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Radiolab Trades Airwaves for Stage Time at UCLA
Photo courtesy Radiolab.
Oh look, another New York transplant is heading out west - at least for a night or two. WNYC’s Radiolab, the popular public radio / podcast storytelling show with a scientific bent, will be at Royce Hall on Wednesday (sold out) and Thursday evening as part of a three-city tour, eventually culminating in Seattle at the end of the month.
For those of you not familiar with Radiolab, it is consistently one of the highest-rated podcasts for both science and humor. With a loose show structure that lets the overall narrative bleed into the stories themselves (all backed by great music production, of course), Radiolab has settled nicely into a Moth / This American Life ven diagram overlap. The traveling version of the show, entitled Radiolab Live: Symmetry, is slated as a theatrical reproduction of an upcoming episode of their actual radio program. Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will both be present, along with cello accompaniment for the interstitials in what should be a great evening of science and conversation.
With dwindling federal support for public radio - or perhaps in spite of it - Radiolab and other shows of similar ilk (The Sound of Young America, for example) continue to keep the news/interview radio-turned-podcast genre refreshingly light, innovative, and mobile. In fact, the Wednesday night UCLA show has proven so popular that a Thursday night event was added to help aid in the inevitable overflow of ticket requests. If you enjoy the intersection between intelligence and humor, and you’ve got a whole bunch of time to sit in your car each morning, Radiolab represents a fantastic listening experience. Here’s to hoping it’s even better live.
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