• The Secret Life of A Seed

    Watercolor-style cover art for Wild & Wonder Episode 107, The Secret Life of a Seed Part 2, showing a sprouting seed with roots underground and a worm nearby.

    Spring arrives slowly on St. Paul Island, with snow, ground clouds, muddy roads, returning wildlife, and tiny signs of green life. This Wild & Wonder episode follows Plaira the seed as she learns that sometimes growing up begins by growing down.

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  • Spring, Roots, Reindeer, and Getting Betty Unstuck

    Tall golden tundra grass growing on St. Paul Island in spring.

    Spring on St. Paul Island does not arrive all at once. In some places, spring may mean warm sunshine, blooming flowers, bare feet in sandals, and bees buzzing around gardens. But here, on a tiny island in the middle of the Bering Sea, spring is slower. Wetter. Windier. Wilder. Some days still feel like winter,…

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  • Somewhere Between Ice and Sand on St. Paul Island

    Early spring beach on St. Paul Island with melting ice

    We’ve been searching for an ice-free stretch of beach since early March on St. Paul Island, Alaska. Yesterday, somewhere between ice and sand, we finally reached the water.

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  • Spring in the Sub-Arctic

    Melting sea ice along the shoreline at English Bay on St. Paul Island, Alaska in early spring

    Spring doesn’t always arrive all at once. At English Bay on St. Paul Island, the season reveals itself in shifting ice, passing birds, and quiet signs of change, if you know how to notice them.

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  • Across an Ocean of Waiting

    Rocky shoreline and waves of the Bering Sea under a wide blue sky at St. Paul Island, Alaska

    Our family is scattered across the world right now. Some of us are in Alaska. Some in Wisconsin. One in Texas. One somewhere in the Middle East at sea. And like many families right now, we are waiting. These past months have been a season of travel, goodbyes, and quiet adjustments. Across an Ocean of…

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