• Life in a Barrel

  • Mar 4 2022
  • Length: 53 mins
  • Podcast
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

Life in a Barrel

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  • Summary

  • This week, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life.

    Latif, Lulu, and our Senior Producer Matt Kielty were all sitting on their own little stories until they got thrown into the studio, and had their cherished beliefs about the shape of life put on a collision course. From an accidental study of sea creatures, to the ambitions of Stephen J Gould, to an undercooked theory that captured the world’s imagination, we undo the seeming order of the living world and try to make some music out of the wreckage. (Bonus: Learn how Francis Crick really thought life got started on this planet).

    This episode was reported by Latif Nasser, Matt Kielty, Heather Radke, Lulu Miller and Candice Wang. It was produced by Matt Kielty and Simon Adler. Sound and music from Matt Kielty, Simon Adler, and Jeremy Bloom, and dialogue mix by Arianne Wack.Special thanks to Alan and Alida Goffinski for giving our chaos musical life in the song at the end of the episode.

    Radiolab is on YouTube! Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past — like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features, Radiolab live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!

    Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today.

    Citations in this episodeScientific Papers:Elisa Beninca, Reinhard Heerkloss, et al, “Chaos in a long-term experiment with a plankton community” Nature (2008)Hendrik Schubert, Reinhard Heerkloss, et al, “Chaos theory discloses triggers and drivers of plankton dynamics in a stable environment” Scientific Reports (2019)

    Books:Nick Lane, The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex LifeFrancis Crick, Life Itself: Its Origin and NatureStephen Jay Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, and The Mismeasure of ManDavid M. Raup, Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck?David Sepkoski, Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline
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Profile Image for Shawn G.

Interesting Chaos Theories

Good episode, but as usual, the actual Radio Lab people don't grasp what they're talking or reporting about. For example with the story on extinction maybe being random, they completely miss the entire point and apply the notion to every individual person instead of the species as a whole, which is what it applies to. not the individual person.

That's my only real complaint about Radio Lab ever, it's not the stories being reported on, it's not the people they are interviewing, it's not the production or setup. All of that is done very well with extremely knowledgeable people being interviewed on very interesting topics (most the time).

The problem is always the Radio Lab people giving their personal takes on what's being reported on. They are almost always wrong or misinterpreting or completely missing what's being talked about. Sometimes even completely contradicting the point while thinking they are agreeing and understanding.

I like they're inquisitive minds and they are great at putting forth this podcast in a very professional and interesting way, but they are not very bright outside that skill. And they constantly show this.

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