Guest zoologist Donna Fernandes tells host Steve Curwood about some of the various ways animals prepare for, adapt to and spend the cold, dark winter months.

Dovie (DUH-vee) Thomason, a Lakota/Kiowa Apache storyteller, spins the tale of the great dance contest between an ant and a bear. It's all about the competition between darkness and light that takes place at this time of year, and why light ultimately wins.

Guy Peartree recounts the Siberian legend of Kutora (koo-TOR-uh), Lord of the Wind, and how only a good and obedient young maiden can appease the fierce winter winds.

Musician Stan Strickland has played his saxophone for animals at the zoo, and for humans in many clubs. He tells host Steve Curwood about how gorillas respond to jazz, and leads the audience in an African chant to call back the light.

Judith Black, an award-winning story teller for more than twenty years, relates the ancient Greek myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone (per-SEFF-uh-nee), and how their tale explains the persistence of winter.