Radiolab

Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal

Today on the show, we’re bringing you an episode from Our Common Nature [https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d] (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d), a new podcast series where cellist Yo-Yo Ma and host Ana González travel around the United States to meet people, make music and better understand how culture binds us to nature. The series features a few familiar voices, including Ana González (host) and Alan Goffinski (producer), from our kids podcast, Terrestrials [https://link.podtrac.com/vysacqn1] (https://link.podtrac.com/vysacqn1).  About the episode:  West Virginia is defined by its beauty and its coal, two things that can work against each other. Yo-Yo Ma felt this as soon as stepped foot in its hills.This episode explores how music and poetry help process the emotions of a community besieged with disaster and held together by pride and duty. We travel down the Coal River with third-generation coal miner Chris Saunders, who tells us how coal has saved and threatened his life. Poet Crystal Good shares her poetry, which channels her rage and love. And musician and granddaughter of West Virginia coal miners, Kathy Mattea, explains the beauty of belting out your home state in a chorus. The end of the episode finds host Ana floating down the New River with help from a group of high schoolers and Yo-Yo Ma.  Listen to the full series Our Common Nature [https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d] (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d).  Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Dom Flemons, and Kathy Mattea and poetry by Crystal Good. EPISODE CREDITS:  Radiolab Bits Produced - Anisa Vietze (Radiolab bits) Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up [https://radiolab.org/newsletter] (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab [http://members.radiolab.org] (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram [http://instagram.com/radiolab], Twitter [http://twitter.com/radiolab] and Facebook [http://facebook.com/radiolab] @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org [radiolab@wnyc.org]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Quantum Refuge

Qasem Waleed is a 28-year-old physicist who has lived in Gaza his whole life. In 2024, he joined a chorus of Palestinians sharing videos and pictures and writing about the chaos and violence they were living through, as Israel’s military bombardment devastated their lives. But Qasem was trying to describe his reality through the lens of the most notoriously confusing and inscrutable field of science ever, quantum mechanics. We talked to him, from a cafe near the Al-Mawasi section of Gaza, to find out why. And over the course of several conversations, he told us how this reality-breaking corner of science has helped him survive. And how such unspeakable violence actually let him understand, in a visceral way, quantum mechanics’ most counter-intuitive ideas.  Special thanks to Katya Rogers, Karim Kattan, Allan Adams, Sarah Qari, Soren Wheeler, and Pat Walters EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Lulu Miller Produced by - Jessica Yung with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Emily Kreiger and Edited by  - Alex Neason EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos -  * A Brief History of Quantum Mechanics with Sean Carroll, The Royal Institution [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU]) * Introduction to Superposition, with MIT’s Allan Adams [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc]) * The Quantum Wavefunction, Explained [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w]) Articles -  Read a selection of Qasem’s published essays about his life in Gaza and the quantum world:  * I am stuck in a box like Schrodinger’s in Gaza [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/19/i-am-stuck-in-a-box-like-schrodingers-in-gaza] (https://zpr.io/ALDVi9E5bRt8 [https://zpr.io/ALDVi9E5bRt8])  * Israel has turned Gaza’s summer into a weapon [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/17/israel-has-turned-gazas-summer-into-a-weapon] (https://zpr.io/YS4WK4hVQC5T [https://zpr.io/YS4WK4hVQC5T]) * The Physics of Death in Gaza [https://electronicintifada.net/content/physics-death-gaza/46081] (https://zpr.io/hxsgxicVqPAd [https://zpr.io/hxsgxicVqPAd])  Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up [https://radiolab.org/newsletter] (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab [http://members.radiolab.org] (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram [http://instagram.com/radiolab], Twitter [http://twitter.com/radiolab] and Facebook [http://facebook.com/radiolab] @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org [radiolab@wnyc.org]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Wubi Effect

When we think of China today, we think of a technological superpower. From Huawei and 5G to TikTok and viral social media, China is stride for stride with the United States in the world of computing. However, China’s technological renaissance almost didn’t happen. And for one very basic reason: the Chinese language, with its 70,000 plus characters, couldn’t fit on a keyboard. Today, we tell the story of Professor Wang Yongmin, a hard-headed computer programmer who solved this puzzle and laid the foundation for the China we know today. Special thanks to Martin Howard. You can view his renowned collection of typewriters at: antiquetypewriters.com [http://www.antiquetypewriters.com/].   EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Simon Adler Produced by - Simon Adler   Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup [https://radiolab.org/newsletter] (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab [http://members.radiolab.org] (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram [http://instagram.com/radiolab], Twitter [http://twitter.com/radiolab] and Facebook [http://facebook.com/radiolab] @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org [radiolab@wnyc.org]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Glow Below

A call to oceanographer Edie Widder about a fish with a very odd immune system quickly becomes something else: a dive into the deep sea, into a world of brilliant light. But down there, the light doesn’t behave like light -- it sparkles and glows, but also drips, squirts, and dribbles. Today, find out how creatures make the light and how they use it, from hunting and hiding to maybe even … talking. And hear about a series of mysterious moments where Edie goes from studying the creatures to becoming one of them.  EPISODE CREDITS:  Hosted by - Molly Webster Reported by - Molly Webster Produced by - Maria Paz Gutierrez with help from - Molly Webster Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly LATERAL CUTS (Other Radiolab episodes you may like): Octomom - https://radiolab.org/podcast/octomom [https://radiolab.org/podcast/octomom] The Darkest Dark - https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-darkest-dark [https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-darkest-dark] EPISODE CITATIONS: Documentary -  Coming soon, there’ll be a new doc about Edie’s life and work studying bioluminescence in deep sea creatures. According to Edie, “A Life Illuminated [https://www.sandboxfilms.org/films/a-life-illuminated/]”, contains some of the best deep sea bioluminescence footage ever recorded. It’s from our friends at Sandbox Films, and director Tasha Van Zandt. https://www.sandboxfilms.org/films/a-life-illuminated/ [https://www.sandboxfilms.org/films/a-life-illuminated/] Books -  Edie Widder wrote a memoir! Go read, “Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea”.https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564185/below-the-edge-of-darkness-by-edith-widder-phd/ Videos -  It’s not in the episode, but a few years back, Edie’s fame reached new heights when she captured footage of a never-before-seen Giant Squid [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDdv9KLmuM] … here’s the story, and video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDdv9KLmuM [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDdv9KLmuM]   Articles -  A look at some glowing shrimps. https://zpr.io/3jyHWi7VFBw5 [https://zpr.io/3jyHWi7VFBw5] A photo gallery of different types of deep sea glow, from different types of deep sea creatures, including one of counterillumination, which Edie talks about in the episode. https://zpr.io/hdFFsArGjhau [https://zpr.io/hdFFsArGjhau]   Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up [https://radiolab.org/newsletter] (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab [http://members.radiolab.org] (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram [http://instagram.com/radiolab], Twitter [http://twitter.com/radiolab] and Facebook [http://facebook.com/radiolab] @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org [radiolab@wnyc.org]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

What Up Holmes?

Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our say-almost-anything approach to free speech is actually relatively recent, and you can trace it back to one guy: a Supreme Court justice named Oliver Wendell Holmes. Even weirder, you can trace it back to one seemingly ordinary eight-month period in Holmes’s life when he seems to have done a logical U-turn on what should be say-able.  Why he changed his mind during those eight months is one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the Supreme Court. (Spoiler: the answer involves anarchists, a house of truth, and a cry for help from a dear friend.)  Join us in an episode we originally released in 2021, as we investigate why he changed his mind, how that made the country change its mind, and whether it’s now time to change our minds again. Special thanks to Jenny Lawton, Soren Shade, Kelsey Padgett, Mahyad Tousi and Soroush Vosughi. LATERAL CUTS: Content Warning [https://radiolab.org/podcast/content-warning] Facebook Supreme Court [https://radiolab.org/podcast/facebooks-supreme-court] The Trust Engineers [https://radiolab.org/podcast/trust-engineers] EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Latif Nasser Produced by - Sarah Qari with help from - Anisa Vietze   Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up [https://radiolab.org/newsletter] (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab [http://members.radiolab.org] (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram [http://instagram.com/radiolab], Twitter [http://twitter.com/radiolab] and Facebook [http://facebook.com/radiolab] @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org [radiolab@wnyc.org]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.