Matt Kilty

We want to end this evening in which we've been looking out into the void by actually going out there, following Doug's messages, in a sense, out into space, beyond our atmosphere, beyond our gravity, beyond our plodding earthly concerns.

with an excerpt from a gorgeous novel, Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, which tells the story of six astronauts on the International Space Station spending most of their time not gazing out at the cosmos, but gazing down at us.

It will be read by the brilliant artist, actress, host of the WQXR podcast, Helga.

Please welcome Helga Davis.

And that, my friends, is our show.

As you probably know, it has been a deeply unsettling summer for Radiolab and across public media.

In July, Congress voted to eliminate all federal funding for public media in America for the first time in history.

That has resulted in a direct loss of millions of dollars to WNYC, our home station.

And so if you care about what we do, if you want to keep us around, the best way to support what we do is by becoming a member of the lab.

We'd love it if you check it out.

Membership starts at just seven bucks a month.

Not that much money.

If anything we have made is meant seven dollars in a month to you, that would really mean the world to us.

It's such a capacious tote bag.

It's like you're carrying a void around with you wherever you go.

Yeah.

So this show was written by me, Lulu Miller, and Matt Kilty.

It was edited by Pat Walters and executive produced by Sarah Sandbach.

The show is sound designed by Jeremy Bloom and Matt Kilty with live scoring by Mantra Percussion.

Fact check by Diane Kelly and Natalie Middleton.