Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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.

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664 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes664

Newest first

Feb 25, 2008 · 57 min
Laughter
We all laugh. This hour of Radiolab asks why.
Feb 11, 2008 · 8 min
Our Podcast comes in all shapes and sizes
Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time, 'IF' by Sherre DeLys.
Jan 29, 2008 · 10 min
Salle Des Departs
Imagine that you're a composer. Imagine getting the commission to write a song that will allow family members to face the death of a loved one.
Jan 1, 2008 · 58 min
The Ring and I
On this Radiolab/WNYC Special, we explore the impact and influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle on the Metropolitan Opera's 2004 Presentation.
Dec 18, 2007 · 10 min
The Wright Brothers
104 years ago this week, Wilbur and Orville Wright managed to coax their spruce biplane off the North Carolina sand for twelve seconds, and those twelve seconds started a revolution in flight. We examine the human desire to fly, and how getting flight changed us.
Dec 4, 2007 · 57 min
Contact
This week, a look at the different ways that people connect to each other, and how they act once they’re together. NOTE: This episode contains EXPLICIT language about sex.
Nov 20, 2007 · 18 min
Space Capsules
How would you describe life on Earth to an alien? In 1977, the Voyager spacecraft launched into space. And with it, went the Golden Record-- a sort time capsule, a collection of sounds and images that would describe life on Earth to whomever or whatever might find it.
Nov 9, 2007 · 33 min
Making Radiolab
In spring of 2006, Jad and Robert took the stage at the SoHo Apple Store to talk about the making of Radiolab. Jad geeks out on the nitty-gritty of digital sound editing, and Robert discusses the editorial questions raised in creating imaginative soundscapes. And film editor Walter Murch weighs in on the components of storytelling.
Sep 24, 2007 · 59 min
Musical Language
In this hour of Radiolab, we examine the line between language and music.
Sep 10, 2007 · 56 min
Detective Stories
Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this hour of Radiolab, digging up the past leads to some very unexpected finds.
Aug 28, 2007 · 24 min
This is Your Brain On Love
Radiolab is given the charge to put on a Singles Night. That's right. 'Jad,' they said, 'stand on a stage and make strangers fall in love! Or, at least, you know, exchange a few phone numbers with each other.' So obviously, we turned to science. Jad consults a few experts on the chemistry of a 'brain on love.' For more information about this episode go here.
Aug 14, 2007 · 57 min
Emergence
What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies -- all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. This hour of Radiolab, we ask how this happens.
Aug 13, 2007 · 56 min
Morality
Where does our sense of right and wrong come from?
Jul 24, 2007 · 57 min
Beyond Time
This hour, Radiolab goes to the front lines with men and women who are battling against time -- or at least the common-sense view of time.
Jun 14, 2007 · 57 min
Mortality
This hour of Radiolab: is death a disease that can be cured?
Jun 7, 2007 · 57 min
Memory and Forgetting
This hour of Radiolab, a look behind the curtain of how memories are made...and forgotten.
Jun 4, 2007 · 56 min
Zoos
In a cruel trick of evolution, humans can stand just three feet from a ferocious animal and still be perfectly safe. This hour, Radiolab goes to the zoo.
May 29, 2007 · 58 min
Time
Jorge Luis Borges wrote, "Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire." And it’s still as close a definition as we have. This hour of Radiolab, we try our hand at unlocking the mysteries of time. We stretch and bend it, wrestle with its subjective nature, and wrap our minds around strategies to standardize it...stopping along the way at a
May 24, 2007 · 56 min
Sleep
Birds do it, bees do it...yet science still can't answer the basic question: why do we sleep?
May 17, 2007 · 57 min
Placebo
With new research demonstrating the startling power of the placebo effect, this hour of Radiolab examines the chemical consequences of belief and imagination.

Radiolab

Laughter

Our Podcast comes in all shapes and sizes

Salle Des Departs

The Ring and I

The Wright Brothers

Contact

Space Capsules

Making Radiolab

Musical Language

Detective Stories

This is Your Brain On Love

Emergence

Morality

Beyond Time

Mortality

Memory and Forgetting

Zoos

Time

Sleep

Placebo