Radiolab
I’m a fan.
I found out about it via old media, straight media, the "New York Times".
But it was the "Magazine", proving that long-form media is not dead.
Anyway, even though I make them, I’m not a podcast guy. I’d rather listen in real time. Be up to the minute as opposed to off on the sidelines.
But now I’m absolutely hooked.
And I’m not writing this to hook you, although maybe my excitement/passion will cause you to check it out, but to reveal the process, I feel like I’m in high school, following my passion because I have no choice, I now want to listen to each and every Radiolab podcast. That’s my goal. And when they run out I’m gonna be as disappointed as I was coming home from summer camp, how come the good things always end?
I won’t say I hate science, but I didn’t do well in it in school and always avoided it. So it’s kind of odd that I’m hooked by a science podcast.
But it’s more than that.
And when there’s no one grading, you can go at your own speed, follow your interest. I’ve become addicted to the Tuesday "New York Times" Science section too. I guess when it gets practical, how things work, I’m fascinated. There’s that word. I don’t use it often enough. But when I find something I like, when I find something that makes my eyes bug out, I know no limit to the amount of time I’ll spend pursuing it.
I liked Radiolab from the outset. But I wasn’t hooked, I wouldn’t quite say I was a fan. There was one brilliant episode about a brain-damaged long distance runner, but I could live without the podcast, it didn’t call to me.
The next few I listened to were interesting, one I talked about in my real life, but this week I’ve hit a run of superlative episodes, which were not only interesting in their own right, they applied to my own life. Like this one, about lying:
This podcast not only made my hair stand on end, it had me screaming, even though there was no one around to hear me.
You see Jude started dating Hope.
But Hope did not turn out to be who she said she was. Or maybe it’s that her story kept changing.
The end result, Jude can’t trust anyone new. He’s not made a single friend since his relationship with Hope.
I’ve lived this.
I’ve had a relationship that blew my trust that has made it so I still doubt the connection, the commitment, the truth. It’s nothing intellectual, it’s a feeling, a distance I keep, a reluctance to share certain things, to get close, to rely on people…because you just can’t trust anybody, at any given moment they’re going to do what’s expedient, not concerned about you, that bond you thought you had, you don’t.
Oh, don’t tell me to just get over it.
I can’t.
I thought it was just about getting older, having a series of relationships instead of marrying your first sweetheart.
Now I know it’s about this relationship with this one person.
Like Jude, I’m glad I made it to the other side. But I’m not back completely.
But the reason I’m telling you all this isn’t to reveal my personal story, which I must admit I’m dying to do, but to say this is exactly like it is with a band, a musical act. They create and create until suddenly it flies on someone’s radar screen. Then that person checks it out. Sometimes you fall in love immediately. But oftentimes the quicker the attraction, the sooner the abandonment. It’s the stuff that sneaks up on us that we stick with, that we love.
I didn’t know I was gonna be a Radiolab fanatic. It’s like loving a band, needing to go back and listen to everything they’ve ever done, surf the Web to fill in the history, starting with the band’s site and then on to Wikipedia and then random Googling, you just can’t get enough.
And it works best when there is a body of work. You can see the development, you can relish the feeling of abundance, of so much thrilling material to devour.
Since a body of work is required, a creator has to be at it for years to build this up. Oftentimes playing to few or no one, laboring in obscurity. But when something is great, it gains traction, usually slowly.
I’d go to a live Radiolab show, like the one they did in Minnesota, about "War Of The Worlds".
I need to dig deeper.
Because it fulfills me.
Listen to the above-referenced clip, it’ll wow you.
And if it doesn’t?
I guess you’re going to have to get your tips from someone else!
