It's a great episode from the old Radiolab days but I had a major issue with it. What happened with Alan? I get that their relationship didn't last, that's life, but the way he completely disappears from the story is disturbing. He saved her from a bed bound life in a nursing home and then never gets mentioned again, not even by Emilie. She dedicated one of her showings to her guide dog, but Alan who?

*EDIT* Found the episode. It was actually from Invisibilia! https://www.npr.org/2015/01/16/377519199/disappearing-fear

I am not 100% sure this is a radiolab segment, but I am pretty sure it is. About a guy who is either really shy or has a fear of rejection so he ends up facing that fear by asking strangers questions/surveys in grocery store parking lots… anyone remember this one?

TL;DR - We tried to make a history podcast in the style of early Radiolab and it was extremely humbling.

Like many of you, I've been a fan of Radiolab for many years and, man, do I miss Jad and Robert and the old format. The topics, research, depth of storytelling, unparalleled sound design, and genuine excitement about "finding a universe in a blade of grass" captivated me over and over. And years later, I've gotten to relive that feeling through the ears of family members, as we listen to old episodes together like "Colors," "Sleep," and "Time." Now more than ever, when podcasts are a dime a dozen long form interviews and ramblings, I appreciate just how special Radiolab has been. Also, let's not be too hard on the post-2020 team. For one, I'm pretty sure many of them worked very hard on early Radiolab as well, and two, Jad and Robert's shoes were always going to be impossible to fill, and Lulu and Latif and team have still managed to create some good stuff.

Over the last several months, I've had the opportunity to work on a limited series with similar ambitions, and holy crap.... it makes you appreciate just how much work it must've been to make Radiolab... From developing stories to research to finding and lining up interviews to building music and sound design and all the rest of post-production... I'm not surprised at all that the team has faced uphill battles on funding and consistent release schedule over the years - it cannot be overstated that shows like this take an absolutely gargantuan amount of work.

Having said all of that, I'd like to share our series in the hopes that some of you might enjoy the topics, storytelling, music, and sound design, and appreciate the months of hard work that our tiny team has put into it. Obviously, it doesn't come anywhere close to early Radiolab, but I think we've at least made something memorable and unique in these times.

Our show is a 13-episode history of technology series called "Keyboard & Quill" and, like Radiolab, we've tried to blend interesting topics, research, interviews, and storytelling with exceptional music and sound design. Our topics touch on the evolution of communication, farming and manufacturing, land travel and maps, meal prep and delivery, and of course computers, smartphones, data and software. All episodes will be released by the end of next week.

Our music and sound design come from the very talented composer/producer Jeff Kite, who produces and plays alongside Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) in The Voidz. Our hosts, Tim and Rachel, are veterans of the Silicon Valley tech world and--while they aren't historians themselves--they've interviewed historians and academics from NYU, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford, and others, as well as technologists, co-founders, and software engineers from all over.

It's on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keyboard-and-quill/id1720345620 and other platforms via https://keyboardandquill.buzzsprout.com/

Would love to hear what folks think of the show, good or bad. Seriously, feel free to tell us it sucks like hell and why. :) Thanks for listening!

In the episode, "The Theater of David Byrne's Mind", Thalia Wheatley introduces a visual selective attention experiment with nearly identical pictures of a big red barn in a lush rural landscape. Can this test be found online, anyplace?

I've googled and searched youtube with no luck.

After being frustrated with the episode you're about the woman in the bike accident, the recent "potato" episode was even worse imo. I know they were joking the whole time about how it was supposed to be a show about mundane things, but holy cow was it boring! They also said something about how they wanted to step back from their hard hitting, deep dive science-y stuff, but I feel like they already have been since Jad left. I like this show and have listened for 15 years, but I find myself not looking forward to the releases anymore because they'll either be reruns or just meh.

If you haven’t yet read it yet, and consider yourself an NPR fan… you probably should.

those of us who largely stopped listening to NPR in recent years, because of how far they’ve gone off the rails…this article wasn’t news. It’s what we’ve been saying for nearly a decade now.

What’s interesting is the timeline he lays out for NPRs derailment, generally corresponds to Radiolabs derailment and long time fan sentiments that Radiolab has “lost its magic”

Pair this article with Jad’s Ted talk, and you’ll have a pretty good understanding of “what happened!?” when it comes to modern Radiolabs lackluster performance

The article everyone’s talking about: https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

In the episode, "The Moon Itself" Molly Webster says the of the idea that the moon is a round rock, orbiting the earth, it has craters, and it might spin is "the collection of facts most people know about the moon."

I didn't start the poll about whether people knew more, less, or just those few facts to question the validity of her claim. She might well be right. I was curious about the Radiolab audience and how much they know. So of the 67 Radiolab listeners who visit this sub and voted in the poll over 80% knew more facts about the moon.

My guess is the Radiolab audience had always been much more scientifically literate than is suggested by the claim. If that is the case I think the show should be aiming higher than what I have been hearing recently. If the show is getting more listeners by programming to a target audience of less informed people then they should stick with this approach, but it clear many long time Radiolab listeners are very disappointed in the current state of the show and are no longer interested in listening.

I sincerely hope the show goes back to the approach of assuming a higher level of scientific literacy of the audience, similar to what it had been. If it doesn't I will be ending my membership to The Lab once I go through the entire archive, and I won't be listening to new shows.

Something today triggered a memory that's really really vague, so I apologize, but I'm certain it's from Radiolab. I'm pretty sure the episode had something to do with geography, or DNA, or both, and possibly weird sea creatures, but I just remember at the end it basically concluded with someone (Lulu maybe?) saying "we definitely belong", as in we (humans) definitely belong (on earth).

I know that's not much to go on, but if anyone knows what I'm talking about and can offer any more details and possibly the episode, I'd be so grateful!

I assume they were joking that we haven't gone to the sun, but we have gone to the sun. There have been almost two dozen probes sent to study the sun in one form or another, starting in 1960. The Wikipedia page List of Solar System probes has a list of those Solar probes. This past September the Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the sun, 4.5 million miles, seven times closer than Mercury's nearest point to the sun.

I was stunned that the word soil was used to describe the layer of loose material the covers most of the lunar surface. Soil has a very specific definition. Saying people will call it moon dust is equally disappointing as there is a word to identify it, regolith. I recognize the general public may not be familiar with the word, but it was a perfect opportunity for people to learn what regolith is.

To say that there is no sunrise or sunset on the moon is absurd. The sun appears to rise and set on the moon, just like on earth. What the moon doesn't have is twilight.

I can't believe the show has become this sloppy.

On the 4/5/24 episode, "The Moon Itself" Molly Webster, Lulu, and Latif discuss what they know about the moon. They mentioned it is a round rock, orbiting the earth, it has craters, and it might spin.

Molly says that is "the collection of facts most people know about the moon."

Does that statement represent your knowledge about the moon?

View Poll

He says his name Luh-tif and basically everyone says Lah-tif. It's not that hard.

Was there an episode where they talk about women who frathernize with the enemy in order to survive during times of war?

How’d you guys feel about the audio palindrome they aired? Seemed not as impressive as they made it out to be. Like yeah if you reverse the speech from recordings and slap them on the inverse side of the recording it’s gonna be a palindrome but it just seemed to lack artistry and fluidity.

Can anyone find a link to the episode about a local nyc reporter residing in a nyc building and who is also a member of the building tenant’s association. The story evolves about the building superintendents dark past.

hi 😊 I’m hoping you can help me with how to locate an episode. I remember they were using a game theory simulation on how to initially react — like if one party goes negative, the next party is likely to be negative as well. they used a metal guitar riff to represent the negative/‘evil’ response & a clip of angelic voices for the positive/‘good’ response. I remember I LOVED this episode & would love to reference the study they were explaining for a talk at work. thanks 🙏 ❤️

Since Google Podcasts is going away I decided to look for the Radiolab Classic Podcast on Spotify but I can't find it. Was it only ever uploaded to Google's app? Is it on other podcast apps??

I listen to Throughline occasionally and this week Throughline featured a radiolab episode with a 10 minute introduction which was just a convo between the 4 host and complimenting each other ad nauseam which was annoying but what made it infuriating is that Lulu kinda went off talking about how as the new hosts of radiolab they’re kinda bringing it “back to be about science” instead of the “direction the jad and Robert took it”. She sounded so smug and I wanted to be like dude you guys have ruined the show. Anyone else hear this?

I want to preface this with a "I know it's none of my business" and might even go against subreddit rules, but I listen to Radiolab because I'm curious.

The original episode (and related news articles) really showcased how determined Alan was in helping Emilie recover. At the time, it seemed sensationalized by news article headlines like "Love Brings Healing For Student Hit By Semi Truck" from HuffPost.

I'm the 10-year-later checkup, they just casually introduce her new partner Kirby. In a NY Times article from Dec 2023, Alan isn't even mentioned at all.

Now I know a lot can happen in a decade, but to have him scrubbed from current artist bios and new articles just seems so weird. Anyone else feel that way?

I'm looking for an episode where rural deaf persons were taught sign language for the first time. They had almost no memory of their life prior to learning the language. It talked about the connection between language and memory. If you don't have a language, you can't remember as well?

Pretty sure this was Radiolab? I heard it around 15 years ago.

I just finished why fish don’t exist by the host lulu miller and I absolutely LOVED it. What other books can you guys think of that are either written by the hosts, books that they’ve mentioned on the show, or books that just generally remind you of the podcast.

This was the guy from Berkeley in the cheating death episode.

I found his voice and attitude compelling and refreshing. I wanted more, but upon researching his name and hoping to find more podcasts featuring him. I found nothing.

Just thought I'd I come here to see if anyone knows of some obscure podcasts that he might have featured on.

The reporter is teasing, saying how difficult it would be to get a particular interview and the hosts (likely Jad and Robert) are like “Well? Did you get the interview??” Big dramatic pause… … “We got the interview”

Or words to that effect. It’s a really joyous moment because the tease is really convincing and you’re so relieved and excited that they got it

I can’t think of any other aspect so I’m sorry it’s not a lot to go on but any ideas welcome. Or I’ll just have to listen to them all again I guess

I was listening to the episode Hold On while deep cleaning my fridge the other day and I think I recall hearing an advertisement for a series about AI and episodes surrounding different hypothetical future scenarios/conflicts. I was too occupied to jot down any info about it but it really piqued my interest. I tried replaying and sifting through the episode so I could find out about it but it’s nowhere to be found…Anyone know what I’m talking about?

I feel dumb, perhaps I’m not remembering correctly if I heard about it during this episode or on a different podcast. I’m just confused as to why nothing comes up when I try googling it.

Im looking for a episode that involved a painting, a repressed memory and i think a burning house. I dont remember more details, only that i was really moved.

Thanks

I don’t mean to add to the negativity but something about the tone of this episode felt off.

We’re talking about suicide and mental health the vibes were more aligned with if we we’re talking about IRS hold music

I don’t mean to add to the negativity but something about the tone of this episode felt off.

We’re talking about suicide and mental health the vibes were more aligned with if we we’re talking about IRS hold music