In a thread somewhere I heard someone mention that listening to Radiolab is a good idea. I already subscribe to a Robert Krulwich podcast called Robert Krulwich on Science, which is an awesome, but infrequent podcast. Jad Abumrad was also an interesting person back on The Sound of Young America when interviewed by Jesse Thorn, who is part of Jordan, Jesse, Go! which is also one of my favorite podcasts. Anyway, this fusion of interests lead me to subscribe to the Radiolab podcast.
The first episode I managed to catch on the bus while returning home from work was mindblowingly awesome. It was piece recorded live in front of an audience about War of the Worlds, which happens to be one of those radio broadcasts I absolutely love.
I(f you have never heard War of the Worlds download and listen. It’s brilliant social engineering.)
Anyway, in this Radiolab episode about the War of the Worlds, they have managed to compile tons of facts about the original show, the inspiration, the imitators, and why these sorts of stories still affect people. People still want to believe, so they do, despite the story being so outlandish. It’s pretty incredible. Listening as they recreate the show, minute by minute, and explain how the different elements worked together to make an epic prank that fooled over a million people is really fascinating. Hearing about how this had been copied in Peru, and also done again thirty years later in America with a similar affect is really incredible. This sort of mass hysteria is very relevant now these days, both in Korea and the United States too.
While this is just a particular sweet spot of mine, where my love for War of the Worlds meets a well researched, very interesting podcast, there are four seasons of wonderful things that I can look forward to enjoying. Better yet, they are already posted on the Internet ready for me to download at my leisure. I’ve got hours upon hours of new, very good, very interesting podcasts to enjoy. This is a great find, and I’d highly recommend people to check out this series of shows. (RSS feed here.)
