All Episodes — Radiolab Podcast Articles

The Living Room

We're thrilled to present a piece from one of our favorite podcasts, Love + Radio (Nick van der Kolk and Brendan Baker). Producer Briana Breen brings us the story: Diane’s new neighbors across the way never shut their curtains, and that was the beginning of an intimate, but very one-sided relationship. Please listen to <a href="http://loveandradio.org/" target="_blank">as much of Love + Radio as you can</a> (loveandradio.org). And, if you are in Seattle Area, or plan to be on Feb 15th, 2024 come check out <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/radiolab-live-how-the-cassette-tape-changed-us-tickets-727065130377?aff=oddtdtcreator" target="_blank">Radiolab Live! and in person</a> (https://zpr.io/fCDUTEYju76h). Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jan 19, 2024

Our Little Stupid Bodies

Sometimes a seemingly silly question gets stuck in your craw and you can’t shake the feeling that something big lies behind it. We are constantly collecting these kinds of questions from our listeners, not to mention piling up a storehouse of our own “stupid” questions, as we lovingly call them. And a little while back, we noticed a little cluster of questions that seemed to have a shared edgy energy, and all led us to the same place: Our own bodies. So, today on Radiolab, we go down our throats and get under our skin, we take on evolution and anatomy and molecular cosmetics, to discover some very not-stupid answers to our seemingly stupid questions. Special thanks to Mark Krasnow, Sachi Mulkey, Kari Leibowitz, Andrea Evers, Dr. Mona Amin, Benjamin Ungar, Praby Singh, Brye and Rachel Adler EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Molly Webster, Becca Bressler, Latif Nasser, and Alan Goffinski with help from Ekedi Fausther-Keeys Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Becca Bressler, Alyssa Jeong Perry, Molly Webster with help from - Matt Kielty Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelley, Emily Krieger and edited by - Pat Walters and Alex Neason Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jan 12, 2024

Stochasticity

First aired way back in 2009, this episode is all about a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness, Stochasticity, and how it may be at the very foundation of our lives. Along the way, we talk to a woman suddenly consumed by a frenzied gambling addiction, hear from two friends whose meeting seems to defy pure chance, and take a close look at some very noisy bacteria. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OHbW0pGQWY">Stochasticity Music Video</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/uZiH9j9ZU6be">https://zpr.io/uZiH9j9ZU6be</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jan 5, 2024

Zeroworld

Karim Ani dedicated his life to math. He studied it in school, got a degree in math education, even founded <a href="http://www.citizenmath.com" target="_blank">Citizen Math</a> to teach it to kids in a whole new way. But, this whole time, his whole life, almost, he had this question nagging at him. The question came in the form of a rule in math, NEVER divide by zero. But, why not? Cornell mathematician, and friend of the show, Steve Strogatz, chimes in with the historical context, citing examples of previous provocateurs looking to break the rules of math. And he offers Karim a warning, “In math we have creative freedom, we can do anything we want, as long as it’s logical.” Listen along as Karim’s thought exercise becomes an existential quest, taking us with him, as he delves deeper, and deeper, into Zeroworld. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Miller Produced by - Matthew Kielty with help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, Alyssa Jeong Perry Original music and sound design contributed by - Matthew Kielty with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Edited by - Pat Walters Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter" target="_blank">Sign up</a>! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="https://members.radiolab.org/" target="_blank">The Lab</a> today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Dec 29, 2023

Numbers

First aired back in 2009, this episode is all about one thing, or rather a collection of things. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, chances are you rely on numbers every day of your life. Where do they come from, and what do they really do for us? This hour: stories of how numbers confuse us, connect us, and even reveal secrets about us.

Dec 22, 2023

Death Interrupted

As a lifeguard, a paramedic, and then an ER doctor, Blair Bigham found his calling: saving lives. But when he started to work in the ICU, he slowly realized that sometimes keeping people (and their hopes) alive just prolongs the suffering. He wrote a book arguing that a too-late death is just as bad as a too-early one, and that physicians and the public alike need to get better at accepting the inevitability of death sooner. As the book hit the bestseller list, Blair’s own father got diagnosed with a deadly case of pancreatic cancer. Blair’s every impulse was in direct contradiction of the book he just wrote. What should he do? And how can any of us know when to stop fighting death and when to start making peace with it? Special thanks to Lucie Howell and Heather Haley. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser Produced by - Simon Adler with help from - Alyssa Jeong Perry Original music and sound design contributed by - Simon Adler with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and edited by - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Books: Blair Bigham, <a href="https://store.walrusmagazine.com/products/death-interrupted" target="_blank">Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine is Complicating the Way We Die</a> (https://zpr.io/a33mEMW64X5h) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">X</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Dec 15, 2023

A 4-Track Mind

In this short episode that first aired in 2011, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible. Reporter Jessica Benko went to Michigan to visit Bob Milne, one of the best ragtime piano players in the world, and a preternaturally talented musician. Usually, Bob sticks to playing piano for small groups of ragtime enthusiasts, but he recently caught the attention of Penn State neuroscientist Kerstin Bettermann, who had heard that Bob had a rare talent: He can play technically challenging pieces of music on demand while carrying on a conversation and cracking jokes. According to Kerstin, our brains just aren't wired for that. So she decided to investigate Bob's brain, and along the way she discovered that Bob has an even more amazing ability—one that we could hardly believe and science can't explain. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter" target="_blank">Sign up </a>(https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="https://members.radiolab.org/" target="_blank">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Dec 8, 2023

Boy Man

Could puberty get any more awkward? Turns out, yes. Writer Patrick Burleigh started going through puberty as a toddler. He had pubic hair before he was two years old and a mustache by middle school. All of this was thanks to a rare genetic mutation that causes testotoxicosis, also known as precocious puberty. From the moment he was born, abnormally high levels of testosterone coursed through his body, just as it had in his father’s body, his grandfather’s body, and his great-grandfather’s body. On this week’s episode, Patrick’s premature coming of age story helps us understand just why puberty is so awkward for all of us, and whether and how it helps forge us into the adults we all become. Special thanks to Craig Cox, Nick Burleigh, and Alyssa Voss at the NIH. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser with help from - Kelsey Padgett, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, and Alyssa Jeong Perry Produced by - Pat Walters, Alex Neason, and Alyssa Jeong Perry with help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keyes and Matt Kielty with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly and Edited by - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles - To read Patrick’s own writing about his experience with precocious puberty and to see photos of him as a child, check out his article in The Cut, <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/precocious-puberty-patrick-burleigh.html" target="_blank">“A 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body”</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/athKVQmtfzaN" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/athKVQmtfzaN</a>) In her spare time, our fact checker Diane Kelly is also a comparative anatomist, and you can hear her TEDMED talk, “<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/diane_kelly_what_we_didn_t_know_about_penis_anatomy/" target="_blank">What We Didn’t Know about Penis Anatomy</a>” (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/MWHFTYBdubHj" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/MWHFTYBdubHj</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science progra

Dec 1, 2023

Bad Ideas

First, an AI technology that can discover medicines for rare diseases can also discover the most potent chemical weapons known to humankind. Inadvertently opening the Pandora’s Box of WMDs. Then, the 26 little words, known as Section 230, are the core of an Internet law that coats the tech industry in Teflon. No matter what happens, who gets hurt, or what harm is done, tech companies can’t be held responsible for the things that happen on their platforms. Why do we have this law? And more importantly, why can’t we just delete it?

Nov 29, 202355 min

Shrink

The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking. Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, dead-eyed machines. But when one microbiologist stumbled upon a GIANT virus, hundreds of times bigger than any seen before, all that went out the window. The discovery opened the door not only to a new cast of microscopic characters with names like Mimivirus, Mamavirus, and Megavirus, but also to basic questions: How did we miss these until now? Have they been around since the beginning? What if evolution could go … backwards? In this episode from 2015, join former co-hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich as they grill Radiolab regular Carl Zimmer on these paradoxical viruses – they’re so big that they can get their own viruses! - and what they can tell us about the nature of life. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Nov 24, 2023

The Interstitium

In this episode we introduce you to a part of our bodies that was invisible to Western scientists until about five years ago; it’s called "the interstitium," a vast network of fluid channels inside the tissues around our organs that scientists have just begun to see, name, and understand. Along the way we look at how new technologies rub up against long-standing beliefs, and how millions of scientists and doctors failed to see what was right in front (and inside!) of their noses. We also find out how mapping the anatomy of this hidden infrastructure may help solve one of the fundamental mysteries of cancer, and perhaps provide a bridge between ancient and modern medicine. Special thanks to Aaron Wickenden, Jessica Clark, Mara Zepeda, Darryl Holliday, Dr. Amy Chang, Kate Sassoon, Guy Huntley, John Jacobson, Scotty G, and the Village Zendo EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Lulu Miller and Jenn Brandel Produced by - Matt Kielty with help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keeys with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Edited by - Alex Neason EPISODE CITATIONS - Articles: Check out reporter Jenn Brandel’s companion essay to this episode in Orion magazine, titled, <a href="https://orionmagazine.org/article/interstitium-scientific-discovery-anatomy" target="_blank">Invisible Landscapes</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/NKuxvYY84RvH" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/NKuxvYY84RvH</a>), which argues that the discovery of the interstitium could challenge established practices of compartmentalizing in science and society. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Nov 17, 2023

Funky Hand Jive

Back when Robert was kid, he had a chance encounter with then President John F. Kennedy. The interaction began with a hello and ended with a handshake. And like many of us who have touched greatness, 14 year old Robert was left wondering if maybe some of Kennedy would stay with him. Back in 2017, when this episode first aired, Robert found himself still pondering that encounter and question. And so with the help of what was brand new science back then, and a helping hand from Neil Degrasse Tyson, he set out to satisfy this curiosity once and for all. EPISODE CREDITS: Produced by - Simon Adler with help from - <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/onlyhuman/episodes/handshake-experiment">Only Human</a>: Amanda Aronczyk, Kenny Malone, Jillian Weinberger and Elaine Chen. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCvBF32zgPA">The Handshake Experiment</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/buzgQeJJLqvY">https://zpr.io/buzgQeJJLqvY</a>) <div class="user-embedded-video"><div id="videoplayer_idm13977228444772888d43535-0a04-4d80-ac09-8f79acadbde2"><iframe width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BCvBF32zgPA?wmode=transparent&amp;autohide=1&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" title="The Handshake Experiment" id="a5106077161854089080" class="youtube_video" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" data-original-url="https://youtu.be/BCvBF32zgPA?si=p5TvKL2vhHB1DsAR"></iframe></div></div> Books: Neil deGrasse Tyson's newest book is called "<a href="https://youtu.be/BCvBF32zgPA?si=p5TvKL2vhHB1DsAR">Astrophysics for People in A Hurry</a>." (<a href="https://zpr.io/idRcrMu3Kj8c">https://zpr.io/idRcrMu3Kj8c</a>) Ed Yong, “<a href="https://edyong.me/i-contain-multitudes">I Contain Multitudes</a>.” (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/ff5imFP3kA6s" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/ff5imFP3kA6s</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbo

Nov 10, 2023

A Long and Happy Life

First, producer Sindhu Gnanasambandan wants to know how she can live the longest feeling life possible. The answer leads her on a journey to make one week feel like two. And the journey leads her to a whole new answer. Then, a man whose work and life are an inspiration to us all.

Nov 8, 202355 min

Toy Soldiers

Back in February of 2022, anyone who knew anything thought the War in Ukraine would be over in a few weeks. Russia simply had more bodies to fight with and more steel to kill with. Fast-forward to today, however, and the war is anything but over. Ukraine has held and regained territory with shocking resilience. Stranger still, a small, cheap gadget that up until now was little more than a toy, has been central to their success. Today on Radiolab, we track the deployment of this weapon and wonder what happens when you have to look your enemy in the eye before you pull the trigger. Special thanks to Anna Kaliusna and her team for her footage from the frontline, Yulia Tarisuk for her help with all things Ukrainian language related. And Hanna Rose Shell for her helping us understand the history of camouflage. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Simon Adler Produced by - Simon Adler Original music and sound design contributed by - Simon Adler and Jeremy Bloom with mixing by - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Edited by - Becca Bressler EPISODE CITATIONS: AUDIO: <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/otmfogofwar?sid=radiolab">On the Media, “The Fog of War”</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/8NKDM2xHWzRp">https://zpr.io/8NKDM2xHWzRp</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Nov 3, 2023

Border Trilogy Part 3: What Remains

While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left behind: a human arm, stripped of flesh. This macabre discovery sent him reeling, needing to know what exactly happened to the body, and how many migrants die that way in the wilderness. In researching border-crosser deaths in the Arizona desert, he noticed something surprising. Sometime in the late-1990s, the number of migrant deaths shot up dramatically and have stayed high since. Jason traced this increase to a Border Patrol policy still in effect, called “Prevention Through Deterrence.” First aired in 2018 and over three episodes, Radiolab investigates this policy, its surprising origins, and the people whose lives were changed forever because of it. Part 3: What Remains The third episode in our Border Trilogy follows anthropologist Jason De León after he makes a grisly discovery in Arivaca, Arizona. In the middle of carrying out his pig experiments with his students, Jason finds the body of a 30-year-old female migrant. With the help of the medical examiner and some local humanitarian groups, Jason discovers her identity. Her name was Maricela. Jason then connects with her family, including her brother-in-law, who survived his own harrowing journey through Central America and the Arizona desert. With the human cost of Prevention Through Deterrence weighing on our minds, we try to parse what drives migrants like Maricela to cross through such deadly terrain, and what, if anything, could deter them. Special thanks to Carlo Albán, Sandra Lopez-Monsalve, Chava Gourarie, Lynn M. Morgan, Mike Wells and Tom Barry. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this episode, when it originally aired, incorrectly stated that a person's gender can be identified from bone remains. We've adjusted the audio to say that a person's sex can be identified from bone remains. CITATIONS: Books: Jason De Léon’s book <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520282759/the-land-of-open-graves">The Land of Open Graves</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/vZbTarDzGQWK">https://zpr.io/vZbTarDzGQWK</a>) Timothy Dunn’s book <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292723498/">Blockading the Border and Human Rights</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/VTPWNJPusaCn">https://zpr.io/VTPWNJPusaCn</a>) Joseph Nevin's book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Operation-Gatekeeper-and-Beyond-The-War-On-Illegals-and-the-Remaking/Nevins/p/book/9780415996945">Operation Gatekeeper</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/UTnHFzRstAEw">https://zpr.io/UTnHFzRstAEw</a>) Articles: Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel, Melissa McCormick, Daniel Martinez, and Inez Duarte. 2006. “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3040107">The ‘Funnel Effect’ &amp; Recovered Bodies of Unauthorized Migrants Processed by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-2005.</a>” (<a href="https://zpr.io/R3wSpyVCXQhJ">https://zpr.io/R3wSpyVCXQhJ</a>) SSRN Electronic Journal. Check out more of Caitlin Dickerson's reporting for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/caitlin-dickerson/">The Atlantic</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/GAfC2nfEaBeK">https://zpr.io/GAfC2nfEaBeK</a>). Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter"><span&g

Oct 27, 2023

Border Trilogy Part 2: Hold the Line

While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left behind: a human arm, stripped of flesh. This macabre discovery sent him reeling, needing to know what exactly happened to the body, and how many migrants die that way in the wilderness. In researching border-crosser deaths in the Arizona desert, he noticed something surprising. Sometime in the late-1990s, the number of migrant deaths shot up dramatically and have stayed high since. Jason traced this increase to a Border Patrol policy still in effect, called “Prevention Through Deterrence.” First aired in 2018 and over three episodes, Radiolab investigates this policy, its surprising origins, and the people whose lives were changed forever because of it. Part 2: Hold the Line After the showdown in court with Bowie High School, Border Patrol brings in a fresh face to head its dysfunctional El Paso Sector: Silvestre Reyes. The first Mexican-American to ever hold the position, Reyes knows something needs to change and has an idea how to do it. One Saturday night at midnight, with the element of surprise on his side, Reyes unveils ... Operation Blockade. It wins widespread support for the Border Patrol in El Paso, but sparks major protests across the Rio Grande. Soon after, he gets a phone call that catapults his little experiment onto the national stage, where it works so well that it diverts migrant crossing patterns along the entire U.S.-Mexico Border. Years later, in the Arizona desert, anthropologist Jason de León realizes that in order to accurately gauge how many migrants die crossing the desert, he must first understand how human bodies decompose in such an extreme environment. He sets up a macabre experiment, and what he finds is more drastic than anything he could have expected. Special thanks to Sherrie Kossoudji at the University of Michigan, Lynn M. Morgan, Cheryl Howard, Andrew Hansen, William Sabol, Donald B. White, Daniel Martinez, Michelle Mittelstadt at the Migration Policy Institute, Former Executive Assistant to the El Paso Mayor Mark Smith, Retired Assistant Border Patrol Sector Chief Clyde Benzenhoefer, Paul Anderson, Eric Robledo, Maggie Southard Gladstone and Kate Hall. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this piece, when the episode originally published in 2018, incorrectly stated that Silvestre Reyes's brother died in a car accident in 1968; it was actually his father who died in the accident. We also omitted a detail about the 1997 GAO report that we quote, namely that it predicted that as deaths in the mountains and deserts might rise, deaths in other areas might also fall. The audio was adjusted accordingly. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser with help from - Tracie Hunte Produced by - Matt Kielty with help from - Bethel Habte, Latif Nasser EPISODE CITATIONS: Art: Jason de Leon's latest work is a global participatory art project called <a href="https://hostileterrain94.wordpress.com/about/">Hostile Terrain 94</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/dNEyVpAiNXjv" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/dNEyVpAiNXjv</a>), which will be exhibited at over 70 different locations around the world in 2020. Read more about it <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/project-exploring-migrant-deaths-in-us-aims-to-go-global/">here</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/uwDfu9bXFriv" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/uwDfu9bXFriv</a>).

Oct 20, 2023

Lord of the Climates

First, at a tree ring conference in the relatively treeless city of Tucson, Arizona, three scientists walk into a bar. The trio gets to talking, trying to explain a mysterious set of core samples from the Florida Keys. At some point, they come up with a harebrained idea: put the tree rings next to a seemingly unrelated dataset. Once they do, they notice something that no one has ever noticed before, a force of nature that helped shape modern human history and that is eerily similar to what’s happening on our planet right now. With help from pirates, astronomers and an 80-year-old bartender, this episode will change the way you look at the sun. (Warning: Do not look at the sun.) Then, we wrestle with the question of what we should be doing about climate change, or what we should even talk about. Summer 2023 was a pretty scary one for the planet. Global temperatures in June and July reached record highs. And over in the North Atlantic Sea, the water temperature spiked to off-the-chart levels. Some people figured that meant we were about to go over the edge, doomsday. In the face of this, Hank Green (a long time environmentalist and science educator behind SciShow, Crash Course, and more), took to social media to put things in context, to keep people focused on what we can do about climate change. In the process, he came across a couple studies that suggested a reduction in sulfurous smog from cargo ships may have accidentally warmed the waters. And while Hank saw a silver lining around those smog clouds, the story he told—about smog clouds and cooling waters and the problem of geoengineering—took us on a rollercoaster ride of hope and terror.

Oct 18, 202355 min

Border Trilogy Part 1: Hole in the Fence

While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left behind: a human arm, stripped of flesh. This macabre discovery sent him reeling, needing to know what exactly happened to the body, and how many migrants die that way in the wilderness. In researching border-crosser deaths in the Arizona desert, he noticed something surprising. Sometime in the late-1990s, the number of migrant deaths shot up dramatically and have stayed high since. Jason traced this increase to a Border Patrol policy still in effect, called “Prevention Through Deterrence.” In a series first aired back in 2018, over three episodes, Radiolab investigates this policy, its surprising origins, and the people whose lives were changed forever because of it. Part 1: Hole in the Fence We begin one afternoon in May 1992, when a student named Albert stumbled in late for history class at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas. His excuse: Border Patrol. Soon more stories of students getting stopped and harassed by Border Patrol started pouring in. So begins the unlikely story of how a handful of Mexican-American high schoolers in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country stood up to what is today the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency. They had no way of knowing at the time, but what would follow was a chain of events that would drastically change the US-Mexico border. Special thanks to Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Estela Reyes López, Barbara Hines, Lynn M. Morgan, Mallory Falk, Francesca Begos and Nancy Wiese from Hachette Book Group, Professor Michael Olivas at the University of Houston Law Center, and Josiah McC. Heyman at the Center for Interamerican and Border Studies. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser, Tracie Hunte Produced by - Matt Kielty with help from - Bethel Habte, Tracie Hunte, Latif Nasser CITATIONS Books: Jason De Léon’s book <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520282759/the-land-of-open-graves">The Land of Open Graves</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/vZbTarDzGQWK">https://zpr.io/vZbTarDzGQWK</a>) Timothy Dunn’s book <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292723498/">Blockading the Border and Human Rights</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/VTPWNJPusaCn">https://zpr.io/VTPWNJPusaCn</a>) Joseph Nevin's book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Operation-Gatekeeper-and-Beyond-The-War-On-Illegals-and-the-Remaking/Nevins/p/book/9780415996945">Operation Gatekeeper</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/UTnHFzRstAEw">https://zpr.io/UTnHFzRstAEw</a>) Articles: Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel, Melissa McCormick, Daniel Martinez, and Inez Duarte. 2006. “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3040107">The ‘Funnel Effect’ &amp; Recovered Bodies of Unauthorized Migrants Processed by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-2005.</a>” SSRN Electronic Journal. (<a href="https://zpr.io/R3wSpyVCXQhJ">https://zpr.io/R3wSpyVCXQhJ</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Sup

Oct 13, 2023

The Secret to a Long Life

Producer Sindhu Gnanasambandan wants to know how she can live the longest feeling life possible. The answer leads her on a journey to make one week feel like two. And the journey leads her to a whole new answer. Special thanks to Jo Eidman, Nathan Peereboom, Kristin Lin, Stacey Reimann, Ash Sanders… and an extra special thanks to Jae Minard for editorial support EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger and edited by - Pat Walters Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Oct 6, 2023

Poison Control

Originally aired in 2018, this episode features reporter Brenna Farrell as a new mom. Her son gave her and her husband a scare, prompting them to call Poison Control. For Brenna, the experience was so odd—and oddly comforting—that she decided to dive into the birth story of this invisible network of poison experts, and try to understand the evolving relationship we humans have with our poisonous planet. As we learn about how poison control has changed over the years, we end up wondering what a place devoted to data and human connection can tell us about ourselves in this cultural moment of anxiety and information-overload. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Sep 29, 2023

Smog Cloud Silver Lining

Summer 2023 was a pretty scary one for the planet. Global temperatures in June and July reached record highs. And over in the North Atlantic Sea, the water temperature spiked to off-the-chart levels. Some people figured that meant we were about to go over the edge—doomsday. In the face of this, Hank Green (a long time environmentalist and science educator behind <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZYTClx2T1of7BRZ86-8fow" target="_blank">SciShow</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6b17PVsYBQ0ip5gyeme-Q" target="_blank">Crash Course</a>, and more), took to social media to put things in context andto keep people focused on what we can do about climate change. In the process, he came across a couple studies that suggested a reduction in sulfurous smog from cargo ships may have accidentally warmed the waters. And while Hank saw a silver lining around those smog clouds, the story he told—about smog clouds and cooling waters and the problem of geoengineering—took us on a rollercoaster ride of hope and terror. Ultimately, we had to wrestle with the question of what we should be doing about climate change, or what we should even talk about. Special thanks to Dr. Colin Carson and Avishay Artsy. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Miller with help from - Alyssa Jeong Perry Production help from - Alyssa Jeong Perry Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Edited by - N/A CITATIONS: Videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SciShow" target="_blank">Sci Show</a> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SciShow">https://www.youtube.com/@SciShow</a>) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/crashcourse" target="_blank">Crash Course</a> (https://www.youtube.com/crashcourse) Articles: <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/changing-clouds-unforeseen-test-geoengineering-fueling-record-ocean-warmth" target="_blank">The article Hank came across</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7">https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7</a>) Books: <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617060/under-a-white-sky-by-elizabeth-kolbert/" target="_blank">Under a White Sky</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7">https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7</a>): The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twit

Sep 22, 2023

Driverless Dilemma

Most of us would sacrifice one person to save five. It’s a pretty straightforward bit of moral math. But if we have to actually kill that person ourselves, the math gets fuzzy. That’s the lesson of the classic Trolley Problem, a moral puzzle that fried our brains in an episode we did almost 20 years ago, then updated again in 2017. Historically, the questions posed by The Trolley Problem are great for thought experimentation and conversations at a certain kind of cocktail party. Now, new technologies are forcing that moral quandary out of our philosophy departments and onto our streets. So today, we revisit the Trolley Problem and wonder how a two-ton hunk of speeding metal will make moral calculations about life and death that still baffle its creators. Special thanks to Iyad Rahwan, Edmond Awad and Sydney Levine from the Moral Machine group at MIT. Also thanks to Fiery Cushman, Matthew DeBord, Sertac Karaman, Martine Powers, Xin Xiang, and Roborace for all of their help. Thanks to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism students who collected the vox: Chelsea Donohue, Ivan Flores, David Gentile, Maite Hernandez, Claudia Irizarry-Aponte, Comice Johnson, Richard Loria, Nivian Malik, Avery Miles, Alexandra Semenova, Kalah Siegel, Mark Suleymanov, Andee Tagle, Shaydanay Urbani, Isvett Verde and Reece Williams. EPISODE CREDITS Reported and produced by - Amanda Aronczyk and Bethel Habte Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Sep 15, 2023

Born This Way?

Today, the story of an idea. An idea that some people need, others reject, and one that will, ultimately, be hard to let go of. Special Thanks to Carl Zimmer, Eric Turkheimer, Andrea Ganna, Chandler Burr, Jacques Balthazart, Sean Mckeithan, Joe Osmundson, Jennifer Brier, Daniel Levine-Spound, Maddie Sofia, Elie Mystal, Heather Radke EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Matt Kielty Produced by - Matt Kielty Original music and sound design contributed by - Matt Kielty with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos: Lisa Diamond - <a href="https://psych.utah.edu/news/lisa-diamond-ted.php">Born This Way, TEDx</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/WJedDGLVkTNF" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/WJedDGLVkTNF</a>) Books: Joanna Wuest - <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo201362155.html">Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/rYPwyhNHtgXe" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/rYPwyhNHtgXe</a>) Dean Hamer - <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Science-of-Desire/Dean-Hamer/9780684804460">The Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/3FuKZyu2bgwE" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/3FuKZyu2bgwE</a>) Lisa Diamond - <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032262">Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Desire and Love</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/cj3ZSLC2xccJ" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/cj3ZSLC2xccJ</a>) Edward Stein - <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-mismeasure-of-desire-9780195142440?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/UQfdNtyE3RtQ" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/UQfdNtyE3RtQ</a>) Chandler Burr - <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780786860814/Separate-Creation-Search-Biological-Origins-0786860812/plp">A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/GKUDhyfNacUf" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/GKUDhyfNacUf</a>) Jacques Balthazart - <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/9450">The Biology of Homosexuality</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https:

Sep 8, 2023

The Existential Crisis of Space

Can you make your own universe? We usually think of the universe as 'everything that exists,' so how could you make another one? Turns out, all it might require is a tiny black hole, a dash of reverse-gravity, and a lot of luck. But the laws of physics don't rule it out.

Sep 6, 202355 min

Touch at a Distance

In this episode from 2007, we take you on a tour of language, music, and the properties of sound. We look at what sound does to our bodies, our brains, our feelings… and we go back to the reason we at Radiolab tell you stories the way we do. First, we look at Diana Deutsch’s work on language and music, and how certain languages seem to promote musicality in humans. Then we meet Psychologist Anne Fernald and listen to parents as they talk to their babies across languages and cultures. Last, we go to 1913 Paris and sneak into the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s score of The Rite of Spring. Check out Diana Deutsch's 'Audio Illusions' <a href="https://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=201">here (https://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=201). </a> Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a>Correction: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated the dates of two performances of “Rite of Spring” and the time that passed between them. The performance that inspired rioting occurred on May 29th, 1913. The second performance that we discussed occurred in April of 1914. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact. <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Correction: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated that the “Rite of Spring” was used in the movie “Fantasia” during the part that featured mushrooms. It was in fact used during the part that featured dinosaurs. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact. <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Sep 1, 2023

Rumble Strip: Finn and the Bell

A couple years ago, our producer Annie McEwen listened to an audio documentary that, she said, “tore my heart wide open.” That episode , <a href="https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/episodes/422" target="_blank">“Finn and the Bell,”</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/TDjwQuXFDSz6">https://zpr.io/TDjwQuXFDSz6</a>) by independent producer Erica Heilman (maker of the podcast Rumble Strip), went on to win some of the biggest awards in audio (<a href="https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/finn-and-the-bell/" target="_blank">including a Peabody</a>, <a href="https://zpr.io/tu4hwhKQ3TWN">https://zpr.io/tu4hwhKQ3TWN</a>), and the rest of the staff finally got around to listening, and it tore our hearts wide open, too. It’s a story about a death, but as so many of the best stories about death tend to be, it ends up mainly being about life, in this case, the life of a small town in far northern Vermont, the town where Erica lives and makes her show. We think you’ll like it. You can find more than 200 other episodes of Rumble Strip <a href="https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/" target="_blank">here</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/dwGNnSFmAEFX">https://zpr.io/dwGNnSFmAEFX</a>). Erica’s episode about <a href="https://www.thecivicstandard.org/" target="_blank">The Civic Standard</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/GJMP95QENFKq">https://zpr.io/GJMP95QENFKq</a>), the community organization started by Finn’s mom Tara Reese and her friend Rose Friedman, is <a href="https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/episodes/the-civic-standard" target="_blank">here</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/9HL9mpZT4LTM">https://zpr.io/9HL9mpZT4LTM</a>). A follow-up episode to “Finn and the Bell” is <a href="https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/episodes/445" target="_blank">here</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/ycxSU7ceDXNi">https://zpr.io/ycxSU7ceDXNi</a>). The episode Lulu mentions about the camp for people with and without disabilities is <a href="https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/episodes/2021/08/camp-zeno" target="_blank">here</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/cnyyUWrfQJey">https://zpr.io/cnyyUWrfQJey</a>). Special thanks to Clare Dolan, Tobin Anderson, Amelia Meath and of course, Tara Reese 🥚. Rumble Strip is a member of Hub and Spoke, a collective of independent podcasts from around the country. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Erica Heilman Produced by - Erica Heilman If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, there’s help available. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-TALK. There’s also a live chat option <a target="_blank" class="c-link" data-stringify-link="http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/" delay="150" data-sk="tooltip_parent" href="http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">on their website</a>(http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/). Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.ra

Aug 25, 2023

The Wubi Effect

When we think of China today, we think of a technological superpower. From Huawei and 5G to TikTok and viral social media, China is stride for stride with the United States in the world of computing. However, China’s technological renaissance almost didn’t happen. And for one very basic reason: The Chinese language, with its 70,000 plus characters, couldn’t fit on a keyboard. Today, we tell the story of Professor Wang Yongmin, a hard headed computer programmer who solved this puzzle and laid the foundation for the China we know today. Episode Credits Reported by Simon Adler Produced by Simon Adler THE DETAILS TO SIMON ADLER’S LIVE SHOW! For People in Chicago Simon will be performing at the Chicago at the Frank Lloyd Wright Unity Temple on <a href="https://www.wbez.org/events/mixtapes-to-the-moon-how-the-cassette-changed-the-world-8pm-show/290">Saturday, September 30th</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/jePmFHyKUqiM">https://zpr.io/jePmFHyKUqiM</a>). For People in Boston Simon performs at the WBUR City Space on <a href="https://www.wbur.org/events/871959/radiolab-live-how-the-cassette-changed-the-world">Friday, December 8th</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/jePmFHyKUqiM">https://zpr.io/jePmFHyKUqiM</a>). Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Aug 18, 2023

The Internet Dilemma

Matthew Herrick was sitting on his stoop in Harlem when something weird happened. Then, it happened again. And again. It happened so many times that it became an absolute nightmare—a nightmare that haunted his life daily and flipped it completely upside down. What stood between Matthew and help were 26 little words. These 26 words, known as Section 230, are the core of an Internet law that coats the tech industry in Teflon. No matter what happens, who gets hurt, or what harm is done, tech companies can’t be held responsible for the things that happen on their platforms. Section 230 affects the lives of an untold number of people like Matthew, and makes the Internet a far more ominous place for all of us. But also, in a strange twist, it’s what keeps the whole thing up and running in the first place. Why do we have this law? And more importantly, why can’t we just delete it? Special thanks to James Grimmelmann, Eric Goldman, Naomi Leeds, Jeff Kosseff, Carrie Goldberg, and Kashmir Hill. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Rachael Cusick Produced by - Rachael Cusick and Simon Adler with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton Edited by - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles: Kashmir Hill’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/technology/change-my-google-results.html" target="_blank">story</a> introduced us to Section 230. Books: Jeff Kosseff’s book <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501714412/the-twenty-six-words-that-created-the-internet/" target="_blank">The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet</a> (https://zpr.io/8ara6vtQVTuK) is a fantastic biography of Section 230 To read more about Carrie Goldberg’s work, <a href="https://www.cagoldberglaw.com/" target="_blank">head to her website</a> (https://www.cagoldberglaw.com/) or check out her book <a href="https://www.nobodys-victim.com/" target="_blank">Nobody's Victim</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/Ra9mXtT9eNvb">https://zpr.io/Ra9mXtT9eNvb</a>). Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foun

Aug 11, 2023

Ripples in Space

This week, Radiolab dives into one of the largest extraterrestrial impact events in Earth’s history. But what kind of impact—what exactly struck the earth in the middle of Siberia?—is still up for debate. The culprit is so mysterious, so powerful, so… tiny, you won’t believe your ears.

Aug 9, 202355 min

Right to be Forgotten

In online news, stories live forever. The tipsy photograph of you at the college football game? It’s there. That news article about the political rally you were marching at? It’s there. A charge for driving under the influence? That’s there, too. But what if... it wasn’t? Several years ago a group of journalists in Cleveland, Ohio, tried an experiment that had the potential to turn things upside down: they started unpublishing content they’d already published. Photographs, names, entire articles. Every month or so, they met to decide what content stayed, and what content went. In this episode from 2019, Senior Correspondent Molly Webster takes us inside the room where the editors decided who, or what, got to be deleted. And we talk about how the “right to be forgotten” has spread and grown in the years since. It’s a story about time and memory, mistakes and second chances, and society as we know it. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John

Aug 4, 2023

Little Black Holes Everywhere

In 1908, on a sunny, clear, quiet morning in Siberia, witnesses recall seeing a blinding light streak across the sky, and then … the earth shook, a forest was flattened, fish were thrown from streams, and roofs were blown off houses. The “Tunguska event,” as it came to be known, was one of the largest extraterrestrial impact events in Earth’s history. But what kind of impact—what exactly struck the earth in the middle of Siberia—is still up for debate. Producer Annie McEwen dives into one idea that suggests a culprit so mysterious, so powerful, so … tiny, you won’t believe your ears. And stranger still, it may be in you right now. Or, according to Senior Correspondent Molly Webster, it could be you. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Annie McEwen and Molly Webster Produced by - Annie McEwen and Becca Bressler with help from - Matt Kielty Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom, Annie McEwen, Matt Kielty Mixing by - Jeremy Bloom with dialogue mixing by - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and edited by - Alex Neason GUESTS <a href="https://www.mattodowd.space/" target="_blank">Matt O’Dowd</a> (https://www.mattodowd.space/) Special Thanks: Special thanks to, Matthew E. Caplan, Brian Greene, Priyamvada Natarajan, Almog Yalinewich EPISODE CITATIONS Videos: Watch “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/what-happens-if-a-black-hole-hits-earth-427p42/" target="_blank">PBS Space Time</a>,” (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/GNhVAWDday49" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/GNhVAWDday49</a>) the groovy show and side-gig of physicist and episode guest Matt O’Dowd Articles: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event" target="_blank">Read more</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/J4cKYG5uTgNf" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/J4cKYG5uTgNf</a>) about the Tunguska impact event! Check out <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.00033" target="_blank">the paper</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/vZxkKtGQczBL" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/vZxkKtGQczBL</a>), which considers the shape of the crater a primordial black hole would make, should it hit earth: “Crater Morphology of Primordial Black Hole Impacts” Curious to learn more about black holes possibly being dark matter? You can <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.08701" target="_blank">in the paper (<span data-sheets-value='{"1":2,"2":"https://zpr.io/sPpuSwhGFkDJ"}' data-sheets-userformat='{"2":513,"3":{"1":0},"12":0}' data-sheets-hyperl

Jul 28, 2023

The Right Stuff

Since the beginning of the space program, we’ve expected astronauts to be fully-abled athletic overachievers—one-part science geeks, two-part triathletes—a mix the writer Tom Wolfe called “the right stuff.” But what if, this whole time, we’ve had it wrong? In this episode from 2022, reporter Andrew Leland joins blind Linguistics Professor Sheri Wells-Jensen and a crew of 11 other disabled people. They embark on a mission to prove not just that they have what it takes to go to space, but that disability gives them an edge. On Mission AstroAccess, the crew members hop on an airplane to take a zero-gravity flight—the same NASA uses to train astronauts. With them, we learn that the challenges to making space accessible may not be the ones we thought. And Andrew, who is legally blind, confronts unexpected conclusions of his own. By the way, Andrew’s new book is out. In <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635964/the-country-of-the-blind-by-andrew-leland/">The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/nLZ8H" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/nLZ8H</a>), Andrew recounts his transition from sighted to blind. Suspended between anxiety and anticipation, he also begins to explore the many facets of blindness as a culture. It’s well worth a read. Read the article by Sheri Wells-Jensen, published in The Scientific American in 2018. “<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-case-for-disabled-astronauts/">The Case for Disabled Astronaut</a>” (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/nLZ8H" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/nLZ8H</a>). This episode was reported by Andrew Leland and produced by María Paz Gutiérrez, Matt Kielty and Pat Walters. Jeremy Bloom contributed music and sound design. Production sound recording by Dan McCoy.Special thanks to William Pomerantz, Sheyna Gifford, Jim Vanderploeg, Tim Bailey, and Bill Barry Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. <hr> Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jul 21, 2023

The Fellowship of the Tree Rings

At a tree ring conference in the relatively treeless city of Tucson, Arizona, three scientists walk into a bar. The trio gets to talking, trying to explain a mysterious set of core samples from the Florida Keys. At some point, they come up with a harebrained idea: put the tree rings next to a seemingly unrelated dataset. Once they do, they notice something that no one has ever noticed before, a force of nature that helped shape modern human history and that is eerily similar to what’s happening on our planet right now. With help from pirates, astronomers and an 80-year-old bartender, this episode will change the way you look at the sun. (Warning: Do not look at the sun.) Special thanks to Scott St George, Nathaniel Millett, Michael Charles Stambaugh, Justin Maxwell, Clay Tucker, Willem Klooster, Kevin Anchukaitis EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Latif Nasser with help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keeys and Maria Paz Gutiérrez Produced by - Maria Paz Gutiérrez and Pat Walters with help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keeys and Sachi Mulkey Mixed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Edited by - Pat Walters CITATIONS: Books: <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12044/tree-story">Tree Story</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/ULX279uzgW9q">https://zpr.io/ULX279uzgW9q</a>) by Valerie Trouet <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/322123/sweetness-and-power-by-sidney-w-mintz/">Sweetness and Power</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/cUEGqGGWMSaQ">https://zpr.io/cUEGqGGWMSaQ</a>) by Sidney Mintz Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jul 14, 2023

Man Against Horse

This is a story about your butt. It’s a story about how you got your butt, why you have your butt, and how your butt might be one of the most important and essential things for you being you, for being human. In this episode from 2019, Reporter Heather Radke and Producer Matt Kielty talk to two researchers who followed the butt from our ancient beginnings through millions of years of evolution, all the way to today, out to a valley in Arizona, where our butts are put to the ultimate test. Special thanks to Michelle Legro. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Heather Radke and Matt Kielty Produced by - Matt Kielty with help from - Simon Adler and Rachael Cusick Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Dorie Chevlen EPISODE CITATIONS: Books: <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Butts/Heather-Radke/9781982135492" target="_blank">Butts</a> by Heather Radke Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jul 7, 2023

The Cataclysm Sentence

Sad news for all of us: producer Rachael Cusick, who brought us soul-stirring stories rethinking <a href="https://radiolab.org/podcast/queen-dying" target="_blank">grief</a> and <a href="https://radiolab.org/podcast/alone-enough" target="_blank">solitude</a>, as well as colorful musings on <a href="https://radiolab.org/podcast/flight-christmas" target="_blank">airplane farts</a> and <a href="https://radiolab.org/podcast/flop" target="_blank">belly flops</a> and <a href="https://radiolab.org/podcast/asking-friend" target="_blank">Blueberry Earths</a>, is leaving the show. So we thought it perfect timing to sit down with her and revisit another brainchild of hers, The Cataclysm Sentence, a collection of advice for The End. To explain: one day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” Now, Feynman had an answer to his own question—a good one. But his question got the entire team at Radiolab wondering, what did his sentence leave out? So we posed Feynman’s cataclysm question to some of our favorite writers, artists, historians, futurists—all kinds of great thinkers. We asked them “What’s the one sentence you would want to pass on to the next generation that would contain the most information in the fewest words?” What came back was an explosive collage of what it means to be alive right here and now, and what we want to say before we go. <h2> Featuring:</h2> Richard Feynman, physicist - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780465023950" target="_blank">The Pleasure of Finding Things Out</a> Caitlin Doughty, mortician - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393652703">Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs</a> Esperanza Spalding, musician - <a href="http://esperanzaspalding.limitedrun.com/" target="_blank">12 Little Spells</a> Cord Jefferson, writer - <a href="https://www.hbo.com/watchmen" target="_blank">Watchmen</a> Merrill Garbus, musician - <a href="https://tune-yards.com/#album" target="_blank">I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life</a> Jenny Odell, writer - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781612197494" target="_blank">How to do Nothing</a> Maria Popova, writer - <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/" target="_blank">Brainpickings</a> Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250132253" target="_blank">The Gardener and the Carpenter</a> Rebecca Sugar, animator - <a href="https://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/steven-universe/index.html" target="_blank">Steven Universe</a> Nicholson Baker, writer - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399160998" target="_blank">Substitute</a> James Gleick, writer - <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307908797" target="_blank">Time Travel</a> Lady Pink, artist - <a href="http://www.ladypinknyc.com/" target="_blank"><span&gt

Jun 30, 2023

Gone Viral

First, an evolutionary nightmare inside a single Covid patient. Then, the story of an ancient showdown between fungus and mammals that started when dinosaurs disappeared from the earth. Back then, the battle swung in our favor (spoiler alert!) and we’ve been hanging onto that win ever since. But one scientist suggests that the rise of this new infectious fungus indicates our edge is slipping, degree by increasing degree.

Jun 28, 202355 min

Americanish

Given reporter Julia Longoria’s long love affair with the Supreme Court, it’s no surprise she’s become the new host of <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/MorePerfect?sid=radiolab">More Perfect</a> (https://zpr.io/4R9fMg9gJ96k), a show all about how the Supreme Court got to be so… supreme. This week, we talk to Julia about her journey to the host seat, and we highlight an episode she produced for Radiolab in 2019 about a specific case: González v. Williams. In 1903 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to say that Isabel González was a citizen of the United States. Then again, they said, she wasn’t exactly an immigrant either. And they said that the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, Isabel’s home, was “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense.” Since then, the U.S. has cleared up at least some of the confusion about U.S. territories and the status of people born in them. But, more than a hundred years later, there is still a U.S. territory that has been left in limbo: American Samoa. It is the only place on Earth that is U.S. soil, but people who are born there are not automatically U.S. citizens. When we visit American Samoa, we discover that there are some pretty surprising reasons why many American Samoans prefer it that way. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Julia Longoria Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jun 23, 2023

Love Is in the Air

Love is in the air as we take to the skies this week, following a group of seagulls from the 1970s that rocked our understanding of what's natural in animals, and in us. Then, high above the banks of the Mississippi River, a nest holds the secret life of one of America's most patriotic creatures.

Jun 21, 202355 min

Beware the Sand Striker

Shipworms. Hairy Chested Yeti Crabs. Parasitic Barnacles in the cloaca of Greenland Sharks. These are the types of creatures Sabrina Imbler, a columnist at Defector, likes to write about. The stranger, the better. In this episode, Imbler discusses how they balance maintaining scientific rigor while also drawing inspiration and metaphor from the animal world. Then they read a stirring essay from their new book, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sabrina-imbler/how-far-the-light-reaches/9780316540513/?lens=little-brown" target="_blank">How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures</a> . It’s about the sand striker, one of the ocean’s most gruesome predators, and the various prey that surround it. In learning about the relationships between predator and prey lurking in the murky bottom, Imbler ends up unearthing new insights about predation in human society. The essay deals with sexual assault so listen with care. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Lulu Miller Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan Original music and sound design contributed by - Alex Overington with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom and Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Edited by - Alex Neason and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS Articles: “<a href="https://defector.com/category/animals/creaturefector" target="_blank">Creaturefector</a>” (<a href="https://zpr.io/3myWi4grgkGB">https://zpr.io/3myWi4grgkGB</a>) by Sabrina Imbler Books: <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sabrina-imbler/how-far-the-light-reaches/9780316540513/?lens=little-brown" target="_blank">How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/agkRj7xyPG9T">https://zpr.io/agkRj7xyPG9T</a>) by Sabrina Imbler <a href="https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/dyke-geology/" target="_blank">Dyke (geology)</a> (<a href="https://zpr.io/7kAtAKjdBqPa">https://zpr.io/7kAtAKjdBqPa</a>) by Sabrina Imbler Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.</s

Jun 16, 2023

Eye in the Sky

Ross McNutt has a superpower: he can zoom in on everyday life, then rewind and fast-forward to solve crimes in a shutter-flash. But should he? In 2004, when casualties in Iraq were rising due to roadside bombs, Ross McNutt and his team came up with an idea. With a small plane and a 44 megapixel camera, they figured out how to watch an entire city all at once, all day long. Whenever a bomb detonated, they could zoom into that spot and then, because this eye in the sky had been there all along, they could scroll back in time and see—literally see—who planted it. After the war, Ross McNutt retired from the Air Force, and brought this technology back home with him. Manoush Zomorodi and Alex Goldmark (from the podcast Note to Self) give us the lowdown on Ross’ unique brand of persistent surveillance, from Juarez, Mexico to Dayton, Ohio. Then, once we realize what we can do, we wonder whether we should. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jun 9, 2023

The Seagulls

In the 1970s, as LGBTQ+ people in the United States faced conservatives whose top argument was that homosexuality is “unnatural,” a pair of young scientists discovered on a tiny island off the coast of California a colony of seagulls that included… a significant number of female homosexual couples making nests and raising chicks together. The article that followed upended the culture’s understanding of what’s natural and took the discourse on homosexuality in a whole new direction. In this episode, our co-Host Lulu Miller grapples with the impact of this and several other studies about animal queerness on her life as a queer person. Special thanks to the <a href="https://www.historyisgaypodcast.com/">History is Gay</a> (https://www.historyisgaypodcast.com/) podcast. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Lulu Miller with help from - Sarah Qari Produced by - Sarah Qari Original sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Edited by - Becca Bressler Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Jun 2, 2023

On the Edge

At the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, one athlete pulled a move that, as far as we know, no one else had ever attempted. In this episode, first aired in the Spring of 2016, we tell you about Surya Bonaly. Surya was not your typical figure skater: she is black, she is athletic, and she didn’t seem to care about artistry. Her performances—punctuated by triple jumps and other power moves—thrilled audiences around the world. Yet commentators claimed she couldn’t skate and judges never gave her high marks. But Surya didn’t accept that criticism. Unlike her competitors—ice princesses who hid behind demure smiles—Surya made her feelings known. Then, during her final Olympic performance, she attempted one jump that flew in the face of the establishment and marked her for life as a rebel. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

May 26, 2023

Dusty Docs

This is the story of a few documents that tumbled out of the secret archives of the biggest empire the world has ever known, offering a glimpse of histories waiting to be rewritten. Just down the road from a pub in rural Hanslope Park, England is a massive building—the secret archives of the biggest empire the world has ever known. This is the story of a few documents that tumbled out and offered a glimpse of histories waiting to be rewritten. When professor Caroline Elkins came across a stray document left by the British colonial government in Nairobi, Kenya, she opened the door to a new reckoning with the history of one of Britain's colonial crown jewels, and the fearsome group of rebels known as the Mau Mau. We talk to historians, archivists, journalists and send our producer Jamie York to visit the Mau Mau. As the new history of Kenya is concealed and revealed, document by document, we wonder what else lies in wait among the miles of records hidden away in Hanslope Park. Produced by Matt Kielty with reporting from Jamie York Special thanks to: Mattathias Schwartz for first bringing us this story. Martin Mavenjina and Faith Alubbe of the <a href="http://www.khrc.or.ke/" target="_blank">Kenyan Human Rights Commission</a>. Nyakinyua Kenda for the use of their music, Rose Mutiso and Anne Moko for translation help, and Sruthi Pinnamaneni for production support.

May 24, 202355 min

Family People

In 2021, editor Alex Neason's grandfather passed away. On his funeral program, she learned the name of his father for the first time: Wilson Howard. Not Neason. Howard. And when she asked her family why his last name was different from everybody else's, nobody had an answer. In this episode, we tag along as Alex searches for answers through swampy cemeteries, libraries, and archives in the heart of south Louisiana: who was her great grandfather, really? Is she supposed to be a Neason? Where did the name Neason come from, anyways? And is a name something whose weight you have to shed, or is it the only path forward into the future? Special thanks to, Cheryl Neason-Isidore, Karen Neason Dykes, Johari Neason, Keaun Neason, Kevin Neason, Anthony Neason, the late Clarence Neason Sr. and Anthony Neason, Clarence Neason Jr., Olivia Neason, Tori Neason, Orelia Amelia Jackson, Russell Gragg, Victor Yvellez, Asher Griffith, Devan Schwartz, Myrriah Gossett, Sabrina Thomas, Nancy Richard, Katie Neason, Amanda Hayden, Gabriel Lee, Paul Brandenburg, Justin Flynn, Mark Miller, Kenny Bentley, Jason Isaac, Irene Trudel, Bill Hyland, the staff members at the Orleans Parish, East Feliciana Parish, and Plaquemines Parish Clerk of Court offices. Episode Credits: Reported by - Alex Neason with help from - Nicka Sewell-Smith Produced by - Annie McEwen with help from - Andrew Viñales Music performed by - Jason Isaac, Paul Brandenburg, Justin Fynn, Mark Miller, and Kenny Bentley with engineering and mixing help from - Arianne Wack and Irene Trudel Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger Episode Citations: Audio - You can listen to the episode of <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/la-brega/articles/boricua-en-la-luna-moons-distance">La Brega</a> (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/p5EcBJyU2dfJ" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/p5EcBJyU2dfJ</a>), in English and in Spanish. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

May 19, 2023

Clawing Back From the Brink

Two tales of the not-so-cute and cuddly clawing their way back from extinction. First, crabs that survive chaos, expand the possibilities of evolutionary destiny, and teach us something about how to live. Then, the mystery of a thousands years-old burial practice brought abruptly to a halt, and the health of all the world’s ecosystems held in the wings of a...vulture.

May 17, 202355 min

The War on Our Shore

Foreign enemies have seldom brought war to U.S. soil… right? In this episode from 2017, we tell you strange stories of foreign enemies landing on our shore. From bombs floating across the country without a sound (or even a discussion), to Nazi prisoners of war leading placid lives in towns nationwide, listen to how war quietly wormed its way into the heartland of the United States. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

May 12, 2023

Ologies: Dark Matters

Testudinology. Enigmatology. Hagfishology. Raccoonology. Meteorology. Chronobiology. Chickenology. Delphinology. Bryology. Vampirology. Zymology. Echinology. Screamology. Melaninology. Dolorology. In this episode, we introduce you to one of our all-time favorite science podcasts. Ologies. A show that’s a kindred spirit to ours, but also… very different. In each episode, Host <a href="http://www.alieward.com">Alie Ward</a> interviews a brilliant, charming ologist, and wanders with them deep into their research, quirky facts they’ve learned throughout their career and their personal motivations for studying what they study. “It’s all over the map,” she says. And we love it. To give you a taste of the show, we’re playing her ep on scotohylology, the study of dark matter, with UC-Riverside <a href="https://particle.ucr.edu/#:~:text=Flip%20Tanedo%20is%20an%20associate,our%20fundamental%20understanding%20of%20nature.">theoretical particle physicist Flip Tanedo</a> (https://zpr.io/FJWL4NtH5Wsi). If you like it, you can find more than 300 more episodes of Ologies at <a href="http://ologies.com">ologies.com</a>. Episode Credits Reported by - Alie Ward Produced by - Pat Walters with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (<a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">https://radiolab.org/newsletter</a>)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

May 5, 2023

The Golden Rule

At first glance, Golden Balls was just like all the other game shows — quick-witted host, flashy set, suspenseful music. But underneath all that, each episode asked a very serious question: can you ever really trust another person? Executive producer Andy Rowe explains how the show used a whole lot of money and a simple set of rules to force us to face the fact that being good might not end well. The result was a show that could shake your faith in humanity — until one mild-mannered fellow unveiled a very unusual strategy, and suddenly, it was a whole new ball game. With help from Nick Corrigan and Ibrahim Hussein, we take a closer look at one of the strangest moments in game show history. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected] </a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"></a><a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Apr 28, 2023

Corpse Demon

Heaven and hell, Judgement Day, monotheism — these ideas all came from one ancient Persian religion: Zoroastrianism. Also: Sky Burials. Zoroastrians put their dead on top of a structure called The Tower of Silence where vultures devour the body in a matter of hours. It’s clean, efficient, eco-friendly. It’s how it’s been for thousands of years. Until 2006. That’s when a Zoroastrian woman living in Mumbai snuck up into the tower and found bloated, rotting bodies everywhere. The vultures were gone. And not just at the tower — all across the country. In this episode, we follow the Kenyan bird biologist, Munir Virani, as he gets to the bottom of this. A mystery whose stakes are not just the end of an ancient burial practice, but the health of all the world’s ecosystems. The answer, in unexpected ways, points back to us. Special thanks to Daniel Solomon, Peter Wilson, Samik Bindu, Vibhu Prakash, Heather Natola and the Rapture Trust in New Jersey, and Avir’s uncle Hoshang Mulla, who told him about this story over Thanksgiving dinner. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Avir Mitra with help from - Sindhu Gnanasambandan Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan with help from - Pat Walters Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Edited by - Pat Walters Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. <hr> Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Apr 21, 2023

Abortion Pills, Take Two

Abortion pills — a combo of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol — are on notice: on April 7, 2023, a federal judge said the FDA’s approval of mifepristone was invalid. And then, not more than an hour later, another federal judge in a separate case said that mifepristone had to stay on the market in certain states. With these two contradictory rulings, mifepristone — and medical abortion, in general — is in the crosshairs. So, today, we want to rewind to an episode we made last year. It looks at these two drugs over the last 40 years, from their origin stories and development, to how their administration from doctors to patients keeps evolving. This story, for us, started… Special thanks to Mariana Prandini Assis and Pam Belluck. EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Molly Webster, Avir Mitra Produced by Sarah Qari with mixing help from - Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Edited by - Becca Bressler CITATIONS: Articles: From one of our sources, Abigail Aiken: “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(22)00017-5/fulltext">Safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine in the United States: A population based study</a>” (<a class="in-cell-link" href="https://zpr.io/kG3hNFXM4kb9" target="_blank">https://zpr.io/kG3hNFXM4kb9</a>) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. <a href="https://radiolab.org/newsletter">Sign up</a> (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of <a href="http://members.radiolab.org">The Lab</a> (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on <a href="http://instagram.com/radiolab">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/radiolab">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/radiolab">Facebook</a> @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> <hr> <a href="mailto:[email protected]"> </a>Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Apr 14, 2023