Anne Strainchamps: You know that moment of amazed surprise when you encounter something so unexpected, it feels almost magical? Steve Paulson: An idea that kind of blows your mind. Mario Rovelli: At that precise moment, I fell in love with physics. General relativity is incredibly spectacular. There's this curving of space, stretching on time. It's better than LSD. Bianca Stone: Haven't you had these moments in your mind? Maybe it's that little space between drifting off to sleep or waking up. Or maybe you're stoned. You feel things like that. These paradoxes of truth. Anne Strainchamps: Welcome to Wonder Cabinet. I'm Anne Strainchamps. Steve Paulson: And I'm Steve Paulson. We're the creators of the Peabody Award‑winning public radio show "To The Best Of Our Knowledge." Anne Strainchamps: And we are so excited to be launching something new—an interview podcast designed to keep your sense of wonder alive. Steve Paulson: So you traveled with some people who live very close to the natural world, and they see things. They notice things that I would never notice. I was particularly struck by a mycologist who talks about not just seeing mushrooms, but hearing, feeling when they're nearby. I'm just trying to think about what that's like. What was it like to travel with her? Robert Macfarlane: It was wild, Steve. It was truly wild. She was looking for tiny brown psilocybe species. The two times she found them — she found both of them — she would say, “Oh, they're near now. I can hear them.” She calls it a “fuzz in the matrix.” I don't know what that means to experience, but boy, was she right. We would go around two corners, and she would suddenly fall to the ground as though she'd been shot. Woo‑hoo! And there was this tiny brown mushroom in this fast brown forest floor. Steve Paulson: We've spent more than 30 years talking with some of the world's greatest scientists, poets and philosophers. This time, in this new podcast, we're going deeper. Anne Strainchamps: Longer, more intimate conversations about mystery and beauty and the deep intelligence of the earth. Sophie Strand: So you have caterpillars eating leaves, getting fat, getting ready. Then they create a cocoon and they basically begin to melt. And their brain liquefies. That's the craziest thing. The butterflies have the same memories as they did when they were caterpillars, even though their brains have been liquefied. Anne Strainchamps: How is that possible? Sophie Strand: Right? For me, that's where my wonder is. Anne Strainchamps: Join us as we build a new cabinet of wonders for the modern age. The first episodes drop January 31st, wherever you get your podcasts.