Black Box
2/27/20261 hr 6 min
In this episode, first aired in 2014, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—spaces where we know what’s going in, we know what’s coming out, but can’t see what happens in-between.
From the darkest parts of metamorphosis to a sixty-year-old secret among magicians, and the nature of consciousness itself, we shine some light on three questions. But for each, we contend with an answerless space, leaving just enough room for the mystery and magic, always wondering what’s inside the Black Box.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Tim Howard and Molly Webster
Produced by Tim Howard and Molly Webster
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Radio Show: ABC's Keep Them Guessing (https://tinyurl.com/9r9zmftr)
LATERAL CUTS:
Last year we shared a story on our feed about butterfly researcher Dr. Martha Weiss, and how she befriended a little boy on the other side of the world who wanted to do his own caterpillar memory study.
Martha’s daughter Annie Rosenthal captured the whole adventure on tape and produced a gorgeous audio feature, “Caterpillar Roadshow,” which was first published in the audio magazine Signal Hill.
You can find it on our feed (https://zpr.io/xPdAYXFUMr4s)
–or on Signal Hill’s website. (https://zpr.io/a4bjPKeXJQWK)
Signup for our newsletter!! 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 Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLulu Miller· Host0:00
Hey, Lulu here. This week, we are bringing back an episode full of intrepid humans trying to access places that are off limits, trying to solve the unsolvable, know the unknowable, see the unseeable. I can't say much more than that without giving everything away, so I'm just gonna buckle you into a time machine and beam you back to 2014, phew, right into the studio with then-host Jad Abumrad and producer Tim Howard. Here we go.
Emery Brown· Guest0:30
Yep, you- wait, wait, you're listening [laughing]. [gentle music] Okay. All right.
Julie Fenster· Guest0:34
Okay.
Emery Brown· Guest0:35
All right.
Julie Fenster· Guest0:36
[clears throat] You're listening- Listening- To Radiolab.
Emery Brown· Guest0:40
Radiolab.
Julie Fenster· Guest0:40
From- WNYC. Hey!
Emery Brown· Guest0:43
Yeah.
Julie Fenster· Guest0:44
Rewind.
Speaker 30:48
Batting first, producer Tim Howard.
Tim Howard0:51
Cool, uh, wait, I'm just gonna get my level here. Da, da, ba, da, ba, ba, doo. It is such a beautiful day.
Patrick Purdon· Guest0:59
It's beautiful. I think it's gotta be, like, 75 degrees out or something. Sunny, um- This is Patrick Purdon.
Tim Howard1:04
He's a professor in anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, and works at Mass General Hospital. Yo, you wanna just tell me where we are?
Patrick Purdon· Guest1:10
Yeah, yeah. We're, we're standing right now, uh, in front of the Bullfinch Building, which- And I went up to talk to him, because in that building- Is, uh- This is the one with the Ether Dome? Ether Dome is inside this building.
Tim Howard1:20
Is the story of the day that you could say humanity emerged from the Dark Ages. [laughing] Oh, you laugh now.