Radiolab

Lisa Lerman, a legal ethics scholar, Jim Tracy, a journalist who investigated Robert Garrow, Frank Armani, Garrow’s defense attorney, and producer Brenna Farrell explore a shocking 1973 case. A brutal manhunt leads to buried bodies, terrifying confessions, and an impossible choice over attorney-client confidentiality. The story probes how far legal duty extends when defending someone accused of monstrous crimes.

Annie McEwen, a narrative journalist and science producer, tells the astonishing story of Octomom, discovered by deep-sea explorer Bruce Robison. Evolutionary neuroscientist Yan Wong explains the octopus life cycle as researchers track one mother brooding 160 eggs for years without food. She battles crabs, weakens, and guards her brood in one of the ocean’s most extraordinary displays of endurance.

Jennet Conant, a historian and author of wartime science, and Avir Mitra, an emergency physician and medical correspondent, investigate sulfur’s strange double life. They revisit a mysterious hospital death, the Bari chemical disaster, and mustard gas’s unexpected connection to chemotherapy. Then they dive into hydrogen sulfide in the brain, memory research, and sulfur’s ancient origins. What smells like death may be chemistry at work keeping life alive.

Steve Strogatz, a Cornell mathematician known for making complex ideas accessible, explores AI’s astonishing leap from basic arithmetic to advanced mathematical discovery. He discusses breakthroughs in geometry, a claimed Navier-Stokes solution, AI’s hidden cancer signals, and the growing tension between useful answers and genuine understanding. Could machines usher in a golden age of math, or close humanity’s window on discovery?

Jessica Benko, a journalist and audio reporter covering science and unusual human experiences, meets ragtime virtuoso Bob Milne. A neurologist tests his astonishing ability to play complex music while chatting. Inside an fMRI, Milne faces a famous conductor in a challenge involving four symphonies at once, revealing a musical feat that seems impossible.

David George Haskell, a biologist and writer exploring humanity’s ties to nature, turns humble grass into an epic protagonist. He traces how grasslands reshaped the planet, fueled human diets, and may have influenced our bodies and bipedal past. Along the way, grass becomes a surprising link to ancestral landscapes, from sensitive feet to calming scents and softened sound.

A child’s deceptively simple question sparks a worldwide hunt for the sweetest substance imaginable. The search travels from rare berries and lab-made sweeteners to sugar in space, while scientists explore how taste, smell, color, music, and even lasers can shape sweetness. Could the ultimate sugary sensation come from the brain rather than the pantry?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom French and journalist-author Kelley Benham recount the harrowing birth of their daughter, Juniper, at 23 weeks and 6 days. They revisit fertility struggles, the shifting line of viability, and impossible decisions in the NICU. The story explores survival, suffering, parental love, medical uncertainty, and Juniper’s extraordinary journey from fragile newborn to determined teenager.

A single 60-word sentence, drafted in the chaotic days after 9/11, becomes the legal foundation for America’s “war on terror.” The story follows its passage through Congress, Barbara Lee’s lone dissent, and the expansion of its reach to Guantanamo, drone strikes, secret target lists, and forces never named in the original text. It asks whether a war without borders or an end date can ever truly end.

Helen Morales, author who reads Dolly’s lyrics as cultural testimony, and Dolly Parton, legendary singer-songwriter reflecting on her early “sad ass songs.” They examine Dolly’s dark early ballads, how she rewrote murder ballad traditions from women’s viewpoints, and the arc from pain to empowerment in her songwriting.