Parents have long used "the birds and the bees" to help explain how babies are made...They'd really have some explaining to do if they looked under the sea. Today, the mating rituals of lobsters, and other examples of love down below.
Plus, casinos are dizzying places filled with blinking lights, blaring sounds, and outrageous carpet motifs...all designed to bewilder and seduce gamblers to bet high and lose big. We'll get a behind the scenes look at how casinos work from code words to house superstitions.
Listen to the full show.
Sex in the Sea
New technologies are allowing marine researchers to get more detailed information on how the life cycle churns on beneath the waves.
Marah Hardt brings us on a bold ride through the red light district of the deep blue sea, where polyamorous right whales, libidinous lobsters, swinging groupers and other creatures conduct elaborate mating rituals in the place where life began -- the ocean.
Marah Hardt is a coral reef ecologist and research co-director for Future of Fish. Her new book is called Sex in the Sea.
Coral Reefs Cry Out for Help
Sometimes a little bit of protection can mean the difference between everything and nothing. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean the consequences of these differences are unfolding in a way no one expected. Producer Ari Daniel brings us the story as part of the series “Small Matters.”
You can hear this story again at PRX.org.
The Secret World of Casinos
We all know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what actually happens in Vegas?
For the uninitiated, casinos are dizzying places filled with blinking lights, a cacophony of sounds, and outrageous carpet motifs...but that's just the stuff we can see and hear. Behind the scenes is an entire subculture with its own language and customs.
A writer, designer, photographer, consultant, Ben Schottrecently wrote about the secret world of casinos for Playboy magazine.
"Read This Before the Next Time You Go to the Casino"
Saying Goodbye to Hollywood Park
In 2013 one of the oldest horse racing tracks, Hollywood Park, closed its doors. Producer David Weinberg brings us the story of the rise and fall of one of America's most iconic landmarks.
A quick update on that story: While the horses ran their last race at Hollywood Park in December of 2013, off-track betting continued at the site. Now Hollywood Park will be getting a dramatic face lift. Last month the NFL voted to move the Saint Louis Rams back to Los Angeles where an 80,000 seat football stadium will be built on the former racetrack's site.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
