Radio Lab 2008

Laughter
Sunday February 17 7pm & Monday March 17 9pm
What is laughter for? Are we humans the only ones that do it? In this hour, Radio Lab examines the purpose and power of the guffaw by tickling rats, listening in on a brand new baby's first giggle (which, according to Aristotle, should happen at precisely 40 days old) and we travel to a remote village in Tanzania where, in 1962, an entire village erupted in an epidemic of contagious laughter. To listen and learn more.

Deception
Sunday February 24 7pm & Tuesday March 18 9pm
Why do some people lie more than others? Maybe it's not moral weakness so much as anatomical strength. We talk with one researcher who has peered into the brains of pathological liars and found that certain parts of their lying brains are much bigger than those in truth-tellers. Also, the program looks at the joy of lying to one's own self and new efforts to teach airport security how to spot liars using only their eyes.To listen and learn more.

War of the Worlds
Sunday March 2 7pm & Wednesday March 19 9pm
This program explores one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history -- Orson Welles' 1938 radio play about Martians invading New Jersey. Why did it fool people then? And why has it continued to fool people since? From Santiago, Chile to Buffalo, New York to a particularly disastrous evening in Quito, Ecuador, we look at the power of mass media to create panic.

Pop Music
Sunday March 9 7pm & Thursday March 20 9pm
Why do some songs mercilessly stick in our heads and repeat themselves over and over? What makes these hooks so hooky? And what happens when a song, or just a piece, really and truly won't disappear from your head -- for years? This program features nightmarish stories of musical hallucinations, ear-worms that won't quit, and the triumphant return of the Elvis of Afghanistan.

(So Called) Life
Sunday March 16 7pm & Friday March 21 9pm
This program visits the place where the borders of life get blurry -- between species, between life and non-life, even between selves. We meet one woman, who, according to her DNA, is actually two women. And we look back at a time, at the beginning of life on this planet, when organisms engaged in the rampant sharing of guts and body parts and everything else.