Coming to you from Belfast this week, Andy Zaltzman quizzes the news with Zoe Lyons, Neil Delamere, Diona Doherty, and Alex Kane.

In this episode Andy and the panel will be asking if turning the Northern Ireland Assembly off and on has made it work again?

Why Labour is keeping the red flag flying?… a Formula 1 style red flag, that is, which they’re waving at their own environment policy to tell it it’s off.

And whose chopper has got them in trouble?

Written by Andy Zaltzman

With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Alison Spittle, John Meagher, and Claire Sullivan

Producer: Sam Holmes Executive Producer: Richard Morris Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Nicholls Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4

In the early 1920s, painters at a watch dial factory in New Jersey started to get sick. No one could tell them why.

Kate Moore’s book is called The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women.

Episode transcript will be posted here as soon as it is available. 

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

"It's quite a big undertaking going through every named feature in the whole solar system and trying to find out who that person was."

When PhD student Annie Lennox discovered a crater on Mercury, she got the chance to name it. Which sent her on a bigger space mission.

Content note: this episode contains mentions of, but not descriptions of, sexual violence.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

• There’ll be another hackathon next month to research all the space eponyms; if you’d like to get involved - all are welcome - then email Annie: aral4 (at) open (dot) ac (dot) uk.

• She’s also doing an online talk about all this work on 13 March, reserve your free spot.

• Annie recently published an article, ‘Change is needed to diversify space science — and it starts with a name’.

• Annie’s Open Letter to the International Astronomical Union: Issues of power and its influence on naming conventions for planetary features.

• “Celestial nomenclature has long been a controversial topic” - the IAU’s guidance on how space features are named.

• “Can I pay a fee and officially name a crater or other type of surface feature on Mars and other planets, the asteroids, moons and other solar system objects?”

• “The IAU does not claim to own any celestial object or any part of the sky. Further, the United Nations has negotiated treaties for claims of property within the Solar System. Thus far, no international law has been passed which defines owning a piece of space or the objects within it.”

• About Annie’s first crater’s namesake Lady Carolina Nairne, who “lived to do good, avoided publicity and sought the shade. From the scene of life she desired to pass away silently, there to be remembered only by her friends and relatives. When she died her powers as an authoress were known only to a few.”

• All of Mercury’s officially named craters (so far).

• Big year for Radiolab and space names!

• Otherlusionists: all the eponymisodes!; scientists have a bit of fun with space terminology in Technobabble; the IAU pops up in the episode about naming Uranus; in Ravels, the town of Russell, Ontario chose to be named after different Russells to its original eponymous namesake; and Fiona parts 1 and 2’s mystery of a renowned Scottish writer. And, because Dune 2 just got released, listen to Verisimilitude, wherein Dune’s language constructor David J. Peterson describing what goes into constructing languages in fictional workds.

• Since we’re on the subject of space: there’s a space-themed live Allusionist IN THE PLANETARIUM at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver BC on 18 April. The evening’s entertainments include a talk about space terms by astronomer Marley Leacock. Tickets are on sale now, at early bird prices until 28 March.

Congratulations to podfriend and alumsionist Imaginary Advice for reaching 100 episodes! There’s a cameo from me, and some other fave podcasters, in the big 100th.

Support the Allusionist at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes information about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, regular watchalongs, and the charming company of the Allusioverse Discord community.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
regulus, noun, chemistry, archaic:
a metallic form of a substance, obtained by smelting or reduction.
Origin 16th century, from Latin, diminutive of rex, reg- ‘king’;
origin as ‘regulus of antimony’, apparently so named because of its readiness to combine with gold.

CREDITS:

• Annie Lennox is a PhD student in planetary geology with The Open University. Get involved with her planetary hackathons by email the address up-post, and keep an eye on her Twitter @annieroseex for more info.

• Thanks to Sheila Kanani and Adam Richardson.

• This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

• The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

• Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow

Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• HomeChef, meal kits that fit your needs. For a limited time, HomeChef is offering Allusionist listeners 18 free meals, plus free shipping on your first box, and free dessert for life, at HomeChef.com/allusionist.
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. 

Happy St Patrick’s Day from the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #652.

Arise & Go, Santiago Molina, Corey Purcell, Mary Beth Carty, The Haar, The Gothard Sisters, Emma Langford, Socks in the Frying Pan, Fire In The Glen, The Chieftains, Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer, The Langer's Ball, We Banjo 3, The BorderCollies, Heather Dale, Banshee in the Kitchen, The Celtic Kitchen Party. Santiago Molina, The High Kings, The Bow Tides, Matt McGinn, Poitín, Syr, Marc Gunn, Jesse Ferguson

The Celtic Music Magazine is a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Enjoy seven weekly news items for Celtic music and culture online. Subscribe now and get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free.

This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. You can vote for as many songs and tunes that inspire you in each episode. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2024 episode. You have just three weeks to vote this year. Vote Now!

You can follow our playlist on Spotify to listen to those top voted tracks as they are added every 2 - 3 weeks. It also makes it easier for you to add these artists to your own playlists. You can also check out our Irish & Celtic Music Videos

0:17 - Arise & Go “The Dirty Bee: La Grondeuse / Mutt's Favourite / Break Yer Bass Drone / The Dirty Bee” from Meeting Place

5:28 - WELCOME

8:23 - Santiago Molina “Acá y ahora” from Desde un nuevo lugar

11:30 - Corey Purcell “Jock Stuart” from Undaunted

16:14 - Mary Beth Carty “Lake Ainslie to Millburn” from Crossing the Causeway

20:07 - The Haar “Home Boys Home” from Where Old Ghosts Meet

27:26 - The Gothard Sisters “Alaska Set” from Dragonfly

31:01 - Emma Langford “Demon Darling” from Sowing Acorns

34:14 - Socks in the Frying Pan “Ahhhhhhhhh (Live)” from Raw & Ríl (Live)

37:50 - FEEDBACK

44:36 - Fire In The Glen “Big Strong Man” from Cutting Bracken

46:57 - The Chieftains “The Morning Dew” from Bear's Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt  -  Live In San Francisco 1973

50:40 - Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer “Folk Club Song” from Twelve Months & A Day

55:49 - The Langer's Ball “Reel/Jig: The Otter's Holt/Morrison's Jig” from Appetite for Tradition

58:46 - We Banjo 3 “Alive With You” from Open The Road

1:01:38 - The BorderCollies “Carraig Nua” from Sticks and Stones

1:04:55 - Heather Dale “Down By the Salley Gardens” from My Celtic Heart

1:08:10 - Banshee in the Kitchen “Banish Lisa” from The Last Pint  -  Not

1:11:29 - THANKS

1:15:08 - The Celtic Kitchen Party “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” from Lobster Tail and Beer

1:19:05 - The High Kings “Paddy's Day” from The Road Not Taken

1:21:52 - The Bow Tides “The Power of Three” from Sailing On

1:26:44 - Matt McGinn “Lig Dúinn” from Behind Every Door // 2023

1:29:24 - Poitín “Mashed Mouse” from One For The Road

1:31:28 - Syr “To Avalon” from Sentinel

1:35:00 - CLOSING

1:37:02 - Marc Gunn with Jesse Ferguson “Molly Malone” from Come Adventure With Me

1:39:39 - CREDITS

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather and our Patrons on Patreon. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. Visit our website to follow the show. You’ll find links to all of the artists played in this episode.

Todd Wiley is the editor of the Celtic Music Magazine. Subscribe to get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free. Plus, you’ll get 7 weekly news items about what’s happening with Celtic music and culture online. Best of all, you will connect with your Celtic heritage.

Please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor.

Finally, remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and think about how you can make a positive impact on your environment.

Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/.

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. I am Marc Gunn.

This podcast is here to build a diverse Celtic community and help the incredible artists who so generously share their music with you. If you hear music you love, please email artists to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Musicians depend on your generosity to keep making music. So please find a way to support them. Buy a CD, Album Pin, Shirt, Digital Download, or join their communities on Patreon.

You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes, along with show times, when you visit our website at celticmusicpodcast.com.

If you are a Celtic musician or in a Celtic band, then please submit your band to be played on the podcast. You don’t have to send in music or an EPK. You will get a free eBook called Celtic Musicians Guide to Digital Music and learn how to follow the podcast. It’s 100% free. Just email Email follow@bestcelticmusic and of course, listeners can learn how to subscribe to the podcast and get a free music - only episode.

At the end of every show, I ask you to vote for your favorite songs and tunes in that show. At the end of the year, I compile your votes into the Celtic Top 20 most - popular tracks of the year. We had some great music and musicians last year. I decided I want to share more music from these incredible artists on our first St Patrick’s Day music special.

You can listen to our Celtic Top 20 Best of 2023 episode #641 on our website.

You are amazing. It is because of your generosity that you get to hear so much great Celtic music each and every week.

Your kindness pays for our engineer, graphic designer, Celtic Music Magazine editor, promotion of the podcast, and allows me to buy the music I play here. It also pays for my time creating the show each and every week.

As a patron, you get music - only episodes before regular listeners, vote in the Celtic Top 20, stand - alone stories, and you get a private feed to listen to the show.  All that for as little as $1 per episode.

A special thanks to our Celtic Legends of the Podcast: Bill Mandeville, Marti Meyers, Brenda, Karen DM Harris, Emma Bartholomew, Dan mcDade, Carol Baril, Miranda Nelson, Nancie Barnett, Kevin Long, Gary R Hook, Lynda MacNeil, Kelly Garrod, Annie Lorkowski, Shawn Cali

HERE IS YOUR THREE STEP PLAN TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST

1. Go to our Patreon page.
2. Decide how much you want to pledge every week, $1, $5, $25. Make sure to cap how much you want to spend per month.
3. Keep listening to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast to celebrate Celtic culture through music.

You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast on Patreon at SongHenge.com.

Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. Well, that’s how most of my Celtic Invasions work anyway.

But later this year, I schedule a brand new Celtic Invasion of Scotland’s Whisky distilleries. We’re gonna travel to Scotland, taste whisky, go for a hike through glorious Scottish countryside, then taste more whisky and do it all over, mixed in with some incredible food and a ton of fun.

I need 6 people to make this trip happen. If you’re interested in joining the invasion, sign up to our mailing list at http://celticinvasion.com/

#celticmusic #irishmusic #celticmusicpodcast

What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? Please email me. I’d love to see a  picture of what you're doing while listening or of a band that you saw recently.

Email me at follow@bestcelticmusic.

Christopher Fennell replied to my Re: Happy St Patrick's Month Feedback Request:  "Hi Marc, I love your podcast! I'm celebrating the early part of St. Patrick's month by volunteering in the Iditarod race in Alaska. I'll be singing Celtic tunes while taking care of the huskies running for 1,049 frozen miles from Anchorage to Nome. I have dual citizenship with the Republic, as my grandparents immigrated from Roscommon, Dublin, and Limerick. Perhaps I can start a sled - dog team representing the Republic somewhere in the future. Best wishes,"

Ben Doran replied to my feedback request: "Hello Marc;

The weather here in Wisconsin today definitely inspires kilt wear. And weather/whether or not it is nearly this nice on St. Patrick's Day weekend, I'll be kilting it up. And singing with the band Ar Ais Aris (a - rash a - reesh)("Back Again") on Saturday in Berwyn, Il; then Sunday, to Galena, Il; then finish up with our two usual gigs for retirement communities in Rockton, Il and Beloit, WI on Monday. I will (yep) probably color my beard in orange and green for Monday.

I think among the many new sounds/new music that I've heard from your podcasts, it would be the band, Larkin, that has my fancy (this week, anyway). No, I don't consider myself fickle, just distracted.  Slainte, Marc!!"

woodland folk emailed a photo: "heading to the wood for a fire and a practice,can listen then my friend... Attached is a picture,me and another friend who plays a Welsh harp, stopped to play a little on the river brue ...."

Nathanael Stottlemyer emailed: "We're losing Good Celtic Music

Hi Marc, It was last year that I started listening to your podcast, and like a mad man I started your podcast at the very beginning. I'm now at the year 2016 and I've loved every episode. There is just one problem. When I look up the bands that I loved and that I want to purchase their music, they're gone. There's no website, no Spotify, no YouTube, sometimes I can't even find their CD's used! And it's a shame, because they're good songs and sometimes, take Young Hunting by Serious Kitchen (Which was in your best of the year podcasts more than once) it's the only Celtic rendition of the song on the internet. I managed to buy the last Tig! Album off the internet, but it's looking bad for some of my other favorites.

We're losing years of Celtic music, and it's a shame, especially since I know that the members of Serious Kitchen and others are still around. I don't suppose I'm missing a way to buy these albums. I really hope I am. I don't suppose you could use your amazing Celtfather connections and reach out to some of the people of these bands and see if they'd put on Bandcamp? Or perhaps a huge "Best of the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast" album with some of these lost treasures? They're some of the best music I've heard. Thanks, Nathanael"

In 1974, musician Connie Converse drove away from home and was never heard from again. 

Howard Fishman’s book is To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse. Martha Wainwright’s cover of “One By One” is on Vanity of Vanities: A Tribute to Connie Converse. Julia Bullock’s album is Walking in the Dark. You can find Connie Converse’s music at http://connieconverse.com.

Episode transcript will be posted here as soon as it is available.

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, soothe your brain by saying a load of words that don’t really mean very much, to give you an emotional break by temporarily supplanting your interior monologue with something you can benignly ignore.

Note: this is NOT a normal episode of the Allusionist, where you might learn something about language and your brain might be energised. The Tranquillusionist's purpose is to rest your brain and for you to learn nothing.

If you like it, there's a collection of Tranquillusionists at theallusionist.org/tranquillusionist, on themes including champion dogs, Australia's big things, gay animals and more.

Today: a list of the characters who don't have names in film credits.

Content note: this episode contains some terminology from the original film credits that I do not endorse, plus one Category B swear and four Category A swears (which I endorse just fine). If you’re not sure about the Category A/B/etc, I refer you to episode 4.

ALSO:

• Enormous thanks to Jez Burrows for letting me use some 2,700 of these credits that he had collected for his book And Introducing. Find it at jezburrows.com, as well as his other work - including his book Dictionary Stories, short stories composed of the example sentences from dictionaries, which he talked about in the Trammels episode of the show a few years ago.

• Want more relaxing listening? I’m on a couple of other podcasts this week:

• 1. Shedunnit has started a book club of the Green Penguin crime novels, and I’m on the first episode, discussing The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers. ‘Unpleasantness’ is such a euphemistic euphemism for a murder. Whether or not you have read the novel, this is a good show to listen to. Find it here.

• 2. The Incomparable Game Show’s Random Pursuit, where we played Trivial Pursuit from dozens of different sets. Some of the sets are ideal for the trivia stuffed in the trashbin of my brain; others, I am very not good at. Find out which by listening here!

• 3. The fortnightly YouTube livestreams where I read from my collection of reference books. Here is an example of one, the rest are for members of the Allusioverse, and it’s very easy to become one of those: just head over to theallusionist.org/donate. You also get a host of perks, including the inside scoop of the making of every episode; watchalong parties (lately, weekly gatherings to watch Great Pottery Throwdown, and now the Canadian version too) - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:

haecceity, noun, philosophy:
1. the quality of a thing that makes it unique or describable as this (one).
2 individuality.

CREDITS:

• This episode is based on the book And Introducing by Jez Burrows, get it via jezburrows.com.

• The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

• This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.

• Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow

Back in two weeks with a new, non-tranquil episode. Well it might be tranquil too, but it’ll be not deliberately aiming for tranqullusioneity - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk lovingly and winningly about your product or thing on the show in 2024, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase. 
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. 

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about Beyonce getting played on country radio, going to skating rinks, and the YSL lawyer who lived her raps.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about weightlifting tips, Super Bowl predictions, The 49ers employing minority coaches, learning to swim, and what alcohol goes with girl scout cookies.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show.

--------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

At Lunar New Year, certain foods are particularly lucky to eat. Why? Because in Chinese, their names are puns on fortunate things. Damn, maybe noodles are all it takes to get me into puns after all...

Professor Miranda Brown, cultural historian of China specialising in food and drink, explains the wordplay foods of new year, and why names are so resonant in Chinese.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

• Miranda writes in Atlas Obscura about some of the lunar new year foods.

• The Grass Mud Horse Lexicon.

• “Perhaps my favourite character, for the absurdity of his English name, is Intelligent Fragrant Chicken, which is one tone off from dǎ fēi jī, slang for masturbation.”

• ‘The head and tail of the fish also represent a saying, you tou you wei (有头有尾), which means “for the things you have started, you must end it well and not do things half-heartedly”.’

• Quite a different kind of food pun but you can vote in Babbel’s 2024 shop pun competition.

• Otherlusionists: I mentioned Jing Tsu talking about homophones to defy censors in Bonus 2022, and she also talked about Chinese and writing systems in In Character. Lacuna is about another food-related way to get around censors. Yes, As In is not only very entertaining, it also nudges at names with ambition and nominative determinism. And Name Therapy considers people’s relationships with their own names.

How often do you get a movie with some major linguistic plots? Not often enough! We’re going to watch the 2016 science fiction conlang hit Arrival together in the Allusioverse Discord, on Saturday 17 February 12.30pm PT/3.30pm ET/8.30pm UTC/check your timezone. This is for members of the Allusioverse, and you can become one via theallusionist.org/donate (no payment will be taken till the 1st of the month, so you can try it out for free). And you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community - AND your contributions help keep this independent podcast going. It’s rocky times!

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
whim-wham, noun, archaic:
1. a quaint and decorative object; a trinket.
2. a whim.
Origin 16th century: fanciful reduplication

CREDITS:

• Miranda Brown is a professor at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, specialising in food and drink. Read some of her posts about foods at chinesefoodhistory.org.

• This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

• The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

• Thanks to MiMi Aye, food writer and alumsionist of the Food Into Words episode.

• Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow

Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly and unskippably about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads.

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. 

Randolph is out today, but we're joined by Rod and Karen from The Black Guys Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about listener comments, a woman who got banned from her kid's school for advertising her Only Fans page, and a Jacksonville Jaguars employee who stole $20 million from the team and lost it all gambling.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

Al Martin was a legend on the New York scene, owner and creator of The New York Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwhich Comedy Clubs. He helped get many comedy careers launched including mine. May he rest in peace and may his soul soar high. Here is an interview I did with him in 2020. 

Randolph is out this week, but we're joined by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast, and Mike B. In this episode we talk about songs with hidden drug references, Vince McMahon's depravity, Nicki Minaj going after Megan Thee Stallion, listener comments, a woman getting caught stealing at a self-checkout, and Ben Shapiro trying to rap.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

Lipreading has been in the news this month, thanks to gossip-stoking mouth movements at the Golden Globes that the amateur lipreaders of The Internet rushed to interpret. But lipreading tutor Helen Barrow describes how reading lips really works - the confusable consonants, the importance of context and body language - and gossip maven Lainey Lui explains why these regularly occurring lipreading gossip stories are unworthy of a second or even first glance.

Content note: this episode contains three Category B swears. Collect them all!

EXTRA MATERIALS:

• There are transcripts of every episode, including this one, at theallusionist.org/transcripts.

• Lipreading alphabet - practice those visemes.

• There’s quite a lot of lipreading in detective fiction: Helen Barrow alluded to the lipreading Sherlock Holmes rival Judith Lee, and there’s Colin Dexter’s The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, and The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth, for starters. And there was the real Sue Thomas who inspired the TV drama Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye.

• Lipreading tropes in fiction.

• Content warning: ableism. “Reformers wanted to eliminate ‘manualism’, the use of sign language, and replace it with ‘oralism’, the exclusive use of speech and lipreading.”

• “These videos don’t tend to reveal big secrets. They tend to contain loose phrases that set off viewers’ imaginations. The veracity of lip readings that circulate on TikTok is not guaranteed.”

• Previous cases include Bennifer and Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn and Bill Paxton (CW cancer) and John Terry (CW racism)…

• Listen to Lainey on the Gossip episode of this show, for more about the history and usefulness and philosophy of gossip.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community. We’re having weekly gatherings to watch the current season of Great Pottery Throwdown and will soon add the Canadian version to our lives.

I appear on a recent episode of Pop This! podcast, talking about the truly baffling 2000 film Duets, directed by Bruce Paltrow and starring his daughter Gwyneth. Listen here. And here is a playlist of me being a guest on other people’s podcasts.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
blunge, verb: mix (clay or other materials) with water in a revolving apparatus, for use in ceramics.
Derivatives: blunger, noun.
Origin 19th century: blend of blend and plunge.

CREDITS:

• Helen Barrow teaches lipreading and hearing loss management. Find out more about her classes, and additional events such as the hard of hearing captioned screening of Barbie she has coming up, at her website lipreading.me.uk.

• Lainey Lui is the professional gossip of LaineyGossip.com and The Squawk on Substack.

• Thanks to Tracey Burch of the Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults, and to Shedunnit podcast.

• This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

• The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

• Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• Kitsch, fun and useful skincare, haircare and accessories and styling tools. Get 30% off your entire order at MyKitsch.com/allusionist.
• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase. 
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. 

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about online cleanliness discourse, people not getting paid after being on hit songs, listener comments, and Nikki Haley's views on racism.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show.

--------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

We're thrilled to present a piece from one of our favorite podcasts, Love + Radio (Nick van der Kolk and Brendan Baker). 

Producer Briana Breen brings us the story: Diane’s new neighbors across the way never shut their curtains, and that was the beginning of an intimate, but very one-sided relationship.

Please listen to as much of Love + Radio as you can (loveandradio.org).

And, if you are in Seattle Area, or plan to be on Feb 15th, 2024 come check out Radiolab Live! and in person (https://zpr.io/fCDUTEYju76h). 

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.

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about smooth jazz artists interpreting hip hop, Dan Le Batard not liking Jimmy Kimmel's monologue, Stephen A. Smith going scorched earth, Jerry Krause getting booed by Chicago Bulls fans, a Wizards player getting caught shoplifting, Jonathan Majors' latest outfit, and old school fashions.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show.

--------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

Origionally recorded in 2014.

Enjoy.

Sometimes a seemingly silly question gets stuck in your craw and you can’t shake the feeling that something big lies behind it. We are constantly collecting these kinds of questions from our listeners, not to mention piling up a storehouse of our own “stupid” questions, as we lovingly call them. And a little while back, we noticed a little cluster of questions that seemed to have a shared edgy energy, and all led us to the same place: Our own bodies. So, today on Radiolab, we go down our throats and get under our skin, we take on evolution and anatomy and molecular cosmetics, to discover some very not-stupid answers to our seemingly stupid questions. 

Special thanks to Mark Krasnow, Sachi Mulkey, Kari Leibowitz, Andrea Evers, Dr. Mona Amin, Benjamin Ungar, Praby Singh, Brye and Rachel Adler

EPISODE CREDITS: 

Reported by - Molly Webster, Becca Bressler, Latif Nasser, and Alan Goffinskiwith help from Ekedi Fausther-KeeysProduced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Becca Bressler, Alyssa Jeong Perry, Molly Webster with help from - Matt KieltyOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Diane Kelley, Emily Kriegerand edited by  - Pat Walters and Alex Neason

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.

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about younger people not knowing old school rappers, some classic Arsenio Hall Show moments, Chubby Checker's history with The Twist, hearing classic songs at the grocery store, listener comments, some crazy oxtail recipes, David Tepper throwing a drink on a fan, and the video of a defendant attacking a judge.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

Can you believe, this podcast turns nine years old on 14 January 2024? 

The show began five British prime ministers ago! When it began, I was still struggling to get a bank card without 'Miss' on it! 

Nine years is the time between Before Sunrise and Before Sunset - an eternity of romantic yearning; and in fashion, numerous generations after Julie Delpy's slip dress over baby t-shirt - and yet here I am, doing the same job (ineligible for promotion!). In the nine years, Mercury has travelled around the Sun thirty-seven times, whereas Jupiter still hasn't completed one full orbit. In the nine years, podcasting became An Industry and had a gold rush, then a big collapse; I didn't get rich from the former (boo!) nor destroyed by the latter (phew! (So far!!)). If you stood on the same spot on Mercury for the whole nine years, you would have moved nearly 600,000 kilometres without taking a single step. In the nine years, I have learned so, so much, but feel I know less than ever. If you stood on the same spot on Mercury, you would have frazzled or frozen to oblivion in less time than it took you to read this sentence. 

When I say "nine years" above, I mean nine Earth years, not Mercury years. The Allusionist is already 37 years old in Mercury years.

To celebrate the podcast's ninth Earth birthday, a milestone which, let's face it, means nothing really, we're going to do a couple of things!

1. Livestream

We'll gather on YouTube for an hour of fun, including relaxing readings from reference books - as we, ie me and the fine members of the Allusioverse, do regularly, but this time all are welcome. Here's the YouTube link, we'll commence Saturday 20 January, 1pm PT/4pm ET/9pm UTC/Sunday morning Western Pacific/check your timezone.

2. Q&A

Ask me anything! Pop a comment here and I shall endeavour to answer. 

Yes, I do miss answering questions. And for all this "Nine years omg!" blahdiblah, Answer Me This lasted for fourteen and two-thirds years, which is half of one Saturn orbit.

3. Gifts!

For me, your presence is presents enough; but if you fancied giving the show as a gift to someone else, that would be wonderful. Personal recommendations are the best ways for people to find podcasts, and a nine-year-old podcast is brand new to the listener who just discovered it. The passage of the past nine years felt linear to me, but nine years of podcasts in a podfeed is growing block universe theory.

Nine years feels like a long time, but when I visited my mother last month, she was surprised when I threw out her jars of ground spices that had use-by dates in Barack Obama's first term.

Nine years is a long time for spices, but a flicker of an eyelid in my mother's perception of when she bought the spices. Nine years is long and nine years is short; time is the Müller-Lyer illusion. The flavour of ground spice is Mercury and my mother is Jupiter.

Your real imaginary friend,

HZ

Origially posted in season 4.

Rest in Peace Shecky.

First aired way back in 2009, this episode is all about a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness, Stochasticity, and how it may be at the very foundation of our lives. Along the way, we talk to a woman suddenly consumed by a frenzied gambling addiction, hear from two friends whose meeting seems to defy pure chance, and take a close look at some very noisy bacteria.

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Videos - Stochasticity Music Video (https://zpr.io/uZiH9j9ZU6be)

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.

We're joined today by Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast, along with Marc Todd. We just did one long episode this week, so no Thursday show. In this episode we talk about Randolph's recent canceled cruise experience, watching disasters on old school TV's, reflections on 2023, Sean Payton yelling at Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson not being quarterbacky, getting pulled over for no reason, and looking ahead to 2024.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

Karim Ani dedicated his life to math. He studied it in school, got a degree in math education, even founded Citizen Math (www.citizenmath.com) to teach it to kids in a whole new way. But, this whole time, his whole life, almost, he had this question nagging at him.

The question came in the form of a rule in math, NEVER divide by zero. But, why not?

Cornell mathematician, and friend of the show, Steve Strogatz, chimes in with the historical context, citing examples of previous provocateurs looking to break the rules of math. And he offers Karim a warning,

“In math we have creative freedom, we can do anything we want, as long as it’s logical.”Listen along as Karim’s thought exercise becomes an existential quest, taking us with him, as he delves deeper, and deeper, into Zeroworld.

EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu MillerProduced by - Matthew Kieltywith help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keys, Alyssa Jeong PerryOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Matthew Kieltywith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Diane Kellyand Edited by - Pat Walters

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.

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

It's our annual end of year parade of all the extra good stuff this year's podguests talked about, including a mythical disappearing island, geese, human dictionaries, the dubious history of the Body Mass Index, Victorian death department stores, and much more.

In order of appearance, we hear from:

• Translator and author Caetano Galindo describes how the countril Brazil got its name; he appeared on the Brief History of Brazilian Portuguese episode.

• Lexicographer and Countdown's Dictionary Corner-er Susie Dent brings us some pleasing words; she provided more joyful etymologies on the Siblings of Chaos episode.

• Academic and author of Women and Dictionary-Making Lindsay Rose Russell explains the terms ‘walking dictionary’ and ‘sleeping dictionary’; she discussed the undersung roles of women in dictionary-making in the Cairns episode.

• Writer, documentary star and Maintenance Phase cohost Aubrey Gordon notes the origins and misuse of the BMI and body positivity movement; she talked about how people talk about fat in Fat part 1 and part 2.

• Historian Dean Vuletic explains why we say "Nul points!" about Eurovision Song Contest losers; he dug into Eurovision’s linguistic complications and controversies in Eurovision part 1 and part 2.

• Council funeral officer and author of the book Ashes To Admin Evie King on alternatives to cremation; in the Death episode she talked about her job arranging funerals for people who have nobody else to do it.

• Griefcast's Cariad Lloyd describes Victorian Brits' strict rules for grief, and the misuse of the concept of five stages of grief; in the Death episode she considered how we could talk about death better.

Plus! Renaming updates, movie-named knitwear, and my portmanteaus and portmantNOs of the year.

Content notes: this episode contains discussions of death, grief, anti-fat bias, eugenics and racism; I've included warnings in the audio before each section where relevant, so you know which specific parts to skip if you need to.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

• ‘Turtleneck’ in different languages.

• Hy-Brasil, the disappearing island.

• We recapped Brigadoon over on VMI Pod.

• Scoring zero points at Eurovision.

• Jay’s Mourning Warehouse, leaning into “the perceived necessity of expensive and elaborate clothes, jewellery and public performance. In showing their prevalence through time, Jays could adapt them to the contemporary masses.”

• ctrl+F for the word ‘mourning’ - there’s a whole section about Jay’s, as well as a bunch of other grief shopping options of yore.

• AMA BMI update and its impact.

• Renaming Tottenham’s Black Boy Lane to La Rose Lane.

• “Richmond’s public school system has maintained a steady pace of renaming schools from Confederate leaders to historical figures from the city. With these latest changes, Richmond became the city with the most name changes. This decision has also made Virginia the state with the most name changes in the nation.”

• Fraser Island’s older name K’gari is also its new name.

• Brookwood Cemetery.

• Aubrey Gordon’s documentary Your Fat Friend has several screenings coming up in early 2024, as well as an online watchparty next week.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community - where I post all my latest, vilest portmantNOs. And we watch things together: on 27 December join us for a medley of festive specials, including Pottery Throwdown, Bake Off and Veronica Mars.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
pavage, noun, historical: a tax or toll to cover the paving of streets.
Origin Middle English: from Old French, from paver ‘to pave’.

CREDITS:

• This episode was written, edited, produced etc etc etc by me, Helen Zaltzman.

• The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

• Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow

Back in the second half of January 2024 with a new episode - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• Ravensburger, who make all sorts of jigsaw puzzles, including light-up 3D puzzles and puzzles you can use as pen holders afterwards. Buy Ravensburger puzzles in your preferred puzzle emporium and from Ravensburger's official websites. 
• Kitsch, fun and useful skincare, haircare and accessories and styling tools. Get 30% off your entire order at MyKitsch.com/allusionist.
• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase. 
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. 
• Canva, great design at your fingertips to level up your videos/presentations/websites etc. And you can collaborate: get a FREE 45-day extended trial when you go to Canva.me/allusionist.

First aired back in 2009, this episode is all about one thing, or rather a collection of things. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, chances are you rely on numbers every day of your life. Where do they come from, and what do they really do for us? This hour: stories of how numbers confuse us, connect us, and even reveal secrets about us.

As a lifeguard, a paramedic, and then an ER doctor, Blair Bigham found his calling: saving lives. But when he started to work in the ICU, he slowly realized that sometimes keeping people (and their hopes) alive just prolongs the suffering. He wrote a book arguing that a too-late death is just as bad as a too-early one, and that physicians and the public alike need to get better at accepting the inevitability of death sooner.  As the book hit the bestseller list, Blair’s own father got diagnosed with a deadly case of pancreatic cancer. Blair’s every impulse was in direct contradiction of the book he just wrote. What should he do? And how can any of us know when to stop fighting death and when to start making peace with it?Special thanks to Lucie Howell and Heather Haley.EPISODE CREDITS: 

Reported by - Latif NasserProduced by - Simon Adlerwith help from - Alyssa Jeong PerryOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Simon Adlerwith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Natalie Middletonand Edited by  - Pat Walters

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Books: 

Blair Bigham, Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine is Complicating the Way We Die (https://zpr.io/a33mEMW64X5h)

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, X 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.

We're joined today by Rod Morrow from The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. In this episode we talk about Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes' podcast, the GTA VI trailer, Shohei Ohtani's contract, conservative porn stars, people saying Jalen Hurts can't read defenses, and sensitive comedians arguing with people on the internet. Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show. --------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

In this short episode, first aired in 2011, a neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor. When the two men face off in an fMRI machine, the challenge is so unimaginably difficult that one man instantly gives up. But the other achieves a musical feat that ought to be impossible.

Reporter Jessica Benko went to Michigan to visit Bob Milne, one of the best ragtime piano players in the world, and a preternaturally talented musician. Usually, Bob sticks to playing piano for small groups of ragtime enthusiasts, but he recently caught the attention of Penn State neuroscientist Kerstin Betterman, who had heard that Bob had a rare talent: He can play technically challenging pieces of music on demand while carrying on a conversation and cracking jokes. According to Kerstin, our brains just aren't wired for that. So she decided to investigate Bob's brain, and along the way she discovered that Bob has an even more amazing ability ... one that we could hardly believe and science can't explain.

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 episode we talk about Felicity Huffman talking about her scandal, Julianna Margulies demanding support from the black community, listener comments, what freeloaders might be missing on Patreon, and Elon Musk alienating his advertisers.

Join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeguyson to get the YouTube link for today's show.

--------------------------------------

Intro music provided by Felt Five.

Outro music provided by Infrared Krypto.

Could puberty get any more awkward? Turns out, yes. Patrick Burleigh started going through puberty as a toddler. He had pubic hair before he was two years old and a mustache by middle school. All of this was thanks to a rare genetic mutation that causes testotoxicosis, also known as precocious puberty. From the moment he was born, abnormally high levels of testosterone coursed through his body, just as it had in his father’s body, his grandfather’s body, and his great-grandfather’s body. On this week’s episode, Patrick’s premature coming of age story helps us understand just why puberty is so awkward for all of us, and whether and how it helps forge us into the adults we all become.

Special thanks to Craig Cox, Nick Burleigh, and Alyssa Voss at the NIH.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Reported by - Latif Nasserwith help from - Kelsey Padgett, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, and Alyssa Jeong-PerryProduced by - Pat Walters, Alex Neason, and Alyssa Jeong-Perrywith help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keyeswith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Diane A. Kellyand Edited by  - Pat Walters

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Articles -

To read Patrick’s own writing about his experience with precocious puberty and to see photos of him as a child, check out his article in The Cut, “A 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body” (https://zpr.io/athKVQmtfzaN)

In her spare time, our fact checker Diane Kelly is also a comparative anatomist, and you can hear her TEDMED talk, “What We Didn’t Know about Penis Anatomy” (https://zpr.io/MWHFTYBdubHj) 

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.

The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking.

Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, dead-eyed machines. But when one microbiologist stumbled upon a GIANT virus, hundreds of times bigger than any seen before, all that went out the window.  The discovery opened the door not only to a new cast of microscopic characters with names like Mimivirus, Mamavirus, and Megavirus, but also to basic questions: How did we miss these until now? Have they been around since the beginning? What if evolution could go … backwards?

In this episode from 2015,  join former co-hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich as they grill Radiolab regular Carl Zimmer on these paradoxical viruses – they’re so big that they can get their own viruses! - and what they can tell us about the nature of life. 

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 episode we introduce you to a part of our bodies that was invisible to Western scientists until about five years ago; it’s called "the interstitium," a vast network of fluid channels inside the tissues around our organs that scientists have just begun to see, name, and understand. Along the way we look at how new technologies rub up against long-standing beliefs, and how millions of scientists and doctors failed to see what was right in front (and inside!) of their noses. We also find out how mapping the anatomy of this hidden infrastructure may help solve one of the fundamental mysteries of cancer, and perhaps provide a bridge between ancient and modern medicine.Special thanks to Aaron Wickenden, Jessica Clark, Mara Zepeda, Darryl Holliday, Dr. Amy Chang, Kate Sassoon, Guy Huntley, John Jacobson, Scotty G, and the Village Zendo

EPISODE CREDITS - 

Reported by - Lulu Miller and Jenn BrandelProduced by - Matt Kieltywith help from - Ekedi Fausther-Keeyswith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Natalie Middletonand Edited by  - Alex Neason

EPISODE CITATIONS -

Articles: Check out reporter Jenn Brandel’s companion essay to this episode in Orion magazine, titled, Invisible Landscapes (https://zpr.io/NKuxvYY84RvH), which argues that the discovery of the interstitium could challenge established practices of compartmentalizing in science and society.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.

Daniel and Alex discuss the highlights of season 10 and Alex bids farewell to the show.

In the season 10 finale, Daniel Lobell sits down with comedian and impressionist Elon Gold to discuss everything from Jewish life to his feud with Jimmy Fallon and they study some Jack Kerouac as well. 

It's hard to describe Seth Glass and do him justice. He's a musician who's lyrics are incredible poetry. He's a spiritual man and a Jewish philosopher of sorts. He talks about his career as a musician playing Jewish themed music, he talks about his struggles with substance abuse, about touring with Reb Shlomo Carlebach and about getting older. He plays some songs shares some cool ideas and so much more! Enjoy.

Daniel and Art Bell talk about the creation of Comedy Central, old comedy and making it in the TV exec biz!

Check out Art's new book Constant Comedy: How I started Comedy Central and Lost my sense of Humor.  

Daniel and Kylie check in to talk about the riots happening on their block in Los Angeles. He also interviews Al Martin, owner of the Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwich Comedy Club, as well as the founder of New York Comedy Club, one of the places where Daniel started his career. They talk about how the club came to be and where comedy is at nowadays. Al is the author of the new book "Did It On a Dare."

For 10 percent off your first month of BetterHelp, visit Betterhelp.com/MDP.

Enjoy!