Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Big questions are investigated, tinkered with, and encouraged to grow. Bring your curiosity, and we'll feed it with possibility.
Comment on Stochasticity Bonus Video! by Music video of stochasticity for Radiolab science podcast | dv8-designs
[...] Music video of stochasticity for Radiolab science podcast July 3rd, 2009 admin Leave a comment Go to comments Higher Mammals made a song and video to accompany Radiolab’s recent show about stochasticity. If you don’t already know about Radiolab, it’s a terrific science podcast produced for WYNC public radio. Radiolab Stochasticity Bonus Video! [...]
Congratulations Jad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! !!!!!
First, I love the frequency of the shows, you guys are so much fun to listen to! and please keep featuring higher mammals, they always add something great to the show! Oh and though you may not do another podcast on how you make the podcast, maybe you could do a show on sound? Really getting into that and would love to know some of the very cool techniques you use when editing the show
Second, how can you find comfort in the existence of free will, while practically saying it doesn't exist after? By saying that the universe is extremely complicated yet always predictable, doesn't that take away any sense of free will, and place it as just a part of another pattern? And if free will is just a pattern, then we don't really seem to have much control over any decision, etc., since it would happen no matter what, being that everything was a pattern and would occur regardless of any "conscious decision" we made. This would only give us the illusion of free will, right? There may very well be a very complicated equation that comes close to predicting the batting average of baseball players [and the rest of everything else in the universe?!], but if the brain really does use a randomness factor in making decisions, then a pattern may only come close to predicting these things, unless there is some way to incorporate randomness into an equation. Also, things like music, may have patterns in them and progressions that are expected, many times by ourselves while we are listening or composing, but as a musician, i don't see how you could write an equation for predicting exactly how a piece will go, or be written etc. And if the universe has the appearance of being ultimately planned, where did the patterns originate? It seems as if you have to incorporate some randomness or, as they said, we could not exist.
Nevertheless, life is beautiful :) great shows radiolab-ies
woo hoo! another great episode! congratulations, guys. This one is fantastic. My friends and I have been looking forward to that classic Radiolab goodness we know and love. This is it. Smart, scientific, sexy, and despite the errata, which you have tactfully broadcasted, it is, in a word, bueno. With you from the start.
After we released our show about Stochasticity, we received a lot of comments about the idea humans can be just as predictable as coins. In that show, Jonah Lehrer was telling us about a study on the 82-83 76ers, and he was saying that even when a basketball player is supposedly hot – really on a streak – he is no more likely to make his next shot that any other time. Basketball players are slaves to their averages. Well, it turns out this isn’t the whole story.
In fact, right before we released the show, Jad got a call from Steve Strogatz, a mathematician from Cornell University.
After talking to Steve, we turn to neuroscientist Paul Glimcher, as he and Gregory Warner explore whether the little choices we make every day are predictable or not.
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Radiolab is doing something new in our podcasts. Starting with this podcast, we will be releasing our hour-long episodes on a regular, rhythmic schedule. Between each episode, you will get two podcasts that follow some detour or left turn, explore music we love, take you to live events, and generally try to shake up your universe.
This hour, Radiolab examines Stochasticity, which is just a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness. How big a role does randomness play in our lives? Do we live in a world of magic and meaning or … is it all just chance and happenstance? To tackle this question, we look at the role chance and randomness play in sports, lottery tickets, and even the cells in our own body. Along the way, we talk to a woman suddenly consumed by a frenzied gambling addiction, two friends whose meeting seems purely providential, and some very noisy bacteria.
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We have a special bonus this week to accompany our Stochasticity episode. We asked our friends, Higher Mammals to produce a song and video for our Stochasticity show. We hope you find it completely Random!
Higher Mammals features Josh Kurz and Shane Winter, with additional vocals from Jason Major, Kendra May, and Wendy Roderweiss.
Comment on Stochasticity Bonus Video! by Music video of stochasticity for Radiolab science podcast | dv8-designs
[...] Music video of stochasticity for Radiolab science podcast July 3rd, 2009 admin Leave a comment Go to comments Higher Mammals made a song and video to accompany Radiolab’s recent show about stochasticity. If you don’t already know about Radiolab, it’s a terrific science podcast produced for WYNC public radio. Radiolab Stochasticity Bonus Video! [...]more