Radio Lab (iTunes podcast link) is what you’d get if you put Freakonomics, Malcolm Gladwell, and This American Life in a blender.
Each episode of the folksy science show is “a patchwork of people, sounds, stories and experiences centered around One Big Idea.” The banter between hosts Jad Abumrad & Robert Krulwich can be slightly grating at times, but, overall, they do a great job of boiling down complex subjects and keeping things interesting. The way they use sound is intriguing too.
A few recent episodes:
Time
Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire,” and it’s as close a definition as we have. But maybe if we slow time down enough, or speed it up enough, we can unlock its secrets. On this week’s Radio Lab, we’re using our hour to try and do just that.Emergence
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 neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch.Morality
Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? We peer inside the brains of people contemplating moral dilemmas, watch chimps at a primate research center share blackberries, observe a playgroup of 3 year-olds fighting over toys, and tour the country’s first penitentiary, Eastern State Prison. Also: the story of land grabbing, indentured servitude and slum lording in the fourth grade.
More show descriptions at the Radio Lab archive. If you’re a pop science fan, check it out.
Dhrumil
on 02 Aug 07I first heard RadioLab listening to This America Life a few weeks ago. I knew immediately that it was good stuff!
In two days I listened to the entire archive. Just mind blowing. Especially their episode on time.
Dhrumil
on 02 Aug 07I was trying to think of a way to describe RadioLab to people who’ve never heard it. This post title just gave me that language I was looking for.
Side Note: I saw Ira Glass in person a few years ago where and he shared a funny story about how This American Life started.
He was saying that when he was first pitching the idea to people, the only way he could describe it was “It is like Car Talk, just not about Cars.”
Funny…
Jack Cheng
on 02 Aug 07I love love love radiolab. Like Dhrumil, I heard it on This American Life a few weeks ago. The episode on Sleep is utterly wonderful. They chose the perfect name for the show too.
Dan Peterson
on 02 Aug 07They totally ripped off my (lame) radiohead.net “logo.”
Nick Husher
on 02 Aug 07I’ve flipped through most of RadoLab by now, and I’m really impressed with it. Even though the banter can feel really scripted and a bit grating, I sorta like the two hosts more for it. It’s like they talked it over, shot off in a bunch of different directions, then scripted the original discussion to include all the articles within the issue somehow. Even though it’s obviously scripted, it’s still somehow very authentic-sounding.
Dave M
on 02 Aug 07Chimps have blackberries now?? Oh great, now the baboons will all want iPhones…
Jeff Smick
on 02 Aug 07It’s so nice to see this show gaining popularity. I first heard it on my local NPR station and fell in love. Ira helped them out in the best way possible when he featured part of their Morality show on This American Life.
Robert Gorell
on 02 Aug 07Thanks for the referral, Matt. Way to describe my ideal podcast in less than 100 words… Now to listen to the thing ;)
jennifer
on 03 Aug 07I thought you might be interested in this profile on co-host Jad Abumrad:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_222/tuningintoradiolabs.html
This discussion is closed.