What would humans look like inside a museum curated by insects?

Cartoonist and educator Peter Kuper uses art, storytelling and humor to change who appears to be observing whom. A 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Peter has written and illustrated SPY vs. SPY for MAD magazine since 1997, co-founded World War 3 Illustrated and created more than two dozen books, including Insectopolis: A Natural History, Ruins and Wish We Weren’t Here: Postcards From the Apocalypse.

In this episode, we explore whether imagining another creature’s experience can change how we value its life—and what art can make visible that information alone sometimes cannot.

We get into:

The cicadas that captured Peter’s attention as a child

How comics and wordless images communicate across age and language

What a monarch sees when it crosses highways, power plants and human borders

Why humor can help us stay present with frightening environmental issues

The New York City cockroach that revealed how much Peter’s perspective had changed

The overlooked people who helped build our knowledge of insects

Why dung beetles are sacred, ecologically essential and extremely funny

What insects might place inside a museum exhibit about humans

Peter’s exhibition, Monarch’s Journey, opens October 16, 2026, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Explore Peter’s work:

https://www.peterkuper.com/⁠

Follow Peter on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/kuperart/⁠

Learn about Monarch’s Journey:

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/monarchs-journey⁠

Episode Companion:

Can Art Change How We See Nature—and Ourselves?

What animal have you already placed into a category—and what might change if you looked at it a little longer?

The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

Instagram: @thewildquietpod

Substack: The Wild Quiet Co.

Years ago, hundreds of moths appeared inside a tiny cabin in the Black Hills. They covered the walls, flew around the beds and held what appeared to be the annual meeting of every moth in South Dakota directly above a terrified three-year-old. That kid...was my stepdaughter.

It was chaos—but it also raises a question most of us have never thought very hard about:

Why does a moth fly toward a light?

The answer is stranger—and much less embarrassing for the moth—than we’ve been led to believe.

In this companion episode to my conversation with author Leigh Ann Henion, we explore research suggesting that moths and other flying insects may not be deliberately steering toward artificial light. They may be trying to keep the brightest part of the world above their backs—and becoming trapped when humans put the sky in the wrong place.

We’ll also meet moths away from the porch light: moving pollen through the dark, feeding young birds and using some spectacular defenses against hunting bats.

IN THIS EPISODE

• The night hundreds of moths filled a cabin in the Black Hills
• Why moths may not actually be choosing to fly toward artificial light
• How flying insects use light to determine which direction is up
• What happens when humans mount a miniature sun beside the garage
• The microscopic scales covering moth wings
• The overlooked work moths do as nighttime pollinators
• Why moth caterpillars are important food for young birds
• The evolutionary argument between bats and moths
• How a luna moth’s tails can misdirect a bat’s attack
• The effects artificial light can have on moths and their caterpillars
• Simple ways to return some darkness to the night

KEEP EXPLORING

Listen to my conversation with Leigh Ann Henion:

What Happens After Dark? - W/ Leigh Ann Henion

Explore the full episode companion—with photographs, resources and something to try after dark:

What Happens After Dark

Why flying insects gather around artificial light:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44785-3

Mothing 101 from National Moth Week:

https://nationalmothweek.org/mothing-101/

Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting:

https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/

YOUR TURN

The next time you see a moth circling a porch light, turn it off for a while if you can. Give its eyes a chance to find the real sky.

What changes when you let the night actually be dark?

Follow The Wild Quiet Co.

Instagram: @thewildquietpod

Substack: https://thewildquietco.substack.com

The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.

Once the sun goes down, even a familiar backyard can feel like an entirely different place.

We often talk about darkness as if it is empty—or as if danger automatically arrives when the lights go out. But darkness is not simply the daytime world with the lights turned off. It is alive with its own flowers, sounds, relationships and living light.

In this episode, Bre talks with author Leigh Ann Henion about her book Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark.

After traveling around the world in search of natural wonders, Leigh Ann turned her attention toward the nighttime world close to her home in southern Appalachia. Together, we explore why darkness makes so many of us uneasy, what our artificial lights may look like from the other side and how much of our own familiar landscapes we have never truly met.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why darkness can make familiar places feel frightening or unknown
• Glowworms, moon gardens and the living lights of southern Appalachia
• What changes when we allow our eyes to adjust to the dark
• Why nighttime is not simply a quieter version of daytime
• How artificial light changes life for nocturnal plants and animals
• What our homes and cities may look like from another creature’s perspective
• The difference between seeking wonder far away and noticing it close to home
• How stepping outside after sunset can reshape our relationship with darkness

ABOUT LEIGH ANN HENION

Leigh Ann Henion is the author of Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark and the New York Times bestseller Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. Her work explores wonder, place and the extraordinary lives unfolding within the natural world.

LEARN MORE

Leigh Ann Henion:

https://leighannhenion.com/

Explore Night Magic:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/leigh-ann-henion/night-magic/9781643753362/

Episode companion:

Moths, Moon Gardens, Glowworms— What Appears After Dark?

YOUR TURN

Step outside after dark and give your eyes time to adjust. What appears when you stop treating darkness as something to get through—and actually go out to meet it?

Tell me what you notice. You do not need to know its name. Noticing comes first.

FOLLOW THE WILD QUIET CO.

Instagram: @thewildquietco

Substack: https://thewildquietco.substack.com

The Wild Quiet is a podcast about nature—and our place within it.