Robert Krulwich

Host Emeritus, Radiolab

Robert Krulwich appears in the following:

Thomas Jefferson Needs A Dead Moose Right Now To Defend America

Thursday, January 16, 2014

They were so young, the folks who invented America. James Madison, on July 4, 1776, was 25. James Monroe was 18, Alexander Hamilton, 21, Marquis de Lafayette, 18, Aaron Burr, 20, Betsy Ross, 24, Gilbert Stuart, 20. Ben Franklin, of course, was much older, grander and world famous. But he ...

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Thomas Jefferson Needs A Dead Moose Right Now To Defend America

Thursday, January 16, 2014

There are no moose in America, said the French count to Thomas Jefferson. They don't exist there. Americans see a reindeer and just call it a new name, saying it's bigger. But the onl...
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Who's Got A Pregnant Brain?

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Something happened to dolphins. Then it happened to humans. Both creatures had good-sized brains when, for reasons no one truly understands, dolphin brains suddenly got larger and lar...
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Who's Got A Pregnant Brain?

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Imagine a couple of million years ago, a curious young alien from the planet Zantar — let's call him a grad student — lands on Earth, looks around, and asks, "Who's the brainiest critter on this planet? Relative to body size, who's got the biggest brain?"

The answer, back then, ...

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Go Where Raisins Swell Into Grapes, And Lemons Light The Sky

Saturday, January 11, 2014

There's a book by the novelist China Mieville that describes two cities plopped one on top of the other. One is large-scale, the other smaller-scale, and while they live in entangled proximity, both cities have the same rule. Each says to its citizens, pay no attention — on ...

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Go Where Raisins Swell Into Grapes, And Lemons Light The Sky

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Come to a place where peppers are so hot, fire trucks come to douse them. Pomegranates explode like grenades there, spaghetti threatens innocent sailors, and the moon is made of cinna...
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A Rain Forest Begins With Rain, Right? Is This A Trick Question?

Thursday, January 09, 2014

This is a "Which came first?" riddle. Not chicken vs. egg. This one is about rain forests. When rain forests begin, do they start with rain ("Yes!" say I) or trees ("No! That's ridicu...
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A Rain Forest Begins With Rain, Right? Is This A Trick Question?

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Think of a rain forest — rich with trees, covered by clouds, wet all the time.

Then ask yourself, how did this rain forest get started?

I ask, because the answer is so going to surprise you. It's not what you think.

Until I saw the video you're about to ...

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Oh Say, Can You See? A Musical Salute

Thursday, January 09, 2014

You've heard it a thousand times, maybe 10,000. Is there any way to make "The Star-Spangled Banner" fresh? Even fascinating? There is (Jimi Hendrix aside). Here is a new one that did ...
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Am I Going To Die This Year? A Mathematical Puzzle

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

A few years ago, physicist Brian Skinner asked himself: What are the odds I will die in the next year? He was 25. What got him wondering about this, I have no idea, but, hey, it's something everybody asks. When I can't wedge my dental floss between my two ...

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Am I Going To Die This Year? A Mathematical Puzzle

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

What are the odds that you will die this year? Whatever they are, the mortality tables suggest those odds will double eight years from now. Death, apparently, moves closer at a curiou...
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Oh Say, Can You See? A Musical Salute

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Some things are so familiar, so fixed in our heads, that we stop noticing them. Buckle-your-seat-belt instructions in an airplane, for example. You don't have to listen. You know the drill.

Here's another: "The Star-Spangled Banner." You vaguely hear the words, but all you're really doing is waiting to get ...

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Billboards That Drop Angels On Your Head

Saturday, January 04, 2014

There you are in a train station, and if you stand in the right space, suddenly an angel — a lady with enormous wings, looking like the real deal — appears at your side. She's not rea...
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Billboards That Drop Angels On Your Head

Saturday, January 04, 2014

There you are in the middle of the city, traffic all around, planes buzzing above and you notice a little boy on a giant screen pointing up.

"Look," says the boy. And you look, and the on-screen boy is pointing at an actual plane flying in the sky. He knows ...

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'You're Invisible, But I'll Eat You Anyway.' Secrets Of Snow-Diving Foxes

Friday, January 03, 2014

I'm a fox. It's January. I'm hungry. I want a meal. My food, however, is buried 3 feet down, deep in the snow, hiding. It's alive, in motion, and very small, being a mouse. So how does an above-ground fox catch an underground mouse? Well, the answer is nothing short ...

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'You're Invisible, But I'll Eat You Anyway.' Secrets Of Snow-Diving Foxes

Friday, January 03, 2014

They leap into the air, adjust their tails, land headfirst in the snow, burrow down and hit a teeny moving target — buried three feet below. It's their lunch. How does a fox catch a m...
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Animal Loses Head But Remembers Everything

Thursday, January 02, 2014

They're little flatworms that glide along riverbeds and perform miracles. Chop off their tails, they grow them back. Split them in half, they grow whole again. But chop off their head...
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Animal Loses Head But Remembers Everything

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

When I first saw this," says cell biologist Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado, "it was with total amazement."

This is a worm. It's called a planarian. It's about an inch long, and you'll find it gliding along the bottoms of rivers and ponds all over the world. It's very flat, ...

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This Is Bo, Who's Putting New Beats In New Places. You Should Meet Him

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

This isn't science. Not today. It's art — in this case, the sly performance of a young comedian who is accosted backstage by not-so-nice "fans." But he gets free (wait for this, it co...
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This Is Bo, Who's Putting New Beats In New Places. You Should Meet Him

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Every so often — and it isn't often, because while I'm always looking, always hoping, it's so rare to find — but this week it happened. A friend sent me an email that said, "You've got to check out this video."

I did. And what I saw was somebody doing ...

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