Programs

This episode was recorded on September 21st , 2025 at the Canady Creative Arts Center in Morgantown, WV. The lineup includes Chuck Prophet & His Cumbia Shoes, The SteelDrivers, Basia Bulat, The Wildwoods, and Taylor Rae.  https://bit.ly/3Wmpn1E

Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our say-almost-anything approach to free speech is actually relatively recent, and you can trace it back to one guy: a Supreme Court justice named Oliver Wendell Holmes. Even weirder, you can trace it back to one seemingly ordinary eight-month period in Holmes’s life when he seems to have done a logical U-turn on what should be say-able.  Why he changed his mind during those eight months is one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the Supreme Court. (Spoiler: the answer involves anarchists, a house of truth, and a cry for help from a dear friend.)  Join us in an episode we originally released in 2021, as we investigate why he changed his mind, how that made the country change its mind, and whether it’s now time to change our minds again.Special thanks to Jenny Lawton, Soren Shade, Kelsey Padgett, Mahyad Tousi and Soroush Vosughi.LATERAL CUTS:Content WarningFacebook Supreme CourtThe Trust EngineersEPISODE CREDITS: Reported by – Latif NasserProduced by – Sarah Qariwith help from – Anisa Vietze 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.

On October 14th, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist D'Angelo died at the age of 51. Throughout his too short life, he made three unforgettable albums and cemented his legacy as one of the great artists of his time. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot pay tribute to D'Angelo by talking about his life, career and musical impact. They'll also revisit their classic album dissection of D'Angelo's masterpiece, Voodoo.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:D'Angelo, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967D'Angelo, "Brown Sugar," Brown Sugar, EMI, 1995D'Angelo, "Playa Playa," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "Chicken Grease," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "Devil's Pie," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "One Mo'gin," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "Africa," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "The Root," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "Send It On," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo, "Feel like Makin' Love," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "Sugah Daddy," Black Messiah, RCA, 2014D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "The Charade," Black Messiah, RCA, 2014D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "1000 Deaths," Black Messiah, RCA, 2014David Bowie, "Moonage Daydream," The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, RCA, 1972See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The black hole at the heart of a distant quasar has the biggest appetite astronomers have ever seen. It gobbles down the equivalent of one Sun per day – more than any other known black hole. It’s fed by the widest disk of gas and dust yet seen. And it outshines everything else in the known universe – 500 trillion times the Sun’s brightness. The quasar is so far away that we see it as it looked when the universe was a little more than one-tenth of its current age. It was discovered in the early 1980s, but astronomers thought it was a star. They deciphered its true nature just a couple of years ago. The heart of the quasar is a black hole 17 billion times the mass of the Sun. That’s not a record, but it’s near the top of the list. The black hole’s enormous gravity pulls in gas, dust, and stars. They form a spinning disk around the black hole. The disk is seven light-years across – half again the distance from the Sun to its closest neighboring star. As material in the disk funnels toward the black hole, it’s heated to millions of degrees. So the disk shines brilliantly – allowing us to see it across most of the visible universe. The quasar is in Pictor, the painter’s easel. For skywatchers in the far-southern United States, the constellation is barely in view, low in the south, before dawn. Despite the quasar’s great power, though, it’s much too faint to see without a telescope. Script by Damond Benningfield

It's a new music episode featuring the latest and greatest from Kinky, Amigas!, The Warning, Nonpalidece & Fito Paez, Angélica Garcia, Systema Solar, Di Wav & Casa de Kello and more!

Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Henry Dee has been locked up for most of his life, nearly 50 years. Now, he’s up for parole. Reporter Ben Austen tells the story. (19 minutes)Part 1: The parole board members puzzle through the pros and cons of releasing Henry Dee from prison and cast their votes. (26 minutes)Part 2: Reporter Ben Austen continues the story. (8 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.