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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

WNYC Studios

Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, legal history, and into the home of someone halfway across the world. The show is known for innovative sound design, smashing information into music. It is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.

Radiolab

When you think about grass, what do you think of? Pool parties? Suburbs? Allergies? What about: human history? It turns out, unassuming grass, which exists on every continent, has an epic story to tell. One of transforming the planet, and … us. From what we eat, to how our body might be shaped and the ways we perceive the world. Senior Correspondent Molly Webster speaks to biologist and writer David George Haskell in this tiny ode to Grass.

This episode was inspired by “Grass Fed”, a Radiolab outdoor theatre performance at Little Island in New York City. “Grass Fed” featured biologist and writer David George Haskell; Foley artist Steven Wendt; and dance company, Pilobolus. Special thanks to all the artists, and to Little Island, Sarah Sandbach, Natalia Ramirez, and Soren Wheeler.

EPISODE CREDITS: 
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
with help from - Jo Strogatz and Anisa Vietze
Produced by - Sarah Qari
with help from - Jo Strogatz, Molly Webster 
Original vocals from - Jo Strogatz
with mixing from - Jeremy S. Bloom
Fact-checking by - Nora Belblidia
and Edited by - Pat Walters
 

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Articles - 

The Other Almanac 2026 • (
https://www.otheralmanac.com/ • ), by David George Haskell a print-only magazine contains an essay 
All Hail Grass, Maker of Humans! • by David George Haskell
 • all about grass’s role in human history. 

Books - 

How Flowers Made Our World • ” (https://zpr.io/r4ybZJea8WV9) by David George Haskell which has a chapter all about grass in it (it’s a flowering plant, if you didn’t know!)

 • 

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 

 
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Grass Apes

“What is the sweetest thing in the world?” After co-host Latif Nasser’s sons ask him this deceptively simple question, he goes on a quest to find it. Is it a West African Katemfe berry? Or an industrial sugar substitute cooked up in a lab? Or an ingredient hiding in plain sight in all of our pantries? A simple mystery that will make you question what sweetness even is, how our tongues (and other body parts you wouldn’t expect) determine what we like, and how far you would go to taste something sweeter than anyone has ever experienced. 

Thank you to Latif’s sons for indulging us, to Nicola Twilley and Cynthia Graber at Gastropod, to Anni Laffitte, Nazli Parvizi at Museum of Food and Drink, to food icons Claire Saffitz and Sam Seneveratne who did a live show version of this episode with us at the Tribeca Festival. And thank you to Davy Gardner and his wonderful team of audio folks at the Tribeca Festival.

Thank you to Jialin Deng who composed the song that was our ‘sonic seasoning’. And to Laura Rickman and everyone else at Columbia University’s Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute for hosting us. 

And big thanks to experimental psychologist Charles Spence at Oxford, sweetness chemist Grant DuBois, Danielle Reed at Monell Chemical Senses Center, and nutritional scientist Sarah Berry at King’s College London who all talked to us about their research. And Brian Everett of Honest Organic Farms.

And a very special thanks to Sean Oomens, inventor of producer Jess Yung’s favorite candy, nerd gummy clusters

EPISODE CREDITS: 
Reported by - Latif Nasser
with help from - Jessica Yung, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Jessica Yung, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, and Natalia Ramirez
Produced by - Jessica Yung 
with help from - Mona Madgavkar, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Gabby Santas, and Maia Appleby Melamed
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Sophie Samiee
and Edited by - Pat Walters

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Videos:

Youtuber Chemiolis tried to make Luguduname himself • (
https://zpr.io/MmUbGfwwFrFH • ) 

Articles -

Race to Redesign Sugar • (
https://zpr.io/VpsMxfPRbxaz • ) by Nicola Twilley
The Search for Sweet • (
https://zpr.io/JmeDkVhrd2dK • ) by Burkhard Bilger
How My Trip to Quit Sugar Became A Journey Into Hell (https://zpr.io/ni6xgC38Qmyf) • by Caity Wever
How Much of Our Existence Do We Owe to Sugar? • (
https://zpr.io/M2py48SxnQAT • ) by Jackie Flynn Mogensen
Scientists Find Sugar In Space • (
https://zpr.io/e94UtUuhPtbT • ) by Rebecca Dzombak

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
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The Sweetest Thing

When Kelley Benham and her husband Tom French finally got pregnant, after many attempts and a good deal of technological help, everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. Their story raises questions that, until recently, no parent had to face… and that are still nearly impossible to answer.

This hour, which we first released in 2013, we spend the entire episode on the story of Kelley and Tom, whose daughter was born at 23 weeks and 6 days, roughly halfway to full term. Their story contains an entire universe of questions about the lines between life and death, reflex and will, and the confusing tug of war between two basic moral touchstones: doing no harm...and doing everything in our power to help. Kelley has written about her experience in a brilliant series of articles in the Tampa Bay Times. 

If you want to know more about what we talk about in the update tacked onto the end of this episode, check out the links below: 

This Photo Here • (
https://zpr.io/ZvMD42u9hzuu • ) 
Plus This Video Here • (
https://zpr.io/8ewZUD368TzP • ) 

Check out the book that Tom and Kelley wrote about Juniper here:

Juniper: The girl who was born too soon. • (
https://zpr.io/8ewZUD368TzP • ) 

And when you're done listening to the episode, be sure to check out the video below--but be warned, it does contain spoilers. 

23 Weeks 6 Days Video
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Jad Abumrad
Produced by Matt Kielty and Jad Abumrad
Update produced by Pat Walters and Anisa Vietze
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
 

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 

 
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23 Weeks 6 Days

We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it had us thinking about an episode we produced in 2014. It’s the story of one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. 

In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law—called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)—has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the last two decades. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace. 

LATERAL CUTS -
Really anything from our sister show, More Perfect

EPISODE CREDITS: 
Reported by - Kelsey Padgett
with help from - Matt Kielty
Produced by - Matt Kielty
with help from - Kelsey Padgett

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 

 
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60 Words

The world lost a legend recently, and we wanted in some small way to pay tribute to the great Dolly Parton. So we’re playing you an episode from a series we had a small part in back in 2017, Dolly Parton’s America. 

 The series kicked off with a simple question: How did the queen of the boob joke become a feminist icon? Helen Morales, author of “Pilgrimage to Dollywood,” gave us a stern directive – look at the lyrics! So we dive into Dolly’s discography, starting with the early period of what Dolly calls “sad ass songs” to find remarkably prescient words of female pain, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and women being locked away in asylums by cheating husbands. We explore how Dolly took the centuries-old tradition of the Appalachian “murder ballad”—an oral tradition of men singing songs about brutally killing women—and flipped the script, singing from the woman’s point of view. And as her career progresses, the songs expand beyond the pain to tell tales of leaving abuse behind.

How can such pro-woman lyrics come from someone who despises the word feminism? Best to let Dolly tell you herself. 

EPISODE CREDITS: 

 Reported by - Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee

 Produced by - Jad Abumrad

 with help from - W. Harry Fortuna

 Original music from - Alex Overington

 Sound design contributed by - Alex Overington

 and Edited by - Suzie Lechtenberg

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dolly Parton's America: Sad Ass Songs

The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds. In epidemiology, this central character is known as Patient Zero—the case at the heart of an outbreak. This hour, Radiolab digs up an episode we first produced in 2011 and hunts for Patient Zeroes from all over the map. We start with the story of perhaps the most iconic Patient Zero of all time: Typhoid Mary. Then, we dive into a molecular detective story to pinpoint the beginning of the AIDS, and we re-imagine the moment the virus that caused the global pandemic sprang to life. After that, we're left wondering if you can trace the spread of an idea the way you can trace the spread of a disease. In the end, we find ourselves faced with a choice between competing claims about the origin of the high five. 

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
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Patient Zero

In 2016, Chris Bell, a ranger with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, was the sole human inhabitant of a small island off the west coast of the country, called Mana Island. He was there to take care of the island’s fragile and recovering ecosystem, including a colony of Australasian Gannets at the top of a high cliff overlooking the sea. But there was one catch. All but one of these striking seabirds were fake, made of concrete and paint. 

This week on Radiolab, producer Annie McEwen tells us a love story about a rogue bird and what happens when the things we want for animals clash with what they seem to choose for themselves. 

Special thanks to Melody Thomas and Kirsten Johnstone from Popsock Media, the New Zealand-based podcast company. Thanks also to Mathias Kom and Ariel Sharratt from The Burning Hell and Steven Lambke at You’ve Changed Records. 

Visit Friends of Mana Island at https://manaisland.org.nz/ to learn more about conservation efforts on Mana Island.

EPISODE CREDITS:

 Reported by - Annie McEwen

 Produced by - Annie McEwen

 with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom

 Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly

 and Edited by - Alex Neason

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Videos - 

There are many Nigel-inspired songs, poems, and plays find links to a few of them below:

 See Nigel with his concrete mate • (
https://zpr.io/kZZC9erwauCD • )

 Nigel the Gannet • song video by 
The Burning Hell • (
theburninghell.com • )

 Nigel [w/ score] • (
https://zpr.io/t47J6VkqAXLj • ) by Angus Davison

 Nigel the Lonely Seabird • (
https://zpr.io/4gSSv5MX8xTa • ) by Daniel Henderson

 Nigel • (
https://zpr.io/FuLupaZG42sn • ) by Avem

 Nigel No Mates • (
https://zpr.io/hckrSSdBXKE9 • ) by Dainius Kučinskas

 Nigel Gannet • (
https://zpr.io/kddxySdXqd3C • ) by Fred Pilcher

 Nigel • (
https://zpr.io/88HdTWRSd2UF • ) an Experimental Animated Short Film About a Lonely Gannet

 Nigel, the Seabird • , (
https://vimeo.com/1023401693 • ) by Chloé Aktaş, debuted at The Elysian Theater in Los Angeles in 2025

 • 

Literature - 

 Poetry inspired by Nigel the Gannet • (
https://zpr.io/xBiW9usvAkpy • )

 • 

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nigel and the Real Gannet

It was the early '80s, the height of the Cold War, when something strange began happening off the coast of Sweden. The navy reported a mysterious sound deep below the surface of the ocean. Again, and again, and again they would hear it near their secret military bases, in their harbors, and up and down the Swedish coastline. After thorough analysis the navy was certain. The sound was an invasion into their waters, an act of war, the opening salvos of a possible nuclear annihilation. Or was it? Today, Annie McEwen pulls us down into a deep-sea mystery, one of international intrigue that asks you to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, your deepest beliefs could be as solid as...air.

Special thanks to Ben Wilson, Ola Tunander, Hans Gordon, Andreas Timmelstad, Klaus Helmersen, and Meg Bolz.

LATERAL CUTS -

 Atomic Artifacts • (https://radiolab.org/podcast/atomic-artifacts)

 Neither Confirm Nor Deny • (https://radiolab.org/podcast/confirm-nor-deny)

EPISODE CREDITS:

 Reported by - Annie McEwin

 with help from - Magnus Ormstadt

 Produced by - Annie McEwin, Matt Kielty, Sarah Qari

 Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
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Red Herring

When no one seems to be listening, how far do you go to be heard?

In December 2008, George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad for a press conference. And at the very end of his remarks, a shoe came flying past his head. 

It was “the shoe heard around the world,” and countless jokes and memes ensued. 

But in the pandemonium, many missed the story of the man at the center: Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, a weary journalist trying to get the world to see the Iraq War in a different light. Even fewer people know what happened to him after. 

Nearly two decades later, Radiolab reporter Sarah Qari tracked Al-Zaidi down to learn the story of his life. What she found was a story about grief, anger, and the line where journalism ends and protest begins.

Special thanks to Azmat Khan and Mustafa Salim.

EPISODE CREDITS:

 Reported by Sarah Qari, with help from Mariam Dwedar

 Translation by Mais Al-Bayaa and Mariam Dwedar

 Produced by Sarah Qari

 Sound design contributed by Sarah Qari 

 Mixed by Jeremy Bloom

 Editing help from Annie McEwen

 Fact-checking by Emily Krieger and Heba Elorbany

LATERAL CUTS:

 If you liked this episode and want to hear more fascinating deep dives we’ve done on The War on Terror, check out our episode:

 60 Words • (https://radiolab.org/podcast/60-words),

 • or our series 
The Other Latif • (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/other-latif)

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Collaborator’s Work - 

 Mariam Dwedar • (https://www.mariamdwedar.com/) 

 Made in Palestine • (https://zpr.io/JBAuqi5zyZMT) - a documentary short

 @mariamdwedar • - Instagram handle

 
 Mais Al-Bayaa • 

 Iraq Uncovered • (
https://zpr.io/ebuUcjSFcUJp • ) - documentary

 Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade • (
https://zpr.io/u9HnCWmnQggG • ) - documentary

 Go Back to Where You Came From • (
https://zpr.io/J8rxafGCCgUA • ) - documentary

 @maisalbayaa • - Instagram

 

Journal Articles _

 The Art of Shoe-Throwing: Shoes as a Symbol of Protest and Popular Imagination • (
https://zpr.io/6gmuuavLWuHu • ), by Yasmin Ibrahim

Films - 

 The President’s Cake • (
https://zpr.io/bjFeNa2qFYvD • ) - A story of life in Iraq under sanctions during the 1990s.

Inspired by the shoe throw - 

 • Photos of 
shoe protests around the world • (https://zpr.io/QsMGyWeK8MRR)

 • This 
music video • (
https://zpr.io/Xi5XhHYmWFHv • )

 • This 
Halloween costume • (
https://zpr.io/fH97iB4fjL9U • )

 • This 
play • (
https://zpr.io/Naj7vWaYfzpv • )

If you want more fun facts that didn’t make it into the story, follow Sarah at @bysarahqari on Instagram, where she’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks.

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Shoe Thrower

Several years ago, in 2016, we told a story about Amy Pearl. For as long as she could remember, Amy loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn’t tolerate it. No steaks. No brisket. No weenies. It made no sense: why couldn’t she eat something that she had routinely enjoyed for decades? 

It turned out Amy was not alone. And the answer to her mysterious allergy involved maps, a dancing lone star tick, and a very particular sugar called Alpha Gal. 

In this update, we discover that our troubles with Alpha Gal go way beyond food. We go to NYU Langone Health hospital to see the second ever transplant of a kidney from a pig into a human, talk to some people at Revivicor, the company that bred the pig in question, and go back to Amy to find out what she thinks about this brave new world.

The original episode was reported by Latif Nasser, and produced by Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty. Sound design and scoring from Dylan Keefe, Annie McEwen, and Matt Kielty. Mix by Dylan Keefe with Arianne Wack.

The update was reported and produced by Sarah Qari. It was sound designed, scored, and mixed by Jeremy Bloom.

LATERAL CUTS:

 How does a tick bit can cause a red meat allergy? • - An episode from our friends over at Science Friday, who had a recent conversation with the researcher who discovered the connection, decades ago. 

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate. 

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)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing 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.

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Return of Alpha Gal

In a recent Radiolab group huddle, with coronavirus unraveling around us, the team found themselves grappling with all the numbers connected to COVID-19. Our new found 6 foot bubbles of personal space. Three percent mortality rate (or 1, or 2, or 4). 7,000 cases (now, much much more). So in the wake of that meeting, we reflect on the onslaught of numbers - what they reveal, and what they hide. 

Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate. 

 
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Dispatch 1: Numbers

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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