Programs

This episode was recorded on March 8th, 2026 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. The lineup includes Cyril Neville, Deke Dickerson & Los Straitjackets, Sons of Town Hall, Amanda Pascali. https://bit.ly/3OyzFLX

In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork distributors in the world. They were there to capture video of what they say were thousands of mistreated and abused animals kept in tiny metal cages barely bigger than their bodies. As they were leaving, they took two sick piglets out with them. Prosecutors in Utah charged Wayne with burglary and theft. What came next was the court battle that he wanted all along. During his trial, Wayne made a truly bizarre argument that forced the jury, and all of us, to stare straight at our complicated, sometimes uncomfortable relationship with animals. This week on the show, we grapple with the impossible question at the center of it: What is the value of a piglet?  Special thanks to Kim Nederveen Pieterse, Nathan Peereboom, Jo Eidman, Sam Kozloff, Rachel Gross, Alex Allaux, and Joan Schaffner.  EPISODE CREDITS:  Reported by – Sindhu Gnanasambandan and Jae Minard Produced by – Sindhu Gnanasambandan with help from – Pat Walters with mixing help from – Jeremy Bloom Fact-checking by – Diane A. Kelly and Edited by  – Alex Neason and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles –  A Rabbit, is a rabbit, is a rabbit… Not under the Law (https://zpr.io/ezUPRE36VZVk) by Schaffner, J. E. in The Global Journal of Animal Law Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case (https://zpr.io/ayaV9gDneNsw) by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/HEXdpf5Q7VAB)  by Andy Greenberg in Wired Audio –  VR Puts Viewers Inside the Grisly Reality of Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/pMHq5RVkzUM3) a 2-part podcast by Wired Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. 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 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

In this bonus episode, Jim digs up a song that owes more to AM radio nostalgia than to being, well…good.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/soundopsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

More than 1.1 billion years ago, a pair of black holes staged a violent merger. As they spiraled inward, the black holes produced an outburst of gravitational waves – “ripples” in spacetime that rang across the universe. Detectors on Earth “heard” those ripples in January of last year. In fact, it was the loudest and clearest detection of merging black holes to date. Analyzing the signal has told scientists quite a bit about black holes, and about the laws of gravity that govern them. The frequency and duration of the gravitational waves revealed details about the black holes. It showed that when they merged, each of them was spinning. And each was about 33 times the mass of the Sun. But the total mass after they merged was only about 62 times the Sun’s mass – less than the combined weight of the individual black holes. The rest of their mass was converted to energy – mainly the gravitational waves. The aftermath of the merger was important as well. The merged black hole vibrated like a ringing bell. As it settled down, the “ringing” faded away. How it faded matched predictions made by General Relativity – the theory of gravity introduced by Albert Einstein and refined by many others over the decades. It was the strongest evidence to date that General Relativity really is the rule that governs black holes – and sends gravitational waves rippling across the universe. Script by Damond Benningfield

We're joined for a special Uruguay episode co-hosted by Juan Campodonico, the artist and producer at the forefront of fusing electronic and rock music with traditional Uruguayan genres like tango and murga. Featured artists include Bajofondo, El Cuarteto de Nos, Campo and Peyote Asesino. 

Since the war began in Iran, we've heard very little from people inside the country — and there's a reason for that. The entire country has been under an internet blackout. We worked with reporters Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour to get voice memos out of the country. Even though it was dangerous and difficult, people wanted to be heard. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Shirin's parents suddenly disappear into the blackout. (5 minutes)Act One: It’s a war and a blackout. People want to talk about both. (17 minutes)Act Two: What happened before America and Israel went to war with Iran. (9 minutes)Act Three: Iranians have many opinions about the war, and about each other. (12 minutes)Act Four: What happened inside Iran the night President Trump threatened that "a whole civilization could die." And a clue about where the internet blackout is headed. (19 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.