WNYC's Radiolab (Audio)

Episodes

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  Colors

  5/21/2012

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  Our world is saturated in color, from soft hues to violent stains. How does something so intangible pack such a visceral punch? This hour, in the name of science and poetry, Jad and Robert tear the rainbow to pieces.  

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  Shorts: Colors Sneak Peek

  5/14/2012

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  Just before the curtain went up on our live show in Los Angeles, Jad and Robert carved out a little stage time for a sneak peek at next week's Colors episode.

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  Shorts: Fetal Consequences

  5/1/2012

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  Mother's day is nigh. Sort of. Anyway, without knowing it, you might have already given your mom a pretty lasting gift. But whether it helps or hurts her, or both, is still an open question. In this Radiolab short, Robert updates us on the science of fetal cells -- one of the first topics he covered as an NPR science correspondent.

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  Shorts: Crossroads

  4/16/2012

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  In this short, we go looking for the devil, and find ourselves tangled in a web of details surrounding one of the most haunting figures in music--a legendary guitarist whose shadowy life spawned a legend so powerful, it's still being repeated...even by fans who don't believe a word of it.

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  Guts

  4/2/2012

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  This hour, we dive into the messy mystery in the middle of us. What's going on down there? And what can the rumblings deep in our bellies tell us about ourselves?

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  Shorts: The Turing Problem

  3/19/2012

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  Alan Turing's mental leaps about machines and computers were some of the most innovative ideas of the 20th century. But the world wasn't kind to him. In this short, Robert wonders how Turing's personal life shaped his understanding of mechanical minds and human emotions.

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  Shorts: A War We Need

  3/6/2012

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  Every day, every moment, an epic battle is raging across the globe. It's happening in the ocean. And the evidence is both highly visible and totally hidden, depending on your perspective. In this short, the tale of an arms race involving trillions of sea creatures--and why their struggle is vital to our survival.

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  Escape!

  2/21/2012

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  The walls are closing in, you've got no way out... and then, suddenly, you escape! This hour, stories about traps, getaways, perpetual cycles, and staggering breakthroughs.

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  Shorts: Killer Empathy

  2/7/2012

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  Sometimes being a good scientist requires putting aside your emotions. But what happens when objectivity isn't enough to make sense of a seemingly senseless act of violence? In this short, Jad and Robert talk to an entomologist about the risks, and the rewards, of trying to see the world through someone else's eyes. 

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  Shorts: Wake Up and Dream

  1/24/2012

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  In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years.

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  The Bad Show

  1/9/2012

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  Cruelty, violence, badness... This episode of Radiolab, we wrestle with the dark side of human nature, and ask whether it's something we can ever really understand, or fully escape.  

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  Shorts: Mutant Rights

  12/27/2011

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  In this podcast short, a strange twist of legal taxonomy causes a dispute over whether X-MEN action figures are toys or dolls and sparks a court case about what it means to be human.

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  Shorts: Radiolab Presents: 99% Invisible

  12/13/2011

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  Roman Mars loves to spotlight the seams and joints that make up the world around us. He's the host of an irresistible podcast called 99% Invisible--a series of tiny radio stories that provoke enormous questions. Roman joins Jad and Robert to play a few favorites, and to chat about the hidden language of design that shapes our lives--from sound effects to stuff that’s more ... concrete.

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  Shorts: Death Mask

  11/29/2011

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  Near the end of the 19th century, a mysterious young woman with a beguiling smile turned up in Paris. She became a huge sensation. She also happened to be dead. You'd probably recognize her face yourself. You might have even touched it.

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  Patient Zero

  11/15/2011

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  Radiolab hunts for Patient Zeroes from all over the map.

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  Shorts: Sleepless in South Sudan

  10/31/2011

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  Carl Zimmer is one of our go-to guys when we need help untangling a complicated scientific idea. But in this short, he unravels something much more personal.

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  Shorts: Slow

  10/18/2011

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  Kohn Ashmore’s voice is arresting. It stopped his friend Andy Mills in his tracks the first time they met. But in this short about the power of friendship and familiarity, Andy explains that Kohn’s voice isn't the most striking thing about him at all.

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  Loops

  10/4/2011

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  The surprising ways that loops steer…and sometimes derail…our lives.

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  Shorts: Loop the Loop

  9/20/2011

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  For most of human history, flight was an impossible dream. In this short, the dizzying rise and fall of a pilot whose aeronautic feats changed aviation forever and turned chancy stunts into acrobatic mastery.

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  Shorts: Mapping Tic Tac Toe-dom

  9/6/2011

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  Writer Ian Frazier made a startling discovery several years ago in eastern Siberia: no one he met there had ever heard of tic tac toe. In this short, Jad and Robert wonder how a game that seems carved into childhood DNA could be completely unknown in some parts of the world.

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  Games

  8/23/2011

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  Winners, losers, underdogs--what can games tell us about who we really are?

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  Shorts: Damn It, Basal Ganglia

  8/9/2011

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  The basal ganglia is a core part of the brain, deep inside your skull, that helps control movement. Unless something upsets the chain of command. In this short, Jad and Robert meet a young researcher who was studying what happens when the basal ganglia gets short-circuited in mice...until one fateful day, when things got really, really weird.

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  Shorts: A 4-Track Mind

  7/26/2011

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  In this short, 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.

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  REBROADCAST: Detective Stories

  7/11/2011

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  We're celebrating summer with a classic episode of Radiolab--full of mystery, intrigue...and a goat standing on a cow. We haven't actually tried listening to it around a campfire, but we're betting it would totally work. See you in two weeks with a new short!

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  Shorts: Curious Sounds: A Radiolab Concert

  6/28/2011

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  In this short, Jad presents the electrifying sounds of three mind-bending musical acts: Brooklyn duo Buke & Gass, drummer Glenn Kotche of Wilco, and the one-and-only Reggie Watts. Their performances were recorded live at our Curious Sounds concert earlier this month in NYC.

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  Shorts: A Clockwork Miracle

  6/15/2011

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  In 1562, King Philip II needed a miracle. So he commissioned one from a highly-skilled clockmaker. In this short, a king's deal with God leads to an intricate mechanical creation, and Jad heads to the Smithsonian to investigate. 

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  Talking to Machines

  6/1/2011

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  What can machines tell us about being human?

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  Shorts: Dogs Gone Wild

  5/18/2011

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  In this short, a family dog disappears into the woods...and the mystery of what happened to him raises a big question about what it means to be wild.

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  Shorts: Cosmic Habituation

  5/3/2011

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  In this short, Jonathan Schooler tells us about a discovery that launched his career and led to a puzzle that has haunted him ever since.

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  Radiolab Video: Symmetry

  4/19/2011

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  Is the world full of deep symmetries and ordered pairs? Or do we live in a lopsided universe? This striking video by Everynone plays with our yearning for balance, and reveals how beautiful imperfect matches can be. The video was inspired by our episode Desperately Seeking Symmetry.

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  Desperately Seeking Symmetry

  4/18/2011

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  This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence--from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror.

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  Shorts: In the Running

  4/6/2011

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  Diane Van Deren is one of the best ultra-runners in the world, and it all started with a seizure. In this short, Diane tells us how her disability gave rise to an extraordinary ability.

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  Shorts: Pass the Science

  3/22/2011

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  Richard Holmes went to Cambridge University intending to study the lives of poets. Until a dueling mathematician, and a dinner conversation composed entirely of gestures, changed his mind.

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  Help!

  3/9/2011

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  What do you do when your own worst enemy is...you? This hour, Radiolab looks for ways to gain the upper hand over those forces inside us--from unhealthy urges, to creative insights--that seem to have a mind of their own.

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  Shorts: A Flock of Two

  2/23/2011

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  In today's short, we get to know a man who struggles, and mostly fails, to contain his violent outbursts...until he meets a bird who can keep him in check.

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  Shorts: Radiolab Presents: The Loneliness of the Goalkeeper

  2/9/2011

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  This week on the podcast, football! No, it's not a Super Bowl recap. Jad and Robert present a piece from across the pond--a piece about soccer they fell in love with when they heard it at the Third Coast festival in Chicago.

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  Lost & Found

  1/26/2011

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  In this episode, Radiolab steers its way through a series of stories about getting lost, and asks how our brains, and our hearts, help us find our way back home. 

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  Shorts: The Universe Knows My Name

  1/12/2011

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  In this new short, we explore luck and fate, both good and bad, with an author and a cartoon character.

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  Shorts: Blood Buddies

  12/29/2010

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  In this new short, a tree full of blood-sucking bats lends a startling twist to our understanding of altruism and natural selection.

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  The Good Show

  12/15/2010

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  In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why one creature might stick its neck out for another?

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  Shorts: Gravitational Anarchy

  12/1/2010

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  A mysterious case of the topsy turvies and a return to the question of what felines feel when they fall.

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  Shorts: What Does Technology Want?

  11/17/2010

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  Are new ideas and new inventions inevitable? Are they driven by us or by a larger force of nature?

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  Cities

  11/3/2010

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  One tidy mathematical formula may hold the key to how cities work. This hour, Radiolab takes to the streets to test the numbers...and ask what really makes cities tick.

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  Shorts: Wild Talk

  10/20/2010

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  In today's podcast, we get a tantalizing taste of words in the wild, from the jungles to the prairie.

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  Shorts: The Walls of Jericho

  10/5/2010

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  In this podcast, Jad and Robert throw some physics at a bible story. We find out just how many trumpeters you'd actually need to blow down the walls of Jericho.

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  Falling

  9/21/2010

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  This hour, Radiolab rollicks through stories of falling. We plunge into a black hole, take a trip over Niagara Falls, and upend some myths about falling cats.

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  Shorts: Voices in Your Head

  9/8/2010

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  In this podcast, Jad talks to Charles Fernyhough about the connection between thought and the voice in your head. How did it get there? And what's happening when people hear someone else's voice in their head?

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  Time

  8/24/2010

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  This hour, Radiolab revels in the elasticity of Time, and takes a spin through history--stopping at a 19th-century railroad station in Ohio, a track meet, and a Beethoven concert.

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  Bonus Video: Words

  8/10/2010

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  Words have the power to shape the way we think and feel. In this stunning video (made to accompany our Words episode), filmmakers Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante bandy visual wordplay into a moving exploration of the power of language.

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  Words

  8/9/2010

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  It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But in this hour of Radiolab, we try to do just that. A woman teaches a 27-year-old the first words of his life, and a neurologist suffers a stroke that wipes out the language center of her brain.

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  Shorts: Secrets of Success

  7/27/2010

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  Robert and Malcolm Gladwell duke it out over questions of luck, talent, passion, and success.

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  Shorts: The Luckiest Lobster

  7/12/2010

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  An unlikely escape story begins in a supermarket, and ends in a boat off the coast of Maine.

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  Oops

  6/28/2010

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  Oops. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of unintended consequences--from a psychologist whose zeal to safeguard national security may have backfired, to a toxic lake that spawned new life.

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  Shorts: Strangers in the Mirror

  6/16/2010

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  Oliver Sacks, the famous neuroscientist and author, can't recognize faces. Neither can Chuck Close--the great artist known for his enormous paintings of ... that's right, faces.

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  Deception

  6/1/2010

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  We examine the strange power of lies with a charismatic cast of characters (from pathological liars to lying snakes to drunken psychiatrists) on this hour of Radiolab.  

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  Famous Tumors

  5/17/2010

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  This hour of Radiolab: famous tumors. Say hello to the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, and get to know the woman whose cancer cells changed modern medicine. The good, bad,…and ugly side of anatomical aberrations.

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  Shorts: Vanishing Words

  5/5/2010

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  When scientists treat words like data, clues to the real-life mysteries of human aging are found in the writings of Agatha Christie and 678 nuns.

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  Shorts: The Loudest Miniature Fuzz

  4/21/2010

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  Music duo Buke and Gass talk to Jad about coaxing delightfully twangy sounds from their homemade instruments.

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  Limits

  4/5/2010

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  A journey to the edge of human limits. On this hour of Radiolab, we test physical endurance with a bike race that makes the Tour de France look like child’s play, and mental capacity with a mind-stretching memory competition.

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  Shorts: The Bus Stop

  3/23/2010

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  Lulu Miller talks to a nursing home in Düsseldorf, Germany that came up with a novel approach to caring for Alzheimer's and Dementia patients.

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  Shorts: Do I Know You?

  3/8/2010

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  A rare and haunting disorder called Capgras turns loved ones into imposters--and reveals that recognizing people, even the people we know the best, is more about how they make us feel than what we see in front of our eyes.

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  Lucy

  2/19/2010

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  Chimps. Bonobos. Humans. We're all great apes, but that doesn’t mean we’re one happy family. On this hour of Radiolab: stories of living together--from a chimp named Lucy, to the basics of bonobo culture (be careful, they bite).

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  Shorts: The Shy Baboon

  2/8/2010

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  Biopsychologist Barbara Smuts takes us to a remote area of Kenya, where she tried to gain the trust of a troop of baboons in the 1970s.

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  Shorts: Fu Manchu

  1/26/2010

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  A showdown between a zookeeper and an orangutan named Fu Manchu raises a question: can an animal know what's in your head well enough to manipulate and deceive you?

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  Animal Minds

  1/11/2010

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  This hour of Radiolab: communicating across species. We get the story of a rescued whale that may have found a way to say thanks, ask whether dogs feel guilt, and wonder if a successful predator may have fallen in love with a photographer.

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  Placebo

  12/28/2009

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  From the symbolic power of the doctor coat, to the very real stash of opium in your brain, this hour of Radiolab explores the healing powers of belief and imagination.

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  Shorts: In C

  12/15/2009

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  Jad talks to musicians Michael Lowenstern and Zoe Keating about their remixes of Terry Riley's In C.

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  Numbers

  11/30/2009

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  Regardless of how you feel about numbers, chances are you rely on them every day. This hour, Radiolab ponders the nature of numbers, and wonders what life might look like without them.

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  Shorts: Killing Babies, Saving the World

  11/17/2009

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  Robert ambushes Jad with a question we've all been dying to ask him since he became a father. And we revisit some other ideas from our Morality show to think about a few really big modern-day problems (think global warming and nuclear war).

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  Shorts: Helicopter Boy

  11/3/2009

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  A story about a boy, a mom, and a homemade helicopter--and how radio can move you to feel a little bit different about the world.

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  New Normal?

  10/19/2009

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  This hour of Radiolab: stories of adaptation. Is a peacenik baboon, a man in a dress, or a cuddly fox a sign of things to come? Or just a flukey outlier? We reframe our ideas about normalcy.

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  Shorts: Blink

  10/6/2009

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  We tackle a question we thought was a no-brainer: why do we blink?

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  Shorts: It Might Be Science

  9/22/2009

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  They Might Be Giants celebrate at our season launch party with a live concert, and a conversation about the tricky business of combining science and entertainment.

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  Parasites

  9/7/2009

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  What's gotten into you? In this hour of Radiolab: encounters with parasites. Tales of lethargic farmers, zombie cockroaches, and even mind-controlled humans (kinda, maybe).

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  Shorts: After Birth

  8/25/2009

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  Jad--a brand new father--wonders what's going on inside the head of his baby Amil. Is it just chaos? Or is there something more, some understanding from the very beginning?

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  Shorts: 16: Moments

  8/15/2009

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  After hearing our show about moments of death, filmmaker Will Hoffman went out in search of moments of life. What follows is what he found.

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  Shorts: 15: Sum

  8/14/2009

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  For meditation number fifteen we have a reading from David Eagleman's book Sum. It's a vision of the after life that's both playful and... horrifying. Sum is read by actor Jeffrey Tambor.

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  Shorts: 14: The Four Groans

  8/13/2009

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  Another meditation on what happens after the moment of death, this time as Shakespeare envisions it. 

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  Shorts: 13: Gone

  8/12/2009

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  We continue our meditations on death with a reading from poet and writer, Mark Doty. This is an excerpt from Doty's 1996 memoir Heaven's Coast.

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  Shorts: 12: Proof

  8/11/2009

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  This week on the podcast, we continue our meditations on death (our After Life episode had eleven). We'll throw a new one at you each day, all week long, culminating in a very special treat at the end of the week.

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  After Life

  7/27/2009

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  Death is inevitable. But is it truly final? This hour: Radiolab stares down the very moment of passing, and speculates about what may lay beyond. 

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  Shorts: In Defense of Darwin?

  7/14/2009

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  Robert challenges Richard Dawkins on a number of sticky spots on the subject of biological evolution.

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  Shorts: Are We Coins?

  6/30/2009

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  We follow up on our Stochasticity show with an exploration pf whether the little choices we make every day are predictable or not.

• Stochasticity Bonus Video!

  6/16/2009

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  We have a special bonus this week to accompany our Stochasticity episode. We asked our friends, Higher Mammals to produce a song and video for our Stochasticity show. We hope you find it completely Random!

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  Stochasticity

  6/15/2009

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  Stochasticity is a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness. This hour of Radiolab: making sense of the patterns we see-- from lucky streaks to gambling odds, to two girls named Laura.

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  Shorts: Stayin' Alive

  6/2/2009

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  A look at four unconventional ways to stay alive.

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  Shorts: AV Smackdown . . . The Podcast

  5/19/2009

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  We open up an age old can of worms at WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space: which medium is superior -- television or radio? Jad and Robert face off, with This American Life's Ira Glass as referee.  

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  Shorts: Juana Molina

  5/5/2009

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  Sometimes on the podcast, we like to talk about musicians and the music they make. Today we introduce you to Juana Molina. Last season we used some of her of music in the breaks for the Sperm show.

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  Where Am I?

  4/20/2009

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  Under high gravity forces, fighter pilots often lose consciousness while flying jet planes. This hour of Radiolab, examining the connection between your brain and your body...and what happens when it breaks.

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  Shorts: In Silence

  4/7/2009

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  There are some questions that just don't give in to experiments and data. We take on one of those questions.

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  Shorts: DIY Universe

  3/26/2009

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  Can you make your own universe? We usually think of the universe as 'everything that exists,' so how could you make another one?

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  Shorts: Mischel’s Marshmallows

  3/9/2009

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  Psychologist Walter Mischel explains how one little test involving a marshmallow might tell you a frightening amount about what kind of person you are.

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  Shorts: Darwinvaganza

  2/24/2009

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  Radiolab throws a birthday party for Charles Darwin! Robert Krulwich invites three experts to toast the birthday boy.

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  Shorts: The Obama Effect, Perhaps.

  1/28/2009

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  A study that finds a link between President Obama's election and the test scores of African Americans gets Jad and Robert thinking about an earlier study on a psychological effect called "stereotype threat."

• Parabolas (etc.)

  1/14/2009

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  Special bonus of the week! A video inspired by the mathematician, Steve Strogatz. At the age of thirteen, Steve was astonished to find that pendulums and water fountains had a strange relationship that had previously been completely hidden from him.

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  Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters

  1/12/2009

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  The pursuit of knowledge leads sometimes to answers, often to failure, and almost invariably to more questions. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of love and loss in the name of science.

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  Diagnosis

  12/29/2008

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  What's in a name? In this hour of Radiolab: diagnosis—our attempt to find out what's wrong, and give it a label. We examine how we get to the root of a problem, and how we react when we get there.

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  Race

  12/15/2008

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  Our genes are nearly all the same, but that hasn't made race meaningless. This hour, Radiolab asks what race is, and whether it's fixed or fluid, genes or culture?

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  Sperm

  12/1/2008

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  Sperm carry half the genes needed for human life. In this hour of Radiolab, we examine our beginnings, take a tour of the animal kingdom, and ponder a world where frozen sperm can last for all eternity.

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  Choice

  11/17/2008

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  When presented with a choice, logic and emotion pipe up. This hour of Radiolab, we turn up the volume on those voices in our heads, and try to get to the bottom of what really steers our decisions.

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  War of the Worlds

  11/3/2008

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  In 1938, Orson Welles produced a radio play that sounded an awful lot like a news report about Martians invading New Jersey. On this hour of Radiolab: deconstructing “The War of the Worlds,” and the power of mass media to create panic.

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  Shorts: Chris And Lisa

  10/21/2008

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  Chris had a crush on Lisa. But how to woo her? He met her on a park bench in Chicago, handed her a stack of CD's, and sent her off on an extremely specific mission. Did it work? Find out on this week's podcast.

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  Shorts: Sperm Tales

  10/7/2008

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  Two short pieces on sperm that hint at the new ideas and amazing stories we came across once we started following the trail of this wriggly little cell.

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  Shorts: Chasing Bugs

  9/23/2008

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  Remember the first time you ever saw an ant hill? That parade of black insects pouring in and out of a small sand mound...most of us stopped, looked, and then moved on to other parts of the playground. E. O. Wilson is the kid who never took his eyes off the mound.

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  Shorts: Making the Hippo Dance

  9/9/2008

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  We play some never-released tape from the vault, and reveal a bit about what techniques we used to try and make it sing.

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  Shorts: Quantum Cello

  8/25/2008

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  Jad and cellist Zoe Keating discuss the physics (if not metaphysics) of looping sound, and how to use a 17th century instrument to make avant-garde electronic music.

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  Shorts: The (Multi) Universe(s)

  8/12/2008

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  Robert and Brian Greene discuss what's beyond the horizon of our universe, what you might wear in infinite universes with finite pairs of designer shoes, and why the Universe and swiss cheese have more in common than you think.

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  Shorts: Tell Me A Story

  7/29/2008

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  Robert Krulwich's commencement speech at California Institute of Technology gets at the heart of what we do here at Radiolab. It's a treat to hear his passion. We enjoyed it. And we thought you might too.  

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  Shorts: City X

  7/1/2008

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  This week, a piece from one of our favorite radio-makers, Jonathan Mitchell. 'City X' is a history of the modern shopping mall through perspectives of people living in a real, yet unnamed, city.

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  Shorts: Earworms

  6/17/2008

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  First, we asked you to tell us what song gets stuck in your head. Then, we asked you how you got it out. Finally, we made a podcast. Thank you to everyone who called in, shared their secret techniques, and sang without shame.

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  Shorts: Wordless Music

  6/3/2008

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  An excerpt from Wordless Music on WNYC, a 4-part music program hosted by Jad, exploring the boundaries between classical and pop music. Jad waxes googly-eyed fan when he gets to talk about one of his favorite bands, Stars of the Lid.

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  Shorts: Open Outcry

  5/20/2008

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  Jad presents a piece by one of his favorite producers: Ben Rubin. This audio portrait, called 'Open Outcry,' visits the trading floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange, with its hundreds of traders shouting unintelligible phonic abbreviations and numbers back and forth.

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  Shorts: Jad and Robert: The Early Years

  5/6/2008

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  Ever wonder how Jad and Robert met? They tell their tale on stage at Oberlin College, and talk about how they started tinkering around with tape to come up with the Radiolab you know today.

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  Pop Music

  4/21/2008

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  This hour of Radiolab, pop music's pull: nightmarish stories of musical hallucinations, songs that transcend language, and the triumphant return of the Elvis of Afghanistan.

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  (So-Called) Life

  4/7/2008

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      The uneasy marriage of biology and engineering raises big questions about the nature of life. In this hour, Radiolab journeys to the first billion years of life on Earth, looks at how modern engineers tinker with living things, and meets a woman who could have been two people.  

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  Laughter

  2/25/2008

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  This hour of Radiolab teases out stories of laughter--from a baby’s crib, to a rat’s cage, to a remote village in Tanzania that was struck by a laughing epidemic 45 years ago.

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  Shorts: Our Podcast comes in all shapes and sizes

  2/11/2008

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  Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time, 'IF' by Sherre DeLys.

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  Shorts: Salle Des Departs

  1/29/2008

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  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. David Lang had to do just that when a hospital in Garches, France, asked him to write music for their morgue, or 'Salle Des Departs.'

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  The Ring and I

  1/1/2008

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  It might seem hyperbole to claim, as many Wagnerites do, that The Ring Cycle is 'The Greatest Work of Art Ever.' But it's permeated our culture from Star Wars to Bugs Bunny to J.R.R. Tolkien. On this Radiolab/WNYC Special, we explore the impact and influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle on the Metropolitan Opera's 2004 Presentation.

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  The Wright Brothers

  12/18/2007

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  In 1903, 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.

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  Contact

  12/4/2007

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  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.

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  Space Capsules

  11/20/2007

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  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 of time capsule, a collection of sounds and images that would describe life on Earth to whomever or whatever might find it.

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  Shorts: Making Radiolab

  11/9/2007

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  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 digital sound editing, and Robert raises editorial questions. And film editor joins them to Walter Murch weigh in on storytelling.

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  Space

  10/22/2007

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  This hour of Radiolab, we ponder our insignificant place in the universe. We boldly go after stories of optimism, narcissism, and cynicism--stories all about Outer Space.

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  Musical Language

  9/24/2007

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  This hour of Radiolab: we explore the line between music and language, and turn to physics and biochemistry to ask how sound becomes feeling.

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  Detective Stories

  9/10/2007

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  Digging up the past leads to some very unexpected finds. This hour, Radiolab plays detective and goes sleuthing in some rather unusual places: an ancient trash dump, the side of the highway, and in the blood of millions of Asians.

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  Shorts: This is Your Brain On Love

  8/28/2007

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  Jad turns to science to help strangers fall in love...or at least exchange a few phone numbers...as the host of a Singles Night. And he gets some advice from a few experts on the chemistry of a 'brain on love.'

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  Emergence

  8/14/2007

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  What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form amazingly complicated societies. This hour of Radiolab: a look at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, and even our brains.

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  Morality

  8/13/2007

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  For thousands of years philosophers have debated the essence of morality. Now, neuroscientists may have answers. This hour of Radiolab, stories of chimps sharing, human toddlers fighting, and 4th graders playing slumlords.

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  Beyond Time

  7/24/2007

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  This hour of Radiolab: fighting the inevitable march of time. We meet a scientist and his particle accelerator, an artist, and a whole cast of characters in the Mojave Desert, where geologic time flows like a frozen hourglass.

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  Mortality

  6/14/2007

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  Some scientists claim that aging is a disease that can be cured. On this hour of Radiolab, the modern search for the fountain of youth, and personal stories of witnessing death: the death of a cell, the death of a loved one, and the aging of a society.

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  Memory and Forgetting

  6/7/2007

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  Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour of Radiolab: implanting false memories in loved ones, and erasing painful memories by simply swallowing a pill. Plus: the story of a man with the worst case of amnesia ever documented.

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  Zoos

  6/4/2007

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  Blood-thirsty Romans, frozen carcasses, wild jaguars, and a question: how do you build a better cage? This hour of Radiolab, we head to the zoo.

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  Sleep

  5/24/2007

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  Sleep is one of science's greatest mysteries. This hour of Radiolab, we look for answers in iguanas who doze with one eye open, new parents in the throes of sleep deprivation, and rats who may be dreaming.

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  Who Am I?

  5/7/2007

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  The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. But in this hour of Radiolab, neurologists lead the charge. We  reflect on the illusion of selfhood, contemplate the evolution of consciousness, and meet a woman who one day woke up as a completely different person.

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  Stress

  4/9/2007

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  Stress may save your life if you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're stuck in traffic, it may be more likely to make you sick. This hour of Radiolab, stories of stress--from a singer who loses her voice, to an author caught in a body that never grew up.