Paul’s favorite podcasts

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But this hour, we try to do just that.

We meet a woman who taught a 27-year-old man the first words of his life, hear a firsthand account of what it feels like to have the language center of your brain wiped out by a stroke, and retrace the birth of a brand new language 30 years ago.

***Words that Change the World

***A World Without Words

***New Words, New World 

[August 8, 2010]

In this hour of Radiolab: an unflinching look at the good, bad, and ugly side of tumors.

Say hello to the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, meet Tasmanian Devils battling contagious tumors, and get to know the woman whose cancer cells changed modern medicine.

***Devil Tumors

***Magic Tumors

***Henrietta's Tumor

[May 16, 2010]

On this hour of Radiolab: a journey to the edge of human limits.

How much can you jam into a human brain? How far can you push yourself past feelings of exhaustion? 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. And we ask if robots--for better or worse--may be forging beyond the limits of human understanding.

***Limits of the Body

***Limits of the Mind. How much can you jam into a human brain?

***Limits of Science

[April 4, 2010]

Communicating across species -- from bringing pets to church, to a rescued whale that may have found a way to say thanks. 

In this hour of Radiolab, stories of cross-species communication.

When we gaze into the eyes of a wild animal, or even a beloved pet, can we ever really know what they might be thinking? Is it naive to assume they're experiencing something close to human emotions? Or is it ridiculous to assume that they AREN'T feeling something like that? 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.

***Animal Blessings

***Spindle Cells

***Sharing is Caring? Or is it a Sin? 

[January 11, 2010]

Peacenik baboons, a man in a dress, and cuddly tame foxes. Stories of adaptation, and reframing ideas about normalcy.

Evolution results from the ability of organisms to change. But how do you tell the difference between a sea change and a ripple in the water? Is a peacenik baboon, a man in a dress, or a cuddly fox a sign of things to come? Or just a flukey outlier from the norm? And is there ever really a norm?

***New Baboon

***New Stu. In 2008, Stu Rasmussen became our country's first transgendered mayor. News swept the country, but what was it like at home?

***New Nice

[October 18, 2009]

Chimps. Bonobos. Humans. We're all great apes, but that doesn’t mean we’re one happy family. This hour of Radiolab: stories of trying to live together.

Is this kind of cross-species co-habitation an utterly stupid idea? Or might it be our one last hope as more and more humans fill up the planet? A chimp named Lucy teaches us the ups and downs of growing up human, and a visit to The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa highlights some of the basics of bonobo culture (be careful, they bite).

***Lucy

***Lucy, the epilogue

***Kanzi

[February 18, 2010]

Stochasticity (a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness), may be at the very foundation of our lives. To understand how big a role it plays, we look at chance and patterns in sports, lottery tickets, and even the cells in our own body.

Along the way, we talk to a woman suddenly consumed by a frenzied gambling addiction, meet two friends whose meeting seems to defy pure chance, and take a close look at some very noisy bacteria.

***A Very Lucky Wind. An English girl just shy of ten years old, didn't realize the strange course her life would take after her red balloon was swept away into the sky

***Seeking Patterns

***Random Rules

[June 15, 2009]

Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, chances are you rely on numbers every day of your life. Where do they come from, and what do they really do for us? This hour: stories of how numbers confuse us, connect us, and even reveal secrets about us.

***Innate Numbers?

***From Benford to Erdös

***Calculove

[November 29, 2009]

Nightmarish stories of musical hallucinations, songs with the power to transcend language, and the triumphant return of the Elvis of Afghanistan. 

This hour of Radiolab: pop music's pull.

Some songs have the nefarious power to stick mercilessly in our heads, and some songs have the transcendent allure to overcome cultural differences. We ask how songwriters create these songs seemingly out of the ether, listen in on the music a deaf man hears, and examine the timeless appeal of the Elvis of Afghanistan.

***Earworms

***Songs that Cross Borders

***Afghan Elvis

[April 21, 2008]

The uneasy marriage of biology and engineering raises big questions about the nature of life.

In a world where biology and engineering intersect, how do you decide what's "natural"?

Biotechnology is making it easier and easier to create new forms of life, but what are the consequences when humans play with life? We travel back to the first billion years of life on Earth, take a look at how modern engineers tinker with living things, and meet a woman who could have been two people.

***Mix and Match

***Genes on the Move

***Intelligent Design?

[April 6, 2008]