Radiolab

Author: WNYC Studios

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A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder.

WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including On the Media, Snap Judgment, Death, Sex & Money, Nancy and Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin.

© WNYC Studios

226 Episodes

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The Beauty Puzzle

When a female animal is checking out her prospects, natural selection would dictate that she pay attention to how healthy, or strong, or fit he is. But when it comes to finding a mate, some animals seem to be engaged in a very different game. What if a female were looking for something else - something that has nothing to do with fitness? Something...beautiful? Today we explore a different way of looking at evolution and what it may mean for the course of science.This episode was reported by Robert Krulwich and Bethel Habte and was produced by Bethel Habte.Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

The Beauty Puzzle

2019-02-0800:44:0358

More Perfect: Sex Appeal

With Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the news and on the big screen recently, we decided to play the More Perfect show about her from back in November of 2017. This is the story of how Ginsburg, as a young lawyer at the ACLU, convinced an all-male Supreme Court to take discrimination against women seriously - using a case on discrimination against men. This episode was reported by Julia Longoria.Special thanks to Stephen Wiesenfeld, Alison Keith, and Bob Darcy.Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez®, a free law project in collaboration with the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

More Perfect: Sex Appeal

2019-01-2300:55:2980

John Scott was the professional hockey player that every fan loved to hate. A tough guy. A brawler. A goon. But when an impish pundit named Puck Daddy called on fans to vote for Scott to play alongside the world’s greatest players in the NHL All-Star Game, Scott found himself facing off against fans, commentators, and the powers that be. Was this the realization of Scott’s childhood dreams? Or a nightmarish prank gone too far? Today on Radiolab, a goof on a goon turns into a parable of the agony and the ecstasy of the internet, and democracy in the age of Boaty McBoatface.This episode was reported by Latif Nasser and was produced by Matt Kielty.Special thanks to Larry Lynch. Check out John Scott's "Dropping the Gloves" podcast and his book "A Guy Like Me".Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

The Punchline

2019-01-1600:53:41119

BONUS: Radiolab Scavenger Hunt

The question we get more than any other here at Radiolab is “Where do all those stories come from?” Today, for the first time ever, we divulge our secret recipe for story-finding. Veteran Radiolab story scout Latif Nasser takes our newest producer Rachael Cusick along for what he calls “the world’s biggest scavenger hunt.” Together, they’ll make you want to bake some cookies and find some true stories. But we can’t find, much less tell, true stories without you. Find it in yourself to donate and help us make another year of this possible. It's a choice only you can make. Radiolab.org/support Here are story-finding resources mentioned in this episode:The World's Biggest Scavenger Hunt: Latif's Transom post on story scoutingGoogle Alerts: Set up your own!Wikipedia Random Article: Play wiki roulette by clicking "random article" in the far-left columnWorldCat: to find where a book exists in a library near youArchiveGrid: to search libraries' special collections and oral historiesTrade Publications: Search for trade magazines by industryCusick Cookies: Rachael's cookie recipe...you're welcome.

BONUS: Radiolab Scavenger Hunt

2018-12-2800:18:1648

A Clockwork Miracle

As legend goes, in 1562, King Philip II needed a miracle. So he commissioned one from a highly-skilled clockmaker. In this short, a king's deal with God leads to an intricate mechanical creation, and Jad heads to the Smithsonian to investigate. When the 17-year-old crown prince of Spain, Don Carlos, fell down a set of stairs in 1562, he threw his whole country into a state of uncertainty about the future. Especially his father, King Philip II, who despite being the most powerful man in the world, was helpless in the face of his heir's terrible head wound. When none of the leading remedies of the day--bleeding, blistering, purging, or drilling--helped, the king enlisted the help of a relic...the corpse of a local holy man who had died 100 years earlier. Then, Philip II promised that if God saved his son, he'd repay him with a miracle of his own.Elizabeth King, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, describes how--according to legend--Philip II held up his end of the bargain with the help of a renowned clockmaker and an intricate invention. Jad and Latif head to the Smithsonian to meet curator Carlene E. Stephens, who shows them the inner workings of a nearly 450-year-old monkbot. This episode was reported by Latif Nasser. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

A Clockwork Miracle

2018-12-2700:22:4741

How do you fix a word that’s broken? A word we need when we bump into someone on the street, or break someone’s heart. In our increasingly disconnected secular world, “sorry” has been stretched and twisted, and in some cases weaponized. But it’s also one of the only ways we have to piece together a sense of shared values and beliefs. Through today's sea of sorry-not-sorries, empty apologies, and just straight up non-apologies, we wonder what it looks like to make amends.The program at Stanford that Leilani went through (and now works for) was a joint creation between Stanford and Lee Taft. Find out more here: www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/patient-family-resources/pearlThis episode was reported by Annie McEwen and was produced by Annie McEwen and Simon Adler. Special thanks to Mark Bressler, Nancy Kielty, and Patty Walters. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Apologetical

2018-12-2101:00:0957

Today on Radiolab, we're playing the fourth and final episode of a series Jad worked on called UnErased: The history of conversion therapy in America.Imagine... You’re openly gay. Then, you become the leader of the largest ex-gay organization and, under your leadership, many lives are destroyed. You leave that organization, come out as gay - again - and find love. Do you deserve to be happy? This is a story of identity, making amends and John Smid’s reckoning with his life. UnErased is a series with Focus Features, Stitcher and Limina House in conjunction with the feature film, BOY ERASED. Special thanks go out to the folks at Anonymous Content for their support of UnErased. If you want to hear the whole series, you can find UnErased in all the usual podcast places. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

UnErased: Smid

2018-11-2800:51:2534

UnErased: Dr. Davison and the Gay Cure

Today on Radiolab, we're playing part of a series that Jad worked on called UnErased: The history of conversion therapy in America.The episode we're playing today, the third in the series, is one of the rarest stories of all: a man who publicly experiences a profound change of heart. This is a profile of one of the gods of psychotherapy, who through a reckoning with his own work (oddly enough in the pages of Playboy magazine), becomes the first domino to fall in science’s ultimate disowning of the “gay cure.”UnErased is a series with Focus Features, Stitcher and Limina House in conjunction with the feature film, BOY ERASED. Special thanks go out to the folks at Anonymous Content for their support of UnErased. If you want to hear the whole series, you can find UnErased in all the usual podcast places. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

UnErased: Dr. Davison and the Gay Cure

2018-11-2200:42:5831

Democracy is on the ropes. In the United States and abroad, citizens of democracies are feeling increasingly alienated, disaffected, and powerless. Some are even asking themselves a question that feels almost too dangerous to say out loud: is democracy fundamentally broken? Today on Radiolab, just a day before the American midterm elections, we ask a different question: how do we fix it? We scrutinize one proposed tweak to the way we vote that could make politics in this country more representative, more moderate, and most shocking of all, more civil. Could this one surprisingly do-able mathematical fix really turn political campaigning from a rude bloodsport to a campfire singalong? And even if we could do that, would we want to?This episode was reported by Latif Nasser, Simon Adler, Sarah Qari, Suzie Lechtenberg and Tracie Hunte, and was produced by Simon Adler, Matt Kielty, Sarah Qari, and Suzie Lechtenberg.Special thanks to Rob Richie (and everyone else at Fairvote), Don Saari, Diana Leygerman, Caroline Tolbert, Bobby Agee, Edward Still, Jim Blacksher, Allen Caton, Nikolas Bowie, John Hale, and Anna Luhrmann and the rest of the team at the Varieties of Democracy Institute in Sweden.Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate. oh...and GO VOTE!

Tweak the Vote

2018-11-0501:06:5357

War of the Worlds

It's been 80 years to the day since Orson Welles' infamous radio drama "The War of the Worlds" echoed far and wide over the airwaves. So we want to bring you back to our very first live hour, where we take a deep dive into what was one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history. "The War of the Worlds," a radio play about Martians invading New Jersey, caused panic when it originally aired, and it's continued to fool people since--from Santiago, Chile to Buffalo, New York to a particularly disastrous evening in Quito, Ecuador.Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

War of the Worlds

2018-10-3000:59:5367

Comments (343)

Jerry Griffith

Not sure how Trump's travel ban on non US citizens is the same as American Japanese concentration camps. Are you saying we should not have restricted German national Nazis from coming to the US during WWII?

Feb 16th

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Adroxlincoln

Congratz! radiolab never ceases to amaze me!

Feb 13th

Reply

Adroxlincoln

WOW! Just wow!

Feb 13th

Reply

Luke Alley

i love the show, but these social justice type topics are getting old. I got nothing against the topics themselves, civil rights are important and all, but I started listening to this show because it would spark my curiosity. there used to be more science, and psychology topics. it's just sad to me because this show used to make me feel like a kid discovering the world again while I listened on long road trips, nobody does the science stuff like you guys. I think alot of people would agree when I say that many of us came here because you guys made absolutely INCREDIBLE science episodes, like hall of fame status. this gender studies and feminism stuff just doesn't blow my mind. I'm just hearing the same stuff I hear everywhere, and thus I have to look elsewhere for intellectually enriching, and original content. radiolab is no longer either of those ):

Feb 13th

Reply

Casey Walker

Luke Alley I agree with most of this. I don't know if I am young in terms of the podcasting demographic, but I feel like there may be some preaching to the choir happening when it comes to these topics. Maybe a branch off channel would be one way to carry the torch-- not neglecting these issues, but still keeping the integrity of the original program's concept?

Feb 14th

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Paul Jollimore

this episode made me phycology wet

Feb 12th

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Cameron Walker

Robert's voice cuts out at the end of the episode (last 15 seconds)

Feb 11th

Reply

Anne Foley

thanks, I hate it. Cool story y'all

Feb 11th

Reply

yayabones82

What a fantastic episode!!!!!

Feb 9th

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ved prakash

Fabulous story. Really well made.

Feb 9th

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Ray Benitez

I love hockey. Awesome job, great to hear the back story, and John Scott sounds like a gentleman.

Feb 9th

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Holly Noel

Keeps stopping after the ad

Feb 8th

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Alex Carr

Please do not make playing things such as The Beauty Puzzle, which is ridiculous pseudoscience, a habit. Random selection from small populations already have credible explanations.

Feb 8th

Reply

maricruz escobedo

FINALLY!

Feb 8th

Reply

Harry Bligh

one of the best episodes I've heard. wonderful storytelling and fascinating as always

Feb 8th

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Nathan Young

candyyyyyy🍫🍫🍫

Feb 7th

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V F

I'm so tired of these topics, bring the science back

Feb 6th

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John Castillo

V F Yes! These topics are important, but this just isn't what I originally got into this podcast for.

Feb 12th

Reply

Kevin Smith

Eric Burton Martin agreed!

Feb 12th

Reply

droh

what in the world is that smacking sound in the background... completely ruined the podcast for me

Jan 28th

Reply

Ephraim Muchemi

This is my favourite episode of the year so far.. The suspense, the story, and the ending! I was just on the edge throughout! Loved it! Listening it from Kenya where we have no idea about ice hockey and its politics.

Jan 28th

Reply

Cunicularius 639

This shit is fuckin cut short, wtf

Jan 26th

Reply

Adroxlincoln

Cunicularius 639 Do u even support?

Jan 28th

Reply

Diane Bourne

I . mbm ? I'm mlm ml mlm. mlm ... ... .. . . ml .mlm . mlm.

Jan 24th

Reply

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