Programs

This episode was recorded on October 5th, 2025 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Lilly Hiatt, Joachim Cooder, and Woodbine. https://bit.ly/4qXuRhh

When we think of China today, we think of a technological superpower. From Huawei and 5G to TikTok and viral social media, China is stride for stride with the United States in the world of computing. However, China’s technological renaissance almost didn’t happen. And for one very basic reason: the Chinese language, with its 70,000 plus characters, couldn’t fit on a keyboard.Today, we tell the story of Professor Wang Yongmin, a hard-headed computer programmer who solved this puzzle and laid the foundation for the China we know today.Special thanks to Martin Howard. You can view his renowned collection of typewriters at: antiquetypewriters.com. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by – Simon AdlerProduced by – Simon Adler Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (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.

Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk with journalist and author Alan Light about his book “Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.” They discuss the music, history and why younger generations are still listening to this record almost 50 years after its release.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:Fleetwood Mac, "I Don't Want to Know," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Second Hand News," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Silver Springs (Live)," The Dance, Reprise, 1997Fleetwood Mac, "You Make Loving Fun," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Gold Dust Woman," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Go Your Own Way," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Buckingham Nicks, "Frozen Love," Buckingham Nicks, Polydor, 1973Fleetwood Mac, "Tusk," Tusk, Warner Bros., 1979Fleetwood Mac, "The Chain," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Never Going Back," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Songbird," Rumours, Warner Bros., 1977Fleetwood Mac, "Landslide (Live)," The Dance, Reprise, 1997Alanis Morissette, "Thank U," Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, Maverick, 1998See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille had a great imagination. In the 1750s, the French astronomer mapped more than 10,000 stars from the southern tip of Africa. Lacaille used those stars to create 14 new constellations. One of them is Sculptor. Lacaille originally called it the Sculptor’s Studio. It depicted a carved head atop a stool, plus a hammer and chisel and a block of granite. But all of that takes a lot of imagination to see. All of the constellation’s stars are so faint that Sculptor is invisible from light-polluted cities and suburbs. Sculptor is important to astronomers, though, because many galaxies lie within its borders. The closest of them is the Sculptor Dwarf. It’s just 300,000 light-years away, and it orbits our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy contains only 30 million stars or so. But most of them are ancient – far older than most of the stars in the Milky Way. That means the Sculptor Dwarf may be a remnant from the early universe – like the many building blocks that came together to form the Milky Way. So studying the galaxy can tell us much more about the early universe, and the history of our own galaxy. From most of the United States, Sculptor is low in the southeast in early evening,. But you need a dark sky to make out any of its stars – and a good imagination to “see” a pattern in them. We’ll have more about Sculptor tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield

This week we visit SPAIN and spotlight the country's vibrant rock, pop and EDM scenes. Featured artists include The Pinker Tones, Adiós Amores, Manu Chao, Arde Bogotá, ambre, Rigoberta Bandini, Jeanette, Vete Vete, Polock, Pecker, Ana Laan and more. 

Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter, and sets out to prove it. This and other stories about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Amy Roberts thought it was obvious that she was an adult, not a kid, and she assumed the friendly man working at the children's museum knew it too. Unfortunately, the man had Amy pegged all wrong. And by the time she figured it out, it was too late for either of them to save face. Host Ira Glass talks to Amy about the embarrassing ordeal that taught her never to assume she knows what someone else is thinking. (8 minutes)Act One: While riding in a patrol car to research a novel, crime writer Richard Price witnessed a misunderstanding that, for many people, is pretty much accepted as an upsetting fact of life. Richard Price told this story, which he describes as a tale taken from real life and dramatized, onstage at The Moth in New York. (12 minutes)Act Two: There are situations where making judgments about people based on limited information is not only accepted but required. One of those situations is open adoption, where birth mothers actually choose the adoptive parents for their child. Producer Nancy Updike talks to a pregnant woman named Kim, going through the first stage of open adoption: reading dozens of letters from prospective parents, all of whom seem utterly capable and appealing. (6 minutes)Act Three: David Rakoff picks a fight with a hit Broadway show. (6 minutes)Act Four: Shalom Auslander tells the story of the time he went on vacation, pegged the guest in the room next door as an imposter, and devoted his holiday to trying to prove it. Shalom is the author of Feh: a Memoir. (22 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.