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.

The Gondolier

4 4 Jun 15th, 2017 54m 35s

What happens when doing what you want to do means giving up who you really are? We travel to Venice, Italy with reporters Kristen Clark and David Conrad, where they meet gondolier Alex Hai. On the winding canals in the hidden parts of Venice,

The Punchline

3 1 Jan 16th, 2019 52m 5s

John Scott was the professional hockey player that every fan loved to hate. A tough guy. A brawler. A goon. But when an impish pundit named Puck Daddy called on fans to vote for Scott to play alongside the world’s greatest players in the NHL A

Playing God

2 6 Aug 22nd, 2016 1h 1m

When people are dying and you can only save some, how do you choose? Maybe you save the youngest. Or the sickest. Maybe you even just put all the names in a hat and pick at random. Would your answer change if a sick person was standing right in

G: The Miseducation of Larry P

1 2 Jun 7th, 2019 1h 4m

Are some ideas so dangerous we shouldn’t even talk about them? That question brought Radiolab’s senior editor, Pat Walters, to a subject that at first he thought was long gone: the measuring of human intelligence with IQ tests. Turns out, the t

Octomom

2 May 15th, 2020 33m

In 2007, Bruce Robison’s robot submarine stumbled across an octopus settling in to brood her eggs. It seemed like a small moment. But as he went back to visit her, month after month, what began as a simple act of motherhood became a heroic feat

Revising the Fault Line

3 1 Jun 27th, 2017 47m 30s

A new tussle over an old story, and some long-held beliefs, with neurologist and author Robert Sapolsky.Four years ago, we did a story about a man with a starling obsession that made us question our ideas of responsibility and justice. We thou

The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub

1 May 21st, 2021 46m 29s

This episode, a tale of a wonder drug that will make you wonder about way more than just drugs. Doctor-reporter Avir Mitra follows the epic and fantastical journey of a molecule dug out of a distant patch of dirt that would go on to make bill

The Wordless Place

3 Feb 18th, 2022 29m 32s

This week, we turn to an expert who tromps the wilds of wordlessness. Lulu’s young son. In this essay, originally published for The Paris Review under the title “The Eleventh Word,” Lulu explores what is lost with the gaining of language. And h

Worst. Year. Ever.

Jan 7th, 2022 27m 52s

What was the worst year to be alive on planet Earth? We make the case for 536 AD, which set off a cascade of catastrophes that is almost too horrible to imagine. A supervolcano. The disappearance of shadows. A failure of bread. Plague rats. U

The Unsilencing

1 1 Aug 26th, 2021 29m

Multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, even psoriasis — these are diseases in which the body begins to attack itself, and they all have one thing in common: they affect women more than men. Most autoimmune disorders do. And not just b

From Tree to Shining Tree

3 3 Jul 30th, 2016 32m 4s

A forest can feel like a place of great stillness and quiet. But if you dig a little deeper, there’s a hidden world beneath your feet as busy and complicated as a city at rush hour.In this story, a dog introduces us to a strange creature that

The Cathedral

2 2 Dec 28th, 2015 31m 24s

Ryan and Amy Green were facing the unfaceable: their youngest son, Joel was diagnosed with terminal cancer after his first birthday. Producer Sruthi Pinnamaneni tells the story of how Ryan and Amy stumble onto an unlikely way of processing thei

Dispatch 2: Every Day is Ignaz Semmelweis Day

3 Apr 1st, 2020 34m 6s

It began with a tweet: “EVERY DAY IS IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS DAY.” Carl Zimmer — tweet author, acclaimed science writer and friend of the show — tells the story of a mysterious, deadly illness that struck 19th century Vienna, and the ill-fated hero wh

The Bad Show

2 1 Jul 28th, 2018 1h 9m

With all of the black-and-white moralizing in our world today, we decided to bring back an old show about the little bit of bad that's in all of us...and the little bit of really, really bad that's in some of us. Cruelty, violence, badness...

Dark Side of the Earth

2 1 Apr 26th, 2018 27m 37s

Astronauts at the International Space Station can make one request to talk to an earthling of their choice. For some reason, Astronaut Mark Vande Hei chose us. A couple weeks ago, we were able to video chat with Mark and peer over his shoulder

Flop Off

Dec 31st, 2021 1h 19m

This past year was a flop. From questionable blockbuster reboots to supply chain shenanigans to worst of all, omnipresent COVID variants. But, in a last ditch effort to flip the flop, we at Radiolab have dredged up the most mortifying, most cri

The Great Vaccinator

1 1 Dec 3rd, 2020 41m 59s

Until now, the fastest vaccine ever made - for mumps - took four years. And while our current effort to develop a covid-19 vaccine involves thousands of people working around the clock, the mumps vaccine was developed almost exclusively by one

Breaking News

1 Nov 19th, 2019 49m 11s

Today, we're re-releasing an old episode about how hard it is getting to decipher fact from fiction. Because next week, we’ll be putting out a story showing what happens when certain reality-altering tools get released into the wild. Simon Adl

Darkode

1 Jan 14th, 2022 41m 54s

It would seem that hackers today can do just about anything they want - from turning on the cellphone in your pocket to holding your life's work hostage. Cyber criminals today have more sophisticated tools, have learned to work collaboratively

Mixtape: Jack and Bing

1 Oct 29th, 2021 36m 38s

In 1946 Bing Crosby was the king of media. He was the movie star, the pop star and his radio show was reaching a third of American living rooms each week. But then, it all started to fall apart. His ratings were plummeting and his fans were fl

Everybody’s Got One

1 Aug 20th, 2021 29m 25s

We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. But this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And rig

Null and Void

1 May 12th, 2017 50m 46s

Today, a hidden power that is either the cornerstone of our democracy or a trapdoor to anarchy.Should a juror be able to ignore the law? From a Quaker prayer meeting in the streets of London, to riots in the streets of LA, we trace the his

Nukes

2 1 Apr 7th, 2017 55m 40s

President Richard Nixon once boasted that at any moment he could pick up a telephone and - in 20 minutes - kill 60 million people. Such is the power of the US President over the nation’s nuclear arsenal. But what if you were the military offi

Eye in the Sky

1 2 Jun 18th, 2015 28m 31s

Ross McNutt has a superpower — he can zoom in on everyday life, then rewind and fast-forward to solve crimes in a shutter-flash. But should he?In 2004, when casualties in Iraq were rising due to roadside bombs, Ross McNutt and his team came up