Latif Nasser is Director of Research for WNYC's Radiolab. He wrote a piece for Transom about how he comes up with story ideas for the show. He has an interesting "bag of tricks" to find stories and have lots on hand so that he doesn't panic under a deadline. — Read the rest
A reminder that I'm wrapping up my Columbia University lecture series tonight at 5PM, when I'm appearing onstage with Radiolab's Jad Abumrad at the lecture theater in Pulitzer Hall (RSVP here); and then I'm heading to Swarthmore tomorrow, to give a talk at the Lang Performing Arts Center Room (LPAC) 101 Cinema from 7-9PM. — Read the rest
When I first heard that Radiolab (previously), the wonderful podcast that combines deep dives into technical subjects with masterful storytelling, was going to start a new podcast about the Supreme Court, it sounded like a weird fit.
Radiolab's Jad Abumrad riffs on "The Function of Music" in this spectacular cut-up video by Mac Premo.
Wired visited the home studio of Radiolab's Jad Abumrad. It's a minimal set-up, and I dig his appreciation for vintage synths like the Moog Sonic Six and Roland Juno-60. "Sound Scientist: Inside the Home Studio of Radiolab's Jad Abumrad"
Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the hosts of NPR's fantastic science story show, Radiolab, are doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything today. It's been underway for a while, so it's probably late to get a new question in, but it's a great thread so far. — Read the rest
Minnesota Public Radio is playing a marathon of the NPR show Radiolab all day today. Hours of good, science-filled, story telling wonderfulness. Right now, at 12:32 central, they're doing a show about epidemiologists tracing the origin of AIDS back to the 1920s. — Read the rest
Higher Mammals made a song and video to accompany Radiolab's recent show about stochasticity. If you don't already know about Radiolab, it's a terrific science podcast produced for WYNC public radio.
Earlier this month, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed into law the state's plans to execute inmates using electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia. Lethal injection is still available, but sourcing the chemicals used is difficult. Amid a variety of other factors, the production of chemicals used to kill human beings is illegal in the countries that the US sources from. — Read the rest
Venus has a moon, Zoozve, that you've likely not heard of. It's small and weird, a kidnapped asteroid with the dangest orbit you ever saw. Indeed, calling it "Venus's Moon" seems to annoy the sort of scientists who become annoyed when you call Pluto a planet and they know you're only saying that it because it isn't. — Read the rest
Sometimes you hear something as a kid that sets a barbed hook in your mind, like when my mom told me she once fell asleep wearing hard contacts back in the 80s, and they had to use a suction device to free it from her eyeballs. — Read the rest
Whenever I encounter the word "nemesis", I can't help but think of Alan Ford delivering this line as Brick Top in the movie "Snatch":
— Read the restDo you know what NEMESIS means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.
This Sunday evening, November 14th, I'll be joining an audience for the first time in several years! I am really looking forward to seeing the latest edition of Pop-Up Magazine.
Pop-Up Magazine is a live stage show where rather than write a few thousand words for an article, creators share beautiful presentations filled with music, animation, and photography to tell inspiring stories. — Read the rest
It's hard to find someone who doesn't love Dolly Parton. Now, a recently-launched podcast goes deep into the beloved country legend's life and times to examine why she appeals to the masses. Dolly Parton's America follows her journey through her early scrappy days surviving on mustard-and-ketchup "soup," to being discovered, to creating Dollywood and that's just in the first three episodes (there will be a total of nine). — Read the rest
In 1986 David Lee Roth quit Van Halen and Sammy Hagar took his place as lead singer. This 1986 MTV rockumentary covers the transition. In the Radiolab newsletter, producer Matthew Kielty says the rockumentary "capture[s], and mostly relishes in, the mythology of Rock 'n' Roll, which is really just sexual conquest and objectification, alcoholism, greed, jealousy and a bunch of men's stubborn refusal to grow-up." — Read the rest
For more than two years, Radiolab has been running a brilliant side-podcast called More Perfect which involves deeply reported, engaging stories about Supreme Court decisions, skilfully mixing in audio from the trials, historic or new interviews with the people involved, and commentary from scholars and activists that serve to illuminate the incredible stories behind the court decisions that have shaped life in America.
I'm heading to the east coast next week, first for a lecture series in NYC for Columbia University (including a conversation with Radiolab's Jad Abumrad about Big Tech, monopolies and democratic technology); and from there I'm headed to Pennsylvania for a talk about my novel Walkaway at Swarthmore, on Sept 28 from 7-9PM at the Lang Performing Arts Center Room (LPAC) 101 Cinema. — Read the rest
Columbia University's Brown Institute is hosting me for a trio of lectures later this month in New York City: I kick off with a conversation with the Brown's Dennis Tenen about science fiction, copyright, and the arts on Sept 25, then a lecture on copyright and surveillance on Sept 26, and wrap up with an onstage conversation with Radiolab's Jad Abumrad about Big Tech, monopolies, and democratic technology on Sept 27. — Read the rest
Rodney Brooks — eminent computer scientist and roboticist who has served as head of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and CTO of Irobot — has written a scorching, provocative list of the seven most common errors made (or cards palmed) by pundits and other fortune-tellers when they predict the future of AI.
Economist Tim Harford (previously) traces the history of denialism and "fake news" back to Big Tobacco's cancer denial playbook, which invented the tactics used by both the Brexit and Trump campaigns to ride to victory — a playbook that dismisses individual harms as "anaecdotal" and wide-ranging evidence as "statistical," and works in concert with peoples' biases (smokers don't want cigarettes to cause cancer, Brexiteers want the UK to be viable without the EU, Trump supporters want simple, cruel policies to punish others and help them) to make emprically wrong things feel right.
