RadioLab

I can't remember now where I first read about this great show, RadioLab on New York Public Radio. It's a science show that is really about being curious, and about story-telling It uses sound in a wonderful way. "Each hour is like a little movie for your ear" it says in the show's FAQ.

I am now listening to older shows by podcast on ITunes. So far I've listened to an amazing show about Zoos and animals. There's the story about the man who first built a gorilla habitat that was not a sterile concrete box, and what happened when the gorillas first set foot in their new home; the story about the man who stuttered so badly as a child, but could talk fluently to his pet animals when he sat in the closet with them in the dark. He ended up going to Central America and working to create a jaguar preserve in Belize.

The next show I want to listen to is about laughter. "Laughter: we all do it. But why?" Do animals laugh?

Is Laughter just a Human Thing?

Aristotle thinks that laughter is what separates us from the beasts. That a baby does not have a SOUL, until the moment it laughs for the first time. Historian Barry Sanders, author of Sudden Glory, says that according to Aristotle, this moment of "human ensouling" is supposed to happen when a baby is 40 days old. We follow radio producer Amanda Aronczyk as she tests this theory on her newborn baby.