Radiolab

Unlocking The Secrets of Time

Neurologist Oliver Sacks tells us about his fascination with time. As his soon-to-be-published essay in the New Yorker will tell you, he's been fascinated by time and has used photography to get inside it since he was a little boy. We’ll hear a recording of a baby becoming a young woman, in “Nancy Grows Up.” “Nancy Grows Up” by Tony Schwartz from “Tony Schwartz Records the Sounds of Children” FW05583, provided courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. © 1970. Used by permission.

How did we get from a sundial - using the sun to tell us about the passing of time - to standarized time?

Radio Lab takes a spin through the history of time, making a stop at the way the railroads changed our experience of time and Rebecca Solnit, author of River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West joins us to describe how a photographs stopped time to create a horse floating in the air.

Plus Jay Griffiths, author of A Sideways Look at Time, introduces us to the variety of clocks- spice clocks, flower clocks, potato clocks- that predated the wristwatch.

More on Muybridge's Horses on the Getty Museum website
Read Oliver Sacks' books
Jay Griffiths' book, A Sideways Look At Time
Rebecca Solnit's book, River Of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West

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It's All Relative

Actual Show Notes: Slowing Robert Krulwich by sending him into space required some serious math skills

Both physicist Brian Greene and neurologist Oliver Sacks explain the very strange, very subjective nature of time.

The elasticity of experience is expressed by sound artist Ben Rubin in a piece he produced for The Next Big Thing. We include an excerpt on being in "the zone." His story features track stars: Shawn Crawford, Amy Acuff, Brendon Couts, Jason Pyrah, Derrek Atkins, Jon Drummond, and Larry Wade.

Play with Einstein's Theory of Relativity
Read Brian Greene's books
Visit the National Track & Field Hall of Fame and Interactive Learning Center

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Ruled By Time

The self-declared Independent State of Trolheim does not recognize GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Jay Griffiths argues that the question of what time it is in inextricably bound up with issues of power and politics. And we&'ll hear a piece from producer Aaron Ximm on the experience of listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony for 24 hours straight- but only hearing it once.

Listen to the whole "9 Beet Stretch"
Find out more about Trolheim
Aaron Ximm's website

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Credits

Produced by Jad Abumrad & Ellen Horne with help from Max Bach, Brenna Farrell, Miguel Gomez-Estern, Sally Herships, Miyuki Jokiranta, Amy O’Leary, Volkan Unsal and Trent Wolbe. Special thanks to Andy Lanset and Ben Adair.

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