Radiolab

How a group of 80’s Cuban misfits found rock-and-roll and created a revolution within a revolution, going into exile without ever leaving home.  Reporter Luis Trelles brings us the story of punk rock’s arrival in Cuba and a small band of outsiders who sentenced themselves to death and set themselves free. We originally released this episode back in 2015 in a collaboration with Radio Ambulante, but the story is so fascinating (and, in many ways, still relevant) that we haven’t stopped thinking about it.  Special thanks to the bands VIH, Eskoria, Metamorfosis and Alio Die & Mariolina Zitta for the use of their music.  Radio Ambulante launches their 15th season on September 30th!! Check it out, here!! [https://radioambulante.org/en] (https://radioambulante.org/en [https://radioambulante.org/en])  EPISODE CITATIONS: Find some of Radio Ambulante’s other stories about the Frikis here - The Survivors [https://zpr.io/Kh8KWWi6SqaF] (https://zpr.io/Kh8KWWi6SqaF [https://zpr.io/Kh8KWWi6SqaF]) When Havana was Friki [https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/when-havana-was-friki-2] (https://zpr.io/HrXsgibzvbJj [https://zpr.io/HrXsgibzvbJj]) Please put any supporting materials you think our audience would find interesting or useful below in the appropriate broad categories. 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.

In August we performed a live taping of the show from a theater perched on the edge of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River, overshadowed by the wide open night sky. Three stories about voids. One about a fish that screams into the night – and the mystery of its counterpart that doesn’t. Another about a group of women who gazed at the night sky and taught us just how vast the universe is, and a third about a man who talk to aliens – and the people who tell him he’s putting human civilization at risk by doing so. Finally, we turn back to Earth with the help of a reading from Samantha Harvey’s hit novel Orbital [https://bookshop.org/p/books/orbital/19729720] (https://zpr.io/RNi4sY2JVKxK [https://zpr.io/RNi4sY2JVKxK]) performed by the artist, actor and podcast host Helga Davis [https://www.wqxr.org/people/helga-davis/] (https://zpr.io/TKGuzzDFnVjN [https://zpr.io/TKGuzzDFnVjN]). What does it mean to stand on the edge of a void, and what happens when you scream into it, or choose not to? This episode was originally produced and developed in front of a live audience by Little Island, Producing Artistic Director Zack Winokur, Executive Director Laura Clement. Special thanks to our voice actors Davidé Borella, Jim Pirri, Armando Riesco, and Brian Wiles with casting by Dann Fink. And Anna von Mertens, author of Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt [https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049382/attention-is-discovery/] (https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL [https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL]). EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Lulu Miller, Matt Kielty and Latif Nasser Produced by - Pat Walters and Matt Kielty with help from - Jessica Yung, Maria Paz Gutierrez and Rebecca Rand Original music from - Mantra Percussion Sound design contributed by - Matt Kielty and Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Natalie Middleton and Edited by  - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Books -  Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt [https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049382/attention-is-discovery/] (https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL [https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL]) by Anna von Mertens 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 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

With this episode, we’re putting on our music hat. For a program that relies so much on scoring and sound, it’s not often we talk about the musicians and the music they make that inspire us. Today, that changes. Today, we bring you two stories. Each about musicians that our former host and creator of Radiolab, Jad Abumrad, loves.  We originally released these stories many years ago, and both start deep in music itself. Then quickly, they dig deeper — into our relationships with technology, and ourselves.  We start with the band Dawn of Midi, who straddle the intersection between acoustic and electronic sounds. Jad talks to the band about their album, Dysnomia, and how it's filled with heavily-layered rhythms that feel both mechanistic and deeply human, at the same time. Then, Jad talks with Juana Molina, an Argentine singer who accidentally became a famous actress, when all along all she really wanted was to be a musician.  Special thanks to Dawn of Midi and Juana Molina. EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - JAD ABUMRAD  EPISODE CITATIONS: Check out Dawn of Midi at dawnofmidi.com [http://dawnofmidi.com] and Juana Molina at juanamolina.com [http://juanamolina.com] 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.

As he finished his medical school exam, David Fajgenbaum felt off.  He walked down to the ER and checked himself in.  Soon he was in the ICU with multiple organ failure.  The only drug for his condition didn’t work. He had months to live, if that.  If he was going to survive, he was going to have to find his own cure. Miraculously, he pulled it off in the nick of time. From that ordeal, he realized that our system of discovering and approving drugs is far from perfect, and that he might be able to use AI to find dozens, hundreds, even thousands of cures, hidden in plain sight, for as-yet untreatable diseases.  EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser Produced by - Maria Paz Gutiérrez with mixing help from - Jeremy S. Bloom Fact-checking by - Natalie A. Middleton VISIT: Everycure.org [http://everycure.org] (https://www.everycure.org [https://www.everycure.org]) EPISODE CITATIONS: Books - Blair Bigham -  Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine is Complicating the Way We Die [https://store.walrusmagazine.com/products/death-interrupted] David Fajgenbaum - Chasing My Cure [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567298/chasing-my-cure-by-david-fajgenbaum/], (https://davidfajgenbaum.com/ [https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wQYvCqxrKVCn3vKYtQiPsEHEVd?domain=davidfajgenbaum.com/]) Radiolab | Lateral Cuts: Check out Death Interrupted [https://radiolab.org/podcast/death-interrupted](https://radiolab.org/podcast/death-interrupted [https://radiolab.org/podcast/death-interrupted]), a conversation with Blair Bigham about a worldview shifting change of heart. The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub [https://radiolab.org/podcast/dirty-drug-and-ice-cream-tub] (https://radiolab.org/podcast/dirty-drug-and-ice-cream-tub [https://radiolab.org/podcast/dirty-drug-and-ice-cream-tub]) to hear the crazy story about how Rapamycin was discovered. 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.

In an episode first released in 2010, then-producer Lulu Miller drives to Michigan to track down the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. Efforts to protect the bird have lead to the killing of cowbirds (a species that commandeers warbler nests), and a prescribed burn aimed at creating a new habitat. Tragically, this burn led to the death of a 29-year-old wildlife technician who was dedicated to warbler restoration. Forest Service employee Rita Halbeisen, local Michiganders skeptical of the resources put toward protecting the warbler, and the family of James Swiderski (the man killed in the fire), weigh in on how far we should go to protect one species. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Miller 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.