Streams

Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich has been called “the most inventive network reporter in television” by TV Guide.

His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, economics, in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. On television he has explored the structure of DNA using a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, “Ratto Interesso” to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight.

Robert now reports for National Public Radio. His NPR blog, “Krulwich Wonders”, features drawings, cartoons and videos that illustrate hard-to-see concepts in science. He is also co-host of “Radiolab”, a nationally distributed radio series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. (“There’s nothing like it on the radio, “ says Ira Glass of This American Life, “It’s a act of crazy genius.”) Radiolab won a Peabody Award in 2011.

For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News. He has won Emmy awards for a cultural history of Barbie, the world famous doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and an Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout, and the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Krulwich earned a BA in history from Oberlin College, a law degree from Columbia University in 1974.

Shows:

Robert Krulwich appears in the following:

David Foster Wallace Tells Us About Freedom

Saturday, May 18, 2013

What do you get when you get a college diploma? To hear David Foster Wallace tell it, you get a muscle that will help you forever after — in shopping lines, overcrowded parking lots, in traffic jams. This muscle, he says, frees you when the world gets painfully dull.

Comment

What Did I Do Last Summer? Oh, I Discovered How To Make Babies Without Sex. And You?

Friday, May 17, 2013

Sex is nice, but can animals make babies without it? One summer, two little boys, their tutor and the tutor's two friends did an experiment to explore this question. What they discovered, back in 1740, shocked the world.

Comment

What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Bees could build flat honeycombs from just three shapes: squares, triangles or hexagons. But for some reason, bees choose hexagons. Always "perfect" hexagons. Why?

Comment

Astronomy's Little Secret: The Hidden Art Of 'Moonsweeping'

Saturday, May 11, 2013

If you live in North America, this week we had a crescent moon — a skinny sliver of light shaped like a toenail in the sky. Why that shape? Astronomers say it's a "phase." Most of the moon is in shadow. Pixar knows better. Meet the Moon Sweepers. A Grandpa, a dad and a boy.

Comment

Music, Inside Out

Friday, May 10, 2013

What would it be like to be a string that made music? Not anything simple, like a guitar string or a cello string, but a magical string, a sine curve that's taut then loose, that doubles then doubles again, that sheds then dissolves into showers of notes.

Comment

Moths That Drive Cars (Really)

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Welcome to the New World in which, no kidding, insects run robots. In this case, 14 moths take 14 drives in a wheeled vehicle and steer right to the target. Seeing is believing.

Comment

Wildlife That Isn't Wild And Isn't Alive

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

They're out of the lab now, flying through the air, crawling in the grass, buzzing near you, swimming in the ocean. They're robots. They're among us. We don't notice yet. But we will.

Comment

Our Very Normal Solar System Isn't Normal Anymore

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Turns out our solar system — with its medium sized sun, its four small rocky planets, its four big gassy ones farther out — isn't like the others. We are unusual. Very unusual. Says one prominent astronomer, we are "a bit of a freak."

Comment

The Boomerang Rocket Ship: Shoot It Up, Back It Comes

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

SpaceX calls it the "Grasshopper" — it's a rocket that doesn't fall back to Earth haphazardly after launch. It carefully returns itself to the launchpad standing up, right where it started.

Read More

Comment

The Boomerang Rocket Ship: Shoot It Up, Back It Comes

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

SpaceX calls it the "Grasshopper" — it's a rocket that doesn't fall back to Earth haphazardly after launch. It carefully returns itself to the launchpad standing up, right where it started.

Comment

Nobody Throws Balls Like Yu

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Ever want to look back in time? With "time merge media," you can watch athletes dribble, swing and dance, and even throw five pitches at once.

Comment

Mysterious Silly Putty Devours Innocent Magnets

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

If you liked the movie The Blob, then feast your eyes on this: It's tricked-out Silly Putty in the form of a gelatinous monster that eats magnets for lunch.

Comment

A Wet Towel In Space Is Not Like A Wet Towel On Earth

Sunday, April 21, 2013

On Earth, a really wet wash cloth, squeezed tight, will drip. Watch what happens in space.

Comment

Monkeys, Mai Tais And Us

Saturday, April 20, 2013

All animals are wired for pleasures that will lead them to reproduce, hunt for food and protect their young. The problem is, in some animals, like in some humans, the natural urge for good times gets untamed.

Comment

Trees On Top Of Skyscrapers? Yes! Yes, Say I. No! No, Says Tim

Friday, April 19, 2013

Two residential towers, dense with trees, will have their official opening later this year in downtown Milan. Blogger and critic Tim De Chant thinks it's high-time we stop planting trees on skyscrapers. Krulwich disagrees.

Comment

A 'Whom Do You Hang With?' Map of America

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Put away that old Rand McNally map — it's time for a new way to see what America really looks like.

Read More

Comments [7]

A 'Whom Do You Hang With?' Map Of America

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Put away that old Rand McNally map — it's time for a new way to see what America really looks like.

Comment

Who Stands Where In A Crowded Elevator And Why?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

When a bunch of people get into an elevator, do they segregate in any predictable way? Do tall ones stand in the back? Do men stand in different places than women? Who looks where?

Read More

Comments [42]

Who Stands Where In A Crowded Elevator And Why?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

When a bunch of people get into an elevator, do they segregate in any predictable way? Do tall ones stand in the back? Do men stand in different places than women? Who looks where?

Comment

Is This Science Journalism? Nah. Then What Is It?

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The images are sharp and concentrated. But this isn't art, it's more than advertising, and it's not quite education. It's an invitation.

Comment