Radiolab Podcast
Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, l
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Oliver Sipple
One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United …
This American Roach
A couple summers ago, Radiolab reporter Alex Neason got out of the shower and almost stepped on her worst nightmare: an American Cockroach. …
Worth
This episode makes three earnest, possibly foolhardy, attempts to put a price on the priceless. We figure out the dollar value for an …
Your Friendly Neighborhood Hookworms
For most of human history, people went about their daily lives with a worm or two (or fifty) in their guts. Only in the past century, with …
The Bad Show
With all of the black-and-white moralizing in our world today, we decided to bring back an old show from 2011 about the little bit of bad …
What is a Pig Worth?
In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield …
Forests on Forests
For much of history, tree canopies were pretty much completely ignored by science. It was as if researchers said collectively, "It's just …
The Resistance of a Cow
There’s something rotten in the cows of Denmark. And Minnesota. And Wisconsin. And Idaho. What could cause a previously thriving herd of …
The Builders
In an episode first aired back in 2025 on our sister show, Terrestrials, we take you on a musical journey all about beavers. Few mammals …
Life in a Barrel
This week, in an episode we first aired in 2022, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era …
Antibiotic Apocalypse
Doctor and special correspondent Avir Mitra takes Executive Editor Soren Wheeler, plus a live studio audience, on a journey from the …
Staph Retreat
A strange brew that's hard to resist, even for a modern day microbe. In the war on devilish microbes, our weapons are starting to fail us. …
Return of the Flesh-Eaters
If a species is horrible enough, do we have the right to kill it forever? Seventy years ago, a nightmare parasite feasted on the live flesh …
Snail Sex Tape
In this episode, we consider a creature we often don’t think much about—the snail. And not just snails, but their sex lives. Which, as it …
Black Box
In this episode, first aired in 2014, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—spaces where we know what’s going in, we know …
Gray's Donation
Before he was even born, Sarah and Ross Gray knew that their son Thomas wouldn’t live long. But as they let go of him, they made a decision …
Time is Honey
In the early 2000s, Sunil Nakrani felt stuck. Back then, websites crashed all the time. When Sunil noticed this, he decided he was going to …
Kleptotherms
In this episode, we break the thermometer and watch the mercury spill out as we discover that temperature is far stranger than it seems. We …
Song of the Cerebellum
One spring evening in 2024, a science journalist named Rachel Gross bombed at karaoke. The culprit was a bleed in a fist-sized clump of …
You and Me and Mr. Self-Esteem
Most of us spend some part of our lives feeling bad about ourselves and wanting to feel better. But this preoccupation is a surprisingly new …
The Punchline
This episode, first aired in 2019, brings you the story of John Scott, the professional hockey player that every fan loved to hate. A tough …
Brain Balls
When neuroscientist Madeline Lancaster was a brand new postdoc, she accidentally used an expired protein gel in a lab experiment and noticed …
Moon Trees
In 1971, a red-headed, tree-loving astronaut named Stu ‘Smokey’ Roosa was asked to take something to the moon with him. Of all things, he …
Fertility Cliff
As she -- and her friends — approached the age of 35, senior correspondent Molly Webster kept hearing a phrase over and over: “fertility …
The Good Show
The standard view of evolution is that living things are shaped by cold-hearted competition. And there is no doubt that today's plants and …
The Alien in the Room
It’s faster than a speeding bullet. It’s smarter than a polymath genius. It’s everywhere but it’s invisible. It’s artificial intelligence. …
Shell Game: Minimum Viable Company
A year ago we brought you a show called Shell Game where a journalist named Evan Ratliff made an AI copy of himself. Now on season 2 of the …
Fela Kuti: Enter the Shrine
Our original host Jad Abumrad returns to share a new podcast series he’s just released. It’s all about Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician who …
Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal
Today on the show, we’re bringing you an episode from Our Common Nature (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d), a new podcast series where …
Quantum Refuge
Qasem Waleed is a 28-year-old physicist who has lived in Gaza his whole life. In 2024, he joined a chorus of Palestinians sharing videos and …
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 …
The Glow Below
A call to oceanographer Edie Widder about a fish with a very odd immune system quickly becomes something else: a dive into the deep sea, …
What Up Holmes?
Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our …
Content Warning
Over the past five years TikTok has radically changed the online world. But trust us when we say, it’s not how you’d expect. Today we …
Creation Story
Ella al-Shamahi is one part Charles Darwin, one part Indiana Jones. She braves war zones and pirate-infested waters to collect fossils from …
Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal …
Voice
Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial …
The Spark of Life
In the 1920s, a Russian biologist studying onion roots made a surprising discovery: underground, down in the darkness, it seemed like the …
Los Frikis
How a group of 80’s Cuban misfits found rock-and-roll and created a revolution within a revolution, going into exile without ever leaving …
Screaming Into the Void
In August we performed a live taping of the show from a theater perched on the edge of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River, overshadowed …
Music Hat
With this episode, we’re putting on our music hat. For a program that relies so much on scoring and sound, it’s not often we talk about the …
The Medical Matchmaking Machine
As he finished his medical school exam, David Fajgenbaum felt off. He walked down to the ER and checked himself in. Soon he was in the ICU …
Weighing Good Intentions
In an episode first released in 2010, then-producer Lulu Miller drives to Michigan to track down the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. Efforts …
The Menopause Mystery
Until recently, scientists assumed humans were the only species in which females went through menopause, and lived a substantial part of …
Galaxy Quenching
This week: the story of astrophysicist Charity Woodrum. Charity is an extragalactic astronomer who studies the life and death of galaxies, …
The Nothing Behind Everything
This week, two conversations from the archives about parts of the world that are imperceptible to us, verging on almost unthinkable. We …
More Perfect: The Hate Debate
Back in 2017 our colleagues at More Perfect gathered a room full of people together to debate a straight forward question: Can free speech …
Desperately Seeking Symmetry
This hour of Radiolab, former co-hosts Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry …
On [The Divided Dial]: Fishing In The Night
Have you heard On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial? It’s awesome and you should, and now you will. In this episode they …
Sex, Ducks and the Founding Feud
Jilted lovers and disrupted duck hunts provide a very odd look into the soul of the US Constitution. What does a betrayed lover’s revenge …
Baby Shark
This is episode five of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Today, the strange, squirmy magic behind how sharks make more …
Mystery Bay
This is episode four of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Alison Kock was working at a car wash in Cape Town when she made a …
The Shark Inside You
This is episode three of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Today, we take a trip across the world, from the south coast of …
The Cage
This is episode two of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Jaws spawned a thousand imitators: sharks in tornados, sharks in …
Making a Monster
Episode one of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks . Rodney Fox went into the ocean one summer day in 1963. He came out barely …
It's Like ... Radiolab
Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl …
Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks
In the summer of 1975, Jaws scared an entire generation out of the water. The film burned an idea into our cultural memory: they are …
Double-Blasted
We first aired this episode in 2012, but at the show we’ve been thinking a lot about resilience and repair so we wanted to play it for you …
The Elixir of Life
Doctor and special correspondent, Avir Mitra takes Lulu on an epic journey live on stage at a little basement club called Caveat, here in …
A Flock of Two
Animals rescue people all the time, but not like this. In this episode, first aired more than a decade ago, Jim Eggers is a 44-year-old man …
The Echo in the Machine
Today you can convert speech to text with the click of a button. Youtube does it for all our videos. Our phones will do it in real time. …
How to Cure What Ails You
Now that we have the ability to see inside the brain without opening anyone's skull, we'll be able to map and define brain activity and peg …
The First Known Earthly Voice
What happens when a voice emerges? What happens when one is lost? Is something gained? A couple months ago, Lulu guest edited an issue of …
Terrestrials: The Snow Beast
Today we bring you a story stranger than fiction. In 2006, paleobiologist Natalia Rybczynski took a helicopter to a remote Arctic island …
The Age of Aquaticus
For years, scientists thought nothing could live above 73℃/163℉. At that temperature, everything boiled to death. But scientists Tom Brock …
Ghosts in the Green Machine
In honor of our Earth, on her day, we have two stories about the overlooked, ignored, and neglected parts of nature. In the first half, we …
Signal Hill: Caterpillar Roadshow
A couple years ago, an entomologist named Martha Weiss got a letter from a little boy in Japan saying he wanted to replicate a famous study …
Killer Empathy
In an episode first aired in 2012, Lulu Miller introduces us to Jeff Lockwood, a professor at the University of Wyoming, who spent a part of …
Malthusian Swerve
Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? In this episode, we partnered with the team at Planet Money to take stock …
Everybody's Got One
We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. this …
Growth
It’s easy to take growth for granted, for it to seem expected, inevitable even. Every person starts out as a baby and grows up. Plants grow …
More Perfect: Sex Appeal
In 2017 our sister show, More Perfect aired an episode all about RBG, In September of 2020, we lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader …
Revenge of the Miasma
Today we uncover an invisible killer hidden, for over a hundred years, by reasonable disbelief. Science journalist extraordinaire Carl …
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Today, a story that starts small and private, with one woman alone in her bathroom, as she makes a quiet, startling discovery about her own …
Quantum Birds
Annie McEwen went to a mountain in Pennsylvania to help catch some migratory owls. Then Scott Weidensaul peeled back the owl’s feathery face …
Vertigogo
In this episode, first aired in 2012, we have two stories of brains pushed off-course. We relive a surreal day in the life of a young …
Forever Fresh
We eat apples in the summer and enjoy bananas in the winter. When we do this, we go against the natural order of life which is towards death …
Nukes
In an episode first reported in 2017, we bring you a look up and down the US nuclear chain of command to find out who gets to authorize …
The Darkest Dark
We fall down the looking glass with Sönke Johnsen, a biologist who finds himself staring at one of the darkest things on the planet. So …
Smarty Plants
In an episode we first aired in 2018, we asked the question, do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? To remember? Or even …
Match Made in Marrow
In an episode first reported in 2017, we bring you what may be, maybe the greatest gift one person could give to another. You never know …
Probing Where the Sun Does Shine: A Holiday Special
This holiday season, we want to take you on a trip around the heavens. First, co-host Latif Nasser, with the help of Nour Raouafi, of NASA, …
Curiosity Killed the Adage
The early bird gets the worm. What goes around, comes around. It’s always darkest just before dawn. We carry these little nuggets of …
Dark Side of the Earth
Back in 2012, when we were putting together our live show In the Dark, Jad and Robert called up Dave Wolf to ask him if he had any stories …
How Stockholm Stuck
In August of 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson walked into the lobby of a bank in central Stockholm. He fired his submachine gun at the ceiling and …
Less Than Kilogram
In today’s story, which originally aired in 2014, we meet a very special cylinder. It's the gold standard (or, in this case, the …
Science Vs: The Funniest Joke in the World
When he rounded them up, he had a 100. A few months ago, Wendy Zukerman invited our own Latif Nasser to come on her show, and, of course, he …
Hello
It's hard to start a conversation with a stranger—especially when that stranger is, well, different. He doesn't share your customs, …
The Ecstasy of an Open Brain
As we grow up, there are little windows of time when we can learn very, very fast, and very, very deeply. Scientists call these moments, …
Haunted
In an episode we first aired in 2014, we meet a man named Dennis Conrow, who was stuck. After a brief stint at college, he’d spent most of …
The Unpopular Vote
As the US Presidential Election nears, Radiolab covers the closest we ever came to abolishing the Electoral College. In the 1960s, …
Tweak the Vote
Back in 2018, when this episode first aired, there was a feeling that democracy was on the ropes. In the United States and abroad, citizens …
Why Don't Sex Scandals Matter Anymore?
In 1987, Gary Hart was a young charismatic Democrat, poised to win his party’s nomination and possibly the presidency. Many of us know the …
Terrestrials: Stumpisode
As dead as they seem, tree stumps are hubs of life and relationships. Co-host Lulu Miller is back with another season of her hit spinoff …
Octomom
A mile under the ocean, we get to watch an octopus perform a heroic act of heart and determination. First aired back in 2020, this episode …
A Little Pompeiian Fish Sauce Goes a Long Way
Today we follow a sleuth who has spent over a decade working to solve an epic mystery hiding in plain historical sight: did anyone survive …
The Times They Are a-Changin'
This episode first aired back in December of 2013, and at the start of that new year, the team was cracking open fossils, peering back into …
Shell Game
One man secretly hands off more and more of his life to an AI voice clone. Today, we feature veteran journalist Evan Ratliff who - for his …
Big Little Questions
First aired back in 2017, here’s a show of questions and, sometimes, answers. Cause, we get a lot of questions. Like, A LOT of questions. …
Uneasy as ABC
February 1976. A flight out of California turned catastrophic when it crashed into a farm in rural Nebraska. What happened that night at the …
More Perfect: The Gun Show
Given that we’re all gearing up for the Presidential race, and how gun rights and regulations are almost always centerstage during these …
Up in Smoke
Two scenes. In the first, a doctor gets a call — the hospital she works at is having an outbreak of unknown origin, in the middle of the …
Sleep
We had a question back in 2007, about a thing every creature on the planet does--from giant humpback whales to teeny fruit flies. Why do we …
Terrestrials: The Trio
High above the banks of the Mississippi river, a nest holds the secret life of one of America’s most patriotic creatures. Their story …
Lose Lose
To celebrate the imminent start of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France we have an episode originally reported in 2016. No matter what …
How to Save a Life
We get it… the world feels too bleak and too big for you to make a difference. But there is one thing - one simple tangible thing - you can …
Happy Birthday, Good Dr. Sacks
First aired back in 2013, we originally released this episode to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of our favorite human beings, Oliver …
The Alford Plea
In 1995, a tragic fire in Pittsburgh set off a decades-long investigation that sent Greg Brown Jr. to prison. But, after a series of …
Birdie in the Cage
People have been doing the square dance since before the Declaration of Independence. But does that mean it should be THE American folk …
Aphantasia
Close your eyes and imagine a red apple. What do you see? Turns out there’s a whole spectrum of answers to that question and Producer Sindhu …
Argentine Invasion
From a suburban sidewalk in southern California, Jad and Robert witness the carnage of a gruesome turf war. Though the tiny warriors doing …
Mixtapes to the Moon
They promised to change you. They ended up changing all of us. On July 20, 1969 humanity watched as Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. …
Lucy
Chimps. Bonobos. Humans. We're all great apes, but that doesn’t mean we’re one happy family. This episode, a mashup of content stretching …
Selected Shorts
A selection of short flights of fact and fancy performed live on stage. Usually we tell true stories at this show, but earlier this spring …
Memory and Forgetting
Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour: a look behind the curtain of how memories are made...and forgotten. The act of …
Small Potatoes
An ode to the small, the banal, the overlooked things that make up the fabric of our lives. Most of our stories are about the big stuff: …
The Distance of the Moon
In an episode we last featured on our Radiolab for Kids Feed back in 2020, and in honor of its blocking out the Sun for a bit of us for a …
The Moon Itself
There’s a total solar eclipse coming. On Monday, April 8, for a large swath of North America, the sun will disappear, in the middle of the …
Short Cuts: Drawn Onward
As a treat for the first palindrome date of the calendar year 2024, 4/2/24, (for those who use U.S. formatting of dates anyway), we are …
Finding Emilie
This is a segment we first aired back in 2011. In it, we hear a story of a very different kind of lost and found. Alan Lundgard, a college …
Throughline: Dare to Dissent
On today’s show, we’re excited to share an episode from our friends at the podcast Throughline . Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful …
Staph Retreat
What happens when you combine an axe-wielding microbiologist and a disease-obsessed historian? A strange brew that's hard to resist, even …
Hold On
Two years ago, the United States did something amazing. In response to the mental health crisis the federal government launched 988 - a …
G: The World's Smartest Animal
This episode begins with a rant. This rant, in particular, comes from Dan Engber - a science writer who loves animals but despises animal …
Cheating Death
In this episode, Maria Paz Gutiérrez does battle against the one absolute truth of human existence and all life… death. After getting a team …
G: Relative Genius
Albert Einstein asked that when he died, his body be cremated and his ashes be scattered in a secret location. He didn’t want his grave, or …
Zoozve
As co-host Latif Nasser was putting his kid to bed one night, he noticed something weird on a solar system poster up on the wall: Venus had …
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 …
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 …
Stochasticity
First aired way back in 2009, this episode is all about a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness, Stochasticity, and how …
Zeroworld
Karim Ani dedicated his life to math. He studied it in school, got a degree in math education, even founded Citizen Math to teach it to kids …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Shrink
The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking. Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Poison Control
Originally aired in 2018, this episode features reporter Brena Farrell as a new mom. Her son gave her and her husband a scare -- prompting …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 , …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Right Stuff
Since the beginning of the space program, we’ve expected astronauts to be fully-abled athletic overachievers—one-part science geeks, …
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, …
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 …
The Cataclysm Sentence
Sad news for all of us: producer Rachael Cusick— who brought us soul-stirring stories rethinking grief (https://zpr.io/GZ6xEvpzsbHU) and …
Americanish
Given reporter Julia Longoria’s long love affair with the Supreme Court, it’s no surprise she’s become the new host of More Perfect …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
Ologies: Dark Matters
Testudinology. Enigmatology. Hagfishology. Raccoonology. Meteorology. Chronobiology. Chickenology. Delphinology. Bryology. Vampirology. …
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 …
Corpse Demon
Heaven and hell, Judgement Day, monotheism — these ideas all came from one ancient Persian religion: Zoroastrianism. Also: Sky Burials. …
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 …
The Library of Alexandra
How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s …
The Good Samaritan
Tuesday afternoon, summer of 2017: Scotty Hatton and Scottie Wightman made a decision to help someone in need and both paid a price for …
Alone Enough
Cat Jaffee didn’t necessarily think of herself as someone who loved being alone. But then, the pandemic hit. And she got diagnosed with …
Apologetical
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 …
Buttons Not Buttons
Tiny buttons have such a hold on us. They can be portals to power, freedom, and destruction. Today, with the help of buttons, we tell you …
Crabs All the Way Down
This week we examine one of nature's most humble creations: crabs. Turns out when you look closely at these little scuttlers, things get …
The Trust Engineers
First aired in 2015, this is an episode about social media, and how, when we talk online, things can quickly go south. But do they have to? …
Golden Goose
After years of being publicly shamed for “fleecing” the taxpayers with their frivolous and obscure studies, scientists decided to hit back …
Bliss
In this deep cut from 2012, we are searching for platonic ideals longing for completion, engaged in epic quests for holy grails in science, …
Ukraine: The Handoff
We continue the story of a covert smuggling operation to bring abortion pills into Ukraine, shortly after the Russian invasion. In this …
Birthstory
You know the drill — all it takes is one sperm, one egg, and blammo — you’ve got yourself a baby. Right? Well, in this 2015 episode, …
Ukraine: Under the Counter
In the weeks following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a young doctor in Germany sees that abortion pills are urgently needed in …
Games
In this episode, first aired in 2011, we talk about the meaning of a good game — whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown …
Universe In Verse
For a special New Year’s treat, we take a tour through the history of the universe with the help of… poets. Our guide is Maria Popova, who …
New Normal
This episode —first released in 2009 and then again in 2015, with an update — asks, what is “normal”? Maybe it exists, maybe not. We examine …
The Flight Before Christmas
At any given moment, nearly 500,000 people are crammed together in a metal tube, hurtling through the air. In this episode, we look at the …
Null and Void
This episode, first aired in 2017, has Reporter Tracie Hunte and Editor Soren Wheeler exploring a hidden power in the U.S. Court System that …
The Middle of Everything Ever
After graduating from high school, without a clear plan for what to do next, Laura Andrews started asking herself a lot of questions. A …
The Ashes on the Lawn
A global pandemic. Thousands dying. A passive government. An afflicted group fueled by grief and anger. In this episode, first aired in …
More Perfect: The Political Thicket
When U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren was asked at the end of his career, “What was the most important case of your tenure?”, …
What's Up Doc?
Mel Blanc was known as “the man of 1,000 voices,” but, to hear his son tell it, the actual number was closer to 1,500. Bugs Bunny, Porky …
Butt Stuff
Why do we have a butt? Well, it’s not just for the convenience of a portable seat cushion. This week, we have a conversation with our …
Guts
This hour, we dive into the messy mystery in the middle of us. What's going on down there? And what can the rumblings deep in our bellies …
The Weather Report
Meteorologists are as common as the clouds these days. Rolling onto the airwaves at morning, noon and night they tell us what to wear and …
Black Box
In this episode, first aired in 2014, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes — spaces where we know what’s going in, we know …
No-Touch Abortion
When the Dobbs decision went down, ER doctor Avir Mitra started to prepare for the worst — botched, at-home abortions that would land …
The Theater of David Byrne's Mind
It all started when the rockstar David Byrne did a Freaky-Friday-like body-swap with a Barbie Doll. That’s what inspired him — along with …
Playing God
When people are dying and you can only save some, how do you choose? Maybe you save the youngest. Or the sickest. Maybe you even just put …
Terrestrials: The Mastermind
Lulu Miller, intrepid host and fearless mother of two, went off on her own and put together a little something for kids. All kids: hers, …
Quicksaaaand!
For many of us, quicksand was once a real fear — it held a vise grip on our imaginations, from childish sandbox games to grown-up anxieties …
40,000 Recipes for Murder
Two scientists realize that the very same AI technology they have developed to discover medicines for rare diseases can also discover the …
Rodney v. Death
In the fall of 2004, Jeanna Giese checked into the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin with a set of puzzling symptoms... and her condition was …
Gigaverse
A pizzeria owner in Kansas realizes that DoorDash is hijacking his pizzas. A Lyft driver conquers the streets of San Francisco until he …
9-Volt Nirvana
Learn a new language faster than ever! Leave doubt in the dust! Be a better sniper! Could you do all that and more with just a zap to the …
Infinities
In August 2018, Boen Wang was at a work retreat for a new job. Surrounded by mosquitoes and swampland in a tiny campsite in West Virginia, …
Escape
This episode originally aired in 2012. An all-star lineup of producers — Pat Walters, Lynn Levy, and Sean Cole — bring you stories about …
The Humpback and the Killer
Killer whales — orcas — eat all sorts of animals, including humpback calves. But one day, biologists saw a group of humpback whales trying …
You v. You
This episode, originally aired more than a decade ago, attempts to answer one question: how do you win against your worst impulses? Zelda …
The Gatekeeper
This week, Reporter Peter Smith and Senior Producer Matt Kielty tell the story of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that set the standard for …
Baby Blue Blood Drive
This is an episode that first aired in 2018 and then again in the thick of the pandemic in 2020. Why? Because though Horseshoe crabs are not …
My Thymus, Myself
Today, we go to a spot that may be one of the most philosophical places in the universe: the thymus, an organ that knows what is you, and …
Galápagos
As our co-Hosts Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser are out this week, we are re-sharing the perfect episode to start the summer season! This one, …
No Special Duty
Since the massacre that took the lives of 19 schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, people across the world began to ask versions of one question: …
Neanderthal's Revenge
A few months ago, co-Host Latif Nasser, who was otherwise healthy, saw blood in his poop. It was the start of a medical journey that made …
Origin Stories
We’re all in a tizzy here at Radiolab on account of our 20-year anniversary. And, as one does upon passing a milestone, we’ve been looking …
Radiolab After Dark
Back in 2002, Jad Abumrad started Radiolab as a live radio show. He DJ’d out into the ether and 20 years later we do the same. To …
La Mancha Screwjob
All the world’s a stage. Or, sometimes it feels that way, especially these days. In this episode, originally aired in 2015, we push through …
Frailmales
This week, we bring you two stories about little guys trying to do big big things. First, self-proclaimed animal grinch producer Becca …
Debatable
In competitive debate future presidents, supreme court justices, and titans of industry pummel each other with logic and rhetoric. Unclasp …
Hello, My Name Is
As a species, we’re obsessed with names. They’re one of the first labels we get as kids. We name and rename absolutely everything around us. …
The Other Latif: Cuba-ish
Almost exactly twenty years ago, detainee 244 got transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Captured by American forces at the battle Tora Bora five …
NULL
A one-word magical spell. Several years back, that’s exactly what Joseph Tartaro thought he’d discovered. It was a spell that, if used …
In the Dust of This Planet
Horror, fashion, and the end of the world … In this episode, first aired in 2014, but maybe even more relevant today, things get weird as we …
Inheritance
Once a kid is born, their genetic fate is pretty much sealed. Or is it? In this episode, originally aired in 2012, we put nature and nurture …
The Right Stuff
Since the beginning of the space program, we’ve always expected astronauts to be fully abled athletic overachievers who are one-part …
Stress
Stress can give your body a boost - raising adrenaline levels, pumping blood to the muscles, heightening our senses. And those sudden …
The Helen Keller Exorcism
Fantasy writer Elsa Sjunneson has been haunted by Helen Keller for nearly her entire life. Like Helen, Elsa is Deafblind, and growing up she …
Life in a Barrel
This week, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s …
Speed
We live our lives at human speed, we experience and interact with the world on a human time scale. In this episode, which first aired in its …
The Wordless Place
This week, we turn to an expert who tromps the wilds of wordlessness. Lulu’s young son. In this essay, originally published for The Paris …
Hello
It's hard to start a conversation with a stranger—especially when that stranger is, well, different. He doesn't share your customs, …
Forests on Forests
For much of history, tree canopies were pretty much completely ignored by science. It was as if researchers said collectively, "It's just …
The First Radiolab
Jad started Radiolab roughly 20 years ago. And now he is stepping aside from hosting and producing the show to replenish, to think, to rock …
The 11th: A Letter From George
Last week, Lulu heard an interview that trapped her in her car. She decided to play it for Latif. The interview – originally from a podcast …
Darkode
It would seem that hackers today can do just about anything they want - from turning on the cellphone in your pocket to holding your life's …
Worst. Year. Ever.
What was the worst year to be alive on planet Earth? We make the case for 536 AD, which set off a cascade of catastrophes that is almost too …
Flop Off
This past year was a flop. From questionable blockbuster reboots to supply chain shenanigans to worst of all, omnipresent COVID variants. …
Vanishing Words
When Alana Casanova-Burgess set out to make a podcast series about Puerto Rico, she struggled with what to call it. Until one word came to …
Return of Alpha Gal
Tuck your napkin under your chin. We’re about to serve up a tale of love, loss, and lamb chops - with a side of genetic modification. …
Animal Minds
In this hour of Radiolab, stories of cross-species communication. When we gaze into the eyes of a wild animal, or even a beloved pet, can we …
Mixtape: Help?
In tape five, three stories: first, a tale of how the cassette tape supercharged the self-help industry. Second, cassettes filled with …
Mixtape: Cassetternet
In 1983, Simon Goodwin had a strange thought. Would it be possible to broadcast computer software over the radio? If so, could listeners …
Mixtape: The Wandering Soul
As the Vietnam war dragged on, the US military began desperately searching for any vulnerability in their North Vietnamese enemy. In 1964, …
Mixtape: Jack and Bing
In 1946 Bing Crosby was the king of media. He was the movie star, the pop star and his radio show was reaching a third of American living …
Mixtape: Dakou
Through the 1980s, the vast majority of people in China had never heard western music, save for John Denver, the Carpenters, and a few other …
Of Bombs and Butterflies
Ecologist Nick Haddad was sitting in his new office at North Carolina State University when the phone rang. On the other end of the line …
Oliver Sipple
One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United …
HEAVY METAL
Today we have a story about the sometimes obvious but sometimes sneaky effects of the way that we humans rearrange the elemental stuff …
In the Running
Diane Van Deren is one of the best ultra-runners in the world, and it all started with a seizure. In this short, Diane tells us how her …
60 Words, 20 Years
It has now been 20 years since September 11th, 2001. So we’re bringing you a Peabody Award-winning story from our archives about one …
The Unsilencing
Multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, even psoriasis — these are diseases in which the body begins to attack itself, and they all …
Everybody’s Got One
We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. But this …
Gonads: Dutee
In 2014, India’s Dutee Chand was a rising female track and field star, crushing national records. But then, that summer, something …
The Queen of Dying
If you’ve ever lost someone, or watched a medical drama in the last 15 years, you’ve probably heard of The Five Stages of Grief. They’re …
Breaking News about The Other Latif
A major development in the case of Guantanamo detainee Abdul Latif Nasser. To listen to our series about him, go to theotherlatif.org . …
G: Unfit
In the past few weeks, most people have probably seen Britney Spears' name or face everywhere. When she stood in front of a judge …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 6
Lift Every Voice: Episode Six from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. Black Swan …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 5
Roland Hayes and the Lost Generation: Episode Five from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 4
Our Harlem Moon: Episode Four from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. In this spin-off …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 3
Black No More, White No More: Episode Three from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. We …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 2
Dreams Deferred: Episode Two from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. The story of the …
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 1
The Rise and Fall of Black Swan: Episode One from The Vanishing of Harry Pace , a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. …
Breath
We’ve just barely made it to the other side of a year that took our collective breaths away. So more than ever we felt that this was the …
The Rhino Hunter
Back in 2014, Corey Knowlton paid $350,000 for a hunting trip to Namibia to shoot and kill an endangered species. He’s a professional …
The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub
This episode, a tale of a wonder drug that will make you wonder about way more than just drugs. Doctor-reporter Avir Mitra follows the epic …
Brown Box
You order some stuff on the Internet and it shows up three hours later. How could all the things that need to happen to make that happen …
Kleptotherms
In this episode, we break the thermometer watch the mercury spill out as we discover temperature is far stranger than it seems. Five stories …
Deep Cuts
Today, Lulu and Latif talk about some of their favorite episodes from Radiolab’s past that hold new power today. Lulu points to an episode …
The Septendecennial Sing-Along
While most of us hear a wall of white noise, squeaks, and squawks....David Rothenberg hears a symphony. He's trained his ear to listen for …
What Up Holmes?
Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our …
Elements
Scientists took about 300 years to lay out the Periodic Table into neat rows and columns. In one hour, we’re going to mess it all up. This …
Escapescape
As we hit the one year mark since the first U.S. state (California) issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we put …
Dispatch 14: Covid Crystal Ball
Last summer, at a hospital in England, a man in his 70s being treated for complications with cancer tested positive for covid-19. He had …
The Ceremony
In November of 2016, journalist Morgen Peck showed up at her friend Molly Webster's apartment in Brooklyn, told her to take her battery out …
Red Herring
It was the early 80s, the height of the Cold War, when something strange began happening off the coast of Sweden. The navy reported a …
Facebook's Supreme Court
Since its inception, the perennial thorn in Facebook’s side has been content moderation. That is, deciding what you and I are allowed to …
Smile My Ass
Candid Camera is one of the most original – and one of the most mischievous – TV shows of all time. Admirers hailed its creator Allen Funt …
Post Reports: Four Hours of Insurrection
We’re all still processing what happened on January 6th. Despite the hours and hours of video circulating online, we still didn’t feel like …
More Money Less Problems
Back in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning and the shelter-in-place orders brought the economy to a screeching halt, …
Sight Unseen
As the attacks were unfolding on the Capitol, a steady stream of images poured onto our screens. Photo editor Kainaz Amaria tells us what …
A Terrible Covid Christmas Special
This year was the worst. And as our staff tried to figure out what to do for our last episode of 2020, co-host Latif Nasser thought, what if …
The Ashes on the Lawn
A global pandemic. An afflicted, angry group. A seemingly indifferent government. Reporter Tracie Hunte wanted to understand this moment of …
Enemy of Mankind
Should the U.S. Supreme Court be the court of the world? In the 18th century, two feuding Frenchmen inspired a one-sentence law that helped …
The Great Vaccinator
Until now, the fastest vaccine ever made - for mumps - took four years. And while our current effort to develop a covid-19 vaccine involves …
Dispatch 13: Challenge Trials
What if someone asked you to get infected with the COVID-19 virus, deliberately, in order to speed up the development of a vaccine? Would …
Deception
Lies, liars, and lie catchers. This hour of Radiolab asks if it's possible for anyone to lead a life without deception. Hosted by …
Breaking Benford
In the days after the US Presidential election was called for Joe Biden, many supporters of Donald Trump are crying foul. Voter fraud. And a …
Bloc Party
In the 1996 election, Bill Clinton had a problem. The women who came out in droves for him in ‘92, split their vote in the ‘94 midterms, …
How to Win Friends and Influence Baboons
Baboon troops. We all know they’re hierarchical. There’s the big brutish alpha male who rules with a hairy iron fist, and then there’s …
What If?
There’s plenty of speculation about what Donald Trump might do in the wake of the election. Would he dispute the results if he loses? Would …
Kittens Kick The Giggly Blue Robot All Summer
With the recent passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there's been a lot of debate about how much power the Supreme Court should re ally have. We …
No Special Duty
What are the police for? Producer B.A. Parker started wondering this back in June, as Black Lives Matter protests and calls to “defund the …
Insomnia Line
Coronasomnia is a not-so-surprising side-effect of the global pandemic. More and more of us are having trouble falling asleep. We wanted to …
More Perfect: Sex Appeal
We lost a legend. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18th, 2020. She was 87. In honor of her passing we are …
Falling
There are so many ways to fall—in love, asleep, even flat on your face. This hour, Radiolab dives into stories of great falls. We jump into …
Bringing Gamma Back, Again
Today, we return to the lab of neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai, which brought us one of our favorite stories from four years ago - about the …
Fungus Amungus
Six years ago, a new infection began popping up in four different hospitals on three different continents, all around the same time. It …
Translation
How close can words get you to the truth and feel and force of life? That's the question poking at our ribs this hour, as we wonder how it …
Lebanon, USA
This is a story of a road trip. After a particularly traumatic Valentine's Day, Fadi Boukaram was surfing google maps and noticed that there …
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 …
Uncounted
First things first: our very own Latif Nasser has an exciting new show on Netflix. He talks to Jad about the hidden forces of the world that …
Invisible Allies
As scientists have been scrambling to find new and better ways to treat covid-19, they’ve come across some unexpected allies. Invisible and …
Baby Blue Blood Drive
Horseshoe crabs are not much to look at. But beneath their unassuming catcher’s-mitt shell, they harbor a half-billion-year-old secret: a …
Dispatches from 1918
It’s hard to imagine what the world will look like when COVID-19 has passed. So in this episode, we look back to the years after 1918, at …
The Flag and the Fury
How do you actually make change in the world? For 126 years, Mississippi has had the Confederate battle flag on their state flag, and they …
The Third. A TED Talk.
Jad gives a TED talk about his life as a journalist and how Radiolab has evolved over the years. Here's how TED described it:How do you end …
Post No Evil Redux
Today we revisit our story on Facebook and its rulebook, looking at what’s changed in the past two years and exploring how these rules will …
The Liberation of RNA
In June of 2019, Brandon Ogbunu got on stage and told a story for The Story Collider, a podcast and live storytelling show. Starting when he …
Graham
If former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s case for the death of George Floyd goes to trial, there will be this one, controversial …
Nina
Producer Tracie Hunte stumbled into a duet between Nina Simone and the sounds of protest outside her apartment. Then she discovered a …
Dispatch 6: Strange Times
Covid has disrupted the most basic routines of our days and nights. But in the middle of a conversation about how to fight the virus, we …
Speedy Beet
There are few musical moments more well-worn than the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. But in this short, we find out that …
Octomom
In 2007, Bruce Robison’s robot submarine stumbled across an octopus settling in to brood her eggs. It seemed like a small moment. But as he …
Why Fish Don't Exist
Our old friend Lulu Miller — former Radiolab producer, co-creator of Invisibilia — has been obsessed by the chaos that rules the universe …
David and Dominique
David Gebel and Dominique Crisden have a couple of things in common: they both live in New York, they’re both gay, and they’re both …
Dispatch 5: Don't Stop Believin'
Covid-19 has put emergency room doctors on the frontlines treating an illness that is still perplexing and unknown. Jad tracks one ER doctor …
Atomic Artifacts
Back in the 1950s, facing the threat of nuclear annihilation, federal officials sat down and pondered what American life would actually look …
The Cataclysm Sentence
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 …
Dispatch 4: Six Feet
Since the onset of the pandemic, we exist in a constant state of calculation, trying to define our own personal bubble. We’ve all been given …
Space
One of the most consistent questions we get at the show is from parents who want to know which episodes are kid-friendly and which aren’t. …
Dispatch 3: Shared Immunity
More than a million people have caught Covid-19, and tens of thousands have died. But thousands more have survived and recovered. A week or …
Dispatch 2: Every Day is Ignaz Semmelweis Day
It began with a tweet: “EVERY DAY IS IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS DAY.” Carl Zimmer — tweet author, acclaimed science writer and friend of the show — …
Dispatch 1: Numbers
In a recent Radiolab group huddle, with coronavirus unraveling around us, the team found themselves grappling with all the numbers connected …
The Other Latif: Episode 6
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Episode 5
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Bonus Episode!
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Episode 4
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Episode 3
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Episode 2
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Other Latif: Episode 1
The Other Latif Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a …
The Bobbys
On the occasion of his retirement as cohost of Radiolab, Robert sat down with Jad to reflect on his long and storied career in radio and …
Body Count
Right now, at this very moment, all across the planet, there are 7.6 billion human beings eating, breathing, sleeping, brushing their teeth, …
60 Words
This hour we pull apart one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We …
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 …
There and Back Again
Here's a simple question: When an animal disappears in the winter, where does it go? Oddly enough, this question completely stumped European …
Things
From a piece of the Wright brother's plane to a child’s sugar egg, today: Things! Important things, little things, personal things, things …
Breaking Bongo
Deep fake videos have the potential to make it impossible to sort fact from fiction. And some have argued that this blackhole of doubt will …
Breaking News
Today, two new technological tricks that together could invade our most deeply held beliefs and rewrite the rules of credibility. Also, we …
Dolly Parton's America: Neon Moss
Today on Radiolab, we're bringing you the fourth episode of Jad's special series, Dolly Parton's America . In this episode, Jad goes back up …
Songs that Cross Borders
Coming off our adventures with Square Dancing, and Jad's dive into the world of Dolly Parton, we look back at one our favorites. About a …
Birdie in the Cage
People have been doing the square dance since before the Declaration of Independence. But does that mean it should be THE American folk …
Radiolab Presents: Dolly Parton's America
Radiolab creator and host Jad Abumrad spent the last two years following around music legend Dolly Parton, and we're here to say you should …
Silky Love
We eat eels in sushi, stews, and pasta. Eels eat anything . Also they can survive outside of water for hours and live for up to 80 years. …
Tit for Tat
In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him …
What's Left When You're Right?
More often than not, a fight is just a fight... Someone wins, someone loses. But this hour, we have a series of face-offs that shine a light …
The Memory Palace
Nate DiMeo was preoccupied with the past, and how we relate to it, from a very young age. For the last decade or so he's been scratching …
Right to be Forgotten
In an online world, that story about you lives forever. The tipsy photograph of you at the college football game? It’s up there. That news …
More Perfect: Cruel and Unusual
On the inaugural episode of More Perfect , we explore three little words embedded in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and …
G: The World's Smartest Animal
This episode begins with a rant. This rant, in particular, comes from Dan Engber - a science writer who loves animals but despises animal …
G: Unnatural Selection
This past fall, a scientist named Steve Hsu made headlines with a provocative announcement. He would start selling a genetic intelligence …
G: Relative Genius
Albert Einstein asked that when he died, his body be cremated and his ashes be scattered in a secret location. He didn’t want his grave, or …
G: Problem Space
In the first episode of G, Radiolab’s miniseries on intelligence, we went back to the 1970s to meet a group of Black parents who put the IQ …
G: The Miseducation of Larry P
Are some ideas so dangerous we shouldn’t even talk about them? That question brought Radiolab ’s senior editor, Pat Walters, to a subject …
Neither Confirm Nor Deny
How a sunken nuclear submarine, a crazy billionaire, and a mechanical claw gave birth to a phrase that has hounded journalists and lawyers …
The Good Samaritan
On a Tuesday afternoon back in the summer of 2017, Scotty Hatton and Scottie Wightman both made a decision to help someone in need. They …
Bit Flip
Back in 2003 Belgium was holding a national election. One of their first where the votes would be cast and counted on computers. Thousands …
Dinopocalypse Redux
Using high-powered ballistics experiments, fancy computer algorithms, and good old-fashioned ancient geology, scientists have woven together …
Fu-Go
This week we’re going back to a favorite episode from 2015. During World War II, something happened that nobody ever talks about. This is a …
Americanish
In 1903 the US Supreme Court refused to say that Isabel González was a citizen of the United States. Then again, they said, she wasn’t a …
For Whom the Cowbell Tolls
When Nancy Holten was 8 years old her mom put her in a moving van. She fell asleep, woke up in Switzerland, and she's been there ever since. …
Bliss
This week Jad and Radiolab alum Tim Howard revisit a favorite episode from 2012. Because moments of total, world-shaking bliss are not easy …
Asking for Another Friend
Part 2: Last year, we ran a pair of episodes that explored the greatest mysteries in our listeners’ lives - the big ones, little ones, and …
Asking for a Friend
Last year, we ran a pair of episodes that explored the greatest mysteries in our listeners’ lives - the big ones, little ones, and the ones …
Loops
Our lives are filled with loops that hurt us, heal us, make us laugh, and, sometimes, leave us wanting more. This hour, Radiolab revisits …
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 …
The Punchline
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 …
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 …
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 …
Apologetical
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 …
UnErased: Smid
Today on Radiolab, we're playing the fourth and final episode of a series Jad worked on called UnErased: The history of conversion therapy …
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 …
The Front Runner
So, a cool thing happened for the show recently. A couple years ago, our episode " I Don't Have to Answer That " made it to the ears of …
Tweak the Vote
Democracy is on the ropes. In the United States and abroad, citizens of democracies are feeling increasingly alienated, disaffected, and …
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 …
In the No Part 3
In the final episode of our “In The No” series, we sat down with several different groups of college-age women to talk about their sexual …
In the No Part 2
In the year since accusations of sexual assault were first brought against Harvey Weinstein, our news has been flooded with stories of …
In the No Part 1
In 2017, radio-maker Kaitlin Prest released a mini-series called "No" about her personal struggle to understand and communicate about sexual …
Breaking Bad News Bears
Today, a challenge: bear with us. We decided to shake things up at the show so we threw our staff a curveball, Walter Matthau-style. In two …
Infective Heredity
Today, a fast moving, sidestepping, gene-swapping free-for-all that would’ve made Darwin’s head spin. David Quammen tells us about a …
27: The Most Perfect Album
More Perfect is back with something totally new and exciting. They just dropped an ALBUM. 27: The Most Perfect Album is like a …
Post No Evil
Back in 2008 Facebook began writing a document. It was a constitution of sorts, laying out what could and what couldn’t be posted on the …
The Bad Show
With all of the black-and-white moralizing in our world today, we decided to bring back an old show about the little bit of bad that's in …
Gonads: Sex Ed
In this episode, an edited down version of a Radiolab Presents: Gonads Live show, host Molly Webster brings together a cast of storytellers, …
Gonads: Dana
When Dana Zzyym applied for their first passport back in 2014, they were handed a pretty straightforward application. Name, place of birth, …
Gonads: X & Y
A lot of us understand biological sex with a pretty fateful underpinning: if you’re born with XX chromosomes, you’re female; if you’re born …
Gonads: Fronads
At 28 years old, Annie Dauer was living a full life. She had a job she loved as a highschool PE teacher, a big family who lived nearby, and …
Gonads: The Primordial Journey
At two weeks old, the human embryo has only just begun its months-long journey to become a baby. The embryo is tiny, still invisible to the …
Birthstory
We originally posted this episode in 2015, and it inspired producer Molly Webster to take a deep dive into the wild and mysterious world of …
Poison Control
When reporter Brenna Farrell was a new mom, her son gave her and her husband a scare -- prompting them to call Poison Control. For Brenna, …
Unraveling Bolero
This week, we're throwing it back to an old favorite: a story about obsession, creativity, and a strange symmetry between a biologist and a …
More or Less Human
Seven years ago chatbots - those robotic texting machines - were a mere curiosity. They were noticeably robotic and at their most malicious …
Dark Side of the Earth
Astronauts at the International Space Station can make one request to talk to an earthling of their choice. For some reason, Astronaut Mark …
Border Trilogy Part 3: What Remains
Border Trilogy While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason …
Border Trilogy Part 2: Hold the Line
Border Trilogy While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason …
Border Trilogy Part 1: Hole in the Fence
Border Trilogy While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason …
Rippin’ the Rainbow an Even Newer One
One of our most popular episodes of all time was our Colors episode , where we introduced you to a sea creature that could see a rainbow far …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - The Gun Show
The shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, reignited an increasingly familiar debate about guns in this country. Today, we’re …
The Curious Case of the Russian Flash Mob at the West Palm Beach Cheesecake Factory
We don’t do breaking news. But when Robert Mueller released his indictment a few days ago, alleging that 13 Russian nationals colluded to …
Smarty Plants
Do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? To remember? Or even learn? Well, it depends on who you ask. Jad and Robert, they …
Ghosts of Football Past
In anticipation of Super Bowl LII (Go Eagles), we're revisiting an old episode about the surprising history of how the game came to be. It's …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - One Nation, Under Money
An unassuming string of 16 words tucked into the Constitution grants Congress extensive power to make laws that impact the entire nation. …
The Voice in Your Head - A Tribute to Joe Frank
How do you pay proper tribute to a legend that many people haven’t heard of? We began asking ourselves this question last week when the …
How to Be a Hero
What are people thinking when they risk their lives for someone else? Are they making complicated calculations of risk or diving in without …
Bigger Little Questions
We're back with Part 2! When we dumped out our bucket of questions, there was a lot of spillover. Like, A LOT of spillover. So today, we’re …
Big Little Questions
Here at the show, we get a lot of questions. Like, A LOT of questions. Tiny questions, big questions, short questions, long questions. Weird …
Super Cool
When we started reporting a fantastic, surreal story about one very cold night, more than 70 years ago, in northern Russia, we had no idea …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - Mr. Graham and the Reasonable Man
This story comes from the second season of Radiolab's spin-off podcast, More Perfect. To hear more, subscribe here . On a fall afternoon in …
Stereothreat
Back in 1995, Claude Steele published a study that showed that negative stereotypes could have a detrimental effect on students' academic …
Match Made in Marrow
You never know what might happen when you sign up to donate bone marrow. You might save a life… or you might be magically transported across …
Oliver Sacks: A Journey From Where to Where
There’s nothing quite like the sound of someone thinking out loud, struggling to find words and ideas to match what’s in their head. Today, …
Father K
Today, while the divisions between different groups in this country feel more and more insurmountable, we zero in on a particular …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - American Pendulum I
This story comes from the second season of Radiolab's spin-off podcast, More Perfect. To hear more, subscribe here . What happens when the …
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 …
Oliver Sipple
One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United …
Radiolab Presents: Anna in Somalia
This week, we are presenting a story from NPR foreign correspondent Gregory Warner and his new globe-trotting podcast Rough Translation . …
Where the Sun Don't Shine
Today we take a quick look up at a hole in the sky and follow an old story as it travels beyond the reach of the sun. Hosted by Simplecast, …
Revising the Fault Line
A new tussle over an old story, and some long-held beliefs, with neurologist and author Robert Sapolsky. Four years ago, we did a story …
The Gondolier
What happens when doing what you want to do means giving up who you really are? We travel to Venice, Italy with reporters Kristen Clark and …
The Radio Lab
15 years ago the very first episode of Radiolab, fittingly called "Firsts," hit the airwaves. It was a 3-hour long collection of …
Null and Void
Today, a hidden power that is either the cornerstone of our democracy or a trapdoor to anarchy. Should a juror be able to ignore the law? …
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 …
Radiolab Extra: Henrietta Lacks
With all the recent talk about HBO's upcoming film, we decided it would be good time to re-run our story of one woman's medically miraculous …
Nukes
President Richard Nixon once boasted that at any moment he could pick up a telephone and - in 20 minutes - kill 60 million people. Such is …
Shots Fired: Part 2
A couple years ago, Ben Montgomery, reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, started emailing every police station in Florida. He was asking for any …
Shots Fired: Part 1
A couple years ago, Ben Montgomery, reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, started emailing every police station in Florida. He was asking for any …
Update: CRISPR
It's been almost two years since we learned about CRISPR, a ninja-assassin-meets-DNA-editing-tool that has been billed as one of the most …
Radiolab Presents: Ponzi Supernova
We thought we knew the story of Bernie Madoff. How he masterminded the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, leaving behind scores of distraught …
Man vs Machine
Are new ideas and new inventions inevitable? Are they driven by us or by a larger force of nature? In this episode, we look at the things we …
Stranger in Paradise
Back in 1911, a box with a dead raccoon in it showed up in Washington D.C., at the office of Gerrit S. Miller. After pulling it out and …
Radiolab Presents: On the Media: Busted, America's Poverty Myths
We love to share great radio, even if we didn’t make it. Today, On the Media’s Brooke Gladstone tells Jad and Robert about a mammoth project …
Lose Lose
No matter what sport you play, the object of the game is to win. And that’s hard enough to do. But we found a match where four top athletes …
It's Not Us, It's You
It’s the end of the year, and the entire Radiolab team is starting to take stock and come up for air. We're excited about how much ground …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - Object Anyway
At the trial of James Batson in 1982, the prosecution eliminated all the black jurors from the jury pool. Batson objected, setting off a …
One Vote
Come election season, it's easy to get cynical. Why cast a ballot if your single measly vote can't possibly change anything? In our …
Alpha Gal
Tuck your napkin under your chin. We’re about to serve up a tale of love, loss, and lamb chops. For as long as she can remember, Amy Pearl …
Seneca, Nebraska
Back in 2014 the town of Seneca, Nebraska was deeply divided. How divided? They were so fed up with each other that some citizens began …
The Primitive Streak
Last May, two research groups announced a breakthrough: they each grew human embryos, in the lab, longer than ever before. In doing so, they …
Update: Eye In the Sky
An update on Ross McNutt and his superpower — he can zoom in on everyday life, then rewind and fast-forward to solve crimes in a …
The Girl Who Doesn't Exist
In today’s episode, we meet a young woman from Texas, born and raised, who can’t prove that she exists. Alecia Faith Pennington was born at …
Playing God
When people are dying and you can only save some, how do you choose? Maybe you save the youngest. Or the sickest. Maybe you even just put …
From Tree to Shining Tree
A forest can feel like a place of great stillness and quiet. But if you dig a little deeper, there’s a hidden world beneath your feet as …
David and the Wire
David Weinberg was stuck. He had been kicked out of college, was cleaning toilets by day, delivering pizzas by night and spending his …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - The Imperfect Plaintiffs
On this episode, we visit Edward Blum, a 64-year-old “legal entrepreneur” and former stockbroker who has become something of a Supreme Court …
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - The Political Thicket
The question of how much power the Supreme Court should possess has divided justices over time. But the issue was perhaps never more hotly …
The Buried Bodies Case
In 1973, a massive manhunt in New York's Adirondack Mountains ended when police captured a man named Robert Garrow. And that’s when this …
Bigger Than Bacon
Today's story is a mystery, shockingly hot, and vanishingly tiny. It starts with a sound, rising like a mist from the marsh, around a dock …
On the Edge
At the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, one athlete pulled a move that, so far as we know, no one else had ever done in all of human history. …
Cellmates
There’s a black hole in the middle of the history of life: how did we go from tiny bags of chemicals to the vast menagerie of creatures we …
Update: 23 Weeks 6 Days
An update on Juniper French, a tiny baby, born at 23 Weeks and 6 days -- roughly halfway to full term. And a whole universe of medical and …
Debatable
Unclasp your briefcase. It’s time for a showdown. In competitive debate future presidents, supreme court justices, and titans of industry …
K-poparazzi
In the U.S., paparazzi are pretty much synonymous with invasion of privacy. But today we travel to a place where the prying press create …
Hard Knock Life
This Valentine's Day, a mysterious tap tap tapping leads us into a world of sex, death, and head-banging. Biologist Dave Goulson introduces …
I Don't Have To Answer That
Roosevelt, Kennedy, Eisenhower … they all got a pass. But today we peer back at the moment when poking into the private lives of political …
The Cathedral
Ryan and Amy Green were facing the unfaceable: their youngest son, Joel was diagnosed with terminal cancer after his first birthday. …
The Fix
This episode we take a sober look at the throbbing, aching, craving desire states that return people (again and again) to the object of …
Staph Retreat
What happens when you combine an axe-wielding microbiologist and a disease-obsessed historian? A strange brew that's hard to resist, even …
Update: New Normal?
An update: Peacenik baboons, a man in a dress and cuddly tame foxes. Stories of adaptation, and reframing ideas about normalcy. 3 stories …
Darkode
It would seem that hackers today can do just about anything they want - from turning on the cellphone in your pocket to holding your life's …
Remembering Oliver Sacks
In memory of one of our dear friends, a re-release of our last conversation with Dr. Oliver Sacks. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. …
From the Archives: Oliver Sacks' Table of Elements
As we're busy working on our next episode, with stories inspired by the Periodic Table of Elements, we thought we'd bring you one of its …
Shrink
The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking. Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, …
Gray's Donation
A donation leads Sarah and Ross Gray to places we rarely get a chance to see . In this surprising journey, they gain a view of science that …
Mau Mau
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 …
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 …
Antibodies Part 1: CRISPR
Hidden inside some of the world’s smallest organisms is one of the most powerful tools scientists have ever stumbled across. It's a defense …
Nazi Summer Camp
Reporter Karen Duffin and her father were talking one day when, just as an aside, he mentioned the Nazi prisoners of war that worked on his …
Radiolab Live: Tell-Tale Hearts featuring Oliver Sacks
A few days ago Radiolab performed a live show and this episode we're bringing you a few of the highlights. They were stories of what …
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 …
Los Frikis
How a group of 80’s Cuban misfits found rock-and-roll and created a revolution within a revolution, going into exile without ever leaving …
La Mancha Screwjob
All the world’s a stage. So we push through the fourth wall, pierce the spandex-ed heart of professional wrestling, and travel 400 years …
The Trust Engineers
When we talk online, things can go south fast. But they don’t have to. Today, we meet a group of social engineers who are convinced that …
American Football
Today, we tackle football. It’s the most popular sport in the US, shining a sometimes harsh light on so much of what we have been, what we …
Radiolab Presents: Invisibilia
Producers' Note: A correction has been made to this audio to reflect the wishes of the subject of this story, Paige Abendroth. NPR's …
Worth
This episode, we make three earnest, possibly foolhardy, attempts to put a price on the priceless. We figure out the dollar value for an …
Buttons Not Buttons
Buttons are usually small and unimportant. But not always. Sometimes they are a portal to power, freedom, and destruction. Today we thread …
Outside Westgate
In the wake of public tragedy there is a space between the official narrative and the stories of the people who experienced it. Today, we …
Patient Zero - Updated
The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story …
Haunted
Dennis Conrow was stuck. After a brief stint at college, he’d passed most of his 20’s back home with his parents, sleeping in his childhood …
John Luther Adams
What's the soundtrack for the end of the world? We go looking for an answer. When Jad started to compose music for our live show …
Juicervose
Ron and Cornelia Suskind had two healthy young sons, promising careers, and a brand new home when their youngest son Owen started to …
In The Dust Of This Planet
Horror, fashion, and the end of the world … things get weird as we explore the undercurrents of thought that link nihilists, beard-stroking …
Hello
It's hard to start a conversation with a stranger—especially when that stranger is, well, different. He doesn't share your customs, …
Happy Birthday Bobby K
It’s Robert’s birthday! (Or it was, anyway, a couple days back.) So today we celebrate with some classic Krulwich radio and a backwards peek …
For the Birds
Today, a lady with a bird in her backyard upends our whole sense of what we may have to give up to keep a wild creature wild. Hosted by …
Galapagos
Today, the strange story of a small group of islands that raise a big question: is it inevitable that even our most sacred natural …
9-Volt Nirvana
Learn a new language faster than ever! Leave doubt in the dust! Be a better sniper! Could you do all that and more with just a zap to the …
≤ kg
A plum-sized lump of metal takes us from the French Revolution to an underground bunker in Maryland as we try to weigh the way we weigh the …
The Skull
Today, the story of one little thing that has radically changed what we know about humanity’s humble beginnings and the kinds of creatures …
For the Love of Numbers
It’s hard to think of anything more rational, more logical and impersonal than a number. But what if we’re all, universally, also deeply …
Straight Outta Chevy Chase
From boom bap to EDM, we look at the line between hip-hop and not, and meet a defender of the genre that makes you question... who's in and …
KILL 'EM ALL
They buzz. They bite. And they have killed more people than cancer, war, or heart disease. Here’s the question: If you could wipe mosquitoes …
Black Box
This hour, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—those peculiar spaces where it’s clear what’s going in, we know what’s …
The Times They Are a-Changin'
At the start of this new year we crack open some fossils, peer back into ancient seas, and look up at lunar skies to find that a year is not …
Sex, Ducks, and The Founding Feud
Jilted lovers and disrupted duck hunts provide a very odd look into the soul of the US Constitution. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Apocalyptical
Cataclysmic destruction. Surprising survival. In this new live stage performance, Radiolab turns its gaze to the topic of endings, both …
An Ice-Cold Case
Scientists' obsession with one particular man - and with the tiny scraps of evidence left in the wake of his death - gives us a surprisingly …
Cut and Run
Legions of athletes, sports gurus, and scientists have tried to figure out why Kenyans dominate long-distance running. In this short, we …
UPDATE: Famous Tumors
When we first released Famous Tumors, Rebecca Skloot's book about the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks (and her famous cells) had just hit …
Quicksaaaand!
For many of us, quicksand was once a real fear -- it held a vise-grip on our imaginations, from childish sandbox games to grown-up anxieties …
Poop Train
You may not give a second thought (or backward glance) to what the toilet whisks away after you do your business. But we got wondering -- …
Blame
We've all felt it, that irresistible urge to point the finger. But new technologies are complicating age-old moral conundrums about …
Dawn of Midi
In this short, Jad puts on his music hat and shares his love of Dawn of Midi, a band that he recently started using on the show. Hosted by …
Rodney Versus Death
What do you do in the face of a monstrous disease with a 100% fatality rate? In this short, a Milwaukee doctor tries to knock death …
Blood
From medicine to the movies, the horrifying to the holy, and history to the present day -- we're kinda obsessed with blood. This hour, we …
Happy Birthday, Good Dr. Sacks
One of our favorite human beings turns 80 this week. To celebrate, Robert asks Oliver Sacks to look back on his career, and explain how …
Ally's Choice
Producer Lu Olkowski brings us the story of a tightly-knit family caught on opposite sides of a very big divide. If you ask Ally Manning's …
Curious Sounds from the Solid Sound Festival
This fall, we're hitting the road with our brand-new live show. We're stopping in 20 cities across the US (plus 1 stop in Canada), and we …
The Trouble with Everything
The desire to trace your way back to the very beginning, to understand everything -- whether it's the mysteries of love or the mechanics of …
Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal …
The Distance of the Moon
What if the moon were just a jump away? In this short, a beautiful answer to that question from Italo Calvino, read live by Liev Schreiber. …
Radiolab Presents: TJ & Dave
Improv comedy puts uncertainty on center stage -- performers usually start by asking the audience for a prompt, then they make up the …
Are You Sure?
This hour, we walk the tightrope between doubt and certainty, and wonder if there's a way to make yourself at home on that razor's edge …
REBROADCAST: Emergence
This spring, parts of the East Coast will turn squishy and crunchy -- the return of the 17-year cicadas means surfaces in certain locations …
The Man Behind the Maneuver
In the 1970s, choking became national news: thousands were choking to death, leading to more accidental deaths than guns. Nobody knew what …
Speed
We live our lives at human speed, we experience and interact with the world on a human time scale. But this hour, we put ourselves through …
The Bitter End
We turn to doctors to save our lives -- to heal us, repair us, and keep us healthy. But when it comes to the critical question of what to do …
Solid as a Rock
Is reality an ethereal, mathematical poem... or is it made up of solid, physical stuff ? In this short, we kick rocks, slap tables, and …
Bliss
Moments of total, world-shaking bliss are not easy to come by. Maybe that's what makes them feel so life-altering when they strike. And so …
Raising Crane
In this short, costumed scientists create a carefully choreographed childhood for a flock of whooping cranes to save them from extinction. …
Inheritance
Once a kid is born, their genetic fate is pretty much sealed. Or is it? This hour, we put nature and nurture on a collision course and …
What's Up, Doc?
Mel Blanc was known as "the man of 1,000 voices," but the actual number may have been closer to 1,500. Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, Barney …
Seeing in the Dark
John and Zoltan are both blind, but they deal with the world in completely different ways -- one paints vivid pictures in his mind, while …
Dark Side of the Earth
200 miles above Earth's surface, astronaut Dave Wolf -- rocketing through the blackness of Earth's shadow at 5 miles a second -- floated out …
The Fact of the Matter
Getting a firm hold on the truth is never as simple as nailing down the facts of a situation. This hour, we go after a series of seemingly …
What a Slinky Knows
"Hey kids," said physicist Tadashi Tokieda, "Wanna see a magic trick?" He pulled out a Slinky and did something that amazed the kids, & …
Inside "Ouch!"
Pain is a fundamental part of life, and often a very lonely part. Doctors want to understand their patients' pain, and we all want to …
REBROADCAST: Space
Celebrate the 35th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 2 (it rocketed off Earth on 8/20/77 carrying a copy of the Golden Record), and tip …
Argentine Invasion
From a suburban sidewalk in southern California, Jad and Robert witness the carnage of a gruesome turf war. Though the tiny warriors doing …
Double Blasted
In early August of 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi had a run of the worst luck imaginable. A double blast of radiation left his future, and the …
Radiolab Remixed
Turning ideas into radio is one of the most exciting, frustrating, rewarding, and insanely fun things there is. Which got us thinking--why …
Grumpy Old Terrorists
While working on The Bad Show , producer Pat Walters ran across some recordings that spooked him--partly because they seemed like they had …
Colors
Our world is saturated in color, from soft hues to violent stains. How does something so intangible pack such a visceral punch? This hour, …
Colors Sneak Peek
Just before the curtain went up on our live show in Los Angeles, Jad and Robert carved out a little stage time for a sneak peek at next …
Fetal Consequences
Mother's day is nigh. Sort of. Anyway, without knowing it, you might have already given your mom a pretty lasting gift. But whether it helps …
Crossroads
In this short, we go looking for the devil, and find ourselves tangled in a web of details surrounding one of the most haunting figures in …
Guts
This hour, we dive into the messy mystery in the middle of us. What's going on down there? And what can the rumblings deep in our bellies …
The Turing Problem
100 years ago this year, the man who first conceived of the computer age was born. His name was Alan Turing. He was also a math genius, a …
A War We Need
Every day, every moment, an epic battle is raging across the globe. It's happening in the ocean. And the evidence is both highly visible and …
Escape!
The walls are closing in, you've got no way out... and then, suddenly, you escape! This hour, stories about traps, getaways, perpetual …
Killer Empathy
Sometimes being a good scientist requires putting aside your emotions. But what happens when objectivity isn't enough to make sense of a …
Wake Up and Dream
In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years. Hosted …
The Bad Show
Cruelty, violence, badness... This episode of Radiolab, we wrestle with the dark side of human nature, and ask whether it's something we can …
Mutant Rights
In this podcast short, a strange twist of legal taxonomy causes a dispute over whether X-MEN action figures are toys or dolls and sparks a …
Radiolab Presents: 99% Invisible
Roman Mars loves to spotlight the seams and joints that make up the world around us. He's the host of an irresistible podcast called 99% …
Death Mask
Near the end of the 19th century, a mysterious young woman with a beguiling smile turned up in Paris. She became a huge sensation. She also …
Patient Zero
The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds. In …
Sleepless in South Sudan
Carl Zimmer is one of our go-to guys when we need help untangling a complicated scientific idea. But in this short, he unravels something …
Slow
Kohn Ashmore’s voice is arresting. It stopped his friend Andy Mills in his tracks the first time they met. But in this short about the power …
Loops
Our lives are filled with loops that hurt us, heal us, make us laugh, and, sometimes, leave us wanting more. This hour, Radiolab …
Loop the Loop
For most of human history, flight was an impossible dream. In this short, the dizzying rise and fall of a pilot whose aeronautic feats …
Mapping Tic Tac Toe-dom
Writer Ian Frazier made a startling discovery several years ago in eastern Siberia: no one he met there had ever heard of tic tac toe. In …
Games
A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, …
Damn It, Basal Ganglia
The basal ganglia is a core part of the brain, deep inside your skull, that helps control movement. Unless something upsets the chain of …
A 4-Track Mind
In this short, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, …
REBROADCAST: Detective Stories
We're celebrating summer with a classic episode of Radiolab--full of mystery, intrigue...and a goat standing on a cow. We haven't actually …
Curious Sounds: A Radiolab Concert
In this short, Jad presents the electrifying sounds of three mind-bending musical acts: Brooklyn duo Buke & Gass, drummer Glenn Kotche of …
Talking to Machines
This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert meet humans and robots who are trying to connect, and blur the line. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Dogs Gone Wild
In this short, a family dog disappears into the woods...and the mystery of what happened to him raises a big question about what it means to …
Cosmic Habituation
In this short, Jonathan Schooler tells us about a discovery that launched his career and led to a puzzle that has haunted him ever since. …
Desperately Seeking Symmetry
This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very …
Pass the Science
Richard Holmes went to Cambridge University intending to study the lives of poets. Until a dueling mathematician, and a dinner conversation …
Help!
What do you do when your own worst enemy is...you? This hour, Radiolab looks for ways to gain the upper hand over those forces inside …
A Flock of Two
In today's short, we get to know a man who struggles, and mostly fails, to contain his violent outbursts...until he meets a bird who can …
Radiolab Presents: The Loneliness of the Goalkeeper
This week on the podcast, football! No, it's not a Super Bowl recap. Jad and Robert present a piece from across the pond--a piece about …
Lost & Found
In this episode, we steer our way through a series of stories about getting lost, and ask how our brains, and our hearts, help us find our …
The Universe Knows My Name
In this new short, we explore luck and fate, both good and bad, with an author and a cartoon character. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Blood Buddies
In this new short, a tree full of blood-sucking bats lends a startling twist to our understanding of altruism and natural selection. Hosted …
The Good Show
In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why …
Gravitational Anarchy
A mysterious case of the topsy turvies and a return to the question of what felines feel when they fall. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
What Does Technology Want?
Are new ideas and new inventions inevitable? Are they driven by us or by a larger force of nature? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. …
Wild Talk
In today's podcast, we get a tantalizing taste of words in the wild, from the jungles to the prairie. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Cities
In this hour of Radiolab, we take to the street to ask what makes cities tick. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com …
The Walls of Jericho
Jad and Robert pit physics against a bible story with this simple question: could a team of trumpeters really bring down the walls of …
Voices in Your Head
Jad talks to Charles Fernyhough about the connection between thought, inner speech, and the voice in our heads. Hosted by Simplecast, an …
Words
It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But this hour, we try to do just that. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. …
Secrets of Success
Malcolm Gladwell doesn't like Gifted and Talented Education Programs. And he doesn't believe that innate ability can fully explain superstar …
The Luckiest Lobster
One place you absolutely, positively do not want to be if you're a healthy, middle-aged American lobster: trapped in a suburban grocery …
Oops
Oops. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of unintended consequences. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
Strangers in the Mirror
Oliver Sacks , the famous neuroscientist and author, can't recognize faces. Neither can Chuck Close , the great artist known for his …
Famous Tumors
In this hour of Radiolab: an unflinching look at the good, bad, and ugly side of tumors. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
Vanishing Words
Agatha Christie's clever detective novels may reveal more about the inner workings of the human mind than she intended. In this podcast, a …
The Loudest Miniature Fuzz
Music duo Buke and Gass play for us, attempt to describe their genre-bending sound, and talk a bit about what's it like to play out what you …
Limits
On this hour of Radiolab: a journey to the edge of human limits. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
The Bus Stop
There’s a common problem faced by Alzheimer's and Dementia patients all over the world: lost in their memories, they sometimes get …
Do I Know You?
How do you know your mother is really your mother? It's simple, right? You look at her, you recognize her, enough said. Well, in this …
Lucy
Chimps. Bonobos. Humans. We're all great apes, but that doesn’t mean we’re one happy family. This hour of Radiolab: stories of trying to …
The Shy Baboon
In this podcast, a biopsychologist attempts to find an elusive bit of shared space across species lines. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Fu Manchu
In our episode Animal Minds , we asked whether it was possible for one animal to know what was going on in another animal's mind. For us, it …
Animal Minds
In this hour of Radiolab, stories of cross-species communication. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
In C
Ok, so last podcast you heard counting babies. Here’s a new spin... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
Numbers
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 …
Killing Babies, Saving the World
To get this podcast started, Robert ambushes Jad with a question...a question we've all been dying to ask him since June 10th, 2009, when …
Helicopter Boy
In this podcast, a story about a mom, a boy, and a home-made helicopter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
New Normal?
In this hour of Radiolab: reframing our ideas about normalcy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information …
Blink
We ask a question we thought was a no-brainer in this podcast: why do we blink? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
It Might Be Science
They Might Be Giants just came out with a new album, 'Here Comes Science.' So we invited them to come play with us at our season launch …
Parasites
What's gotten into you? In this hour, Radiolab uncovers a world full of parasites. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
After Birth
Pardon the graphic pun, but hey! For this podcast, Jad--a brand new father--wonders what's going on inside the head of his baby Amil. Hosted …
15: Sum
For meditation number fifteen we have a reading from David Eagleman's book Sum . It's a vision of the after life that's both playful and... …
14: The Four Groans
Another meditation on what happens after the moment of death, this time as Shakespeare envisions it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
13: Gone
We continue our meditations on death with a reading from poet and writer, Mark Doty . This is an excerpt from Doty's 1996 memoir Heaven's …
12: Proof
This week on the podcast, we continue our meditations on death. Our After Life episode had eleven meditations, and now we’re gonna throw a …
After Life
This hour: Radiolab stares down the very moment of passing, and speculates about what may lie beyond. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
In Defense of Darwin?
When evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins' daughter was six years old, he told her that flowers are not here for beauty, not here for the …
Are We Coins?
After we released our show about Stochasticity , we received a lot of comments about the idea humans can be just as predictable as coins. In …
Stochasticity
Stochasticity (a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness), may be at the very foundation of our lives. To understand how …
Stayin' Alive
This week on the podcast we take a look at four unconventional ways to stay alive. We talk to geneticist George Church , who originally …
AV Smackdown . . . The Podcast
On May 6th, at WNYC's new Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, we opened up an age old can of worms. Jad and Robert faced off over which …
Juana Molina
Sometimes on the podcast, we like to talk about musicians and the music they make. Today we introduce you to Juana Molina. Last season we …
In Silence
Here at Radiolab we explore big ideas and ask big questions to see how the world works. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
DIY Universe
Can you make your own universe? We usually think of the universe as 'everything that exists,' so how could you make another one? Hosted by …
Mischel’s Marshmallows
How are your New Year's resolutions holding out? This might at least help you feel better about them. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
Darwinvaganza
For this week's podcast, Radiolab throws a birthday party for Charles Darwin! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com …
The Obama Effect, Perhaps.
When Jad and Robert saw this article about a study that found a link between President Obama's election, and the test scores of African …
Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters
The quest for scientific knowledge is one of the great and noble pursuits of humankind. It's also one of the most dangerous, frustrating, …
Diagnosis
Humans love to solve problems. In this hour of Radiolab, diagnosis--our attempt to find out what's wrong, and give it a label. Hosted by …
Race
This hour of Radiolab, a look at race. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection …
Sperm
Sperm carry half the genes needed for human life. In this hour of Radiolab, some basic questions and profound thoughts about reproduction. …
Choice
Logic and emotion aren't the only forces that guide our decisions. This hour of Radiolab, we turn up the volume on the voices in our heads, …
Chris And Lisa
Chris had a crush on Lisa. But how to woo her? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our …
Sperm Tales
In today’s podcast, a teaser for our hour-long Sperm show. If you think you learned all there is to know from that junior high school …
Chasing Bugs
Remember the first time you ever saw an ant hill? That parade of black insects pouring in and out of a small sand mound...most of us …
Making the Hippo Dance
We play some never-released tape from the vault, and reveal a bit about what techniques we used to try and make it sing. Hosted by …
Quantum Cello
Jad and cellist Zoe Keating discuss the physics (if not metaphysics) of looping sound and how to use a 17th century instrument to make …
The (Multi) Universe(s)
Robert and Brian Greene discuss what's beyond the horizon of our universe, what you might wear in infinite universes with finite pairs of …
Tell Me A Story
Robert Krulwich's commencement speech at California Institute of Technology gets at the heart of what we do here at Radiolab. Hosted by …
City X
This week, a piece from one of our favorite radio-makers, Jonathan Mitchell . 'City X' is a history of the modern shopping mall through …
Earworms
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 …
Wordless Music
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 …
Open Outcry
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 …
Jad and Robert: The Early Years
Ever wonder how Jad and Robert met? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and …
Pop Music
This hour of Radiolab: pop music's pull. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection …
(So-Called) Life
In a world where biology and engineering intersect, how do you decide what's "natural"? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
Laughter
We all laugh. This hour of Radiolab asks why. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our …
Our Podcast comes in all shapes and sizes
Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time, 'IF' by Sherre DeLys. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
Salle Des Departs
Imagine that you're a composer. Imagine getting the commission to write a song that will allow family members to face the death of a loved …
The Ring and I
On this Radiolab/WNYC Special, we explore the impact and influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle on the Metropolitan Opera's 2004 Presentation. …
The Wright Brothers
104 years ago this week, Wilbur and Orville Wright managed to coax their spruce biplane off the North Carolina sand for twelve seconds, and …
Contact
This week, a look at the different ways that people connect to each other, and how they act once they’re together. NOTE: This episode …
Space Capsules
How would you describe life on Earth to an alien? In 1977, the Voyager spacecraft launched into space. And with it, went the Golden Record-- …
Making Radiolab
In spring of 2006, Jad and Robert took the stage at the SoHo Apple Store to talk about the making of Radiolab. Jad geeks out on the …
Musical Language
In this hour of Radiolab, we examine the line between language and music. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for …
Detective Stories
Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this hour of Radiolab, digging up the …
This is Your Brain On Love
Radiolab is given the charge to put on a Singles Night. That's right. 'Jad,' they said, 'stand on a stage and make strangers fall in love! …
Emergence
What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies -- …
Morality
Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our …
Beyond Time
This hour, Radiolab goes to the front lines with men and women who are battling against time -- or at least the common-sense view of time. …
Mortality
This hour of Radiolab: is death a disease that can be cured? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information …
Memory and Forgetting
This hour of Radiolab, a look behind the curtain of how memories are made...and forgotten. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
Zoos
In a cruel trick of evolution, humans can stand just three feet from a ferocious animal and still be perfectly safe. This hour, Radiolab …
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 …
Sleep
Birds do it, bees do it...yet science still can't answer the basic question: why do we sleep? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See …
Placebo
With new research demonstrating the startling power of the placebo effect, this hour of Radiolab examines the chemical consequences of …
Who Am I?
The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. But in this hour of Radiolab, neurologists lead the charge on …
Stress
Stress may save your life if you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're stuck in traffic, it may be more likely to make you sick. This …
Radiolab | We Go Places
Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl …
Where Am I?
OK. Maybe you're in your desk chair. You're in your office. You're in New York, or Detroit, or Timbuktu. You're on planet Earth. But where …