Programs

This episode was recorded on March 17th, 2024 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes Nothin' Fancy, Missy Raines & Allegheny, Rory Block, Ed Snodderly, and Meredith Moon.  https://bit.ly/3xMupLZ

Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour: a look behind the curtain of how memories are made…and forgotten.  The act of recalling in our minds something that happened in the past is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process–it’s easy come, easy go as we learn how true memories can be obliterated, and false ones added. Then, Oliver Sacks joins us to tell the story of an amnesiac whose love for his wife and music transcend his 7-second memory.Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. 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 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.

This week, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot are sharing their favorite songs about babies! They’ll also hear selections from the production staff. Plus, they review the new record from Taylor Swift.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundopsDonate to Al Otro Lado Here: gum.fm/charityVolunteer with Al Otro Lado Here: alotrolado.org/volunteerFeatured Songs:Stevie Wonder, "Isn't She Lovely," Songs in the Key of Life, Tamla, 1976The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Taylor Swift, "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)," The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Republic, 2024Taylor Swift, "The Tortured Poets Department," The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Republic, 2024Taylor Swift, "Florida!!! (feat. Florence + the Machine)," The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Republic, 2024Taylor Swift, "But Daddy I Love Him," The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Republic, 2024Taylor Swift, "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me," The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Republic, 2024Brian Eno, "Put a Straw Under Baby," Taking Tiger Mountain: By Strategy, Island, 1974Jimi Hendrix, "Belly Button Window," The Cry of Love, Reprise, 1971Adeem the Artist, "Rotations," ANNIVERSARY, Four Quarters Thirty Tigers, 2024"Camila, "Todo Cambió," Todo Cambió, Sony BMG Norte, 2006Talking Heads, "Stay Up Late," Little Creatures, Sire, 1985Joni Mitchell, "Little Green," Blue, Reprise, 1971Tupac Shakur, ""Letter 2 My Unborn,"" Until the End of Time, Amaru Death Row Interscope, 2001The Beatles, "Golden Slumbers," Abbey Road, Apple, 1969Loretta Lynn, "One's On The Way," One's On The Way, Decca, 1972Phil Collins, "You'll Be In My Heart," Tarzan: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack, Walt Disney, 1999Howie B, "Music For Babies," Music For Babies, Island, 1996Lauryn Hill, " To Zion," The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Ruffhouse, 1998Mary Timony, "The Guest," Untame The Tiger, Merge, 2024See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over the centuries, no planet has been as frustrating to study as Mercury. The Sun’s closest planet never moves far from the Sun in our sky. So when astronomers pointed telescopes at Mercury, it was almost always screened by twilight and a thick layer of Earth’s atmosphere. So most of what we know about Mercury has come from spacecraft that visited the planet. You can see the difficulty yourself the next few days. Mercury is quite low in the east not long before sunrise. It’s almost at its farthest point from the Sun, and it looks like a fairly bright star. But at that low altitude, its light has to pass through a thick layer of air, which blurs the view. The glow of twilight makes the view even murkier. Without the ability to see surface features, it was hard to nail down the length of Mercury’s day. The planet always shows the same face when it’s closest to Earth. So it looked like Mercury was locked so that the same hemisphere always faced the Sun, just as the same side of the Moon always faces Earth. But that’s not right. Radio telescopes have showed that Mercury makes three turns on its axis for every two orbits around the Sun. That means a “day” on Mercury — the time from one noon to the next — lasts 176 Earth days — long days and nights for the Sun’s closest planet. Mercury appears near the Moon the next couple of mornings. It’s to the lower left of the Moon tomorrow, and closer to the right on Monday. Script by Damond Benningfield

We spotlight our fave tracks of the 2020's to date, including songs from Cimafunk, Trueno, Marilina Bertoldi, Francisca Valenzuela, Girl Ultra, Ramona, Bizarrap & Snow The Product and more!

Gladiators in the Colosseum. Sideshow performers. Reality television. We've always loved to gawk at the misery or majesty of others. But this week, we ask the question: What's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you? Prologue: Ira talks to Joel Gold, a psychologist and author, about a strangely common delusion known as the "Truman Show Delusion," in which patients believe that they are being filmed, 24/7, for a national reality television program. (6 minutes)Act One: Producer Stephanie Foo speaks to Nasubi, a Japanese comedian who, in the 90s, just wanted a little bit of fame. So he was thrilled when he won an opportunity to have his own segment on a Japanese reality TV show. Until he found out the premise: he had to sit in an empty apartment with no food, clothes or contact with the outside world, enter sweepstakes from magazines… and hope that he won enough sustenance to survive. (23 minutes)Act Two: Writer Ariel Sabar tells the story of Roger Barker, a psychologist who believed humans should be studied outside the lab. So Barker dispatched an army of graduate students to follow the children of Oskaloosa, Kansas, and write down every single thing they did. Sabar wrote a book about Roger Barker called "The Outsider." (8 minutes)Act Three: Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall were a comedy duo back in the mid-1960s, playing clubs around Los Angeles, when their agent called to tell them he'd landed them the gig of a lifetime: They were going to be on The Ed Sullivan Show. The only problem was that their performance was a total fiasco, for a bunch of reasons, including one they never saw coming. David Segal reports. (17 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org