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This episode was recorded on April 3rd, 2026 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes Chris Smither, Joan Shelley, Yarn, Calvin Arsenia, Hudost. ⁠https://bit.ly/4vsZEnH

After reading something that said her menstrual cycle changes her brain each month, Senior Correspondent Molly Webster goes on a reporting mission to see if that’s true, and, if so, how. This journey into sex hormones and the brain involves females and males, and exacting self-experimentation. It gets into PTSD, and ends with a new twist on self-care (hint: it’s biological). And, it starts to reveal a sneaky truth: that each one of us is at the mercy of a crashing sea of chemicals inside of us – those things we call hormones. Special thanks to Emily Jacobs, Laura Pritschet, Pavel Shapturenka, and Dr. Catherine Woolley.EPISODE CREDITS: Hosted by – Molly Webster Reported by – Molly Webster Produced by – Mona Madgavkar with help from – Molly Webster Fact-checking by – Diane A. Kelly EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles –  **The experiments we feature in this episode are called: 28andMe, 28andOC, and 28andHe, all of which took place at Emily Jacobs lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara.**  The 28 Project (https://zpr.io/CSx6MnwZjRvp), background from the Jacobs lab For more on how much variability there is between female and male animals, check out this “groundbreaking” study, referenced by Emily Jacobs in our episode Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research(https://zpr.io/ZRgKZzdNejUA),  by Beery AK, Zucker I., Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011 Dr. Catherine Woolley has revolutionized the field of neuroscience and sex hormones, here’s more about her work … Sex Differences in the Brain Get Down to the Molecular Level Sex (https://zpr.io/UNCLE9J782N5), by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, The Scientist.com Hormonal Effects on the Brain (https://zpr.io/DvNM9EkXdtGG), by Woolley, C.S. and Schwartzkroin, P.A. Epilepsia Data sets – 28andMe and 28andOC (https://zpr.io/hbXVNTVp2Q7j): 28andHe (https://zpr.io/sZXhfMbMwKb7) Audio –  In the episode, we mention Dr. Russ Poldrack and the Midnight Scan Club, as inspo for self-experimentation The Midnight Scan Club (https://zpr.io/CLBhNQSxK844), by Science Friday.   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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The year is almost halfway over, and there have already been so many incredible new releases. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot share their personal best albums of 2026 so far. Plus, they'll hear picks from the production staff.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/4frcVZoMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah  Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:Twisted Teens, "Circus Clown," Blame the Clown, Jazz Life/ Chain Smoking, 2026The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Courtney Barnett, "Sugar Plum," Creature of Habit, Mom + Pop, 2026Ora Cogan, "Bury Me," Hard Hearted Woman, Sacred Bones, 2026Lucinda Williams, "The World's Gone Wrong (feat. Brittney Spencer)," World's Gone Wrong, Highway 20 and Thirty Tigers, 2026Ye Vagabonds, "Mayfly V3," All Tied Together, River Lea, 2026Robyn, "Blow My Mind," Sexistential, Konichiwa and Young, 2026The Twilight Sad, "GET AWAY FROM IT ALL," It's the Long Goodbye, Rock Action, 2026Kacey Musgraves, "Everybody Wants To Be A Cowboy," Middle of Nowhere, Lost Highway, 2026Ratboys, "The World, So Madly," Singin' to an Empty Chair, New West, 2026Blood Sucking Maniacs, "Red Leg Boy," Blood Sucking Maniacs, Paradise of Bachelors, 2026Ora Cogan, "The Smoke," Hard Hearted Woman, Sacred Bones, 2026Squarepusher, "K7 Museum," Kammerkonzert, Warp, 2026Dry Cleaning, "Cruise Ship Designer," Secret Love, 4AD, 2026Genesis Owusu, "STAMPEDE," Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, Ourness, 2026Peaches, "Panna Cotta Delight," No Lube So Rude, Kill Rock Stars, 2026Jill Scott, "Right Here Right Now," To Whom This May Concern, Blues Babe, Human Re Sources, and The Orchard, 2026Golems of the Red Planet, "Hadrial," Surf Masala, Heyday Again, 2026See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Allan Sandage once said that when he became a graduate student at Caltech, in the late 1940s, he was a “hick who fell off the turnip truck.” He fell at the feet of Edwin Hubble, the most famous astronomer of the time. Hubble was ill, so Sandage gathered data for him at the world’s largest telescope. When Hubble died, a few years later, Sandage took over much of his work. And like Hubble, he expanded the size and age of the universe, and shaped much of the debate over its fate. Sandage was born 100 years ago today, in Iowa City. He got interested in astronomy while looking through the telescope of a boyhood friend. Over the decades, he contributed to many areas of astronomy. As an example, he pioneered studies of globular clusters – large clumps of ancient stars. That work led to a better understanding of the age of the universe. Many of the stars in globulars appeared to be older than the universe – an impossibility. Sandage used that and other lines of evidence to greatly increase the known age of the universe. One line of evidence was the rate at which the universe is expanding – a number known as the Hubble constant. Hubble himself had come up with a number that was much too big, implying a much younger age. Sandage calculated a rate that was close to modern numbers. Sandage wasn’t always right. But his work shaped the field of cosmology for decades – and still has an impact today. Script by Damond Benningfield

This week is an exploration of Blues music, Latino style.  Featured artists include Santana, Los Lonely Boys, Diamante Electrico, Bunbury, Andres Calamaro and many more.

It’s the late 1960s, and a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death with the new science of cryonics. But freezing dead people isn’t easy. And apologizing for the mistakes you make along the way? Even harder. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks about the way most political apologies go, and chats with a man named Derek Jones about similar sorts of apologies among preteen girls and King David, in the Old Testament. (7 minutes)Act One: In the late 1960s, a California TV repairman named Bob Nelson joined a group of enthusiasts who believed they could cheat death with a new technology called cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds. Harder still was admitting to the family members of people Bob had frozen that he'd screwed up. Sam Shaw reports. (42 minutes)Act Two: There's a famous William Carlos Williams poem called "This is Just to Say." It's about, among other things, causing a loved one inconvenience and offering a non-apologizing apology. Producer Sean Cole explains that this is possibly the most spoofed poem around. We asked some of our regular contributors to get into the act. Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Starlee Kine, Jonathan Goldstein, Shalom Auslander, and Heather O'Neill all came up with their own variations of Williams's classic lines. (7 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.