Paul’s favorite podcasts

From hair parts to the origin of the universe, how symmetry shapes our existence.

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.

Along the way, we look for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton to peer inside our brains, and turn up an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979.

***Are You My Brain Double?

***Mirror, Mirror

***Nothing's the Antimatter

[April 17, 2011]

What can machines tell us about being human?

This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert meet humans and robots who are trying to connect, and blur the line.

We begin with a love story--from a man who unwittingly fell in love with a chatbot on an online dating site. Then, we encounter a robot therapist whose inventor became so unnerved by its success that he pulled the plug. And we talk to the man who coded Cleverbot, a software program that learns from every new line of conversation it receives...and that's chatting with more than 3 million humans each month. Then, five intrepid kids help us test a hypothesis about a toy designed to push our buttons, and play on our human empathy. And we meet a robot built to be so sentient that its creators hope it will one day have a consciousness, and a life, all its own. 

***Clever Bots

***Furbidden Knowledge

***Everyone Has a Solar

[May 30, 2011]

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 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. And we come to a perfectly sensible, thoroughly disturbing conclusion about the nature of the universe ... all by way of the cowboy hat.

***The Most Horrible Seaside Vacation November 14, 2011

***The Cell That Started a Pandemic November 14, 2011

***Contagious Ideas November 14, 2011

[November 14, 2011]

This hour, we walk the tightrope between doubt and certainty, and wonder if there's a way to make yourself at home on that razor's edge between definitely...and not so sure.

We meet a geologist whose life is rocked by a crisis of faith, talk to a gambler who's made a name (and millions) by embracing what she can't know, and we relive a series of decisions and convictions that turn one woman's certainty into a deeply troubling question about just how certain is certain enough.

NOTE: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault and violence.

***Rocked by Doubt 

***Dealing with Doubt

***Reasonable Doubt. A woman faces her own doubt.

[March 25, 2013]

Getting a firm hold on the truth is never as simple as nailing down the facts of a situation. This hour, we go after a series of seemingly simple facts -- facts that offer surprising insight, facts that inspire deeply different stories, and facts that, in the end, might not matter at all.

We start with the story of Errol Morris' obsessive search for a straightforward answer about a photograph. He travels the globe to get to the bottom of things, and ends up with an odd peek into a slice of time 150 years ago. Then, one of the strangest stories to come out of the Cold War hinges on evidence that turns out to be deeply entangled with a little-reported tragedy, and a history-shaping accusation. And we end with a story about friendship, and a moving case for how truly knowing someone often requires seeing beyond the details.

Editor's Note: this episode, which was originally podcast on September 24th, 2012, was amended on October 5th, 2012.

***In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt

***Yellow Rain

***Secret Skelly

[September 23, 2012]

Ghosts, ghouls, shades from the past ... in this episode of Radiolab, real-life people try to pin down, and make peace with, mysterious figures that haunt them, prod them, and fade out of existence.

One man finds a way to put the beatdown on his personal bogey man, a dead monk spurs a king to build a perfect prayer machine, an unknown face launches a thousand dummies (actually, a whole lot more than that), and a skeptic goes on a one-way to journey to find out whether spirits exist.

***Beyond the grave

***Haunted dreams

***Ghost in the machine

[June 28, 2012]

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

A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, like your whole life hangs in the balance. This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert wonder why we get so invested in something so trivial. What is it about games that make them feel so pivotal?

We hear how a recurring dream about football turned into a real-life lesson for Stephen Dubner, we watch a chessboard turn into a playground where by-the-book moves give way to totally unpredictable possibilities, and we relive a moment where rooting for the underdog makes us rethink what a truly happy ending is.

***Skin in the Game

***The Rules Can Set You Free

***On the Winning Side

[August 22, 2011]

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.

We kick things off with a true escape artist--a man who’s broken out of jail more times than anyone alive. We try to figure out why he keeps running... and whether he will ever stop. Then, the ingeniously simple question that led Isaac Newton to an enormous intellectual breakthrough: why doesn’t the moon fall out of the sky? In the wake of Newton's new idea, we find ourselves in a strange space at the edge of the solar system, about to cross a boundary beyond which we know nothing. Finally, we hear the story of a blind kid who freed himself from an unhappy childhood by climbing into the telephone system, and bending it to his will.

***The Great Escape Artist. Can a legendary escape artist --a folk hero who's broken out of jail more times than anyone else alive -- break the cycle of running and getting caught?

***Is There an Edge to the Heavens? Cosmic laws are rewritten, and a spacecraft launched three decades ago races to become the first human-made object to leave the solar system.

***Long Distance

[February 20, 2012]

In this episode, strange stories of brains that lead their owners astray, knock them off balance, and, sometimes, propel them to do amazing things.

We hear from a kid whose voice was disguised from himself, relive a surreal day in the life of a young researcher hijacked by her own brain, and try to keep up with an ultra-athlete who, after suffering terrible seizures, gained extraordinary abilities by removing a chunk of her brain.

***Basal ganglia gone wild

***Brain on my parade

***Head over heels

[June 21, 2012]

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.

To what extent is color a physical thing in the physical world, and to what extent is it created in our minds? We start with Sir Isaac Newton, who was so eager to solve this very mystery, he stuck a knife in his eye to pinpoint the answer. Then, we meet a sea creature that sees a rainbow way beyond anything humans can experience, and we track down a woman who we're pretty sure can see thousands (maybe even millions) more colors than the rest of us. And we end with an age-old question, that, it turns out, never even occurred to most humans until very recently: why is the sky blue?

***Rippin' the Rainbow a New One 

***The Perfect Yellow

***Why Isn't the Sky Blue? What is the color of honey, and "faces pale with fear"?

[May 21, 2012]