Radiolab

This week: the story of astrophysicist Charity Woodrum. Charity is an extragalactic astronomer who studies the life and death of galaxies, why some galaxies burn bright and others dim and sputter out. And in the midst of an unthinkable grief in her personal life, she discovers something in the sky – a new kind of light that would guide her path forward.  Special thanks to Megan Stielstra, Jad Abumrad, Michael Woodrum, Gina Vivona, and Clair Reilly-Roe. EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by - Lulu Miller Produced by - Jessica Yung Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly Radiolab | Lateral Cuts: Our episode The Darkest Dark [https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-darkest-dark] (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-darkest-dark) could be of interest to those seeking the deepest unknowns.  EPISODE CITATIONS: Music - Clair Reilly-Roe’s song “Sky Full of Ghosts [https://open.spotify.com/track/6Ny77KUMyKTDEjBsn9Hf5C?si=6715caaa2c864f30]” (https://zpr.io/JgauhRnj7qpX) Articles - A new documentary on Charity Woodrum’s story: Space, Hope and Charity [https://www.spacehopecharityfilm.com/] (https://www.spacehopecharityfilm.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.

This week, two conversations from the archives about parts of the world that are imperceptible to us, verging on almost unthinkable. We start with a moment of uncertainty in physics. Inspired by an essay written by physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, called The Accidental Universe [https://harpers.org/archive/2011/12/the-accidental-universe/] (https://zpr.io/4965dUdNqtpQ) [https://zpr.io/4965dUdNqtpQ], taken from a book of the same name. Former Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich pays a visit to Brian Greene to ask if the latest developments in theoretical physics spell a crisis for science. He finds that we've reached the limit of what we can see and test, and we’re left with mathematical equations that can't be verified by experiments or observation. Then, come along as we kick rocks. And end up tumbling down a philosophical rabbit hole where the solid things around us might not be solid at all. We talk to Jim Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist [https://www.labyrinthbooks.com/why-does-the-world-exist/]? (https://zpr.io/UqHpLnDx2QNx) [https://zpr.io/UqHpLnDx2QNx] who points out that when you start slicing and sleuthing in subatomic particle land, trying to get to the bottom of what makes matter, you mostly find empty space. Your hand, your chair, the floor, it's all made up of mostly nothing. Robert and Jim go toe-to-toe over whether the universe is made up of solid bits and pieces of stuff, or a cloudy foundation that more closely resembles thoughts and ideas. 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.

Back in 2017 our colleagues at More Perfect gathered a room full of people together to debate a straight forward question: Can free speech go too far? Today, eight years have passed and plenty has changed, but this question feels alive as ever.  And so we’re re-airing More Perfect’s The Hate Debate. Taped live at WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, Elie Mystal, Ken White and Corynne McSherry duke it out over whether the first amendment needs an update in our digital world.  Special thanks to Elaine Chen, Jennifer Keeney Sendrow, and the entire Greene Space team. Additional engineering for this episode by Chase Culpon, Louis Mitchell, and Alex Overington. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - If watching is more your speed, you can see the event, in its entirety, here: https://www.youtube.com/live/azcIcVDyVTM?si=ZqpQHQfvTKr2jS0z [https://www.youtube.com/live/azcIcVDyVTM?si=ZqpQHQfvTKr2jS0z] There’s other Radiolabs for that - Further recommended listening What Up Holmes [https://radiolab.org/podcast/what-holmes] and Post No Evil [https://radiolab.org/podcast/post-no-evil]. 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.

This hour of Radiolab, former co-hosts Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence -- from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror. Along the way, we look for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton to peer inside our brains, and turn up an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos -  Back in the day, when we first aired this episode, the film collective Everynone, filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante and Julius Metoyer III were inspired with our yearning for balance, and aimed to visually reveal how beautiful imperfect matches can be. Radiolab Presents: Symmetry ( [https://youtu.be/zEQskIsHKT8]https://youtu.be/zEQskIsHKT8) 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/X [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.

Have you heard On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial?  It’s awesome and you should, and now you will. In this episode they tell the story of shortwave radio: the way-less-listened to but way-farther-reaching cousin of AM and FM radio. The medium was once heralded as a utopian, international, and instantaneous mass communication tool — a sort of internet-before-the-internet.  But, like the internet, many people quickly saw the power of this new technology and found ways to harness it. State leaders turned it into a propaganda machine, weaponizing the airwaves to try and shape politics around the world. And as shortwave continued to evolve, like the internet, it became fragmented, easily accessible, and right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and cult leaders found homes on the different shortwave frequencies.  And even today - again, like the internet - people with money are looking to buy up this mass-communication tool in the hopes of … making more money.  This is episode one from the second season of The Divided Dial [https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/divided-dial] a limited series from On The Media [https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm].   * Listen on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Wqu3VZsJkCvdaeGthpyta?si=vQsUdPLlTwiCF6jcjKQ1_A] (https://zpr.io/hKCcFEGTLb5a [https://zpr.io/hKCcFEGTLb5a]) * Listen on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s2-the-divided-dial-episode-1-fishing-in-the-night/id73330715?i=1000706636546] (https://zpr.io/tQ86YmEmiivR [https://zpr.io/tQ86YmEmiivR]) * Listen on the WNYC App (iTunes [https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id470219771?pt=407475&ct=wnyc_mobile_page&mt=8], Android [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wnyc.android&referrer=utm_source%3Dwnyc%26utm_medium%3Dwnyc_mobile_page%26utm_campaign%3Dwebsite]) * Listen to the full Divided Dial series [https://www.onthemedia.org/dial] (https://www.onthemedia.org/dial [https://www.onthemedia.org/dial]) * Follow On The Media on Instagram @onthemedia  The Divided Dial was supported in part by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.  On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org. 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.