WNYC® Radio Announces New Season of Radio Lab®

Beginning in February, Radio Lab Brings Discovery Out of the Lab and On to the Airwaves

Hosted by Jad Abumrad with ABC's Robert Krulwich Radio Lab Returns Friday, February 4 on 93.9FM, AM 820 and via live webstream at www.wnyc.org.

(January 20, 2005, New York, NY) - Beginning February 4, WNYC, New York Public Radio®'s Radio Lab returns to the airwaves to continue its investigations into How Things Work. Through conversations with experts in fields that end with "-ology," Radio Lab explores seemingly simple questions with big implications like...

• How might we use a flower to tell time?
• What exactly is time, anyway?
• What happens on your insides when you stand in the slow-moving line at the supermarket?
• And are we truly in control of what we choose to buy at that supermarket, or is free will just an illusion?
• Finally, why do used car dealerships always wind up on the same stretch of road?

With its utterly original approach to complex scientific concepts, in which the laboratory collides with street-level art and culture, Radio Lab seeks the answers and finds startling connections...between the wisdom of a Lower East Side upholsterer and the angst of an African baboon past his prime. Between ant labor and New York City's diamond district. Between what you order off the dinner menu and Einstein's theory of relativity. Radio Lab makes sense of much of it and wonders at the rest.

The sound and feel of the "Lab" emanate from the shared curiosity of its hosts, Jad Abumrad and his co-pilot, Robert Krulwich. Radio Lab's aesthetic, a sort of "magical realism" for the radio, blends reporting, storytelling, and conversation seamlessly with surreal sound design and cutting-edge production. For its adventurous pairing of an inimitable approach to science with innovative radio production, with humor, levity, and insight mixed in, Radio Lab has been hailed as "the future of radio."

SCHEDULE: RADIO LAB - WINTER 2005*
February 4 - March 4
Special 5-Week Season of Radio Lab
Fridays: 3pm on WNYC 93.9 FM, 7pm on 820AM
Sundays: 4pm on 93.9 FM, 8pm on AM 820
Via webstream at www.wnyc.org

February 28 - March 4 and March 7-11
Radio Lab Week
For two weeks, Radio Lab is a daily event!
February 28 - March 4: 3pm on WNYC 93.9 FM
March 7 - March 11: 7pm on WNYC AM 820
Via webstream at www.wnyc.org

*Detailed schedule below

SHOW HOSTS

Abumrad has been called "a new young master of the radio craft." The son of a scientist and a doctor, he combines his childhood laboratory experiments with a formal musical training to create lush radio settings for investigations into realms of the unknown, little-known, and still-more-to-be-known.

Abumrad is joined once again by ABC News correspondent, NOVA host, and Emmy Award-winning journalist Robert Krulwich, renowned for his ability to make science and other complex topics accessible, entertaining, and compelling. Prior to his work with Abumrad, Krulwich had been on hiatus from radio, where he got his start, since the early 1990s. He credits Abumrad with doing something intriguing enough to draw him back from television to radio.

The schedule is as follows:

Where am I?
February 4 3pm 93.9FM & 7pm AM 820:
The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests.
Today, it's neurologists who, armed with giant magnets, are asking the big questions, like "How does the brain make me?" We stare into the mirror with Dr. Julian Keenan, reflect on the illusion of self-hood with British neurologist Paul Broks, contemplate the evolution of consciousness with Dr. V. S. Ramachandran. Also: the story of woman who one day woke up as a completely different person. (Rebroadcast on February 6, 4pm 93.9FM, 8pm AM 820)

Stress
February 11 3pm 93.9FM & 7pm AM 820:
The body has a system for getting out of trouble. Back when trouble meant being chased by a tiger, that system gave us a real survival edge. But these days, "trouble" is more likely to mean waiting in traffic... and "the system" is more likely to make us sick. Stanford University neurologist (and part-time "baboon-ologist") Dr. Robert Sapolsky takes us through what happens on our insides when we stand in the wrong line at the supermarket and offers coping strategies such as: gnawing on wood, beating the crap out of somebody, and having friends. (Rebroadcast on February 13, 4pm 93.9FM, 8pm AM 820)

Who's in Charge Here?
February 18 3pm 93.9FM & 7pm AM 820:
What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscannini to conduct them into harmony. How? That's our question this hour. We gaze down at the bottom-up inner workings of cities, Google, even brains. Featured are: author Steven Johnson, mathematician Steve Strogatz and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch. Could understanding leaderless systems help us avoid traffic jams? One radical proposal from a Dutch traffic engineer: throw out all the traffic lights, lose the signs...and trust human nature. (Rebroadcast on February 20, 4pm 93.9FM, 8pm AM 820)

Time
February 25 3pm 93.9FM & 7pm AM 820
Radio Lab takes a spin through the history of time, making stops at the first railroad and the first high-speed photography, which froze a horse in mid-air. Joining us on this trip: Rebecca Solnit, author of River of Shadows and Jay Griffith, author of A Sideways Look at Time. We examine the relativity of time -- how time for You is different than time for Me -- with physicist Brian Greene and neurologist Oliver Sacks. And we'll hear a piece on the experience of listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony for 24 hours straight...but only hearing it once. (Rebroadcast on February 27, 4pm 93.9FM, 8pm AM 820)

Transcending Time
March 4 3pm 93.9FM & 7pm AM 820:
Einstein's Theory of Relativity may have implications on the concept of choice. Namely, that there is none. Do we choose what movie to see tonight? No. (It's already been chosen, some say.) Do we choose to wiggle our finger? No. (Already wiggled.) We'll visit a particle accelerator where scientists are recreating the moment just after the beginning of time. Swedish producer Marcus Lindeen introduces us to an artist in Dublin whose life is a 19 century time-experiment. And producer Ben Adair tours the Mojave dessert while coming to terms with his own brevity in the face of geological time. (Rebroadcast on March 6, 4pm 93.9FM, 8pm AM 820)

WNYC, New York Public Radio, is New York's premier public radio station, comprising WNYC 93.9 FM and WNYC AM 820. As America's most listened-to public radio stations, reaching more than one million listeners every week, WNYC FM and AM extend New York City's cultural riches to the entire country and air the best national offerings from affiliate networks National Public Radio and Public Radio International. WNYC 93.9 FM broadcasts a wide range of daily news, talk, cultural and classical music programming, while WNYC AM 820 maintains a stronger focus on breaking news and international news reporting. For more information, visit www.wnyc.org.