• Interview
    • Interviews
    • 20 Questions
    • Quickies
  • Entertainment
    • Music
    • TV
    • Movies
  • Advice
    • How To
    • PopGurls Guides
  • Musings
  • Blog
  • The Attic
    • NSYNC
    • Degrassi
PopGurls
Blog 0

Using Your Words with Radiolab

By Amy @amypop · On August 22, 2011

If you haven’t checked out Radiolab — either via your local National Public Radio station or podcast — I suggest that you add it to your to-do list for this week. I’m sure that there are big fancy ways to describe the show, but I generally sell it to people as a show that explores and explains big and little scientific concepts through stories. Like, science in layman’s terms, and without ever making the audience feel like they are stupid.

To start out with, some of my favorites are:
Mirror, Mirror — How we can swap with the selves we see in the mirror, and how simply changing your hair part can change so much in your life.

Goat on a Cow — A mystery that unravels and unravels, instigated by, you guessed it, a goat on a cow.

Fu Manchu — A zoo keeps finding their orangutans in the strangest of places, and the culprit is as unsuspected as he is cunning.

Lost and Found — Probably my favorite full episode of the entire series. I often recount the story of Sharon Roseman and how her world will, without control, shift 90 degrees and how she’s lived with this since she was five years old. Then there’s a wonderful tale about a WWII pigeon, and an Australian language that insists that you know exactly where you are at all times. Lastly, the story of Alan and Emilie which is equally heartbreaking and uplifting and will stay with you for a long, long time.

However, as many times as I’ve listened to the episodes, I rarely check out the videos so I missed this one that they did last year — “Words.” The piece, directed by Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante, explores language down to individual words and how they can have so many meanings. (It was connected to their “Words” episode that recounted the fascinating story of a 27-year-old man discovering words and language for the first time.) The video was shown in a “Best of” collection at PromaxBDA: The Conference 2011 this June and I tracked it down to rewatch over and over because it’s so brilliant and inspiring. No matter how many times I see it, I see something new each time.

Watch now:

podcastradiolabscience
Share Tweet

Amy

Amy Pascale is a founder of PopGurls and watches a lot of television, a lot. She likes to quote Lennie Briscoe ("If I were kidding you, I'd be wearing a fez and no pants"), Doctor Who ("The Angels have the Phonebox") and Cordelia Chase ("Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass"). She's working on a Joss Whedon biography to come out in 2014. You can also follow her on twitter at twitter.com/amypop.

You Might Also Like

  • Advice

    Leslie Knope is My Life Coach

  • Blog

    Leslie and Ben (And Us!)

  • Blog

    SNL: We're Really Going To Miss You

PopGurls For Thought

I was gobsmacked. My jaw was in my lap. I did NOT expect any show, especially this show, to go there, to flat out say “You are enabling rape culture by what you did.” -- drst

Fangirl Love

  • The Siren Song of Fandom
  • Buffy: When It Was Good
  • Making the Video: Pop
  • Pan Am: Experience Makes the Difference
  • Grease is The Word, Sort Of
  • Down Memory Lane with Toad
  • Dawson’s Creek: Capeside Redemption
  • Michael Biehn’s top five lines
  • Things I Never Stopped Loving from The 90s – The Jessica Edition

Interviews to Check Out

  • PG Interview: Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair

  • PG Interview: Javier Grillo-Marxuach

  • Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne

    PG Interview: Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne

  • 20 Questions with Jane Espenson

  • PG Interview: Busy Philipps

  • PG Interview: Misha Collins

The Random

It’s not that I’m broken because I didn’t get to say goodbye. It’s that I was never able to say hello. I was never able to say thank you. - Allyson, "Gratitude"

The Basics

  • About us
  • FAQ
  • Contact

The Elsewhere To Be

  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

© 2000 - 2020 PopGurls.com All rights reserved.