Programs

This episode was recorded on December 7th, 2025 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes The Bacon Brothers, Shawn Camp, Rose Cousins, Tessa McCoy & The State Birds, and Mark Erelli. https://bit.ly/4c0FV7X

Doctor and special correspondent Avir Mitra takes Executive Editor Soren Wheeler, plus a live studio audience, on a journey from the operating room to inside the body to the farm to the sewers and back again—searching for answers to an alarming threat to humanity’s existence as we know it: antibiotic resistance in bacteria.  This live show, performed in New York City and also in Little Rock, Arkansas, is part of a series we’re doing with Avir that we are calling “Viscera.” Each event is a conversation that takes the audience on a journey into a quirk or question or mystery inside of us, and gives them a visceral experience of the viscera within us. The previous installment of the series was called “The Elixir of Life.” (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-elixir-of-life)Special thanks to all of Little Rock Public Radio (especially Grace Zafasi and Jonathan Seaborn), Thomas Patterson, The Greene Space staff, CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Tom Philpott, Stephen Roach, Kate Shaw, Alex Wong, Maryn McKenna, and Kerri McClimen.If you are a patients or a doctor, and you are interested in phage therapy, please contact IPATH@ucsd.edu EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by – Avir Mitra Produced by – Jessica Yung Sound design contributed by – Jeremy Bloom and Jessica Yung Fact-checking by -Natalie Middleton EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos – Check out the video from the Viscera live show (and a bonus Q&A with Bruce Stewart-Brown and Steffanie Strathdee) on Radiolab’s YouTube (https://zpr.io/3BK9MqJYVKQA). A deep dive (https://zpr.io/WNQNfgiNvKeZ) on bacteriophages with Avir Mitra and Steffanie Strathdee, also on Radiolab’s Youtube.. Books – The Perfect Predator (https://theperfectpredator.com/) by Dr. Steffanie Strathdee’s telling of her battle against a killer superbug. Plucked (https://zpr.io/PudGMEuzgU9X) by Maryn Mckenna a detailed accounting of chicken farming’s practice of using antibiotics. 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.

Every few weeks, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot are bursting at the seams with new underground music to recommend—it's time for another round of Buried Treasures. The hosts share a handful of tracks, and the production team chimes in as well.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:Brother Ali, "Another Country," Another Country (Single), Travelers, 2026The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Tim Cain, "Chant for the Hauntlings," "LOVE, Tim Cain" Volume 1, Self-released, 2025Private Wives, "Haymaker," Three of Swords, Farmer & The Owl, 2026Kory Quinn, "OxyContin Blues," Safer In The Lee, Ma & Pa, 2026MC Abdul, Noel Kharman, and Tamer Nafar, "The Beat Never Goes Off," In the name of the father, the Imam & John Lennon, Tamer Nafar and Levantine Music, 2026Clark, "Janus Modal," Steep Stims, Throttle, 2025Brian Gerald Bulger, "Thinking of Her Again," Thank God I'm Far From Heaven – EP, Maybe Someday, 2026Muistardeaux Collective, "Mon Soon," Ktwe, Slink Sandwich, 2023Ekko Astral, "lil xan goes to washington," lil xan goes to washington (Single), self-released and Many Hats Distribution, 2026Time Thieves, "Remember I Forgot," Come Home/If You Survive EPs (Extended Edition), Self-released, 2026Rio Kosta, "Follow The River (Vandelux Remix – Extended)," Follow The River (Vandelux Remix – Extended) (Single), Verdigris, 2026Susannah Joffe, "Texas Baby," Texas Baby (Single), broke, 2026Boiled In Lead, "The King of the Dogwoods," King of the Dogwoods, DeSelby, 2026JR JR , "Stuck in My Mind," Back To The Land, Love is EZ, 2025Donny Hathaway, "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know," Extension of a Man, Atco, 1973Viagra Boys, "Man Made of Meat," viagr aboys, Shrimptech Enterprises, 2025Neko Case, "Hold On, Hold On," Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, ANTI-, 2006See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The star Regulus leads the Moon across the sky tonight. The bright heart of the lion is close to the upper right of the Moon at nightfall, with the gap increasing as the hours roll by. Regulus is about 79 light-years away. That means the light you see from Regulus tonight actually left the star about 79 years ago. So when a particle of light from Regulus hits your eye, it’s ending a journey of 79 years. As with many things astronomical, though, it’s all relative. For the particle of light itself – a photon – the trip took literally no time at all. That’s because the photon was traveling at the speed of light – 670 million miles per hour. Nothing can travel faster than that. And only photons can travel at that speed. That’s because photons have no mass – they weigh nothing at all. If anything else were to travel at lightspeed, it would become infinitely massive. So physical objects are limited to just below lightspeed. As an object moves faster, time appears to slow down for it as viewed by an outside observer – its clock would tick more slowly. So if you could accelerate a starship to just a fraction below lightspeed, it could travel for thousands of years as measured by a clock back on Earth – but just a few years or even less as measured by its own clock. So as you look at Regulus tonight, remember that the photons are completing a journey of both 79 years – and no time at all. Script by Damond Benningfield

It's a new music explosion! We highlight the latest releases from Manu Chao, Darumas, Migrant Motel, Orquesta Akokán, Monsieur Perine, Hunters of the Alps, The Warning, Julieta Rada & Juan Campodonico, Diamante Electrico, Sara Valenzuela, Spanish Harlem Orchestra and more.

M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times. Act One: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about the surprising events that prompted them to begin reporting on their own family for their new podcast, The Idiot. They play the first episode of the series. (14 minutes)Act Two: Ira Glass and M Gessen continue to talk through the story of M’s cousin, Allen Gessen. They play more clips from the podcast, and we finally hear about the big, shocking thing that snapped their family apart. (20 minutes)Act Three: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about Allen’s trial, and we hear a recording of his conversation with the undercover agent. (21 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.