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675 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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The Smell of Hell
16 oktober 2026 · 43 min
Throughout human history, there’s been one element we’ve always associated with death. Just the smell of it is an alarm bell that says, “something here is dangerous.” But what if our noses have been wrong all along? Lees meer
In this episode of our series Viscera: Gripping Tales of the Human Body, we take you to a live performance in Boston where we reveal how this much-maligned element might be better understood as the smell of life.
LATERAL CUTS:
Want to see a Viscera show? Join us for Radiolab Presents: Viscera, live in New York City on Thursday, November 5th. All about the sometimes freaky world of organ transplants, with special guest Mary Roach discussing her upcoming book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy. Get your tickets at wnyc.org/events.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Avir Mitra and Matt Kielty
with help from - Mona Madgavkar
Produced by - Mona Madgavkar and Matt Kielty
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Rachel Gross
and Edited by - Pat Walters
Liveshow production support - Natalia Ramirez, Sarah Sandbach, Maia Appleby Melamed, and Jeremy Bloom.EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Watch the video of Radiolab Presents: Viscera live at WBUR CitySpace (https://zpr.io/PZF3BqnbKKJD)
Articles -
A possible chemical explanation for the events associated with the death of Gloria Ramirez at Riverside General Hospital (https://zpr.io/sbjXYcPenGSH), the paper explaining Livermore Lab’s hypothesis.
Books -
The Great Secret (https://zpr.io/PGCmihSFBHj4), by Jennet Conant about the birth of chemotherapy in the laboratory of war.
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@…
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Math Vs Machine
9 oktober 2026 · 31 min
In less than four years, mathematician Steve Strogatz watched AI go from flailing at basic arithmetic to solving problems that baffle the world’s best mathematicians. In September of 2026, Open AI announced it had solved a Millennium Prize Problem, one of math’s highest achievements. In short, mathematics is right now on the cusp of a reckoning that may be coming for all of us. In this episode, Steve grapples with the idea that the window might be closing on humanity’s effort to unpuzzle, or learn, or understand the world around us. Lees meer
Special thanks to Ravi Vakil, Alex Kontorovich, Bob Wright.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Maria Paz Gutierrez and Soren Wheeler
Produced by - Soren Wheeler and Maria Paz Gutierrez
Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly
and Edited by - Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
On deep learning for cancer diagnosis and treatment (https://zpr.io/TPnVfbPH8gTr), by Regina Barzilay (MIT Professor of AI & Health)
Articles -
Mathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why (https://zpr.io/n67amKFPuiYA), by Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend
OpenAI Releases Findings on 377 Math Problems, Further Roiling Field (https://zpr.io/YDjQXvYfqkvA), by Kenneth Chang and Siobhan Roberts
Books -
Big Math: The Hidden Codes that rule our World (https://zpr.io/BFuYZ29qt8av), by Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Ho…
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A 4-Track Mind
2 oktober 2026 · 21 min
In this short episode, first aired in 2011, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible. Lees meer
Reporter Jessica Benko went to Michigan to visit Bob Milne, one of the best ragtime piano players in the world, and a preternaturally talented musician. Usually, Bob sticks to playing piano for small groups of ragtime enthusiasts, but he recently caught the attention of Penn State neuroscientist Kerstin Betterman, who had heard that Bob had a rare talent: He can play technically challenging pieces of music on demand while carrying on a conversation and cracking jokes. According to Kerstin, our brains just aren't wired for that. So she decided to investigate Bob's brain, and along the way she discovered that Bob has an even more amazing ability ... one that we could hardly believe and science can't explain.
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Grass Apes
25 september 2026 · 22 min
When you think about grass, what do you think of? Pool parties? Suburbs? Allergies? What about: human history? It turns out, unassuming grass, which exists on every continent, has an epic story to tell. One of transforming the planet, and … us. From what we eat, to how our body might be shaped and the ways we perceive the world. Senior Correspondent Molly Webster speaks to biologist and writer David George Haskell in this tiny ode to Grass. Lees meer
This episode was inspired by “Grass Fed”, a Radiolab outdoor theatre performance at Little Island in New York City. “Grass Fed” featured biologist and writer David George Haskell; Foley artist Steven Wendt; and dance company, Pilobolus. Special thanks to all the artists, and to Little Island, Sarah Sandbach, Natalia Ramirez, and Soren Wheeler.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
with help from - Jo Strogatz and Anisa Vietze
Produced by - Sarah Qari
with help from - Jo Strogatz, Molly Webster
Original vocals from - Jo Strogatz
with mixing from - Jeremy S. Bloom
Fact-checking by - Nora Belblidia
and Edited by - Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
The Other Almanac 2026 (https://www.otheralmanac.com/), by David George Haskell a print-only magazine contains an essay All Hail Grass, Maker of Humans! by David George Haskell all about grass’s role in human history.
Books -
How Flowers Made Our World” (https://zpr.io/r4ybZJea8WV9) by David George Haskell which has a chapter all about grass in it (it’s a flowering plant, if you didn’t know!)
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Ra…
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The Sweetest Thing
18 september 2026 · 31 min
“What is the sweetest thing in the world?” After co-host Latif Nasser’s sons ask him this deceptively simple question, he goes on a quest to find it. Is it a West African Katemfe berry? Or an industrial sugar substitute cooked up in a lab? Or an ingredient hiding in plain sight in all of our pantries? A simple mystery that will make you question what sweetness even is, how our tongues (and other body parts you wouldn’t expect) determine what we like, and how far you would go to taste something sweeter than anyone has ever experienced. Lees meer
Thank you to Latif’s sons for indulging us, to Nicola Twilley and Cynthia Graber at Gastropod, to Anni Laffitte, Nazli Parvizi at Museum of Food and Drink, to food icons Claire Saffitz and Sam Seneveratne who did a live show version of this episode with us at the Tribeca Festival. And thank you to Davy Gardner and his wonderful team of audio folks at the Tribeca Festival.
Thank you to Jialin Deng who composed the song that was our ‘sonic seasoning’. And to Laura Rickman and everyone else at Columbia University’s Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute for hosting us.
And big thanks to experimental psychologist Charles Spence at Oxford, sweetness chemist Grant DuBois, Danielle Reed at Monell Chemical Senses Center, and nutritional scientist Sarah Berry at King’s College London who all talked to us about their research. And Brian Everett of Honest Organic Farms.
And a very special thanks to Sean Oomens, inventor of producer Jess Yung’s favorite candy, nerd gummy clusters
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
with help from - Jessica Yung, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Jessica Yung, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, and Natalia Ramirez
Produced by - Jessica Yung
with help from - Mona Madgavkar, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Gabby Santas, and Maia Appleby Melamed
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Sophie Samiee
and Edited by - Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos:
Youtuber Chemiolis tried to make Luguduname himself (https…
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23 Weeks 6 Days
11 september 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
When Kelley Benham and her husband Tom French finally got pregnant, after many attempts and a good deal of technological help, everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. Their story raises questions that, until recently, no parent had to face… and that are still nearly impossible to answer. Lees meer
This hour, which we first released in 2013, we spend the entire episode on the story of Kelley and Tom, whose daughter was born at 23 weeks and 6 days, roughly halfway to full term. Their story contains an entire universe of questions about the lines between life and death, reflex and will, and the confusing tug of war between two basic moral touchstones: doing no harm...and doing everything in our power to help. Kelley has written about her experience in a brilliant series of articles in the Tampa Bay Times.
If you want to know more about what we talk about in the update tacked onto the end of this episode, check out the links below:
This Photo Here (https://zpr.io/ZvMD42u9hzuu)
Plus This Video Here (https://zpr.io/8ewZUD368TzP)
Check out the book that Tom and Kelley wrote about Juniper here:
Juniper: The girl who was born too soon. (https://zpr.io/8ewZUD368TzP)
And when you're done listening to the episode, be sure to check out the video below--but be warned, it does contain spoilers.
23 Weeks 6 Days Video
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Jad Abumrad
Produced by Matt Kielty and Jad Abumrad
Update produced by Pat Walters and Anisa Vietze
with mixing help from Jeremy BloomSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons …
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60 Words
4 september 2026 · 58 min
We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it had us thinking about an episode we produced in 2014. It’s the story of one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. Lees meer
In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law—called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)—has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the last two decades. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace.
LATERAL CUTS -
Really anything from our sister show, More PerfectEPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Kelsey Padgett
with help from - Matt Kielty
Produced by - Matt Kielty
with help from - Kelsey PadgettSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by b…
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Dolly Parton's America: Sad Ass Songs
28 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 5 min
The world lost a legend recently, and we wanted in some small way to pay tribute to the great Dolly Parton. So we’re playing you an episode from a series we had a small part in back in 2017, Dolly Parton’s America. Lees meer
The series kicked off with a simple question: How did the queen of the boob joke become a feminist icon? Helen Morales, author of “Pilgrimage to Dollywood,” gave us a stern directive – look at the lyrics! So we dive into Dolly’s discography, starting with the early period of what Dolly calls “sad ass songs” to find remarkably prescient words of female pain, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and women being locked away in asylums by cheating husbands. We explore how Dolly took the centuries-old tradition of the Appalachian “murder ballad”—an oral tradition of men singing songs about brutally killing women—and flipped the script, singing from the woman’s point of view. And as her career progresses, the songs expand beyond the pain to tell tales of leaving abuse behind.
How can such pro-woman lyrics come from someone who despises the word feminism? Best to let Dolly tell you herself.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee
Produced by - Jad Abumrad
with help from - W. Harry Fortuna
Original music from - Alex Overington
Sound design contributed by - Alex Overington
and Edited by - Suzie Lechtenberg
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hos…
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Patient Zero
21 augustus 2026 · 52 min
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 epidemiology, this central character is known as Patient Zero—the case at the heart of an outbreak. This hour, Radiolab digs up an episode we first produced in 2011 and hunts for Patient Zeroes from all over the map. We start with the story of perhaps the most iconic Patient Zero of all time: Typhoid Mary. Then, we dive into a molecular detective story to pinpoint the beginning of the AIDS, and we re-imagine the moment the virus that caused the global pandemic sprang to life. After that, we're left wondering if you can trace the spread of an idea the way you can trace the spread of a disease. In the end, we find ourselves faced with a choice between competing claims about the origin of the high five. Lees meer
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Nigel and the Real Gannet
14 augustus 2026 · 26 min
In 2016, Chris Bell, a ranger with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, was the sole human inhabitant of a small island off the west coast of the country, called Mana Island. He was there to take care of the island’s fragile and recovering ecosystem, including a colony of Australasian Gannets at the top of a high cliff overlooking the sea. But there was one catch. All but one of these striking seabirds were fake, made of concrete and paint. Lees meer
This week on Radiolab, producer Annie McEwen tells us a love story about a rogue bird and what happens when the things we want for animals clash with what they seem to choose for themselves.
Special thanks to Melody Thomas and Kirsten Johnstone from Popsock Media, the New Zealand-based podcast company. Thanks also to Mathias Kom and Ariel Sharratt from The Burning Hell and Steven Lambke at You’ve Changed Records.
Visit Friends of Mana Island at https://manaisland.org.nz/ to learn more about conservation efforts on Mana Island.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Annie McEwen
Produced by - Annie McEwen
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Alex Neason
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
There are many Nigel-inspired songs, poems, and plays find links to a few of them below:
See Nigel with his concrete mate (https://zpr.io/kZZC9erwauCD)
Nigel the Gannet song video by The Burning Hell (theburninghell.com)
Nigel [w/ score] (https://zpr.io/t47J6VkqAXLj) by Angus Davison
Nigel the Lonely Seabird (https://zpr.io/4gSSv5MX8xTa) by Daniel Henderson
Nigel (https://zpr.io/FuLupaZG42sn) by Avem
Nigel No Mates (https://zpr.io/hckrSSdBXKE9 ) by Dainius Kučinskas
Nigel Gannet (https://zpr.io/kddxySdXqd3C) by Fred Pilcher
Nigel (https://zpr.io/88HdTWRSd2UF) an Experimental Animated Short Film About a Lonely Gannet
Nigel, the Seabird, (https://vimeo.com/1023401693) by Chloé Aktaş, debuted at The Elysian Theater in Los Angeles in 2025
Literature -
Poetry inspired by Nigel the Gannet (…
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Red Herring
7 augustus 2026 · 36 min
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 deep below the surface of the ocean. Again, and again, and again they would hear it near their secret military bases, in their harbors, and up and down the Swedish coastline. After thorough analysis the navy was certain. The sound was an invasion into their waters, an act of war, the opening salvos of a possible nuclear annihilation. Or was it? Today, Annie McEwen pulls us down into a deep-sea mystery, one of international intrigue that asks you to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, your deepest beliefs could be as solid as...air. Lees meer
Special thanks to Ben Wilson, Ola Tunander, Hans Gordon, Andreas Timmelstad, Klaus Helmersen, and Meg Bolz.
LATERAL CUTS -
Atomic Artifacts (https://radiolab.org/podcast/atomic-artifacts)
Neither Confirm Nor Deny (https://radiolab.org/podcast/confirm-nor-deny)
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Annie McEwin
with help from - Magnus Ormstadt
Produced by - Annie McEwin, Matt Kielty, Sarah Qari
Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The Shoe Thrower
31 juli 2026 · 1 uur 17 min
When no one seems to be listening, how far do you go to be heard? Lees meer
In December 2008, George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad for a press conference. And at the very end of his remarks, a shoe came flying past his head.
It was “the shoe heard around the world,” and countless jokes and memes ensued.
But in the pandemonium, many missed the story of the man at the center: Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, a weary journalist trying to get the world to see the Iraq War in a different light. Even fewer people know what happened to him after.
Nearly two decades later, Radiolab reporter Sarah Qari tracked Al-Zaidi down to learn the story of his life. What she found was a story about grief, anger, and the line where journalism ends and protest begins.
Special thanks to Azmat Khan and Mustafa Salim.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Sarah Qari, with help from Mariam Dwedar
Translation by Mais Al-Bayaa and Mariam Dwedar
Produced by Sarah Qari
Sound design contributed by Sarah Qari
Mixed by Jeremy Bloom
Editing help from Annie McEwen
Fact-checking by Emily Krieger and Heba Elorbany
LATERAL CUTS:
If you liked this episode and want to hear more fascinating deep dives we’ve done on The War on Terror, check out our episode:
60 Words (https://radiolab.org/podcast/60-words),
or our series The Other Latif (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/other-latif)
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Collaborator’s Work -
Mariam Dwedar (https://www.mariamdwedar.com/)
Made in Palestine (https://zpr.io/JBAuqi5zyZMT) - a documentary short
@mariamdwedar - Instagram handle
Mais Al-Bayaa
Iraq Uncovered (https://zpr.io/ebuUcjSFcUJp) - documentary
Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade (https://zpr.io/u9HnCWmnQggG) - documentary
Go Back to Where You Came From (https://zpr.io/J8rxafGCCgUA) - documentary
@maisalbayaa - Instagram
Journal Articles _
The Art of Shoe-Throwing: Shoes as a Symbol of Protest and Popular Imagination (https://zpr.io/6gmuuavLWuHu), by Yasmin Ibrahim
Films -
The President’s Cake (https://zpr.io…
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Return of Alpha Gal
24 juli 2026 · 56 min
Several years ago, in 2016, we told a story about Amy Pearl. For as long as she could remember, Amy loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn’t tolerate it. No steaks. No brisket. No weenies. It made no sense: why couldn’t she eat something that she had routinely enjoyed for decades? Lees meer
It turned out Amy was not alone. And the answer to her mysterious allergy involved maps, a dancing lone star tick, and a very particular sugar called Alpha Gal.
In this update, we discover that our troubles with Alpha Gal go way beyond food. We go to NYU Langone Health hospital to see the second ever transplant of a kidney from a pig into a human, talk to some people at Revivicor, the company that bred the pig in question, and go back to Amy to find out what she thinks about this brave new world.
The original episode was reported by Latif Nasser, and produced by Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty. Sound design and scoring from Dylan Keefe, Annie McEwen, and Matt Kielty. Mix by Dylan Keefe with Arianne Wack.
The update was reported and produced by Sarah Qari. It was sound designed, scored, and mixed by Jeremy Bloom.
LATERAL CUTS:
How does a tick bit can cause a red meat allergy? - An episode from our friends over at Science Friday, who had a recent conversation with the researcher who discovered the connection, decades ago.
Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the Jo… -
Neither Confirm Nor Deny
17 juli 2026 · 29 min
In an episode we first ran back in 2014, we explore how a sunken nuclear submarine, a crazy billionaire, and a mechanical claw gave birth to a phrase that has hounded journalists and lawyers for 40 years and embodies the tension between the public’s desire for transparency and the government’s need to keep secrets. Lees meer
Whether it comes from government spokespeople or celebrity publicists, the phrase “can neither confirm nor deny” is the perfect non-denial denial. It’s such a perfect deflection that it seems like it’s been around forever, but reporter Julia Barton takes us back to the 1970s and the surprising origin story of what’s now known as a “Glomar Response.” With help from David Sharp and Walt Logan, we tell the story of a clandestine CIA operation to lift a sunken Soviet submarine from the ocean floor and the dilemma they faced when the world found out about it. It’s an episode we first released in 2014, but given some things in the news recently, it resonated with us again.
In the 40 years since that operation, the Glomar Response has become boilerplate language from an array of government agencies. With help from ProPublica editor Jeff Larson and NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston, we explore the implications of this ultimate information dodge. ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer explains how it stymies oversight, and we learn that, even 40 years later, governmental secrecy can be emotionally painful.
More information about Glomar:
After 40 years, many of the details of Project Azorian are only now coming to light. The US government’s default position has been to keep as much of it classified as possible. It took three years for retired CIA employee David Sharp to get permission to publish his account of Project Azorian. And FOIA played an indirect role in that, as Cold War historians got the CIA to release, in redacted form, an internal history of the mission. After that and a threat of legal action, Sharp was finally able to publish his manuscript in 2012.
We mentioned con…
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The Holy Shiver
10 juli 2026 · 38 min
Lauren Brown gets goosebumps. A lot. Sometimes several times a day. When her partner, writer Carmen Maria Machado, noticed it...she couldn't stop thinking about it. Why does she get them in so many different situations? What’s happening in her body and what does it mean? We take that question and run with it. We face chilly winds, sudden frights, and moments when the world seem to shift under your feet to figure out what the little bumps on our skin might be trying to tell us. Lees meer
Special thanks to Rachel Gross, Gregory Rupik
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Maria Paz Gutierrez
Produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez, Sindhu Gnanasambandan
Fact-checking by Angely Mercado
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Website -
Institute for Advanced Consciousnehttp://www.advancedconsciousness.orgss Studies (advancedconsciousness.org) - If you want to check out more of the work Felix and Nicco are conducting.
Software -
Rewire website (https://rewire.bio) - Check out Felix and Nicco's Holy Shiver generator and signup for early access to their app.
Videos -
Hallelujah (https://zpr.io/6ak2f), performed by Rufus Wainwright, accompanied by 1500 singers
De Ushuaia a La Quiaca (https://zpr.io/PcYbN)
Alysa Liu wins the Olympic gold medal for the United States (https://zpr.io/Q7pPNkYSTGVd)
Books -
Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado
On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, by Bonnie Tsui (https://www.bonnietsui.com/)
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Founda…
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Atomic Artifacts
3 juli 2026 · 41 min
Back in the 1950s, facing the threat of nuclear annihilation, federal officials sat down and pondered what American life would actually look like after an atomic attack. They faced a slew of practical questions like: Who would count the dead and where would they build the refugee camps? But they faced a more spiritual question as well. If Washington DC were hit, every object in the the National Archives would be eviscerated in a moment. Terrified by this reality, they set out to save some of America’s most precious stuff. Today, we look back at the items our Cold War era planners sought to save and we ask the question: what objects would we preserve now? Lees meer
We first released this episode back in 2020, but with our big fourth of July – 250 years! – just around the corner, we thought it was a strange but profound reflection on what this whole America thing that we’re celebrating… actually is.
Special thanks to Luke Manon, Ben Irving, Bill Pretzer, Jason Spier, and Garrett Graff for all his reporting that made this episode possible.
LATERAL CUTS -
The Cataclysm Sentence (https://radiolab.org/podcast/cataclysm-sentence)EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Simon Adler
with help from - Tad Davis
Produced by - Simon Adler
Original music and sound design contributed by - SIMON ADLER
and Edited by - Pat Walters
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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz …
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The Gondolier
26 juni 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
Back in 2017, reporters Kristen Clark and David Conrad came to us with a story that dug into the difficult and often dark places discrimination creates. We start in Venice, Italy, where they meet gondolier Alex Hai. On the winding canals in the hidden parts of Venice, we learn about the nearly 1000-year old tradition of the Venetian Gondolier, and how the global media created a 20-year battle between that tradition and a supposed feminist icon. Lees meer
We circled back to Alex in 2026, to find out where the canal of life ended up leading after our initial reporting, and we’ve included some heartbreaking and heartwarming updates on Alex’s life at the end of this episode.
Special thanks to Alexis Ungerer, Summer, Alex Hai, Kevin Gotkin, Silvia Del Fabbro, Sandro Mariot, Aldo Rosso and Marta Vannucci, The Longest Shortest Time (Hillary Frank, Peter Clowney and Abigail Keel), Tim Howard, Nick Adams/GLAAD, Valentina Powers, Florence Ursino, Ann Marie Somma, Alex Overington, Jeremy Bloom and the people of Little Italy.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - David Conrad and Kristen Clark.
Produced by - Annie McEwen and Molly Webster.
with help from - Anisa Vietze
Fact-checking for the update by - Angely Mercado
OTHER COOL THINGS:
Books -
The Gondolier, by Alex Hai
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This is Your Brain on Hormones
19 juni 2026 · 40 min
After reading something that said her menstrual cycle changes her brain each month, Senior Correspondent Molly Webster goes on a reporting mission to see if that’s true, and, if so, how. Lees meer
This journey into sex hormones and the brain involves females and males, and exacting self-experimentation. It gets into PTSD, and ends with a new twist on self-care (hint: it’s biological). And, it starts to reveal a sneaky truth: that each one of us is at the mercy of a crashing sea of chemicals inside of us – those things we call hormones.
Special thanks to Emily Jacobs, Laura Pritschet, Pavel Shapturenka, and Dr. Catherine Woolley.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Mona Madgavkar
with help from - Molly Webster
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
**The experiments we feature in this episode are called: 28andMe, 28andOC, and 28andHe, all of which took place at Emily Jacobs lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara.**
The 28 Project (https://zpr.io/CSx6MnwZjRvp), background from the Jacobs lab
For more on how much variability there is between female and male animals, check out this “groundbreaking” study, referenced by Emily Jacobs in our episode
Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research(https://zpr.io/ZRgKZzdNejUA), by Beery AK, Zucker I., Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011
Dr. Catherine Woolley has revolutionized the field of neuroscience and sex hormones, here’s more about her work …
Sex Differences in the Brain Get Down to the Molecular Level Sex (https://zpr.io/UNCLE9J782N5), by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, The Scientist.com
Hormonal Effects on the Brain (https://zpr.io/DvNM9EkXdtGG), by Woolley, C.S. and Schwartzkroin, P.A. Epilepsia
Data sets -
28andMe and 28andOC (https://zpr.io/hbXVNTVp2Q7j):
28andHe (https://zpr.io/sZXhfMbMwKb7)
Audio -
In the episode, we mention Dr. Russ Poldrack and the Midnight Scan Club, as inspo for self-experimentation
The Midnight Scan Club (h…
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Bonus: Wild Animal Dads from Terrestrials
18 juni 2026 · 36 min
In honor of Father's Day, here is a family friendly bonus episode from our kids' podcast Terrestrials. Lees meer
What does it really mean to be a dad? In the animal world, fathers have long been painted as aggressive or absent. At best providers and protectors, but certainly not caregivers. And yet for every tale of a lion or chimp dad eating its own young (yikes!), there’s another creature who tells a sweeter story.
Two HUMAN dads bring us on this DADventure: Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, who has spent decades studying owl monkey dads in the forests of Argentina, and Michael Feigelson, who once worried he wasn't cut out for the softer side of parenting.
They introduce us to seahorse dads who get pregnant, poison dart frog dads who give piggyback rides to their tadpoles, Darwin frogs who swallow their eggs to keep them safe, burying beetles who build "corpse cribs," jacana birds who do all the egg-sitting, and stickleback fish who construct intricate underwater nests for their young. Along the way, we learn that nature doesn’t offer just one model of fatherhood. Alongside Mother Nature... there just might be a Father Nature, too.
Special thanks to the Van Leer Foundation for the support of this episode.
Resources on Animal fatherhood
Eduardo Duque's Owl Monkey Project: https://www.owlmonkeyproject.com/
An interview with Eduardo in Yale News
Lauren O’Connell lab – frog behaviour
Short explainer: frog parenting research
Stickleback fish parenting study (Alison Bell)
Alison Bell lab video
Human fatherhood
Fathertime by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
ECM interview: evolution of “man the nurturer”
Lee Gettler – biology of fatherhood (video)
Lee Gettler article in Early Childhood Matters
Darby Saxbe book: Dad Brain
Darby Saxbe Article in Early Childhood Matters
Talks, films & convenings
Yale Conference on Fatherhood
Live Recording of Yale Conference:
Fathers and Fatherhood: From Molecules to Modern Families
Fathertime documentary
Campaigns & global perspectives
Equimun…
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On the Media: American Emergency
12 juni 2026 · 56 min
A little while back, our friends over at On the Media released a gripping and immersive reporting series about FEMA, the agency that is supposed to be there for all of us in the wake of disaster. In American Emergency (https://zpr.io/MtrUmJU3yEMW), OTM investigates how the agency tasked with saving America became distrusted, despised… and defunded. Lees meer
Today we talk to On the Media co-host Micah Loewinger about how this project came out, what reporting went into making it happen, and play a couple of fun and truly surprising bits of the story that the OTM team uncovered. And it’s a story that highlights the ideal and promise of good government, right alongside the frustration with bureaucracy and mismanagement, and of course the undercurrent of profound mistrust in governmental power.
As natural disasters are getting more extreme and less predictable, this series makes sense of that tangle, and provides a prescient peek into FEMA’s future.
Special thanks to On the Media (https://zpr.io/MtrUmJU3yEMW). To hear Micah in person, talking more about the complex history of FEMA, join him on June 24th at WNYC's The Greene Space (https://wnyc.org/events/otm-fema).
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Oliver Sipple
5 juni 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
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. In a story we reported back in 2017, we explain how in the days that followed, Sipple’s split-second act of heroism turned into a rationale for making his personal life into political opportunity. What happens next makes us wonder what a moment, or a movement, or a whole society can demand of one person. And how much is too much? Lees meer
Through newly unearthed archival tape, we hear Sipple himself grapple with some of the most vexing topics of his day and ours - privacy, identity, the freedom of the press - not to mention the bonds of family and friendship.
Special thanks to Jerry Pritikin, Michael Yamashita, Stan Smith, Duffy Jennings; Ann Dolan, Megan Filly and Ginale Harris at the Superior Court of San Francisco; Leah Gracik, Karyn Hunt, Jesse Hamlin, The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive, Mike Amico, Jennifer Vanasco and Joey Plaster.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Reported by Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte
Produced by - Produced by Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte.
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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This American Roach
29 mei 2026 · 37 min
A couple summers ago, Radiolab reporter Alex Neason got out of the shower and almost stepped on her worst nightmare: an American Cockroach. It was flipped onto its back, struggling, and for a split second, Alex swears she felt the spiny tickle of its legs on the underside of her bare foot. And, like every other time she has come into contact with a roach, this sent her into a debilitating spiral of fear, anger, and disgust. Lees meer
This week, Alex tries to understand what might be behind her fear, in the hopes she can overcome it. And in doing so, Alex learns more about these so-called pests than she could have ever wanted to.
Special thanks to Jessica Ware, Timothy Marzullo, Alexandra Bell, and Changlu Wang
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Alex Neason
Produced by - Jessica Yung and Annie McEwen
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Sophie Samiee
and Edited by - Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
American Cockroaches, Racism, and the Ecology of the Slave Ship (https://zpr.io/UNKsMz7ZaLvb) by Lindsay Garcia, Arcadia
Books -
Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains (https://zpr.io/6E5wJBM4Kvcv) by Bethany Brookshire
The Cockroach Papers (https://zpr.io/CvKePYxEMEAW) by Richard Schweid
Cockroach (https://zpr.io/UuEAjmfqKccQ) by Marion Copeland
Other cool stuff -
Have fun with neuroscience and ... Roaches @ www.backyardbrains.com
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred …
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Worth
22 mei 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
This episode makes three earnest, possibly foolhardy, attempts to put a price on the priceless. We figure out the dollar value for an accidental death, another day of life, and the work of bats and bees as we try to keep our careful calculations from falling apart in the face of the realities of life, and love, and loss. Lees meer
In this story you’ll hear references to some of the issues that were on our minds when it first came out in 2014: wars in the middle east, drug costs and health care practices. Even as the exact shapes of these issues have evolved over the past dozen years, we feel the underlying questions are relevant and timeless: What is life worth? What about the earth?
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Molly Webster, Simon Adler, Tim Howard, and Matt Kielty
with help from - Shahib Al-Masawa
Produced by - Matt Kielty, Tim Howard
Fact-checking by - Michelle Soraka
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Books -
Memoir of A Debulked Woman (https://zpr.io/WJz2Ybvq3HmT) by Susan Gubar
Being Mortal (https://zpr.io/8J47trRcbjKh) by Atul Gawande
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Hookworms
15 mei 2026 · 46 min
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 pharmaceuticals and sanitation practices, have we made significant strides towards deworming the whole of humanity. And that’s typically been thought of as a good thing, because having too many worms in your body can–quite literally–suck the life out of you. Lees meer
But is it possible to have… too few worms? Science wonders if deworming ourselves has actually led to an increase in certain chronic diseases. On this episode, we dive into Necator americanus, a.k.a. the American Hookworm, and its mysterious relationship with each of us.
We trace the hookworm’s 118-year journey from a demonized economic depressant, to its use as a desperate D.I.Y. immunosuppressant, to its potential as a medical treatment for a number of chronic diseases, everything from asthma to MS.
We’re bringing back two stories from our 2009 episode Parasites plus new research on hookworms and autoimmune diseases, reported by Molly Webster
Special thanks to Ethan Hein for the use of his remix of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. Plus, Doris Pierce, and Dan and Alice Hadley.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Pat Walters and Molly Webster
with help from - {{wREPORTERS}}
Produced by - Matt Kielty
with help from - Rebecca Rand
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Arianne Wack
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
Effect of experimental hookworm infection on insulin resistance in people at risk of type 2 diabetes (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37495576/) by Giacomin PR et al. Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 26
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab…
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The Bad Show
8 mei 2026 · 1 uur 7 min
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 that's in all of us...and the little bit of really, really bad that's in some of us. Lees meer
Cruelty, violence, badness... in this episode we begin with a chilling statistic: 91% of men, and 84% of women, have fantasized about killing someone. We take a look at one particular fantasy lurking behind these numbers, and wonder what this shadow world might tell us about ourselves and our neighbors. Then, we reconsider what Stanley Milgram's famous experiment really revealed about human nature (it's both better and worse than we thought). Next, we meet a man who scrambles our notions of good and evil: chemist Fritz Haber, who won a Nobel Prize in 1918...around the same time officials in the US were calling him a war criminal. And we end with the story of a man who chased one of the most prolific serial killers in US history, then got a chance to ask him the question that had haunted him for years: why?
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Pat Walters and Latif Nasser
Produced by - Pat Watlers
with help from - Carter Hodge.
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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What is a Pig Worth?
1 mei 2026 · 43 min
In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork distributors in the world. They were there to capture video of what they say were thousands of mistreated and abused animals kept in tiny metal cages barely bigger than their bodies. As they were leaving, they took two sick piglets out with them. Lees meer
Prosecutors in Utah charged Wayne with burglary and theft. What came next was the court battle that he wanted all along. During his trial, Wayne made a truly bizarre argument that forced the jury, and all of us, to stare straight at our complicated, sometimes uncomfortable relationship with animals. This week on the show, we grapple with the impossible question at the center of it: What is the value of a piglet?
Special thanks to Kim Nederveen Pieterse, Nathan Peereboom, Jo Eidman, Sam Kozloff, Rachel Gross, Alex Allaux, and Joan Schaffner.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan and Jae Minard
Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan
with help from - Pat Walters
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Alex Neason and Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
A Rabbit, is a rabbit, is a rabbit… Not under the Law (https://zpr.io/ezUPRE36VZVk) by Schaffner, J. E. in The Global Journal of Animal Law
Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case (https://zpr.io/ayaV9gDneNsw) by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times
Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/HEXdpf5Q7VAB) by Andy Greenberg in Wired
Audio -
VR Puts Viewers Inside the Grisly Reality of Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/pMHq5RVkzUM3) a 2-part podcast by Wired
Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you.…
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Forests on Forests
24 april 2026 · 20 min
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 empty up there, and we've got our hands full studying the trees down here! So why bother?" Lees meer
But then around the mid-1980s, a few ecologists around the world got curious and started making their way up into the treetops using any means necessary (ropes, cranes, hot air dirigibles) to document all they could find. It didn't take long for them to realize not only was the forest canopy not empty, it was absolutely filled to the brim with life. You've heard of treehouses? How about tree gardens?!
This week, we bring you a story we first released in 2022. We journey up into the sky and discover forests above the forest. We learn about the secret powers of these sky gardens from ecologist Korena Mafune, and we follow Nalini Nadkarni as she makes a ground-breaking discovery that changes how we understand what trees are capable of.
P.S. This episode is a layer cake of arboreal surprises (including the reappearance of a certain retired host.
LATERAL CUTS:
From Tree to Shining Tree (https://zpr.io/4cHtDdYTuNxT): The episode that started this journey, where we look down instead of up.EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Annie McEwen
Produced by - Annie McEwen
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Inside the Fight to Save an Ancient Forest (and the Secrets it Holds) (https://zpr.io/XKipP2z4NFiM), by Michael Werner, Joe Hanson, and the PBS Overview team. We first learned about the magical world of the canopy from this beautiful video. It features Korena Mafune’s research up in the treetops, as well as the people who have dedicated their lives to saving what’s left of the old growth forests. We highly recommend checking it out!
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like yo…
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The Resistance of a Cow
17 april 2026 · 51 min
There’s something rotten in the cows of Denmark. And Minnesota. And Wisconsin. And Idaho. What could cause a previously thriving herd of majestic dairy cattle to stop drinking water and start drinking … urine? A Danish farmer calls a special investigator, who takes one look at his farm and nopes the heck out of there, refusing to return, citing “bad energy” coming from something nearby … a big building covered in Viking runes. Lees meer
It’s not magic. It’s an invisible force that’s far more common. And yet deeply mysterious.
This episode plunges producers Matt Kielty and Simon Adler knee-deep in a decades-old dairy farm controversy, rooted in a fundamental suspicion of the invisible streams of electrons that keep our world humming.
Special thanks to Dr. Liz Brock
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Matt Kielty and Simon Adler
with help from - Clara Grunnet and Rebecca Rand
Produced by - Matt Kielty
with help from - Maria Paz Gutierrez
Original music from - Jeremy Bloom and Matt Kielty
Sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom
Mixed by - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Angely Mercado and Sophie Samiee
and Edited by - Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Books -
The Great Energy Transition: America from 1876 to 1929 (https://zpr.io/3PStsDgidpj5), by David Nye
Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification (https://zpr.io/GdQ4pMCy4DAV), by Richard Hirsch
Beyond the Barn – Dodging Cow Patties for 50 Years by a Country Vet (https://zpr.io/S8qS9HLEQBJe), by Don Sanders a memoir about his long career.
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for…
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The Builders
10 april 2026 · 30 min
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 have a bigger positive impact on the planet than the beaver. With its bright orange buck teeth, the creature is an expert engineer that brings life wherever it waddles and even fights fires. Our story begins in the Bronx river, once known as the “open sewer” of New York City. After some humans decide to clean it up, we meet one of the river’s residents - José the beaver. We learn about the US government parachuting beavers out of planes into the mountains. And finally head to California where we discover how one beaver family saved acres of land from burning. Lees meer
Special thanks to author Ben Goldfarb, Christian Murphy from the Bronx River Alliance and Dr. Emily Fairfax.
Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González and sound-designed by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Our team includes Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde and Tanya Chawla. Fact checking was by Diane Kelly.
Our advisors for this show were Ana Luz Porzecanski, Nicole Depalma, Liza Demby and Tovah Barocas.
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Books -
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (https://zpr.io/4QLuhrSMfurk), by Ben Goldfarb
Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America (https://zpr.io/3BbaViJK8Hk3), by Leila Philip’s
Videos -
Watch the US government drop beavers out of planes (https://zpr.io/y2JJPwwyr3Bp).
Watch Leave It to Beavers (https://zpr.io/JVGZYmNCTy6h), a documentary about beavers restoring rivers and wetlands.
Articles -
How reintroducing beavers can enhance ecological health (https://zpr.io/KNxz3MtKL9sV), by Madison Pobis, Stanford Report.
Beaver Dams Help Wildfire-Ravaged Ecosystems Recover Long after Flames Subside (https://zpr.io/kAnjEUPvPUeJ), by Isobel Sandcomb, Scientific American
HEY GROWN-UPS!
Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious list…
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Life in a Barrel
3 april 2026 · 55 min
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 computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life. Lees meer
Latif, Lulu, and our Senior Producer Matt Kielty were all sitting on their own little stories until they got thrown into the studio, and had their cherished beliefs about the shape of life put on a collision course. From an accidental study of sea creatures, to the ambitions of Stephen J Gould, to an undercooked theory that captured the world’s imagination, we undo the seeming order of the living world and try to make some music out of the wreckage. (Bonus: Learn how Francis Crick really thought life got started on this planet).
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser, Matt Kielty, Heather Radke, Lulu Miller and Candice Wang
Produced by - Matt Kielty and Simon Adler
with help from - Arianne Wack
Original music and sound design contributed by - Matt Kilety, Simon Adler, Alan Goffinski, and Jeremy Bloom
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
Chaos in a long-term experiment with a plankton community (https://zpr.io/j6sYXKfDzPCG), by Benincà, E., Huisman, J., Heerkloss, R. et al. Nature
Chaos theory discloses triggers and drivers of plankton dynamics in stable environment (https://zpr.io/qHKENA3SJ8ML), by Telesh IV, Schubert H, Joehnk KD, Heerkloss R, Schumann R, Feike M, Schoor A, Skarlato SO. Sci Rep.
Books -
Full House (https://zpr.io/pMQZfyPcRzD4), by Stephen Jay Gould
Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? (https://zpr.io/pPVNugUKWpi4), by David M. Raup
Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline (https://zpr.io/YBjJxuXjydPN), by David Sepkoski
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life (https://zpr.io/LzfueEqUWNHb), by Nick Lane
Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (https://zpr.io/KPZf57eEVMBX), by Francis CrickSignup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details abo…
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Antibiotic Apocalypse
27 maart 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
Doctor and special correspondent Avir Mitra takes Executive Editor Soren Wheeler, plus a live studio audience, on a journey from the operating room to inside the body to the farm to the sewers and back again—searching for answers to an alarming threat to humanity’s existence as we know it: antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Lees meer
This live show, performed in New York City and also in Little Rock, Arkansas, is part of a series we’re doing with Avir that we are calling “Viscera.” Each event is a conversation that takes the audience on a journey into a quirk or question or mystery inside of us, and gives them a visceral experience of the viscera within us. The previous installment of the series was called “The Elixir of Life.” (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-elixir-of-life)
Special thanks to all of Little Rock Public Radio (especially Grace Zafasi and Jonathan Seaborn), Thomas Patterson, The Greene Space staff, CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Tom Philpott, Stephen Roach, Kate Shaw, Alex Wong, Maryn McKenna, and Kerri McClimen.
If you are a patients or a doctor, and you are interested in phage therapy, please contact IPATH@ucsd.edu
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Avir Mitra
Produced by - Jessica Yung
Sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom and Jessica Yung
Fact-checking by -Natalie Middleton
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Check out the video from the Viscera live show (and a bonus Q&A with Bruce Stewart-Brown and Steffanie Strathdee) on Radiolab’s YouTube (https://zpr.io/3BK9MqJYVKQA).
A deep dive (https://zpr.io/WNQNfgiNvKeZ) on bacteriophages with Avir Mitra and Steffanie Strathdee, also on Radiolab’s Youtube..
Books -
The Perfect Predator (https://theperfectpredator.com/) by Dr. Steffanie Strathdee’s telling of her battle against a killer superbug.
Plucked (https://zpr.io/PudGMEuzgU9X) by Maryn Mckenna a detailed accounting of chicken farming’s practice of using antibiotics.
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details abo…
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Staph Retreat
20 maart 2026 · 32 min
A strange brew that's hard to resist, even for a modern day microbe. Lees meer
In the war on devilish microbes, our weapons are starting to fail us. The antibiotics we once wielded like miraculous flaming swords seem more like lukewarm butter knives. But in this episode, originally released in 2015, we follow an odd couple, of a sort, to a storied land of elves and dragons. There, they uncover a 1,000-year-old secret that makes us reconsider our most basic assumptions about human progress and wonder: what if the only way forward is backward?
Special thanks to Steve Diggle, Professor Roberta Frank, Alexandra Reider and Justin Park (our Old English readers), Gene Murrow from Gotham Early Music Scene, Marcia Young for her performance on the medieval harp and Collin Monro of Tadcaster and the rest of the Barony of Iron Bog.
Can’t get enough of that sweet, sweet antibiotic resistance content? Then you’ll be over the moon about next week’s release. It’s the podcast cut of our most recent installment of our live show series called Viscera. This one features executive editor Soren Wheeler and Avir Mitra, and it’s all about how our millenia's-long war against bacteria came to a tipping point in this modern age.
Subscribe or follow our show on your favorite streaming platform and you’ll be the first to know when it drops.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
Produced by - Matt Kielty and Soren Wheeler
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
Uncovering the multifaceted mechanism of action of a historical antimicrobial (https://zpr.io/mucw6Td6LBxT) by Harrison, F et al, 2026 bioRxv (PREPRINT). In this article Freya and her team describe the mechanisms under which Bald’s Remedy actually works.Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.o…
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Return of the Screwworms
13 maart 2026 · 42 min
If a species is horrible enough, do we have the right to kill it forever? Lees meer
Seventy years ago, a nightmare parasite feasted on the live flesh of warm-blooded creatures in North America: the screwworm. That is, until a young scientist named Edward F. Knipling discovered a crucial screwworm weakness and hatched a sweeping project to wipe them out. Knipling’s seemingly zany plan to spray screwworms out of planes all over the continent— with US taxpayer money— succeeded, becoming one of humanity’s biggest environmental interventions ever.
Today, screwworms have been gone so long that none of us in North America even remember them. But now, they’re coming back. And they’re forcing us to ask: in an era of climate change and rapid mass extinction— should we kill off a species on purpose?
Special thanks to James P. Collins, Max Scott, Amy Murillo, Daniel Griffin, Phil Kaufman, Katie Barnhill, Arthur Caplan, Ron Sandler, Yasha Rohwer, Aaron Keefe, Gwendolyn Bogard, Maria Sabate, Meredith Asbury, and Joanne Padrón Carney
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Sarah Qari
with help from - Latif Nasser
Produced by - Sarah Qari
Sound design contributed by - Sarah Qari
Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger
EPISODE CITATIONS:
**The latest information on screwworm outbreaks and precautions:
screwworm.govVideos:
Oral history interviews of Edward F. Knipling: here (https://zpr.io/njhMedFN5jsZ) and here (https://zpr.io/VQReQbfznCrq)
Podcasts:
Here’s a Spotify playlist (https://zpr.io/PNMEM274G7vh) of all of our Golden Goose-inspired episodes!
Sam Kean’s podcast The Disappearing Spoon – his episode about screwworms is called The Screwiest and Perhaps Most Original Idea of the 20th Century (https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN)
Our episode on CRISPR & gene drives (https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN)
New to Radiolab? Check out our Radiolab Starter Kit (https://zpr.io/QpPnrHAZVQLR) playlist of all-time favorite episodes!
Articles:
Sarah Zhang’s latest piece in The Atlantic: American Milk Has Change…
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Snail Sex Tape
6 maart 2026 · 30 min
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 turns out, is epic. There is persuasion and subterfuge, spaghetti penises and co-copulation. And this very surprising habit—erm kink—of making tiny arrows (actually!) and stabbing each other with them. Known as a “love dart,” these limestone daggers aren’t just a strange trick of nature—they have a deep evolutionary purpose. Lees meer
Special thanks to Menno Schilthuizen and Aaron Chase.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Mona Madgavkar, Annie McEwen, Molly Webster
Sound design contributed by - Mona Madgavkar, Annie McEwen
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Alex Neason
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
A love dart being DARTED! (https://zpr.io/rYhLwXhaxQQP) – Molly has watched this video so many timesArticles -
Changes in the reproductive system of the snail Helix aspersa caused by mucus from the love dart. (https://zpr.io/xxjuCcTyiVJV) by Koene JM, Chase R. J Exp Biol.
The snail's love-dart delivers mucus to increase paternity. By Chase R, Blanchard KC. Proc Biol Sci.
A love-dart at the heart of sexual conflict in snails (https://zpr.io/X2ANHPaEg5sr) by Foote C
** This article has an image of eight different love darts, and it’s what Molly shows to Soren in the episode (this image is one of her favorite research finds!)
Books -
“Nature’s Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves” (https://zpr.io/ktMvJbZciCdD) by evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen.
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter…
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Black Box
27 februari 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
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 what’s coming out, but can’t see what happens in-between. Lees meer
From the darkest parts of metamorphosis to a sixty-year-old secret among magicians, and the nature of consciousness itself, we shine some light on three questions. But for each, we contend with an answerless space, leaving just enough room for the mystery and magic, always wondering what’s inside the Black Box.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Tim Howard and Molly Webster
Produced by Tim Howard and Molly Webster
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Radio Show: ABC's Keep Them Guessing (https://tinyurl.com/9r9zmftr)
LATERAL CUTS:
Last year we shared a story on our feed about butterfly researcher Dr. Martha Weiss, and how she befriended a little boy on the other side of the world who wanted to do his own caterpillar memory study.
Martha’s daughter Annie Rosenthal captured the whole adventure on tape and produced a gorgeous audio feature, “Caterpillar Roadshow,” which was first published in the audio magazine Signal Hill.
You can find it on our feed (https://zpr.io/xPdAYXFUMr4s)
–or on Signal Hill’s website. (https://zpr.io/a4bjPKeXJQWK)
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data…
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Gray's Donation
20 februari 2026 · 27 min
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 that reverberated through a world that they never bothered to think about. Years later, after a couple of awkward phone calls, they go on a quest and manage to meet the people and places for whom Thomas’ short life was an altogether different kind of gift. We originally made this story back in 2015, but we wanted to play it again because we love that it brings a view of science that is redemptive, tender, and unexpected. Lees meer
Since we first released this episode, Sarah Gray wrote a book called A Life Everlasting (https://zpr.io/GVYisRaqe9d6), it’s a memoir about Thomas that dives into the world of organ donation and medical science. She’s also written a beautiful short story about shame called The Lacemaker Fairy Tale (https://zpr.io/Li5BMtfHmf92). And, right now she’s working on a script for a movie called Raincheck.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Jad Abumrad
with help from - Latif Nasser
LATERAL CUTS -
The Cathedral (https://radiolab.org/podcast/cathedral)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks)
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertisin…
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Time is Honey
13 februari 2026 · 39 min
In the early 2000s, Sunil Nakrani felt stuck. Lees meer
Back then, websites crashed all the time. When Sunil noticed this, he decided he was going to fix the internet. But after nearly a year of studying the architecture of the web, he was no closer to an answer. In desperation, Sunil sent out a raft of cold emails to engineering professors. He hoped someone, anyone, could help him figure this out. Eventually, he learned that the internet could only be fixed if he paid attention to the humble honeybee.
This is the story of the Honeybee Algorithm: How tech used honeybees to build the internet as we know it.
Special thanks to John Bartholdi, John Vande Vate, Sammy Ramsey, James Marshall, Steve Strogatz, Duc Pham, and Heiko Hamann.
We found out about this story thanks to our friends at AAAS, who run the one and only Golden Goose Awards. The award goes to government funded science that sounds trivial or bizarre, but goes on to change the world. The Honeybee Algorithm won a Golden Goose Award back in 2016 (https://zpr.io/ePxaaYja6YF4). Thank you to our friends there: Erin Heath, Gwendolyn Bogard, Valeria Sabate, Joanne Padron Carney, and Meredith Asbury.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
with help from - Maria Paz Gutiérrez
Produced by - Maria Paz Gutiérrez, Annie McEwen and Pat Walters
and Edited by - Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Golden Goose Award video about 2016 winners (https://zpr.io/eXwTJKGL6F8S)
Books -
The Wisdom of the Hive: The Social Physiology of Honeybee Colonies (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674953765) by Thomas D. Seeley (1995, Harvard University Press)
Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners: 20 Mysteries of Honey Bee Behavior Solved (https://zpr.io/tNDqkw372Rhr) by Thomas D. Seeley
And, Paths of Pollen (https://zpr.io/cqRPpAdGRwMi) by Stephen Humphrey. One of our former transcribers who we recently learned had hidden talents far beyond the invaluable work they did for us. This book is only tangentially related to the c…
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Kleptotherms
6 februari 2026 · 45 min
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 first ran this episode in 2021: Five stories that run the gamut from snakes to stars. We start out underwater, with a species of snake that has evolved a devious trick for keeping warm. Then we hear the tale of a young man whose seemingly simple method of warming up might be the very thing making him cold. And Senior Correspondent Molly Webster blows the lid off the idea that 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is a sound marker of health. Lees meer
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Lulu Miller and Molly Webster
Produced by - Becca Bressler, Lulu Miller and Molly Webster
with help from - Carin Leong
Fact-checking by - Emily KriegerSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Song of the Cerebellum
30 januari 2026 · 43 min
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 neurons tucked down in the back of her brain called the cerebellum. A couple weeks later, her doctors took a bit of it out, assuring her it was just helping her with motor coordination — she might be a bit clumsy for a while, but she’d still be herself. But afterwards, she didn't feel like herself. So she dove into the dusty basement of the brain (and brain science) to figure out why. What Rachel found was a burgeoning new frontier in neuroscience. We learn what singing Shakira on stage has to do with reaching for a cup of coffee — and how the surprising relationship between the two is making us rethink what we think about thinking. Lees meer
Special thanks to Warzone Karaoke at Branded Saloon, Dr. Joanne Loewy and the Singing Together, Measure by Measure choir at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine (http://musicandmedicine.org/) at Mount Sinai Union Square, Dag Spicer and the Computer History Museum, Désirée Lie, Mark Gross, Daniel A. Gross, Brittany Aguilar, and, of course, Shakira.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Rachel Gross
Produced by - Sindhu GnanasambandanEPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
“Ignoring the cerebellum is hindering progress in neuroscience.” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39934082/), by Wang et al, 2025
“The cerebellum and cognition.” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29997061/), by Schmahmann JD. Neurosci Lett. 2019
“How did brains evolve?” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11805823/), by Barton RA., Nature. 2002
Books -
Vagina Obscura (https://www.rachelegross.com/book), by Rachel E. Gross
Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our s…
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You and Me and Mr. Self-Esteem
23 januari 2026 · 1 uur 18 min
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 one in the history of the world, and can largely be traced back to one man: a rumpled, convertible-driving California state representative named John Vasconcellos who helped spark a movement that took over schools, board rooms, and social-service offices across America in the 1990s. This week, we look at the rise and fall of the self-esteem movement and ask: is it possible to raise your self-esteem? And is trying to do so even a good idea? Lees meer
Special thanks to big thank you to the University of California, Santa Barbara Library for use of audio material from their Humanistic Psychology Archives and to their staff for helping located so many audio recordings.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Heather Radke and Matt Kielty
Produced by - Matt Kietly
Original music and sound design by - Jeremy S. Bloom and Matt Kielty
Flute performance and compositions by - Ben Batchelder
Voiceover work by - Dann Fink and David Gebel
Mixing help by - Jeremy S. Bloom
Fact-checking by - Anna Pujol-Mazzini and Angely Mercado
and Edited by - Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
UCSB Humanistic Psychology Archive (https://zpr.io/HfVjUmvcVevE)
Books -
Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us (https://zpr.io/eGRyqz9zNQHu) by Will Storr. Counterpoint, 2018.
A Liberating Vision (https://zpr.io/tJn7BR5m84fv) by Vasconcellos, John. Impact Publishers, Inc., 1979
The Therapeutic State (https://zpr.io/tJn7BR5m84fv) by Nolan, James, Jr. NYU Press, 1998
Sing up for our newsletter. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your th…
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The Punchline
16 januari 2026 · 51 min
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 guy. A brawler. A goon. But when an impish pundit named Puck Daddy called on fans to vote for Scott to play alongside the world’s greatest players in the NHL All-Star Game, Scott found himself facing off against fans, commentators, and the powers that be. Was this the realization of Scott’s childhood dreams? Or a nightmarish prank gone too far? Today on Radiolab, a goof on a goon turns into a parable of the agony and the ecstasy of the internet, and democracy in the age of Boaty McBoatface. Lees meer
Special thanks to Larry Lynch and Morgan Springer.
Check out John Scott's "Dropping the Gloves" podcast (https://www.droppingthegloves.com/) and his book (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Guy-Like-Me/John-Scott/9781501159657) "A Guy Like Me".
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
Produced by - Matt KieltyOriginal music and sound design contributed by -
John Dryden, Thee Oh Sees, Weedeater and Bongzilla.Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Brain Balls
9 januari 2026 · 41 min
When neuroscientist Madeline Lancaster was a brand new postdoc, she accidentally used an expired protein gel in a lab experiment and noticed something weird. The stem cells she was trying to grow in a dish were self-assembling. The result? Madeline was the first person ever to grow what she called a “cerebral organoid,” a tiny, 3D version of a human brain the size of a peppercorn. Lees meer
In about a decade, these mini human brain balls were everywhere. They were revealing bombshell secrets about how our brains develop in the womb, helping treat advanced cancer patients, being implanted into animals, even playing the video game Pong. But what are they? Are these brain balls capable of sensing, feeling, learning, being? Are they tiny, trapped humans? And if they were, how would we know?
Special thanks to Lynn Levy, Jason Yamada-Hanff, David Fajgenbaum, Andrew Verstein, Anne Hamilton, Christopher Mason, Madeline Mason-Moriarty, the team at the Boston Museum of Science, and Howard Fine, Stefano Cirigliano, and the team at Weill-Cornell.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
with help from - Mona Madgavkar
Produced by - Annie McEwen, Mona Madgavkar, and Pat Walters
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Rebecca Rand
and Edited by - Alex Neason and Pat WaltersEPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
“Growing Mini Brains to Discover What Makes Us Human,” Madeline Lancaster’s TEDxCERN Talk, Nov 2015 (https://zpr.io/6WP7xfA27auR)
Brain cells playing Pong (https://zpr.io/pqgSqguJeAPK)
Reuters report on CL1 computer launch in March 2025 (https://zpr.io/cdMf8Yjvayyd)
Articles -
Madeline Lancaster: The accidental organoid – mini-brains as models for human brain development (https://zpr.io/nnwFwUwnm2p6), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
What We Can Learn From Brain Organoids (https://zpr.io/frUfsg4pxKsb), by Carl Zimmer. NYT, November 6, 2025
Ethical Issues Related to Brain Organoid Research (https://zpr.io/qyiATHEhdnSa), by Insoo Hyun et …
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Moon Trees
2 januari 2026 · 35 min
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 chose to take a canister of 500 tree seeds. After orbiting the moon 34 times, the seeds made it back to Earth. NASA decided to plant the seeds all across the country and then… everyone forgot about them. Until one day, a third grader from Indiana stumbled on a tree with a strange plaque: "Moon Tree." This discovery set off a cascading search for all the trees that visited the moon across the United States. Science writer, and our very own factchecker, Natalie Middleton (https://www.nataliemiddleton.org/) tells us the tale. Lees meer
Read Lulu’s remembrance of Alice Wong for Transom.org: 13 questions I’ll never get to ask Alice Wong (https://transom.org/2026/13-questions-ill-never-get-to-ask-alice-wong/).
Check out Natalie’s map to find your nearest moon tree on our show page (https://radiolab.org/podcast/moon-trees)!
Help us hunt for more moon trees. If you know of an undocumented moon tree, contact Natalie at nataliemiddleton.org. Check out Natalie’s essay on Moon Trees (https://orionmagazine.org/article/moon-tree/) and Space Zinnias (https://orionmagazine.org/article/astronaut-scott-kelly-flower-experiment-space/) in Orion Magazine (https://orionmagazine.org/).
Visit NASA’s official Moon Tree Page (https://science.nasa.gov/resource/apollo-moon-trees/) for a list of all the Apollo 14 Moon Trees in the world.
To learn more about Stu Roosa or to learn more about acquiring your own half Moon Tree, check out the Moon Tree Foundation (https://www.moontreefoundation.com/), spearheaded by Stu’s daughter, Rosemary Roosa.
A reminder that Terrestrials also makes original music! You can find ‘Tangled in the Roots’ and all other music from the show here (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab-kids/just-the-songs).
EPISODE CREDITS:
Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla and s…
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Fertility Cliff
26 december 2025 · 26 min
As she -- and her friends — approached the age of 35, senior correspondent Molly Webster kept hearing a phrase over and over: “fertility cliff.” It was a short-hand term to describe what she was told would happen to her fertility after she turned 35 — that is, it would drop off. Suddenly, sharply, dramatically. And this was well before she was supposed to hit menopause. Intrigued, Molly decided to look into it — what was the truth behind this so-called cliff, and when, if so, would she topple? Lees meer
This story first premiered in “Thirty Something,” a 2018 Radiolab live show that was part of, Gonads, (https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-gonads)a six-episode audio and live event series all about reproduction and the parts of us that make more of us. The live event was produced by Rachael Cusick and edited by Pat Walters.
Special thanks to epidemiologist Lauren Wise, at Boston University. Plus, Emily, Chloe, and Bianca. And of course, Jad Abumrad.
If you’re more of a visual person, here are the graphs we explain in the episode, we also include links to the corresponding papers in our Episode Citations Section, below!
LINK TO GRAPHS:
https://media.wnyc.org/i/1860/1046/c/80/2025/12/FERTILITY_AGE_GRAPHS_1-4.jpgEPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Arianne Wack
Fact-checking by - Diane A. KellyEPISODE CITATIONS:
Audio:
Gonads (https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-gonads/)
A six-part audio series on reproduction and the parts of us that make more of usThe Menopause Mystery (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-menopause-mystery)
One of Radiolab’s most listened-to episodes of 2025!Videos:
“Radiolab Presents: Thirty Something”
https://youtu.be/LOJVAaSwags?si=czCBraHf1JEqmAQiResearch Articles:
Graph 1: Can assisted reproduction technology compensate for the natural decline in fertility with age? A model assessment (https://zpr.io/ft6dqdbkJnTd)
Graph 2: Ovarian aging: mechanisms and clinical consequences (https://zpr.io/GrPLebyn…
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The Good Show
19 december 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
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 animals carry the genetic legacy of ancestors who fought fiercely to survive and reproduce. But in this hour that we first broadcast back in 2010, we wonder whether there might also be a logic behind sharing, niceness, kindness ... or even, self-sacrifice. Is altruism an aberration, or just an elaborate guise for sneaky self-interest? Do we really live in a selfish, dog-eat-dog world? Or has evolution carved out a hidden code that rewards genuine cooperation? Lees meer
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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The Alien in the Room
12 december 2025 · 1 uur 1 min
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. But what actually is it? Lees meer
Today we ask this simple question and explore why it’s so damn hard to answer.
Special thanks to Stephanie Yin and the New York Institute of Go for teaching us the game. Mark, Daria and Levon Hoover Brauner for helping bring NETtalk to life.
And a huge thank you to Grant Sanderson for his unending patience explaining the math of neural nets to us. To learn more about how these 'thinking machines' actually think, we highly recommend his wonderful youtube channel 3Blue1Brown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk).
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Simon Adler
Produced by - Simon Adler
Original music from - Simon Adler
Sound design contributed by - Simon Adler
Fact-checking by - Anna Pujol-MazziniSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Shell Game: Minimum Viable Company
5 december 2025 · 40 min
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 show, Evan’s using AI to do more than just mimic himself — he’s starting a company staffed entirely by AI agents, and making a podcast about the experience. The show is a smart, funny, and truly bizarre look at what AI can do—and what it can’t. Lees meer
This week we bring you the first episode of Shell Game Season Two, Minimum Viable Company. You can sign up to get the rest of the Shell Game ad-free, and the Shell Game newsletter, at shellgame.co .
EPISODE CREDITS:
Shell Game
Hosted by Evan Ratliff,
Produced and edited by Sophie Bridges.
Shell Game’s Technical Advisor Matty Bohacek
Executive Produced by Samantha Henig, Kate Osborn and Mangesh Hattikudur at Kaleidoscope
and Katrina Norvell at IHeart Podcasts.Radiolab portions
Hosted by Simon Adler
Produced by Mona Madgavkar.Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Fela Kuti: Enter the Shrine
28 november 2025 · 38 min
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 created a genre, then a movement, then tried to use his hypnotic beats to topple a military dictatorship. Jad tells us about the series and why he made it, and we play the episode that, for us at least, gets to the heart of the matter: How exactly does his music work? What actually happens to the people who hear it and how does it move them to action? Lees meer
You can find Jad’s entire nine-part series, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Jad Abumrad
Radiolab portions produced by - Sindhu GnanasambandanSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal
21 november 2025 · 54 min
Today on the show, we’re bringing you an episode from Our Common Nature (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d), a new podcast series where cellist Yo-Yo Ma and host Ana González travel around the United States to meet people, make music and better understand how culture binds us to nature. The series features a few familiar voices, including Ana González (host) and Alan Goffinski (producer), from our kids podcast, Terrestrials (https://link.podtrac.com/vysacqn1). Lees meer
About the episode:
West Virginia is defined by its beauty and its coal, two things that can work against each other. Yo-Yo Ma felt this as soon as stepped foot in its hills.This episode explores how music and poetry help process the emotions of a community besieged with disaster and held together by pride and duty. We travel down the Coal River with third-generation coal miner Chris Saunders, who tells us how coal has saved and threatened his life. Poet Crystal Good shares her poetry, which channels her rage and love. And musician and granddaughter of West Virginia coal miners, Kathy Mattea, explains the beauty of belting out your home state in a chorus. The end of the episode finds host Ana floating down the New River with help from a group of high schoolers and Yo-Yo Ma.Listen to the full series Our Common Nature (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d).
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Dom Flemons, and Kathy Mattea and poetry by Crystal Good.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Radiolab Bits Produced - Anisa Vietze (Radiolab bits)Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Sim… -
Quantum Refuge
14 november 2025 · 48 min
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 pictures and writing about the chaos and violence they were living through, as Israel’s military bombardment devastated their lives. But Qasem was trying to describe his reality through the lens of the most notoriously confusing and inscrutable field of science ever, quantum mechanics. We talked to him, from a cafe near the Al-Mawasi section of Gaza, to find out why. And over the course of several conversations, he told us how this reality-breaking corner of science has helped him survive. And how such unspeakable violence actually let him understand, in a visceral way, quantum mechanics’ most counter-intuitive ideas. Lees meer
Special thanks to Katya Rogers, Karim Kattan, Allan Adams, Sarah Qari, Soren Wheeler, and Pat Walters
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Lulu Miller
Produced by - Jessica Yung
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger
and Edited by - Alex NeasonEPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
A Brief History of Quantum Mechanics with Sean Carroll, The Royal Institution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU)
Introduction to Superposition, with MIT’s Allan Adams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc)
The Quantum Wavefunction, Explained (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w)
Articles -
Read a selection of Qasem’s published essays about his life in Gaza and the quantum world:I am stuck in a box like Schrodinger’s in Gaza (https://zpr.io/ALDVi9E5bRt8)
Israel has turned Gaza’s summer into a weapon (https://zpr.io/YS4WK4hVQC5T)
The Physics of Death in Gaza (https://zpr.io/hxsgxicVqPAd)
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today…