Radiolab

Song of the Cerebellum

One spring evening in 2024, a science journalist named Rachel Gross bombed at karaoke. The culprit was a bleed in a fist-sized clump of neurons tucked down in the back and bottom of her brain called the cerebellum. A couple weeks later, her doctors took a bit of it out, assuring her it was just helping her just did basic motor control — she might be a bit clumsy for a while, but she’d still be herself. But afterwards, she didn't feel like herself. So she dove into the dusty basement of the brain (and brain science) to figure out why. What Rachel found was a burgeoning new frontier in neuroscience. We learn what singing Shakira on stage has to do with reaching for a cup of coffee — and how the surprising relationship between the two is making us rethink what we think about thinking. Special thanks to Warzone Karaoke at Branded Saloon, Joanne Loewy and the “Singing Together, Measure by Measure” choir for stroke survivors, Dag Spicer and the Computer History Museum, Désirée Lie, Mark Gross, Daniel A. Gross, Brittany Aguilar, and, of course, Shakira. EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Rachel Gross Produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles - * “Ignoring the cerebellum is hindering progress in neuroscience [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39934082/].” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39934082/), by Wang et al, 2025 * “The cerebellum and cognition. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29997061/]” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29997061/), by Schmahmann JD. Neurosci Lett. 2019 * “How did brains evolve? [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11805823/]” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11805823/), by Barton RA., Nature. 2002 Books -  * Vagina Obscura [https://www.rachelegross.com/book] (https://www.rachelegross.com/book), by Rachel E. Gross 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 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.

You and Me and Mr. Self-Esteem

Most of us spend some part of our lives feeling bad about ourselves and wanting to feel better. But this preoccupation is a surprisingly new one in the history of the world, and can largely be traced back to one man: a rumpled, convertible-driving California state representative named John Vasconcellos who helped spark a movement that took over schools, board rooms, and social-service offices across America in the 1990s. This week, we look at the rise and fall of the self-esteem movement and ask: is it possible to raise your self-esteem? And is trying to do so even a good idea? Special thanks to big thank you to the University of California, Santa Barbara Library for use of audio material from their Humanistic Psychology Archives and to their staff for helping located so many audio recordings.  EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Heather Radke and Matt Kielty  Produced by - Matt Kietly Original music and sound design by - Jeremy S. Bloom and Matt Kielty Flute performance and compositions by -  Ben Batchelder Voiceover work by - Dann Fink and David Gebel Mixing help by - Jeremy S. Bloom Fact-checking by - Anna Pujol-Mazzini and  Angely Mercado and Edited by  - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles -  * UCSB Humanistic Psychology Archive [https://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/collections/hpa] (https://zpr.io/HfVjUmvcVevE) Books -  * Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us [https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/selfie_9781468316957/] (https://zpr.io/eGRyqz9zNQHu [https://zpr.io/eGRyqz9zNQHu]) by Will Storr. Counterpoint, 2018. * A Liberating Vision [https://www.abebooks.com/9780915166169/Liberating-Vision-Politics-Growing-Humans-091516616X/plp] (https://zpr.io/tJn7BR5m84fv) by Vasconcellos, John. Impact Publishers, Inc. [https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/publisher/impact-publishers-inc/], 1979 * The Therapeutic State [https://nyupress.org/9780814757918/the-therapeutic-state/] (https://zpr.io/tJn7BR5m84fv [https://zpr.io/tJn7BR5m84fv]) by Nolan, James, Jr. NYU Press, 1998 Sing 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 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.

The Punchline

This episode, first aired in 2019, brings you the story of John Scott, 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 All-Star Game, Scott found himself facing off against fans, commentators, and the powers that be.  Was this the realization of Scott’s childhood dreams? Or a nightmarish prank gone too far? Today on Radiolab, a goof on a goon turns into a parable of the agony and the ecstasy of the internet, and democracy in the age of Boaty McBoatface. Special thanks to Larry Lynch and Morgan Springer.  Check out John Scott's "Dropping the Gloves" podcast [https://www.droppingthegloves.com/] (https://www.droppingthegloves.com/) and his book ( [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Guy-Like-Me/John-Scott/9781501159657]https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Guy-Like-Me/John-Scott/9781501159657) "A Guy Like Me".  EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Latif Nasser Produced by - Matt Kielty Original music and sound design contributed by - John Dryden, Thee Oh Sees, Weedeater and Bongzilla. 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.

Brain Balls

When neuroscientist Madeline Lancaster was a brand new postdoc, she accidentally used an expired protein gel in a lab experiment and noticed something weird. The stem cells she was trying to grow in a dish were self-assembling. The result? Madeline was the first person ever to grow what she called a “cerebral organoid,” a tiny, 3D version of a human brain the size of a peppercorn. In about a decade, these mini human brain balls were everywhere. They were revealing bombshell secrets about how our brains develop in the womb, helping treat advanced cancer patients, being implanted into animals, even playing the video game Pong. But what are they? Are these brain balls capable of sensing, feeling, learning, being? Are they tiny, trapped humans? And if they were, how would we know? Special thanks to Lynn Levy, Jason Yamada-Hanff, David Fajgenbaum, Andrew Verstein, Anne Hamilton, Christopher Mason, Madeline Mason-Moriarty, the team at the Boston Museum of Science, and Howard Fine, Stefano Cirigliano, and the team at Weill-Cornell.  EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Latif Nasser with help from - Mona Madgavkar Produced by - Annie McEwen, Mona Madgavkar, and Pat Walters with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton and Rebecca Rand and Edited by  - Alex Neason and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - * “Growing Mini Brains to Discover What Makes Us Human [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjiWRINEatQ],” Madeline Lancaster’s TEDxCERN Talk, Nov 2015 (https://zpr.io/6WP7xfA27auR [https://zpr.io/6WP7xfA27auR]) * Brain cells playing Pong [https://zpr.io/pqgSqguJeAPK] (https://zpr.io/pqgSqguJeAPK [https://zpr.io/pqgSqguJeAPK]) * Reuters report on CL1 computer launch in March 2025 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KeC8gxopio] (https://zpr.io/cdMf8Yjvayyd [https://zpr.io/cdMf8Yjvayyd]) Articles - * Madeline Lancaster: The accidental organoid – mini-brains as models for human brain development [https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/life-at-the-lmb/profiles/madeline-lancaster-the-accidental-organoid-mini-brains-as-models-for-human-brain-development/] (https://zpr.io/nnwFwUwnm2p6 [https://zpr.io/nnwFwUwnm2p6]), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology * What We Can Learn From Brain Organoids [https://carlzimmer.com/what-we-can-learn-from-brain-organoids/] (https://zpr.io/frUfsg4pxKsb), by Carl Zimmer. NYT, November 6, 2025 * Ethical Issues Related to Brain Organoid Research [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32017900/] (https://zpr.io/qyiATHEhdnSa), by Insoo Hyun et al, Brain Research, 2020 * Brain organoids get cancer, too, opening a new frontier in personalized medicine [https://www.statnews.com/2017/12/01/brain-organoids-glioblastoma/] (https://zpr.io/nqMCQ [https://zpr.io/nqMCQ]) STAT Profile of Howard Fine and his lab’s glioblastoma research at Weill Cornell Medical Center: * By re-creating neural pathway in dish, Stanford Medicine research may speed pain treatment [https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/04/pain-neural-pathway-dish-speed-treatment.html] (https://zpr.io/UnegZeQZfqn2 [https://zpr.io/UnegZeQZfqn2]) Stanford Medicine profile of Sergiu Pasca’s research on pain in organoids * A brief history of organoids [https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpcell.00120.2020] (https://zpr.io/waSbUCSrL9va [https://zpr.io/waSbUCSrL9va]) by Corrò et al, American Journal of Physiology - Cell Physiology, Books -  Carl Zimmer Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive [https://carlzimmer.com/books/lifes-edge/](https://carlzimmer.com/books/lifes-edge/) 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.

Moon Trees

In 1971, a red-headed, tree-loving astronaut named Stu ‘Smokey’ Roosa was asked to take something to the moon with him. Of all things, he chose to take a canister of 500 tree seeds. After orbiting the moon 34 times, the seeds made it back to Earth. NASA decided to plant the seeds all across the country and then… everyone forgot about them. Until one day, a third grader from Indiana stumbled on a tree with a strange plaque: "Moon Tree." This discovery set off a cascading search for all the trees that visited the moon across the United States. Science writer, and our very own factchecker, Natalie Middleton ( [https://www.nataliemiddleton.org/]https://www.nataliemiddleton.org/) tells us the tale. Read Lulu’s remembrance of Alice Wong for Transom.org [http://transom.org]: 13 questions I’ll never get to ask Alice Wong [https://transom.org/2026/13-questions-ill-never-get-to-ask-alice-wong/] (https://transom.org/2026/13-questions-ill-never-get-to-ask-alice-wong/ [https://transom.org/2026/13-questions-ill-never-get-to-ask-alice-wong/]).  Check out Natalie’s map to find your nearest moon tree on our show page [https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-travelers-how-moon-trees-hide-among-us] (https://radiolab.org/podcast/moon-trees)! Help us hunt for more moon trees. If you know of an undocumented moon tree, contact Natalie at nataliemiddleton.org [http://nataliemiddleton.org]. Check out Natalie’s essay on Moon Trees [https://orionmagazine.org/article/moon-tree/] (https://orionmagazine.org/article/moon-tree/) and Space Zinnias [https://orionmagazine.org/article/astronaut-scott-kelly-flower-experiment-space/] (https://orionmagazine.org/article/astronaut-scott-kelly-flower-experiment-space/) in Orion Magazine [https://orionmagazine.org/] (https://orionmagazine.org/). Visit NASA’s official Moon Tree Page [https://science.nasa.gov/resource/apollo-moon-trees/] (https://science.nasa.gov/resource/apollo-moon-trees/) for a list of all the Apollo 14 Moon Trees in the world.  To learn more about Stu Roosa or to learn more about acquiring your own half Moon Tree, check out the Moon Tree Foundation [https://www.moontreefoundation.com/] (https://www.moontreefoundation.com/), spearheaded by Stu’s daughter, Rosemary Roosa.  A reminder that Terrestrials also makes original music! You can find ‘Tangled in the Roots’ and all other music from the show here [https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab-kids/just-the-songs](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab-kids/just-the-songs). EPISODE CREDITS:  Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla and sound-designed by Joe Plourde. Our Executive Producer is Sarah Sandbach. Our team includes Alan Goffinski, Ana González and Mira Burt-Wintonick. Fact checking was by Diane Kelly.  Special thanks to Sumanth Prabhaker from Orion magazine, retired NASA Scientist Dr. Dave Williams, Joan Goble, Tre Corely and NASA scientist Dr. Marie Henderson. Our advisors for this show were Ana Luz Porzecanski, Nicole Depalma, Liza Demby and Carly Ciarrocchi. Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation. 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.