Programs

Five Faves: 2005 Edition Executive producer Adam Harris walks us through some of the most memorable sets and performances from his first season with Mountain Stage, twenty short years ago. Tune in to hear The Del McCoury Band, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Lizz Wright, Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Odetta and more! https://bit.ly/4sptuc8

If a species is horrible enough, do we have the right to kill it forever? Seventy years ago, a nightmare parasite feasted on the live flesh of warm-blooded creatures in North America: the screwworm. That is, until a young scientist named Edward F. Knipling discovered a crucial screwworm weakness and hatched a sweeping project to wipe them out. Knipling’s seemingly zany plan to spray screwworms out of planes all over the continent— with US taxpayer money— succeeded, becoming one of humanity’s biggest environmental interventions ever.  Today, screwworms have been gone so long that none of us in North America even remember them. But now, they’re coming back. And they’re forcing us to ask: in an era of climate change and rapid mass extinction— should we kill off a species on purpose?  Special thanks to James P. Collins, Max Scott, Amy Murillo, Daniel Griffin, Phil Kaufman, Katie Barnhill, Arthur Caplan, Ron Sandler, Yasha Rohwer, Aaron Keefe, Gwendolyn Bogard, Maria Sabate, Meredith Asbury, and Joanne Padrón CarneyEPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by – Sarah Qari with help from – Latif Nasser Produced by – Sarah Qari Sound design contributed by – Sarah Qari Fact-checking by – Emily Krieger EPISODE CITATIONS: **The latest information on screwworm outbreaks and precautions: screwworm.gov Videos: Oral history interviews of Edward F. Knipling: here (https://zpr.io/njhMedFN5jsZ) and here (https://zpr.io/VQReQbfznCrq)  Podcasts: Here’s a Spotify playlist (https://zpr.io/PNMEM274G7vh)  of all of our Golden Goose-inspired episodes! Sam Kean’s podcast The Disappearing Spoon – his episode about screwworms is called The Screwiest and Perhaps Most Original Idea of the 20th Century (https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN)  Our episode on CRISPR & gene drives (https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN)  New to Radiolab? Check out our Radiolab Starter Kit (https://zpr.io/QpPnrHAZVQLR)  playlist of all-time favorite episodes! Articles: Sarah Zhang’s latest piece in The Atlantic: American Milk Has Changed (https://zpr.io/xebbdq2MWV4L)  Her most recent piece on screwworms: The ‘Man-Eater’ Screwworm Is Coming (https://zpr.io/ECmjCs7ScbS4)  Her initial reporting on screwworms: America’s Never-Ending Battle Against Flesh-Eating Worms (https://zpr.io/PNMEM274G7vh)  Gregory Kaebnick’s paper (https://zpr.io/yqNC3q5FbCcq)  about screwworm eradication in Science Archival materials:  The USDA’s Screwworm Eradication Records (https://zpr.io/dY7zuVdGYKjf) contain lots of cool images and letters 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.

This week hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot celebrate artists who found a new creative gear decades after they hit the music scene. It's Late-Career Encores, this week on Sound Opinions.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:Johnny Cash, "Hurt," American IV: The Man Comes Around, American, 2002The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Johnny Cash, "Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!, Sun, 1955Johnny Cash, "The Mercy Seat," American III: Solitary Man, American, 2000Misson of Burma, "Academy Fight Song," Single, Ace of Hearts, 1980Misson of Burma, "2Wice," The Obliterati, Matador, 2006Wire, "1 2 X U," Pink Flag, Harvest, 1977Wire, "Joust & Jostle," Wire, Pinkflag, 2015The Staple Singers, "I'll Take You There," Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, Stax, 1972Mavis Staples, "99 and 1/2," We'll Never Turn Back, Anti-, 2007Superchunk, "Driveway To Driveway," Foolish, Merge, 1994Superchunk, "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo," I Hate Music, Merge, 2013Naked Raygun, "I Don't Know," Throb Throb, Homestead, 1985Naked Raygun, "Living in the Good Times," Over the Overlords, Wax Trax!, 2021A Tribe Called Quest, "Can I Kick It?," People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, Jive, 1990A Tribe Called Quest, "We the People….," We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service, Epic, 2016Bonnie Raitt, "Thank You," Bonnie Raitt, Warner Bros., 1971Bonnie Raitt, "The Road's My Middle Name," Nick of Time, Capitol, 1989Cher, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves," Chér, Kapp, 1971Cher, "Strong Enough," Believe, WEA and Warner Bros., 1998Redd Kross, "Annie's Gone," Third Eye, Atlantic, 1990Redd Kross, "Candy Coloured Catastophe," Redd Kross, In the Red, 2024Converge, "Concubine," Jane Doe, Equal Vision, 2001Converge, "We Were Never the Same," Love is Not Enough, Epitaph and Deathwish, 2026John Prine, "Angel From Montgomery," John Prine, Atlantic, 1971John Prine, "When I Get to Heaven," The Tree of Forgiveness, Oh Boy, 2018Pulp, "Common People," Different Class, Island, 1995Pulp, "Spike Island," More, Rough Trade, 2025Al Green, "Belle," The Belle Album, Hi, 1977See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For Charles Messier, star clusters were a nuisance. The French astronomer was mainly interested in comets. In the 18th century, finding a comet could bring fame and fortune – kings sometimes awarded medals and fat stipends for their discovery. Through a telescope, star clusters could resemble comets. Messier and others might spend time following a cluster, only to find out that it wasn’t the prize. So Messier compiled a catalog of clusters and similar nuisances – a list of objects to ignore. Four of the clusters follow a narrow path near Canis Major, the big dog: M46, 47, 48, and 50 – a Messier “highway.” Although they’re close together in our sky, the clusters are not close together in space. Their distances range from about 1600 light-years to more than five thousand. So there’s no relationship among them. They appear close together because they all lie along the Milky Way – the glowing outline of the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy. In that direction, we’re looking into the most densely populated region of the galaxy, so we see many more stars and star clusters – including the “pesky” clusters cataloged by Charles Messier. The clusters are in the southeastern quadrant of the sky as night falls. Look for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, due south. The clusters spread out to the left and upper left of Sirius. All of them are easy targets for binoculars. Script by Damond Benningfield

It's a New Música episode! This week we highlight recent releases from Francisca Valenzuela, Nathy Peluso, The Warning, Bang Data & Santi Mostaffa, Cimafunk & Monsieur Perine, Andres Levin & Atercipelados, El Mató a Un Policia Motorizado, Cheo and more.

Two lawyers who work for ICE step forward and lift the curtain on what is really happening inside our immigration system right now. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Two lawyers dive into the details of what they’ve witnessed behind the scenes in different parts of the immigration system. (2 minutes)Act One: Former ICE attorney Ryan Schwank explains the chaos and dysfunction he observed at an ICE training academy, which led him to whistleblow to Congress two weeks ago. (12 minutes)Act Two: A federal judge orders the government to immediately release a bunch of people from detention. Days pass, and the government doesn’t comply. So the judge calls a hearing to figure out what’s going on. The lawyer's response is not what he or anybody expected. (25 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.