Smithsonian.com

When field biologist Gudrun Pflueger found out, in 2005, that a cancerous tumor the size of a golf ball was growing in her brain, her chances for survival looked bleak. Many might have even said that recovery was impossible. But Pflueger—sweet, and yet tough as nails—fought, and remained hopeful.

“Already once something impossible happened,” she says. “Why not a second time?”

The miracle she’s referring to happened just prior to her diagnosis. Pflueger, a wolf expert, was on a six-week expedition along the coast of British Columbia, when she experienced a rare wildlife encounter. Seven Canadian coast wolves encircled her, curiously but not aggressively, in a meadow, while she lay prone in the grass. They played in the field for about an hour.

“The situation kind of carefully evolved. It was always their decision to come closer and closer. They didn’t rush. They took their time. They tried to smell me. They never showed any sign that they would even remotely consider me as prey,” Pflueger told me in an interview two years ago. “They just accepted me.”

At that time, the Smithsonian Channel was preparing to air its first program on Pflueger, called “A Woman Among Wolves.” (Check out the interview and the accompanying video clip.) Now, cancer-free, Pflueger is the subject of a sequel. The channel’s “Running with Wolves” premieres this Sunday at 8pm (et/pt).

“They [the wolves] gave me their will to fight for my life and be determined,” says Pflueger in the film, which describes her deep connection to the animals. The biologist says that her battle with cancer really brought her work into focus, and to a great extent her life’s, purpose, to fight for wolf conservation.

In “Running with Wolves,” she returns to the meadow where her encounter with the wolves happened. She also searches for wolves in other parts of British Columbia, setting up motion sensitive cameras along the way. Months after she installs a camera outside of an empty wolf den, she returns to it and watches the footage. Jackpot! For a second time, she gets a privileged view of wolves. On her laptop, in a cabin in the backcountry, she watches wolf pups coming out of their den for the first time.

On Saturday night, Aerial America: Hawaii premiered on the Smithsonian Channel. The segment, one in a series devoted to viewing the country’s natural and manmade marvels from air, delivers on its promise to capture breathtaking footage. The video crew travels in a helicopter over Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and Waikiki, the birthplace of surfing, among other sites.

Watch this clip as the crew passes over Pearl Harbor. Today marks the 68th anniversary of the attack.

The show airs again tonight at 5 p.m. EST, on Thursday, 9 p.m. EST, and Saturday, 6 p.m. EST. For more viewings, see this calendar.

A Colombian accordion player featured in Smithsonian Network's " The Accordion Kings" focuses intently. Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Networks.

As part of the Latin American Film Showcase, “The Accordion Kings: The Story of Colombian Vallenato Music,” a Smithsonian Networks film, will be shown at the Georgetown Business School – Lohrfink Auditorium tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. The film captures an annual festival of accordion music that takes place in the Colombian coastal town of Valledupar.

In 2008, Smithsonian magazine’s Kenny Fletcher wrote about the making of the film. The documentary focuses on the competition among accordion masters to be crowned the “vallenato king” at the festival. Vallenato is similar to country music in the United States, relating the everyday stories of love and love lost. “Wearing straw cowboy hats and jeans,” Fletcher wrote, “the hopefuls are covered in sweat, eyes closed, bodies rocking, fingers blurring as they fly across the accordion’s keys. The competition’s nationally televised finale has the drama and fanfare of “American Idol.”

As the genre becomes mainstream, festival organizers say the competition, which promotes the traditional form of vallenato, preserves their musical heritage. “It’s a way of linking you to the land, to your ancestors, your traditions,” says Gabriela Febres-Cordero, the honorary president of the 40-year-old festival.”

Vallenato is an essential part of Colombian culture. The rhythm of vallenato was first documented in the late 1800s. Gabriel García Márquez is said to have described his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, as a 400-page vallenato.

The Latin American Film Showcase this year features more than 30 films from from almost 20 countries. The offerings include contemporary classics as well as films released just this year.

In 1962, viewers the nation over (and later the world) marveled at Jackie Kennedy’s tour of the freshly revamped White House in an extensive one-hour televised tour of the executive mansion. But the film, with it’s camera trained on First Lady was missing something: all the people who work behind the scenes to make the White House run, from butlers to plumbers to chefs, and everyone in between. The Smithsonian Channel’s new program, The White House Revealed, provides an intimate and modern portrait of the most famous home in America by way of its extensive staff. You can watch White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier (who retired after over 40 years in the executive kitchen) as he recalls several past presients’ penchants for sweets (for better and for worse.) Tune in to the full program Friday night at 7:00 on the Smithsonian Channel.

Scene from "Batwomen of Panama." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Channel.

Let’s take a moment to think about notable women of the past decade or so. How many entertainers can you rattle off the top of your head? Sports stars? How about scientists?

I’m guessing you choked a little on that last one. Let’s rectify the situation, shall we?

March is Women’s History Month and the Smithsonian Channel is giving it up to the girls with Women of Science, a series of four films which will be broadcast throughout the month. The series kicks off tonight at 8:00 with A Woman Among Wolves, Batwomen of Panama and Footprints on the Water. (The fourth film, Flying With Condors, will first air on Thursday, March 5). Go to the Smithsonian Channel’s website for a full schedule of these and other horizon-broadening programs. (I mean c’mon—what golden nugget of information were you able to casually toss off at your last cocktail party? You owe it to yourself to watch.)