RADIOHEAD VS. RADIOLAB

w vs tf

I think meant STEREOHEAD

should be "I think YOU meant" obviously

lab

So I checked out Lab's archive, and they have done EIGHT seasons? Have they actually done eight years' worth of shows (or do they have more than one season per year)?

definitely more than one season per year - i think it's roughly a monthly show so 4 years? 5 maybe? i was thinking radiolab vs this american life is probably the real question and i'd probably have to give the edge to tal if only for broadcasting weekly; i think both shows do best when they find a story worth devoting an entire episode to - the 'lucy' episode of radiolab blew me away. truth be told i probably prefer planet money to both - the science on radiolab is kinda light for my taste, whereas my knowledge of finance and economics is limited to a few big obv bestsellers and a couple of basic econ courses so planet money's actually pretty informative to me (best case scenario is when planet money takes over tal). ilx hates npr in general though which is why i'm guessing this thread isn't getting more responses (radiolab vs tal would at least garner the standard 'i hate ira glass/sarah vowell/john hodgman/david sedaris' posts).

I'm on and off with TAL -- haven't listened in months, though part of the reason is that my podcast listening routine's a little different now -- because it has a lot more duds than RL. Of course, as you've said, they put on way more shows. I do like RL's shorts/podcasts, though, some of which I think are full-length, too. (Loved the "In C" remixed episode.) "Lucy" episode cut me up bad, but of the recent ones I've listened to, "Limits" was awesome, esp. if you're working out while listening to it.

I've just started listening to Planet $$ recently, but I'm having a harder time concentrating on it than the other NPR podcasts I listen to (above-mentioned, Fresh Air, WWDTM). There was a recent one though that was pretty awesome, I think the one about how economists got interested in economics?

radiolab is one of the best things ever

that is all

Love love love Radiolab. Jad is rad.
And the episode abt number patterns and forensic accounting is my favorite. Or any episode with Oliver Sacks bc I wish he was my grandfather, I am in love with him.
The end.

radiohead v. stereolab??

yeah tal i listen to thru the iphone app (**** highly recommend) and have over ten years of a weekly show to cherrypick from so i definitely skip weeks whereas i'm pretty sure i've listened to every radiolab since i first found out about the show (whenever the randomness one was), our local npr affiliate doesn't carry it, though to be fair i'm not sure how you schedule a monthly show.

one of the radio lab hosts is related to an ilxor

suzy krulwich

haha

Took me a while to get over the whole overproduced-ness of Radiolab but I love it now. I listen to Radiolab, Planet Money, or To The Best Of Our Knowledge every day while walking the dog and then come home and tell my wife something crazy I learned while she looks at me like I'm an excitable five year old.

I love NPR, and I like that Radiolab gets to exist, but when I'm on a long drive and Radiolab comes on, I have to switch the station before I intentionally drive myself into oncoming traffic. So awfully pretentious.

This story just killed me. Even thinking about it now makes me feel a little teary. I don't subscribe to the podcast anymore though, I just don't have enough free time to listen.

radiolab is one of the best things ever

that is all

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 5:43 AM (9 hours ago)

yah Jad (the host/producer) is my cousin, and he lives right below me. it's really his show, not Krulwich's.

oh i didn't see Jad's name in the OP. hehe brotherly defensiveness :D

Or any episode with Oliver Sacks bc I wish he was my grandfather, I am in love with him.

Wau @ surm! Is your voice is full of dulcet silkiness as Jad's?

Listened to the "Deception" episode again, A+++.

This is tough for me because I generally really like radiolab but I fucking HATE listening to those two dudes banter.

Wow @ Surm, Jad is your cousin? That's pretty cool imo!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

lol lee. well i'm a singer so, yea, sound stuff runs in the family. our other cousin is a sound designer.

This is tough for me because I generally really like radiolab but I fucking HATE listening to those two dudes banter.

^^^^ With you on this.

radiolab is great but i kinda agree that the banter can get a bit tiring, and also, they seem to do like every other one on how they make radiolab.

surm i am so fing jealous jad is your cousin! do you know the krul? love himm, too!

i want to defend their banter a little. ok this is probably damning with faint praise but their banter is probably on the top end of public radio.
which radio shows have better banter? certainly not car talk.

Car Talk guys do a serviceable job considering how limited their subject options are ("Wow this guy doesn't know much about cars!" "That car is a piece of crap!" "My brother hahaha!")

i've never actually met robert! i hear a lot about him though. robert this, robert that.

i get the feeling some ppl really like him and some ppl, not so much.

Also there aren't all that many public radio show featuring regular banter between two hosts.

i heart him.

when i used to listen to the bryant park project, they had this segment called 'emergency krulwich!' for when whoever they were supposed to interview didn't pick up the phone or what have you. they had pre-taped, 5-min pieces of his ready to insert into the program when needed.

btw jad hearts radiohead

Way to stab me in my heart. ;_;

(j/k)

lol

I am too British to have heard Radiolab but I am voting for them anyway because their name has reminded me of the Flowchart track "New Radiolab Rip-off", and also because as far as I know they never recorded "No Surprises"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

fairly sure the guy I've never heard were robbed

...guys.

would hae voted for whichever wasn't radiohead

For Britishes: http://www.radiolab.org/archive/

Surm, you should get your cousin to do an inter-program promotion and have listeners answer news trivia in order to win his voice on their voicemail.

would listen

i'll talk to him

:D

Sundays are good for crossword puzzles and Radiolab marathons. I've just heard the "Finding Emilie" story and it nearly wrecked me.

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2012/10/science-racism-radiolabs-treatment-hmong-experience

:/

I listened to the episode after reading about all the fallout and it's the worst kind of exploitation. Congrats Krulwich, are you happy you proved your point?

Relatively good discussion on Metafilter about this: http://www.metafilter.com/121184/The-Fact-of-the-Matter

i didn't even think that story was really that material to theme... was it just "some things people think are facts but aren't actually facts"? no real interesting insight into the nature of "truth" like in the errol morris piece. (I did really like the last one, about the insane friend.)

it would be like figuring out that 5.5 million jews in the holocaust instead of the accepted 6 and hectoring a holocaust survivor about it

i liked the last one also (it's probably made me more sympathetic to 'luna' than i should be though thankfully there's constant reminders on that thread that she was far worse than a mere pathological liar), the morris story was interesting though i think morris' conclusion is wrong (though not as WRONG as his conclusion about jeffrey macdonald). the hmong story was pretty riveting and i remember thinking when listening to it 'o man radiolab, you are out of yr depth here' (though iirc krulwich didn't conduct the interview right?). don't think the point was trivial though - the lie that soviets were using chemical or biological warfare was one the reagan administration ran w/ and one that had a variety of far reaching consequences eg iraq 1988 or iraq 2003. i would argue it's less like holocaust denial and more like clarifying what exactly happened in the gulf of tonkin. that said, yes handled poorly and the walkback on it - maybe something can be factually untrue but truer in a larger sense - is banal. on a much more trivial level found it deeply annoying that on a topic - the difficulty of verification - that had stories galore to draw from science, some of which would've even fit radiolab's dual 'human interest' and 'things that make you go hmm' mandate, the closest they get to science at all is at some point chemists are required in one story. love you radiolab, but you really are radio gladwell - vague nodding toward science that suggests someone did their research but really is shallower than the times' science page, human interest story anecdotal data that forms the basis for huge unjustified leap into some social 'theory' that if it holds up to any scrutiny at all (scrutiny it clearly didn't have to endure before being released) it's becuz it was fairly obvious to begin with.

occurs to me also that this 'theme' was probably inspired by fallout from sometime contributor jonah lehrer - jad gets idea for show, remembers morris obsessing over photo in his blog, krulwich remembers yellow rain and how it turned out to be untrue and how nevertheless the myth was still used in the bush admin's selling of iraq war, pow that's two segments and then a freelancer has a story that can be shoehorned in.

though iirc krulwich didn't conduct the interview right

Krulwich did conduct it: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2012/sep/30/robert-krulwich-yellow-rain/

Scope Krulwich rocking a combover like there's no tomorrow: http://vimeo.com/66583939

So if you ever wanted an extended version of the intro collage to radiolab, here you go (start at 1:50):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M2cFh-HCGI

To be honest it sounds like the radiolab opening samples the piece above (which, for the text record, is Yoshihiro Hanno's "On/Off (Edit)")

Radiolab theme, for reference: