Programs

This episode was recorded on March 8th, 2026 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes Cyril Neville, Deke Dickerson & Los Straitjackets, Sons of Town Hall, Amanda Pascali. https://bit.ly/3OyzFLX

In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork distributors in the world. They were there to capture video of what they say were thousands of mistreated and abused animals kept in tiny metal cages barely bigger than their bodies. As they were leaving, they took two sick piglets out with them. Prosecutors in Utah charged Wayne with burglary and theft. What came next was the court battle that he wanted all along. During his trial, Wayne made a truly bizarre argument that forced the jury, and all of us, to stare straight at our complicated, sometimes uncomfortable relationship with animals. This week on the show, we grapple with the impossible question at the center of it: What is the value of a piglet?  Special thanks to Kim Nederveen Pieterse, Nathan Peereboom, Jo Eidman, Sam Kozloff, Rachel Gross, Alex Allaux, and Joan Schaffner.  EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by – Sindhu Gnanasambandan and Jae Minard Produced by – Sindhu Gnanasambandan with help from – Pat Walters with mixing help from – Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by – Diane A. Kelly and Edited by  – Alex Neason and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles –  A Rabbit, is a rabbit, is a rabbit… Not under the Law (https://zpr.io/ezUPRE36VZVk) by Schaffner, J. E. in The Global Journal of Animal Law Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case (https://zpr.io/ayaV9gDneNsw) by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/HEXdpf5Q7VAB)  by Andy Greenberg in Wired Audio –  VR Puts Viewers Inside the Grisly Reality of Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/pMHq5RVkzUM3) a 2-part podcast by Wired 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 talk with biographer Will Hermes about his book on Lou Reed, as well as Lou’s music, persona, legacy and more.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/soundops Featured Songs:Lou Reed, "Walk on the Wild Side," Transformer, RCA, 1972The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Sunday Morning," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Heroin," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967The Velvet Underground, "Pale Blue Eyes," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969Lou Reed, "Coney Island Baby," Coney Island Baby, RCA, 1975The Velvet Underground, "Some Kinda Love," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969Lou Reed, "How Do You Think It Feels," Berlin, RCA, 1973Lou Reed, "Perfect Day," Transformer, RCA, 1972The Velvet Underground, "Sweet Jane," Loaded, Cotillion, 1970The Velvet Underground and Nico, "I'll Be Your Mirror," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967The Velvet Underground, "Candy Says," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969Pixies, "Here Comes Your Man," Doolittle, 4AD and Elektra, 1989See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Sun faces a “degenerate” future. That’s not a value judgment – it’s physics. When the Sun can no longer produce nuclear reactions, its core will collapse. How far it collapses is limited by a type of pressure exerted by its atoms – degeneracy pressure. Today, the Sun is “fusing” atoms of hydrogen to make helium. When the hydrogen is gone, it’ll fuse the helium to make carbon and oxygen. But the Sun isn’t massive enough to extend that process, so its nuclear furnace will be extinguished. Fusion releases energy, which balances the pull of gravity. That keeps the Sun puffed up. Right now, it’s big enough to hold a million Earths. When fusion stops, gravity will win out. The core will shrink to the size of Earth itself. But it’ll still be about half as heavy as the present-day Sun. So a chunk the size of a sugar cube would weigh a ton. The dead core won’t shrink beyond that. That’s because the electrons in the core will exert their own pressure – degeneracy pressure. They can be squeezed only so much before they run out of “elbow room” and halt the collapse. That will leave a white dwarf – a dead cosmic cinder – to cool and fade over the eons. The galaxy is littered with white dwarfs, but none of them is bright enough to see with the eye alone. The closest one is a companion of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which is low in the southwest as night falls – a star that faces its own “degenerate” future. Script by Damond Benningfield

We're joined for a special Uruguay episode co-hosted by Juan Campodonico, the artist and producer at the forefront of fusing electronic and rock music with traditional Uruguayan genres like tango and murga. Featured artists include Bajofondo, El Cuarteto de Nos, Campo and Peyote Asesino. 

Ira always hated commencement speeches. Then he felt like he had to give this one. thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners