Radio Lab

Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, legal history, and into the home of someone halfway across the world. The show is known for innovative sound design, smashing information into music. It is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.

  • 23 Weeks 6 Days

    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.

    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: 

    Check out the book that Tom and Kelley wrote about Juniper here:

    And when you're done listening to the episode, be sure to check out the video below--but be warned, it does contain spoilers. 

    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 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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • 60 Words

    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. 

    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 Perfect

    EPISODE CREDITS: 
    Reported by - Kelsey Padgett
    with help from - Matt Kielty
    Produced by - Matt Kielty
    with help from - Kelsey Padgett

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Dolly Parton's America: Sad Ass Songs

    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. 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Patient Zero

    The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds. In 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. 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Nigel and the Real Gannet

    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. 

    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 athttps://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:

    Literature - 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Red Herring

    It was the early '80s, the height of the Cold War, when something strange began happening off the coast of Sweden. The navy reported a 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.

    Special thanks toBen Wilson, Ola Tunander, Hans Gordon, Andreas Timmelstad, Klaus Helmersen, and Meg Bolz.

    LATERAL CUTS -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Shoe Thrower

    When no one seems to be listening, how far do you go to be heard?

    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 - 

    Journal Articles _

    Films - 

    Inspired by the shoe throw - 

    If you want more fun facts that didn’t make it into the story, follow Sarah at @bysarahqari on Instagram, where she’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks.

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Return of Alpha Gal

    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? 

    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:

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Neither Confirm Nor Deny

    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.  

    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 conspiracy theories that have swirled around Project Azorian filling the void where official silence has reigned. One of them is promulgated in the 2005 book “Red Star Rogue” by Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond. They posit that the K-129 was taken over by rogue Stalinist KGB agents in order to start a nuclear conflict. But the conflict was to be between the US and China, as, according to the authors, the sub had powers to disguise its sonic signature as a Chinese Navy vessel.

    This book is the basis of the 2013 drama “Phantom,” which features Ed Harris and David Duchovny as Soviet military officers who sip vodka in a very un-Russian way.

    Russian Naval historians, like Nikolai Cherkashin, are not only insulted by this take on the cause of the K-129’s demise, they say the true cause is much easier to pinpoint: They say an American vessel, possibly the USS Swordfish, collided with the Soviet submarine.

    Despite the fact that the US government has turned over many documents about Project Azorian and what it found to the Russian government, many in the Russian Navy stand by their theory that it was far too easy for the US to locate the K-129 on the bottom of the Pacific, given the technology of the time. According to these theories, Project Azorian was nothing more than an elaborate cover-up disguised as... an elaborate cover-up. We can neither confirm nor deny that we exactly understand how that would have worked in practice or execution.

    It’s one of the more solemn moments of the Cold War, and one that the Glomar Response helped keep a secret for a very long time.

    LATERAL CUTS:
    What Lies Beneath (https://radiolab.org/podcast/what-lies-beneath) 

    EPISODE CREDITS: 
    Reported by - Julia Barton

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Holy Shiver

    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.  

    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 - 

    Software -

    • Rewire website (https://rewire.bio) - Check out Felix and Nicco's Holy Shiver generator and signup for early access to their app.

    Videos - 

    Books -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Atomic Artifacts

    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?

    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

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Gondolier

    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. 

    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 -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@wnyc.org.

    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  • This is Your Brain on Hormones

    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.

    This journey into sex hormones and the brain involves females andmales, 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

    Dr. Catherine Woolley has revolutionized the field of neuroscience and sex hormones, here’s more about her work …


    Data sets -

    Audio - 
    In the episode, we mention Dr. Russ Poldrack and the Midnight Scan Club, as inspo for self-experimentation

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Bonus: Wild Animal Dads from Terrestrials

    In honor of Father's Day, here is a family friendly bonus episode from our kids' podcast Terrestrials. 

    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

    Human fatherhood 

    Talks, films & convenings

    Campaigns & global perspectives

    Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Angely Mercado. 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • On the Media: American Emergency

    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.

    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 toOn 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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Oliver Sipple

    One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United 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? 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • This American Roach

    A couple summers ago, Radiolab reporter Alex Neason got out of the shower and almost stepped on her worst nightmare: an American Cockroach. 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. 

    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 - 

    Books -  

    Other cool stuff -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Worth

    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. 

    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 - 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Hookworms

    For most of human history, people went about their daily lives with a worm or two (or fifty) in their guts. Only in the past century, with 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.

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Bad Show

    With all of the black-and-white moralizing in our world today, we decided to bring back an old show from 2011 about the little bit of bad that's in all of us...and the little bit of really, really bad that's in some of us.  

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • What is a Pig Worth?

    In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield 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.

    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 - 

    Audio - 

    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. Support Radiolab by becoming a member ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Forests on Forests

    For much of history, tree canopies were pretty much completely ignored by science. It was as if researchers said collectively, "It's just going to be empty up there, and we've got our hands full studying the trees down here! So why bother?"

    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 you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Resistance of a Cow

    There’s something rotten in the cows of Denmark. And Minnesota. And Wisconsin. And Idaho. What could cause a previously thriving herd of 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. 

    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 -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • The Builders

    In an episode first aired back in 2025 on our sister show, Terrestrials, we take you on a musical journey all about beavers. Few mammals 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. 

    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 - 

    Videos - 

    Articles - 

    HEY GROWN-UPS!

    Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us!

    We want to hear from you!Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us.
    Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for bite-sized essays, activities, and ways to connect with the show.
    Follow us onYouTube,Instagram, andTikTok for behind-the-scenes extras and more.
    Listen to original music from Terrestrials onSpotify,Apple Music, or ourmusic page.

    Got a badgering question for the team? Email us at terrestrialspodcast@wnyc.org or submit a voice memo with your name, age, and your question usingthis form!

    Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you.Support the show by joining Radiolab’s membership program, The Lab—and we’ll send you a special thank-you gift from our team!

    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.

  • Life in a Barrel

    This week, in an episode we first aired in 2022, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life.

    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 - 

    Books -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Antibiotic Apocalypse

    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. 

    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 -

    Books -

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Staph Retreat

    A strange brew that's hard to resist, even for a modern day microbe.

    In the war on devilish microbes, our weapons are starting to fail us. 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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Return of the Screwworms

    If a species is horrible enough, do we have the right to kill it forever?

    Seventy years ago, a nightmare parasite feasted on the live flesh 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.gov

    Videos:

    Podcasts:

    Articles:

    Archival materials: 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Snail Sex Tape

    In this episode, we consider a creature we often don’t think much about—the snail. And not just snails, but their sex lives. Which, as it 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. 

    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 times

    Articles - 

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.

  • Black Box

    In this episode, first aired in 2014, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—spaces where we know what’s going in, we know what’s coming out, but can’t see what happens in-between.

    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 ofThe Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

    Follow our show onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailingradiolab@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.