Wnyc's Radio Lab

Science & Medicine
From WNYC, New York Public Radio, its Radio Lab. Radio Lab® is aninvestigation. Each episode is a patchwork of people, sounds, storiesand experiences centered around One Big Idea. On RadioLab, sciencebumps into culture... information sounds like music. (Author: Jad Abumrad & Robert Krulwich)
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Author Jad Abumrad & Robert Krulwich
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Recent episodes from Wnyc's Radio Lab

  • Making The Hippo Dance
    Published: Sep 9, 08
    Earlier this year, Jad and Robert visited the Koshland Center in Washington D.C. to give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at Radiolab. The question here is just how far can you go in the name of making an idea clear? What’s allowed? Is music allowed? Are sound effects allowed? What helps? What hurts? We play some never-released tape from the vault, and reveal a bit about what techniques we used to try and make it sing. Please weigh in on the blog.Also, if you enjoyed this conversation, y
     
  • Quantum Cello
    Published: Aug 25, 08
    Photo by Lane HartwellZoe Keating is the cellist from our live show, War of the Worlds. She used to play with the band Rasputina and now solos and records music for films, such as horror flick, “The Devil’s Chair” (coming out September 30th) and a PBS documentary on Lincoln’s assassination. Her music process reminded us a bit of ours (looping and layering sound) so she and Jad sat down together in San Francisco to talk shop and listen to some unreleased stuff off her new
     
  • The (multi) Universe(s)
    Published: Aug 12, 08
    Flickr/cayusaHave you wondered if there is another you out there? Somewhere? Sitting in the same chair, reading the same blog post, wearing the same clothes and thinking the same thoughts? Well, Brian Greene says there must be one. Or two. Or lots and lots and lots and lots and… Why? You ask, well listen to Greene’s argument in this week’s podcast.We are still furiously working on Season 5, so while you wait we bring you today’s podcast of a conversation between Robert Kr
     
  • Tell Me A Story
    Published: Jul 29, 08
    This spring, Robert Krulwich gave the commencement speech at California Institute of Technology. He called it “Tell Me a Story.” And commencement speech it may be, it gets at the heart of what we do here at Radiolab. It’s a treat to hear his passion. We enjoyed it. And we thought you might too. If you do not see flash audio player please install the latest flash player. Download MP3
     
  • Emergence
    Published: Jul 15, 08
    What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. How? That’s our question this hour. We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very own brains. Featured: author Steven Johnson, fire-flyologists John and Elizabeth Buck, biologist E.O. Wilson, Ant expert Debra Gordon, mathematician Steve Strogatz, economist James Surowiecki, and neuro
     
  • City X
    Published: Jul 1, 08
    This week, a piece from one of our favorite radio-makers, Jonathan Mitchell. “City X” is a history of the modern shopping mall through perspectives of people living in a real, yet unnamed, city. Using a sound rich audio mosaic of observations and ruminations, all scored to Muzak, the universal mall experience comes to life, for better or for worse.City X was commissioned by Hearing Voices with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If you do not see flash audio player
     
  • Earworms
    Published: Jun 17, 08
    First, we asked you to tell us what song gets stuck in your head. Then, we asked you how you got it out. Finally, we made a podcast. Thank you to everyone who called in, shared their secret techniques, and sang without shame. Your suggestions ranged from the hilarious (Darth Vader breathing) to the malicious (give it to some one else) to the oddly-aligned (multiple people called in suggesting “Girl from Ipanema” as a cure-all earworm). And now, we release your wisdom to the masses. W
     
  • Wordless Music
    Published: Jun 3, 08
    On this week’s podcast, we share an excerpt from Wordless Music on WNYC, a 4-part music program hosted by Jad, exploring the boundaries between classical and pop music. The series pairs rock and electronic musicians with more traditional chamber and new music performers, to create an entirely new concert experience. On this week’s selection, Jad waxes googly-eyed fan when he gets to talk about one of his favorite bands, Stars of the Lid. If you do not see flash audio player please in
     
  • Open Outcry
    Published: May 20, 08
    On this week’s podcast, Jad presents a piece by one of his favorite producers: Ben Rubin.Rubin created this audio portrait called “Open Outcry” as a part of a sound installation called Sonic Garden commissioned to celebrate the reopening of the Winter Garden, an atrium space within the World Financial Center, after 9/11. The trading floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange may look and sound chaotic to the uninitiated, with circles of hundreds of traders shouting unintelligibl
     
  • Jad And Robert: The Early Years
    Published: May 6, 08
    Ever wonder how Jad and Robert met? Well it all began with an everyday encounter where they discovered they both went to the same small liberal arts college in Ohio. For this week’s podcast, the guys go on stage at Oberlin College to tell the tale of their meeting and how they started tinkering around with tape to come up with the Radiolab you know today. Vintage Radiolab alert! You’ll hear the very first piece Jad and Robert made together. It’s an audio-experiment called R
     
  • Pop Music
    Published: Apr 22, 08
    Why do some songs mercilessly stick in our heads and repeat themselves over and over? What makes these hooks so hooky? And how does a songwriter will a song forth from the ether? In this episode, nightmarish stories of musical hallucinations, songs that transcend language, and the triumphant return of the Elvis of Afghanistan. If you do not see flash audio player please install the latest flash player. Download MP3
     
  • (so-called) Life
    Published: Apr 8, 08
    What are the consequences when humans start playing with life? The human imagination has always dreamed up fantastic creatures, but now biotechnology is making it easier and easier for us to actually create forms of life that have never existed before. In this episode Radio Lab looks at the uneasy marriage between biology and engineering, and asks what counts as “natural?” If you do not see flash audio player please install the latest flash player. Download MP3
     
  • Laughter
    Published: Feb 25, 08
    amanda/ flickr We all laugh. But why? If you look closely, you’ll find that humor has very little to do with it. In this episode, we explore the power of laughter to calm us, bond us to one another, or to spread… like a virus. Along the way, we tickle some rats, listen in on a baby’s first laugh, talk to a group of professional laughers, and travel to Tanzania to investigate an outbreak of contagious laughter. If you do not see flash audio player please install the latest flash
     
  • Our Podcast Comes In All Shapes And Sizes
    Published: Feb 11, 08
    Big and SmallTuesday is Podcast Day. We’ve been getting some emails from some of you who are confused about the varying lengths of our podcasts… Some are long. Some are short. Fear not! There’s nothing wrong with your download. That’s the way it should be. Sometimes we podcast an entire hour-long episode. Sometimes we podcast a shorter piece that may only be 8 minutes or so. That’s just how we roll. Up this week, Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time,
     
  • Our Podcast Comes In All Shapes And Sizes
    Published: Feb 11, 08
    Big and SmallTuesday is Podcast Day. We’ve been getting some emails from some of you who are confused about the varying lengths of our podcasts… Some are long. Some are short. Fear not! There’s nothing wrong with your download. That’s the way it should be. Sometimes we podcast an entire hour-long episode. Sometimes we podcast a shorter piece that may only be 8 minutes or so. That’s just how we roll. Up this week, Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time,