Friday Journal

Host Larry Massett spends a "Long Day on the Road" with ex-KGB in the Republic of Georgia. Scott Carrier starts in Salt Lake and ends on the Atlantic in this cross-country "Hitchhike." Lemon Jelly adds beats to the life of a "Ramblin' Man." The band Richmond Fontaine sends musical postcards from the flight of "Walter On the Lam." And Mark Allen tells a tale of a tryst with a "Kinko's Crackhead."

In this hour, we present a series of Radio Lab podcasts created to promote the fall season, which begins in September. Highlights include a discussion of death, constructing universes with string theory researcher Brian Green and a making of Radio Lab recorded live at an Apple store in New York City.

What's in a name? Everything, if that name is carcinoma, or Alzheimer's, or AIDS. Diagnosis comes with a tangled entourage of emotional, social, and medical implications for patient and diagnostician alike. We ride along on the subways and streets of NYC with a young man who's been keeping his mental disorder a secret from his family. We step behind the curtain that separates patients from doctors and find a roller coaster of detachment, empathy, and Gallows humor that accompanies the responsibilities of medical professionals. And we lose ourselves in a historical mystery racing to find our way back from a wrong turn that led to the fatal radiation treatment of healthy babies.

At the turn of the millennium, researchers succeeded in sequencing the entirety of the human genome and our President exulted in announcing that humans, regardless of race, are more than 99.9 percent the same. But as scientists continue to parse the genome into smaller fragments, is turns out that maybe race, or rather ancestry, does have a genetic signature. We find ourselves at the scene of a crime swamped by news reporters and fearful citizens, and visit a DNA lab where machines hiss and thump as they map out the identity of a single human. We migrate with our ancestors across geographic and cultural boundaries, and wind up in the lunchroom of one of the country's most diverse middle schools to talk about the rainbow of hyphenated ethnic distinctions in teenage life. Finally, we follow an Iraqi man back through his memories of the narrow divisions between Sunni and Shi'a that terrorized daily life in Baghdad.

Peering through his microscope at the seeds of human life, the discoverer of sperm thought he was seeing the smallest incarnation of a human soul. If that was the case, why so many wasted souls? We turn to the animal kingdom to answer that question, which lands us on a tour of sperm battles in ducks, flying pig sperm, and promiscuous whippoorwills. We ponder the necessity of males in a world where sperm can be frozen and kept for all eternity. And we sit quietly in the stark sonic space with a widow struggling to keep some essence of her husband alive through sperm collected from his body minutes after his death.

Having an abundance of choices is the hallmark of freedom, but does it make you happy? Just because we have more choices doesn't mean we're better at choosing. We scan rows upon rows upon rows of brilliantly colored, sensuously textured fruits in an upscale market seeking the peak of gustatory delight. We jostle through the sensory overload of the ding! ding! ding! place your bets.blip clang!clang! of an Atlantic City casino calibrated to overwhelm and overpower our cool, calm logic, and then escape into the quiet mind of a perfectly rational man on our journey to understand how emotion and logic interact to guide us through a million decisions a day. We turn up the volume on the voices in our heads and try to make sense of the babble. Forget free will, some important decisions could come down to a steaming cup of coffee.

All week NHPR has looked at energy alternatives to fossil fuels, including solar, wind, nuclear, biomass and more. We looked at powering the grid, heating the home and fueling the car. We looked what’s already being done in the state, what’s right around the corner, and what could be exciting opportunities in our future. But how do we figure out where we go from here? Today decisionmakers in the state join us for a special live broadcast to talk about New Hampshire’s energy future.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, and travel to a remote village in Tanzania where, in 1962, an entire village erupted in an epidemic of contagious laughter.

The House and the Senate may think one or the other is an April fool, but if there's one thing they can agree on, it's to tune into the Capitol Steps new special! Recorded live at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC.

According to the latest research, recall is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process. It's easy come, easy go as we learn how true memories can be obliterated and false ones added. Neurologist Oliver Sacks also joins us to tell the story of an amnesiac whose love for his wife and music transcend his seven second memory.

In a cruel trick of evolution, humans can stand just three feet from a ferocious wild animal and still be perfectly safe. What's with humans' need to get close to "wildness?" We start with the Romans and end in the wilds of Belize, staring into the eyes of forest jaguar.

Every creature sleeps -- from giant hump back whales all the way down to fruit flies. Yet, science still can't answer the basic questions: Why do animals sleep? What is it for? We eavesdrop on the uneasy dreams of rats in search of answers.

Could the best medicine be no medicine at all? With new research demonstrating the startling power of the placebo effect, Radio Lab examines the chemical consequences of belief and imagination -- from the symbolic power of the doctor coat to the very real stash of opium in your mind.

Mind and body are in constant communication (neuroscientists call this the brain-body loop), but the loop can get out-of-sync -- even broken. This hour: stories of people whose brains and bodies have lost each other. We begin with a century-old mystery: why do many amputees still feel their missing limbs? We speak with a neuroscientist who solved the problem with a magician's trick: an optical illusion. We continue with the story of a butcher who suddenly lost his entire sense of touch, and how, after many years, he managed to grow a new sense. And we hear from pilots who lose consciousness and suffer out-of-body experiences while flying fighter jets.

Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? We peer inside the brains of people contemplating moral dilemmas, watch chimps at a primate research center share blackberries, observe a playgroup of 3 year-olds fighting over toys, and tour the country's first penitentiary Eastern State Prison. Also: the story of land grabbing, indentured servitude, and slum lording in the fourth grade.

What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others? We examine the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and we meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work. We also re-imagine the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, through the lens of modern neurology.

Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this hour, we hear surprising stories of playing detective, and find that what really happened in the past is not always what you'd expect. We start at a trash dump in Egypt, where we find Jesus, Satan, sissies, and porn. Next, the mystery of how hundreds of old letters written to the same woman were discovered on the side of Route 101. And lastly, a blood sampling tour of Asia reveals a prolific baby-maker and a potential world conqueror.

The body has a system for getting out of trouble. Back when trouble meant being chased by a tiger, that system gave us a real survival edge. But these days, "trouble" is more likely to mean waiting in traffic... and "the system" is more likely to make us sick. Stanford University neurologist (and part-time "baboonologist") Dr. Robert Sapolsky takes us through what happens on our insides when we stand in the wrong line at the supermarket and offers a few coping strategies -- gnawing on wood, beating the crap out of somebody, and having friends.

The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. Today, it's neurologists who, armed with giant magnets, are asking the big questions, like "How does the brain make me?" We stare into the mirror with Dr. Julian Keenan, reflect on the illusion of self-hood with British neurologist Paul Broks, contemplate the evolution of consciousness with Dr. V. S. Ramachandran. Also, the story of woman who one day woke up as a completely different person.

What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. How? That's the question this program explores. We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very own brains. Featured guests include author Steven Johnson, fire-flyologists John and Elizabeth Buck, biologist E.O. Wilson, Ant expert Debra Gordon, mathematician Steve Strogatz, economist James Surowiecki, and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity may have implications on the concept of choice. Namely, that there is none. Do we choose what movie to see tonight? No. (It's already been chosen, some say.) Do we choose to wiggle our finger? No. (Already wiggled.) This hour of Radio Lab features conversations with scientists and an entire cast of characters who are all waging battle against time –- or at least the common sense view of time. We'll visit a particle accelerator where scientists recreate the moment just after the beginning of time ... and also a Dublin artist whose life is a 19 century time-experiment. We end in the Mojave desert, where geologic time flows like a frozen hourglass.

Jorge Luis Borges wrote, "Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire," and it's as close a definition as we have. But maybe if we slow time down enough, or speed it up enough, we can unlock its secrets. On this week's show, we try and do just that.

Master story teller Gioia Timpanelli (Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily) celebrates one of our oldest forms, and most vital, of expression, in this first in a series of seasonal specials. This hour-long winter season special draws on traditional and contemporary story and memoir to explain and express all the cycles of existence, our relationship to nature and each other, and the quiet miracle of day to day life. Program segments include readings by Timpanelli of traditional Indian and Japanese stories and a compelling interview with Robert Bly. Robert reads powerful poems of his own and engages Gioia Timpanelli in their meaning and process.

US public diplomacy was a critical weapon in the Cold War, but today America is shooting blanks in the information war. We visit Morocco to explore how public diplomacy is missing the mark, and Egypt to find out what tactics hit the target. We trace America’s efforts to present itself to the world over the last century, and we talk to Reagan Administration officials about how they communicated with Europe amid a firestorm of protest over the U.S. decision to deploy nukes in Germany.

This DIY documentary explores the benefits and challenges of showing art in unusual spaces and walking the line between vandalism and public art. You'll hear Scott Wayne Indiana, the artist behind the popular "horse project" on Portland, Oregon sidewalks and Chris Haberman, who has shown his work in convenience stores and sold paintings out of the trunk of his car. This documentary also takes you inside the tiniest gallery in Portland. Just three and a half feet high, the Core Gallery is a popular gallery space in Anna Todaro's Everett Station loft apartment. Take an audio journey inside Alisha Wessler and Cin Shepherd's installation in the Core with a soundtrack by Stirling Myles. Dallas Oliver also talks about installation art in strange places and a pair of performance artists.

The Institute of Infinitely Small Things is a Boston-based group of so-called social scientists that conducts creative, participatory research that aims to temporarily transform public spaces dominated by non-public agendas. Using performance and conversation, they investigate social and political "tiny things". These have included corporate ads, street names, and post-9/11 security terminology. The Institute markets dissent through its research reports in the form of maps, books and videos. Justin Grotelueschen interviewed a few of the Institute members on a Sunday afternoon while they prepared boxes for the Unmarked Package project:

In the winter of 1872 a young French anthropologist, Alphonse Pinart, traveled the Kodiak archipelago by kayak, assembling one of the most extensive collections of Alutiiq ceremonial masks in the world , and brought them back to France. In May 2008, 34 of these Alutiiq ceremonial masks were exhibited at The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska. Produced by Peabody-award-winner Dmae Roberts, this complex, sound-rich production features triptych storytelling, compelling interviews and music from Kodiak Island where Alutiiq/Sugpiaq peoples are undergoing a cultural renaissance.

The World Vision Report is a weekly radio program that captures the human drama behind global issues and events, hosted by Peggy Wehmeyer, former ABC World News Tonight correspondent. Coming up on this week's World Vision Report... The increasing cost of food grains affects more than just consumers. In Pakistan, it threatens the country's traditional bread-makers. And when it comes to feeding the hungry, some aid groups say it's better to give cash than food. Those stories, the amnesty program for rebels in Colombia, baseball's growing popularity in Ghana, pop music from Nigeria, and a lot more -- all on this week's World Vision Report.

The dramatic 1968 presidential election was a watershed in American politics. For half a century, the Democratic Party had dominated the political landscape. But in 1968, it crumbled. Richard Nixon was elected president and a new era of Republican conservatism was born. Some say 2008 may be the end of that era. "Campaign '68" will reveal to contemporary listeners the remarkable resonances between these two landmark political years, and how the events and consequences of 1968 help us better understand the 2008 race.

Get inside the creative mind with some of Studio 360's most memorable stories during our Fall Pledge Drive.

Enjoy some of Radiolab's best-loved segments during our Fall Pledge Drive.

American RadioWorks investigates the mysterious death of an Iraq War veteran and uncovers new allegations of detainee abuse. This powerful documentary follows members of a U.S. Army unit and their struggle to come to terms with what they did, and didn't do, in Iraq.

The wave of immigrants from south of the border has forever changed America. Big, coastal cities have absorbed immigrants for decades. But today, immigrants are changing the culture and the economics of cities and small towns nationwide. In the South, a small town adjusts to its deepest cultural change since the Civil Rights movement. And in a Midwestern city, a neighborhood is reborn when immigrants move in — but the rebirth comes at a price. Pueblo, USA shows how the immigrants are both a boon and a burden to their new communities.

“The Next President: A World of Challenges” will take place as the general election campaign swings into high gear, and the presidential candidates and the world focus on complex global issues ranging from violent extremism, the global economy, and climate change. Secretaries Madeleine K. Albright, James A. Baker, III, Warren Christopher, Henry Kissinger and Colin L. Powell will offer a unique discussion giving valuable insight to the national debate that will be underway over the future direction of American global leadership and the role of diplomacy. The event is hosted by The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and School of Media and Public Affairs, Center for a New American Security, Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and The City College of New York’s Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. Cooperating as media partners, CNN and America Abroad will broadcast the event as a special report. The event will be moderated by Frank Sesno, director of GW’s Public Affairs Project and CNN special correspondent, and Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international correspondent. The roundtable discussion will include questions from the audience.

From iPods to Google to Facebook - information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected - but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the second of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act. Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them... why your iPod may improve your health... why Facebook may leave you friendless... the unintended consequences of past innovation... and the growing threat of "videophilia."

The political climate has changed. Republican John McCain agrees with Democrat Barack Obama that the US must play a leading role in cooling down mother earth. But they don’t exactly agree on how to turn down the temperature. And the winner of the election will face stormy skies next year as the world tries to hammer out a successor to the contentious Kyoto accord. Developed and developing countries are facing off over how to create an environmentally and economically friendly way to clear the air. The negotiations threaten to be a carbon copy of the last standoff over who has to reign in their emissions. It’s not easy being green.

Friday Journal was preempted for coverage of John McCain introducing his running mate; the program Sand Still in My Shoes was scheduled to be broadcast.

In 2006, Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall was left for dead on Mount Everest. Twelve hours later, he was found by a fellow climber, alive and sitting cross-legged on the ridge of the mountain. Lincoln Hall recounts this remarkable tale in his book, "Dead Lucky" and also in a speech at the Commonwealth Club of California.

You may have heard there's no such thing as a free lunch, but David Cay Johnston says there is — and wealthy Americans do get richer because of it. In an April 14, 2008 speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of "Free Lunch," outlines how government-private sector collusion affects the middle class and the poor.

Summer is the season of insects and therefore, the season of insect repellant. The human battle with bugs has been going on for centuries, but James McWilliams says chemical insecticides came into the picture by accident. McWilliams is a fellow in the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University and an associate professor of history at Texas State University. His new book is "American Pests: The Losing War on Insects from Colonial Times to DDT" and he was one of the featured speakers at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

This week, in honor of our annual car raffle, we listen to two unique and interesting discussions from “Destination DIY” and “Unicef Radio”. “Destination DIY” is a monthly series from Portland, Oregon. In this episode, we hear about recycled bikes, unicycles, commuting on two wheels and other quirky stories from the Portland, Oregon cycling community. “Unicef Radio” features the story of Severn Cullis-Suzuki, a Canadian woman who made a name for herself at age 12 by making a speech at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro that silenced a room full of diplomats. Since then, she’s been traveling the world giving speeches about environmental justice. 16 years later, she talks about her speech and gives advice to young activists.

There have been many discussions on the true nature of Islam — of terrorists who perform violence in the name of Islam and whether this extremist behavior has widespread support — but who really speaks for the faith and its culture? In a July 1 panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Dalia Mogahed director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and Irshad Manji, author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in her Faith" debated the question: "Who Speaks for Islam?"

Part international organization and part political movement, the modern Olympics offer a venue to compete not only for medals, but also for prestige and political clout. We’ll examine the interaction between international politics and the Olympic movement at games past and future. We’ll visit Seoul to explore the impact of the games on South Korea’s transition to democracy, and Sochi as it prepares to host what the Kremlin hopes will be a coming out party for Russia in the winter of 2014.

Subway bombings in Madrid and London, riots in France, and protests over Danish cartoons defaming the Prophet Mohammed have prompted concern about how Muslim immigrants are adjusting to Europe’s liberal and secular society. Across the Atlantic, the situation seems more sanguine. A recent study released by the Pew Research Center found that Muslims in America are largely middle class and have integrated well. But the tensions in Europe have sparked fears that Islamic extremism could spread to the US. On this edition of America Abroad, we’ll examine the friction between Muslim immigrants and European society, and compare that to the situation of Muslims in America. Hosts Elizabeth Arnold and Ray Suarez examine this issue from multiple perspectives. Elizabeth Arnold traces the history of Muslim immigration to Europe and looks at how Muslim immigrants in Chicago and the Boston are fitting into American society. Ray Suarez examines multiculturalism in Holland and the challenge of reconciling Islam and the Dutch identity and moderates a round table discussion comparing the experience of Muslim immigrants in the U.S. and Europe.

We share familiar and forgotten songs, many not normally associated with Independence Day, that highlight the people, issues, and ideas that create America, supported by insightful commentary. Music and comments that take us into the soul of America.

Part 1: The Addiction To Oil: The United States of America produces one quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Part one looks at how the US could retreat from its role as the biggest polluter on the planet. The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan visits the New York Motor Show to report on moves among the big three US car makers to kick the oil habit and 'green' their industry. Author of Lives Per Gallon, Terry Tamminen, who is also green advisor to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bob Semple of The New York Times talk about how vested interests killed off electric cars in California. Laura considers viable alternative technologies and predicates a mobile but "carbon limited" future. Other contributors to the programmes include former US Vice President Al Gore, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Professor of Environmental Law and host of a weekly green radio show Robert F Kennedy Jr and film directors Chris Paine and Robert Greenwald.

Part 3: How Green Is Your Valley? The United States of America produces one quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan explores the degree to which Americans are speaking out and altering their lifestyles in the face of global warming. She considers the size of the US's carbon footprint in relation to urban sprawl and the work of the "New Urbanists" to create greener places for Americans to live in. She also looks at the grass-roots activism of California's Sierra Club, which successfully fought the huge polluting Port of Long Beach, south of Los Angeles. Laura will also be assessing the perceived failure of the media to keep Americans well informed on green issues and looking at the growth of interest in Hollywood among documentary makers and celebrities

This is a documentary about one of the fundamentals of medicine in the U.S.: primary care. It is a story about the changing roles of the family practitioner and internal medicine doctors both historically and today. It is the story of how the complexity of the modern healthcare environment, the aging population and new attitudes towards practicing medicine among doctors, have transformed the pivotal role of the doctor at the center of a patient's medical journey. In "The Doctor Can't See You Now" Rachel Gotbaum reports on why seasoned primary care doctors are leaving their practices, and how too many newly-trained doctors are making the decision that primary care is an untenable career. A majority of younger doctors are choosing instead to go into specialties where the hours are more regular and the pay more rewarding.