Radiolab
Episodes
NULL
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 properly, p...
In the Dust of This Planet
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 explore...
Inheritance
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 on a co...
The Right Stuff
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the beginning of the space program, we’ve always expected astronauts to be fully abled athletic overachievers who are one-part science-geek, t...
Stress
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stress can give your body a boost - raising adrenaline levels, pumping blood to the muscles, heightening our senses. And those sudden superpowers can ...
The Helen Keller Exorcism
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Fantasy writer Elsa Sjunneson has been haunted by Helen Keller for nearly her entire life. Like Helen, Elsa is Deafblind, and growing up she was const...
Life in a Barrel
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 the chaos...
Speed
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 entirety ...
The Wordless Place
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Review und...
Hello
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's hard to start a conversation with a stranger—especially when that stranger is, well, different. He doesn't share your customs, celebrate your h...
Forests on Forests
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For much of history, tree canopies were pretty much completely ignored by science. It was as if researchers said collectively, "It's just going to be ...
The First Radiolab
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 in his cha...
The 11th: A Letter From George
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 called T...
Darkode
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 work hosta...
Worst. Year. Ever.
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 horri...
Flop Off
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This past year was a flop. From questionable blockbuster reboots to supply chain shenanigans to worst of all, omnipresent COVID variants. But, in a la...
Vanishing Words
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 mind, a wor...
Return of Alpha Gal
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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. Several year...
Animal Minds
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ever real...
Mixtape: Help?
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In tape five, three stories: first, a tale of how the cassette tape supercharged the self-help industry. Second, cassettes filled with history make an...
Mixtape: Cassetternet
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1983, Simon Goodwin had a strange thought. Would it be possible to broadcast computer software over the radio? If so, could listeners record it off...
Mixtape: The Wandering Soul
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the Vietnam war dragged on, the US military began desperately searching for any vulnerability in their North Vietnamese enemy. In 1964, they found ...
Mixtape: Jack and Bing
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 rooms each w...
Mixtape: Dakou
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 artists i...
Of Bombs and Butterflies
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 was... The U....
Oliver Sipple
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 States. B...
HEAVY METAL
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we have a story about the sometimes obvious but sometimes sneaky effects of the way that we humans rearrange the elemental stuff around us. Repo...
In the Running
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 disability gav...
60 Words, 20 Years
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 sentence, writt...
The Unsilencing
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, even psoriasis — these are diseases in which the body begins to attack itself, and they all have on...
Everybody’s Got One
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. But this story isn’...
Gonads: Dutee
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, India’s Dutee Chand was a rising female track and field star, crushing national records. But then, that summer, something unexpected happen...
The Queen of Dying
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 sort of...
Breaking News about The Other Latif
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few weeks, most people have probably seen Britney Spears' name or face everywhere. When she stood in front of a judge (virtually) and pro...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 6
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lift Every Voice: Episode Six from The Vanishing of Harry Pace, a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. Black Swan Records w...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 5
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Roland Hayes and the Lost Generation: Episode Five from The Vanishing of Harry Pace, a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. ...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 4
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 tale,...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 3
26 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 follo...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 2
19 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 post B...
The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 1
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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. Harry Pa...
Breath
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 time to go ...
The Rhino Hunter
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 hunter, who ...
The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 and fa...
Brown Box
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 happen so fas...
Kleptotherms
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we break the thermometer watch the mercury spill out as we discover temperature is far stranger than it seems. Five stories that ru...
Deep Cuts
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 from ...
The Septendecennial Sing-Along
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 the music o...
What Up Holmes?
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our say-almost-anything ...
Elements
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 episode...
Escapescape
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 out a call t...
Dispatch 14: Covid Crystal Ball
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 lymphoma, and...
The Ceremony
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 of her pho...
Red Herring
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 mysterious sound...
Facebook's Supreme Court
12 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since its inception, the perennial thorn in Facebook’s side has been content moderation. That is, deciding what you and I are allowed to post on the...
Smile My Ass
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 as a ...
Post Reports: Four Hours of Insurrection
16 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 we had...
More Money Less Problems
15 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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, a quirky-b...
Sight Unseen
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the attacks were unfolding on the Capitol, a steady stream of images poured onto our screens. Photo editor Kainaz Amaria tells us what she was loo...
A Terrible Covid Christmas Special
23 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 we stare ...
The Ashes on the Lawn
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A global pandemic. An afflicted, angry group. A seemingly indifferent government. Reporter Tracie Hunte wanted to understand this moment of pain and c...
Enemy of Mankind
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 launch Ame...
The Great Vaccinator
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Until now, the fastest vaccine ever made - for mumps - took four years. And while our current effort to develop a covid-19 vaccine involves thousands ...
Dispatch 13: Challenge Trials
25 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 you do it? W...
Deception
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lies, liars, and lie catchers. This hour of Radiolab asks if it's possible for anyone to lead a life without deception.
Breaking Benford
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 key pi...
Bloc Party
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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, handing o...
How to Win Friends and Influence Baboons
31 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 everybody...
What If?
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 he simpl...
Kittens Kick The Giggly Blue Robot All Summer
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the recent passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there's been a lot of debate about how much power the Supreme Court should really have. We think of ...
No Special Duty
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 police”...
Insomnia Line
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 find a way...
More Perfect: Sex Appeal
19 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 re-airing the Mo...
Falling
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 a blac...
Bringing Gamma Back, Again
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 power of flas...
Fungus Amungus
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Six years ago, a new infection began popping up in four different hospitals on three different continents, all around the same time. It wasn’t a bac...
Translation
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 is that th...
Lebanon, USA
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 was a tow...
The Wubi Effect
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 for stride...
Uncounted
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 connect u...
Invisible Allies
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As scientists have been scrambling to find new and better ways to treat covid-19, they’ve come across some unexpected allies. Invisible and primord...
Baby Blue Blood Drive
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 superpow...
Dispatches from 1918
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 polit...
The Flag and the Fury
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 were the la...
The Third. A TED Talk.
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 a story? H...
Post No Evil Redux
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 impact t...
The Liberation of RNA
13 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 was a sen...
Graham
07 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s case for the death of George Floyd goes to trial, there will be this one, controversial legal p...
Nina
06 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Producer Tracie Hunte stumbled into a duet between Nina Simone and the sounds of protest outside her apartment. Then she discovered a performance by ...
Dispatch 6: Strange Times
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 find a place ...
Speedy Beet
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Beethoven mi...
Octomom
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 went bac...
Why Fish Don't Exist
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our old friend Lulu Miller — former Radiolab producer, co-creator of Invisibilia — has been obsessed by the chaos that rules the universe since lo...
David and Dominique
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 HIV-positive. ...
Dispatch 5: Don't Stop Believin'
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Covid-19 has put emergency room doctors on the frontlines treating an illness that is still perplexing and unknown. Jad tracks one ER doctor in NYC as...
Atomic Artifacts
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the 1950s, facing the threat of nuclear annihilation, federal officials sat down and pondered what American life would actually look like aft...
The Cataclysm Sentence
18 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 undergraduate s...
Dispatch 4: Six Feet
11 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 a simpl...
Space
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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. So toda...
Dispatch 3: Shared Immunity
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 so ago (ak...