The World Is Singing: Hank Lentfer’s Life in Sound

What does it mean to truly listen: not just hear, but attend to the world with exquisite care? In this episode of Constant Wonder, host Marcus Smith sits down with Hank Lentfer, a sound recordist and acoustic ecologist who has spent decades capturing the natural world's most breathtaking voices from his home base in Gustavus, Alaska, gateway to Glacier Bay National Park. Lentfer shares unforgettable recordings — a humpback whale trumpeting over a mirror-calm sea, barnacles whispering as a shadow passes over them, ancient air bubbles escaping from icebergs — and the stories behind each one. But this episode is about far more than wildlife audio: along the way, he reflects on hunting as a spiritual practice, our amnesia in supermarkets, the never-ending dawn chorus that circles the globe, and caring for a mother with dementia whose face still lit up at a Hank Williams song. Lentfer's memoir "Faith of Cranes" is the throughline, and finding the sounds and stories that remind us we are not separate from the world is his life's work and the beating heart of this conversation. Guest: Hank Lentfer, author of "Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska" Photo Credit: Taliesin Black-Brown Chapters: (0:00) Meet Hank Lentfer (9:56) Unexpected Sounds (16:37) A Childhood of Blessed Insignificance (26:51) Uramuro's Satisfaction (37:08) Hunting and Amnesia Factories (52:24) Several Awakenings