Alan Goffinski is a producer and music director for Terrestrials, a program of WNYC’s award winning Radiolab. He is producer and sound designer for Our Common Nature with Yo-Yo Ma. Alan has served as technical director for projects at New York Public Radio and has made audio for NPR, BBC, Radiolab, University of Virginia, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and The Brown Arts Institute. Formerly a social worker specializing in childhood development, Alan’s pivot into audio was spurred by a half-decade of touring nationally in a punk band. His first foray into storytelling was for stage and puppet performance as a founding member of the art collective Know No Stranger. He’s honored to have projects win 2 Black Podcasting Awards, a Webby Award, inclusion in Pushkin’s Best Audio Storytelling and a Tribeca Audio debut.
Alan Goffinski appears in the following:
The Fuzzy Ruckus: The Power of Lichen
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Artist Ashley (Ash) Eliza Williams was so shy growing up that they found it hard to speak to people. Instead, they withdrew from the world of humans and found comfort in the forest, ...
Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal
Friday, November 21, 2025
Yo-Yo Ma tries to tap into the vein of coal that runs through West Virginia.
The Bullseye: Treasure Hunt to Recursive Islands
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Join us on a wild recursive island adventure.
The Crystal Ball: Giant Honeybees Who Predict the Future
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
How to save all the honey bees in the world.
The Snowball: Extreme Squirrels in the Arctic
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
We learn about the arctic ground squirrel — the only mammal that can survive in a braindead state for weeks.
The Stumpisode: The Wild World of Tree Stumps!
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
How dead trees sustain the living.
Terrestrials: Stumpisode
Friday, October 04, 2024
As dead as they seem, tree stumps are hubs of life and relationships.
The Moon Itself
Friday, April 05, 2024
There’s a total solar eclipse coming. On Monday, April 8, for a large swath of North America, the sun will disappear, in the middle of the day. Everywhere you look, people are talking...
Short Cuts: Drawn Onward
Tuesday, April 02, 2024
As a treat for the first palindrome date of the calendar year 2024, 4/2/24, (for those who use U.S. formatting of dates anyway), we are releasing a special audio palindrome. A piece t...
Our Little Stupid Bodies
Friday, January 12, 2024
A series of energetically uneasy investigations into the temple of our souls.
The largest musical instrument in the world is underground in a Virginia cave
Tuesday, November 07, 2023
Luray Caverns in Northern Virginia is celebrating 50 years of being a National Natural Landmark. It's also the place that holds the largest musical instrument in the world.
The world's largest musical instrument is in the mountains of Virginia
Sunday, November 05, 2023
Luray caverns in Virginia have been a natural landmark for 50 years. They also hold the world's largest musical instrument, a Stalacpipe organ.
Every Voice with Terrance McKnight: Abduction from the Seraglio
Thursday, July 06, 2023
In this final episode of the four-part radio series, host Terrance McKnight goes in search of opera’s future with composers, musicians, and thinkers of today.
Every Voice with Terrance McKnight: Aida
Monday, July 03, 2023
WQXR
Terrance McKnight digs into the musical, historical, and social environment that gave rise to Verdi's Aida.
Love Is in the Air
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Love is in the air as we take to the skies with two stories of winged creatures that rocked our understanding of what's natural in animals—and in us.
Every Voice with Terrance McKnight: The Magic Flute
Monday, June 19, 2023
In this episode of Every Voice, get to know the character of Monostatos, the enslaved overseer of the wizard Sarastro’s temple.
Abduction from the Seraglio: A Dream Interrupted
Thursday, May 18, 2023
In the prime of his illustrious career, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ran in the realm of prominent, Black visionaries, composed the radical (unfinished) opera “Zaide” depicting a slave rev...
