Radiolab

Here at Radiolab we’ve been known to tinker with sound... cutting music, ambi, and big ideas all together to get the point across in the most fun, interesting and understandable way. It’s not your typical public radio interview. Recently, we decided to check in with some of the guests on past episodes to see what they thought. Were they over-edited? Mis-represented? Did they love the show? Hate it?

We've gotten a lot of great responses to our show Laughter. Tom was so inspired that he changed his voicemail: 'I was so excited that when I got to work I changed the end of my daily telephone greeting to '...make it a groovy day.' For some reason I then decided to start laughing like the laugh track people on your show.

A listener recently sent us an email alerting us to a new dietary supplement released in June called Obecalp. Obecalp, which is Placebo spelled backwards, is a cherry-flavored chewable dextrose pill meant to trick children into believing they are getting a medicine that will make them feel better.

Why do we play, an activity that is, by its definition, without an immediate objective? Does play serve an important purpose in humans and in other animals? The science of play draws from the work of neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists, ethologists, and psychiatrists, among others, and many researchers are studying the appearance of play behaviors in other animals in an attempt to understand what role it may play in brain development.

After hearing the War of the Worlds show, many listeners wrote to the Lab with their favorite media hoaxes.

Hey everyone, Jad here. If you happen to have caught our "brain on love" podcast a while back, you may remember those groovy mini-jingles we made for the 3 different love chemicals (dopamine, norepinephrine, oxcytocin).

Here's the second installment of 'Music Lab.' A place on the blog where Jad gets to play some of his favorite music and tell you why he likes it. Take a listen.

Hello Jad here. First off, thanks to everyone who sent me Starbucks cards for my birthday (what a nice surprise!)

And while we're on the subject of ME, let me say a few words about about narcissism. Actually, no. What I'd really like to do is to play you a song I've had on repeat for the last month, a song about a boy who falls in love with another boy who lives in a river.

Gearheads, take note! The Bent Festival is in NYC all weekend long!
It's a three day-long exploration of hardware hacking, DIY electronics, and circuit bending. Artists from around the globe perform music with their homemade or circuit bent instruments each night of the festival, teach workshops to adults and children alike, and create amazing, interactive art installations. The festival brings together artists of all ages and showcases the state of the art of DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

Radiolab is coming to Washington, DC! Sorry all- this event is SOLD OUT

On April 24th we'll be coming to DC to share some of our stories of experimentation. We’re partnering with WAMU 88.5 to bring you a live event at the Koshland Science Museum.

Radiolab listener and electrical engineer, Mark Alexander, wrote in to let us know about a project that he's working on and we think it's just too cool not to show to yous guys.

Have you ever looked a red and blue barber's pole and wondered why the stripes seem to be traveling up, rather than around the pole? Or have you looked at a still-life painting where the vase looked so real you could almost pick it up, even though it was just a painting? These two examples raise some interesting questions about how we interpret the things we see.

Over the Easter weekend, a Catholic Church in Scotland found itself listening to a sermon that discussed some of the very same issues we raised in our So-Called Life show. Of course, the context was a bit different... but the questions raised were similar: Are we allowed to tinker with life?

Why would a goat stand on a cow? And what on earth does this question have to do with hundreds of mysterious letters from homesick soldiers? We can't exactly promise definitive answers. But we can promise one heck of a good detective story. The story inspired listener Brett Miller to make this incredible drawing of the 'Cordial Cow.' We love it.

Listener Louie forwarded us this re-mix of the episode "Musical Language". Thanks Louie!

Is this what you're wondering? We thought so. The season four shows will be available to download after they air in New York.

The 'brain in a vat' thought experiment reminds us of issues we wrestled with in a past episode . What is the connection between brain and body? If your brain was placed in a jar and wired to a computer that simulates the outside world, how could you prove that your beliefs about the world aren't all false?