dispatcher here in Connecticut, throughout the country, and even during the massive temporary city in the desert that is Burning Man. GUESTS: Clayton Northgraves is the Director of Emergency Telecommunications for the State of Connecticut Wanda Brown worked ...
May 21, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 43
If you listen to public radio, you recognize Chris Thile’s name. He was the host of Live From Here ! And if you’re like me, you knew him from at least one of his gazillion other music projects, like his band Punch Brothers. I’ve been following his work for over 10 years, simultaneously singin’ my heart out to his recordings, while being totally mind-boggled at his mandolin playing. So you can imagine how freakin’ thrilled I was to interview him live on-stage at the Jorgensen Center for the Perfo...
May 14, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 42
This is the first installment of Audacious Little Things! Meet an anthropologist who explains why she thinks the human animal delights in making miniatures of things, and then meet a sculpturist dubbed “The 8th Wonder of the World” whose art requires a microscope to see. Find out how one kind of protozoan earned itself the title of “The Immortal Jellyfish”. Plus, what researchers think is going on when starlings fly together in those mesmerizing clouds, and what that has to do with creating unde...
May 07, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 41
When I say BLINK! What do you think? Of that American POW who blinked the word “TORTURE” in Morse code live on Vietnamese television? Or do you think of someone with locked-in syndrome who can only communicate by blinking? Or do you think about the idea of a universal eye language that uses blinks? Today on Audacious, you'll hear about all that, plus a headset that measures the blinking of long-distance drivers so they know to take a break, and what it’s like when you have a rare condition that ...
Apr 30, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 40
What if, in order to do your job, you had to change your voice? Meet an actress who’s an accent expert, a man who is the dubbed-over voice of Peter Griffin and Will Smith in Germany, and a news anchor who went viral when she brought her anchor voice home. GUESTS: Amy Walker is a Los Angeles-based actress, singer and accent chameleon Ian Odle is a German voice dubber, known best for his work as the German Peter Griffin and Will Smith Jeannette Reyes , also known on Instagram and TikTok as @msnews...
Apr 23, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 39
The art of tattooing has been traced back 7,000 years. While the significance or reason behind the oldest-known tattoos are total speculation, we do know that often, they were applied as sacred rites, and awarded as a signifier of adulthood. In Ancient Egypt, it’s likely they were used as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth. And in the ancient Greco-Roman world, they were applied on enslaved people who got caught trying to escape. But today, the reasons for getting a tattoo ...
Apr 17, 2021•46 min
Not everyone who is trans wants to change their voice. Some do. Either way, what do the voices - the actual voices - of trans and non-binary people tell you about who they are? Today, you’ll meet a trans woman whose work adapting her voice led her to help others. Also, hear from a transfemme non-binary yoga teacher who uses Vedic Chanting to feel centered, and to feel closer to their voice. You’ll hear from members of a choir in the bay area that is exclusively for singers who self-identify as t...
Apr 09, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Hear about the 5000 year history of billboards, and meet the man behind the “I LOVE YOU JESUS” billboards on I-84 and I-91 here in Connecticut. And hear about a technology that focuses the audio of a billboard directly to you and only you. Plus, why one Baltimore resident chose to propose to his girlfriend with a billboard (and how it went). GUESTS: Gino Sesto is the founder of Dash Two , a Digital and Outdoor Advertising Agency based out of Culver City, CA Juan Carlos Puga & Allison Haley o...
Apr 02, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Guy Walker Wolf III died on February 13th, 2021. He was 77 years old. There are many ways to describe Guy, but I’d say we who knew him would all agree that he could be described as the captain of his own ship. And he was my stepfather. I’ve known him since I was 11. Throughout the process of his death at home, I was compelled by the people who were a part of guiding us through it. So today, I’m gonna introduce you to the people who helped Guy die, and who helped us celebrate him. From the hospic...
Mar 26, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 36
You know how you can, for the most part, remember what happened to you yesterday? Well what if you were able to remember almost EVERY day that clearly? All the way back to when you were very young? How would your day-to-day choices be affected, knowing that you’ll remember what you did forever? Do we all have our memories stored inside our brains like they do, but we don’t have a way to access them? Or something else? Meet two of around 60 people in the world who are known to have Highly Superio...
Mar 12, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Whether you’re superstitious or, as Michael Scott from The O says, “a little stitious”, on today’s show about superstitions, you’ll learn a lot about humanity. The author of a book about superstitions from around the world joins us, as well as an expert about anxiety on the difference between superstitious beliefs and OCD or trauma responses. You’ll hear superstitions from Lauren Komrosky, Katy Tierney, Benn Grippo, Hassan Hodges, Tracy Mind Evolution Caldwell, Caroline Finnegan, Christina Solem...
Mar 05, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 34
As part of our Reports From Recovery series, today we’re hearing from two women whose heroin addictions shook up their lives, and put them right up close to the edge of existence. If you’re struggling with addiction, you can find resources at SAMHSA , the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. GUESTS: Jaime Wyatt is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter. She’s been sober for over 3 years Rebecca Allen is the Director of Recovery Support Services at the Connecticut Community f...
Feb 26, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 33
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor. It moves closer to midnight depending on how close we are to human-made global catastrophe through climate change, nuclear weapons, and pandemics fueled by misinformation and failed leadership. Y’know, the typical folly of humankind. Find out what time it is from two members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. GUESTS: Sharon Squassoni is a research professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, at the George Washington University Herb Lin is a senio...
Feb 19, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Fill in the blank: Love is… Patient. Kind. Love is Work. Hard to find. But if you wanna put your finger on what makes up “long-lasting love”, you’re gonna need some wisdom to fill in those blanks. So today, meet three couples who’ve been together for over 50 years. GUESTS: Angela and Grant Loavenbruck of Rockport, Maine, have been married for 55 years Emery Austin Smith and Vivian Ashton Smith of the Blue Hills neighborhood in Hartford have been married for 65 years Shirley and Seymour Reitman o...
Feb 05, 2021•50 min
