Why are there so many songs about rainbows (and what’s on the other side)? A bridge between worlds, a map to a pot of gold, the centerpiece of a Lisa Frank trapper-keeper, and of course, an ever-changing symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, the rainbow has been a profound part of the human experience for thousands of years. For this early Pride Month episode, science correspondent and bisexual seagull Lulu Miller explains to Sarah the history of our understanding of rainbows: why they exist, what they are made out of, and what they have represented. Together they discuss the figures that have tried to pin down this natural wonder, the power of its spectrum of meaning, and the comfort and terror of the infinity it once represented. Digressions include the boring transcendence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the secret joys of trigonometry, and the best gay Hannibal Lecter. 

More Lulu Miller:
https://radiolab.org/team/lulu-miller

Lulu on Instagram

Lulu's book Why Fish Don't Exist

Original music in this episode brought to you by Magpie Cinema Club featuring Brendan Liu

Except for "Roy G Biv" from this episode of Lulu's WNYC show Terrestrials, which is written and performed by Alan Goffinski and included on The Bridge EP

And also Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert

Edited + Produced by Miranda Zickler:
http://linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

The poem Lulu read was Singularity by Marie Howe

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