Radiolab

A couple years ago, an entomologist named Martha Weiss got a letter from a little boy in Japan saying he wanted to replicate a famous study of hers. We covered that original study on Radiolab more than a decade ago in an episode called Goo and You – check it out here [https://radiolab.org/podcast/goo-and-you] – and in addition to revealing some fascinating secrets of insect life, it also raises big questions about memory, permanence and transformation. The letter Martha received about building on this study set in motion a series of spectacular events that advance her original science and show how science works when a 12-year-old boy is the one doing it. Martha’s daughter, reporter Annie Rosenthal, captured all of it and turned it into a beautiful audio story called “Caterpillar Roadshow.” It was originally published in a brand new independent audio magazine called Signal Hill [https://open.spotify.com/show/1k8e1cqpzsCX6NS54KXzPE], which happens to have been created in part by two former Radiolab interns (Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach, both of whom worked on this piece), and we loved it, so we’re presenting an excerpt for you here. Special thanks to Annie Rosenthal, Liza Yeager, Jackson Roach, Leo Wong, Omar Etman, the whole team at Signal Hill, Carlos Morales, John Lill, Marfa Public Radio and Emma Garschagen. EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Annie Rosenthal Produced by - Annie Rosenthal with help from - Leo Wong and Omar Etman Sound design contributed by - Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach Fact-checking by - Alan Dean and Edited by  - Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach EPISODE CITATIONS: Audio -   Listen to the original Radiolab episode, Goo and You, here [https://radiolab.org/podcast/goo-and-you] (https://zpr.io/qh9xqpkXzk7j [https://zpr.io/qh9xqpkXzk7j]). Or the Signal Hill podcast here [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4wGzJ61vBCUp] (https://zpr.io/CDfwyK7Zkrva [https://zpr.io/CDfwyK7Zkrva]). Guests -  And if you want to learn more about Martha Weiss, and her work, head over here [https://www.weisslab.org/] (https://zpr.io/aBw2YsqWB6NZ [https://zpr.io/aBw2YsqWB6NZ]). 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.

In an episode first aired in 2012, Lulu Miller introduces us to Jeff Lockwood, a professor at the University of Wyoming, who spent a part of his career studying a particularly ferocious set of insects: Gryllacrididae. Or, as Jeff describes them, "crickets on steroids." They have crushingly strong, serrated jaws, and they launch all-out attacks on anyone who gets in their way--whether it's another cricket, or the guy trying to take them out of their cages. In order to work with the gryllacridids, Jeff had to figure out how to out-maneuver them. And as he devised ways to keep from getting slashed and bitten, he felt like he was getting to know them. Maybe they weren't just mindless brutes ... but their own creatures, each with their own sense of self. And that got him wondering: what could their fierceness tell him about the nature of violence? How well could he understand the minds of these insects, and what drove them to be so bloody? That's when the alarm bells went off. Jeff would picture his mentor, Dr. LaFage, lecturing him back in college--warning him not to slip into a muddled, empathic mood ... not to let his emotions sideswipe his objectivity. And that would usually do the trick--Jeff would think of LaFage, and rein himself back in. But then one night, something happened that gave Dr. LaFage's advice a terrible new kind of significance. Tamra Carboni tells us this part of the story, and challenges Jeff's belief that there's a way to understand it. Hey, one other thing, if you live, or are planning to be, in NYC on April 22nd, come check out our NEW LIVE SHOW!! Radiolab Presents: Viscera - The Elixir of Life Where: Caveat Theater on the Lower East Side, NY NY  When: April 22nd Doors @ 7 pm GET YOUR TICKETS, HERE!!  [https://www.caveat.nyc/events/radiolab-presents-viscera-%E2%80%93-the-elixir-of-life-4-22-2025] (https://www.caveat.nyc/events/radiolab-presents-viscera-%E2%80%93-the-elixir-of-life-4-22-2025) 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 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.

Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? In this episode, we partnered with the team at Planet Money [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/] to take stock of the essential raw materials that enable us to live as we do here on Earth—everything from sand to copper to oil— and tally up how much we have left. Are we living with reckless abandon? And if so, is there even a way to stop? This week, we bring you a conversation that’s equal parts terrifying and fascinating, featuring bird poop, daredevil drivers, and some staggering back-of-the-envelope math. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Jeff Guo and Latif Nasser Produced by - Pat Walters and Soren Wheeler with production help from - Sindhu Gnanasambandan  and editing help from  - Alex Goldmark and Jess Jiang Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton    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.

We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And right on the front lines of that battle is another major player on the stage of pregnancy that not a single person on the planet would be here without. An entirely new organ: the placenta. In this episode, which we originally released in 2021, we take you on a journey through the 270-day life of this weird, squishy, gelatinous orb, and discover that it is so much more than an organ. It’s a foreign invader. A piece of meat. A friend and parent. And it’s perhaps the most essential piece in the survival of our kind. Special thanks to Diana Bianchi, Julia Katz, Sam Behjati, Celia Bardwell-Jones, Mathilde Cohen, Hannah Ingraham, Pip Lipkin, and Molly Fassler. EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Heather Radke and Becca Bressler with help from - Molly Webster Produced by - Becca Bressler with help from - Pat Walters, Maria Paz Gutierrez EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles: Check out Harvey’s latest paper [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0143400421001284] published with Julia Katz. Sam Behjati's latest paper [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210310122521.htm] on the placenta as a "genetic dumping ground".  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.

It’s easy to take growth for granted, for it to seem expected, inevitable even. Every person starts out as a baby and grows up. Plants grow from seeds into food. The economy grows. That stack of mail on your table grows. But why does anything grow the way that it does? In this hour, we go from the Alaska State Fair, to a kitchen in Berkeley, to the deep sea, to ancient India, to South Korea, and lots of places in between, to investigate this question, and uncover the many forces that drive growth, sometimes wondrous, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes surprisingly, unnervingly fragile. Special thanks to Elie Tanaka, Keith Devlin, Deven Patel, Chris Gole, James Raymo and Jessica Savage EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Matt Kielty, Becca Bressler, Pat Walters, Sindhu Gnanasambandun, Annie McEwen, Simon Adler with help from - Rae Mondo Produced by - Matt Kielty, Becca Bressler, Pat Walters, Sindhu Gnanasambandun, Annie McEwen, Simon Adler Sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger and Natalie Middleton and Edited by  - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Audio: “The Joy of Why,” [https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/](https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/ [https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/]) Steve Strogatz’s podcast.  Articles: “The End of Children,” [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/03/the-population-implosion](https://zpr.io/WBdg6bi8xwnr [https://zpr.io/WBdg6bi8xwnr]) The New Yorker, by Gideon Lewis-Kraus Books: Finding Fibonacci [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174860/finding-fibonacci?srsltid=AfmBOoq8DfnbYChokefLzGKNwBBkkfFJWlsKJP5DfDsXbL0ZqKMeiLXL] (https://zpr.io/3EjviAttUFke [https://zpr.io/3EjviAttUFke]) by Keith Devlin Do Plants Know Math [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691158655/do-plants-know-math] (https://zpr.io/bfbTZDJ8ehx5 [https://zpr.io/bfbTZDJ8ehx5]) by Chris Gole Singup 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.