Apocalyptical! Radiolab, live.

Radiolab is popular, even on cold nights

As a big fan of Radiolab, a radio program and podcast about science, broadcast my NPR, I was very excited when our friends Scott and Genevieve invited us to go see a live performance. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Obviously, there's not a lot to see behind the scenes of an average radio show. But these live Radiolab shows have been selling out all over the place, and I'd heard they were wonderful. In fact, the show Scott and Genevieve were going to see was not originally part of the schedule. It had to be added after one of the planned New York shows sold out so quickly that they realize they should probably do another. So I bought two tickets several months ago settled in to wait until, last night, it was finally show time.

The show opened with a sort of stand-up comedy routine by another radio personality, and then the performers took the stage. Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich were joined onstage by a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a guy who managed their digital video content, which was broadcast on three large screens behind them. It's always a little strange to see the unfamiliar faces behind the familiar voices on the radio. Ed and I had seen these guys at a Symphony Space show before, though, there were no surprises in store for us. Robert is older than he sounds, and Jad is a bit nerdier. For those who don't listen to Radiolab, and I highly recommended that everyone should, I will explain that each radio show typically centers around a theme. Last night was no different. The show was called Apocalyptical, and the theme was endings.

J and R cower near the musicians on the right, while a dinosaur looms left

Most Radiolab episodes are made up of four to six stories that explore the theme from different angles. Jad and Robert usually interview involved parties and experts for each story, and throw in a lot of their own explanations, observations, and humorous comments along the way. We started last night with the longest segment first: a story about what really caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. A large dinosaur (or, rather, a man in an enormous, fairly convincing costume) joined them on stage, where it growled and leaned over to sniff people in the front row and lashed its large tail around, causing Jad and Robert to have to dodge while they attempted to interview it. Then the dinosaur left the stage and Jad and Robert sat behind a table and spoke into stationary, tabletop mics while flipping through binders; I imagine this I what it usually looks like when they tape a show. But their performance was enhanced by the screens behind us, which showed what happens when a bullet is fired into water (to show what a Mt. Everest-sized asteroid would have done to the atmosphere as it barreled toward Earth) and footage from other experiments. All the while, the musicians were doing a fantastic job of accompanying performance - Ed said later that the music was one of his favorite parts. In the past, I have always felt vaguely sorry for dinosaurs when thinking about their plight, but Jad and Robert painted a picture so vivid of what their last hour must have been like that by the end of the segment I was very melancholy indeed.

Happily, yet another person in a costume took the stage for the start of the next segment to cheer me up. This time, it was a rodent-like creature that Jad and Robert introduced as everyone's great great great great great great great great great great great grandmother. She had a technical name (Hypothetical Placental Ancestor), but when John and Robert were doing interviews for the story,

Shrewdinger (photo from an earlier performance)

they learned that she has not yet been given a common name. They decided to poll their fans and sent out a call for nominations on various crowdsourcing platforms. (One suggestion was Placentor.) Then there was a final round of voting, and they were disappointed when the winner turned out to be "Shrewdinger." (I thought it was pretty funny.) On a related note, it turns out that in addition to our furry ancestor lacking a name, there is no word in the English language for the last individual belonging to a species. People have suggested the terms "endling" and "terminarch," but Jad and Robert said they didn't like those and polled the audience for other ideas. People yelled out their nominations and the video guy wrote them all down. My personal favorite was "concludador" and I thought of yelling "ultimaton," but I figured they wouldn't be able to hear me from the balcony  The audience voted on "done-o-saur."

Next, we learned about the elements in the periodic table. The further down you go, the more poisonous the elements come. Jad and Robert pointed out that, strangely bismuth is sandwiched unexpectedly in between several of deadly elements. Bismuth is the main ingredient in Pepto-Bismol that people take to feel better, not worse, which doesn't seem to fit. We got to watch footage of an experiment involving bismuth, and Jad and Robert drank a toast with two large mugs of pink liquid just the color of Pepto-Bismol. For their sake, I hope it was actually a strawberry milkshake.

The final story, as is often typical of Radiolab, blended science with psychology and philosophy. Jad and Robert interviewed two stage actors have been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Parkinson's would be terrible for anybody to have, but it's particularly bad for stage actors. The inability to control one's speech and movements pretty is much the last nail in the coffin of one's acting career. But these guys decided to do one last show, a play by Samuel Beckett called Endgame that seemed to fit their personal, offstage experiences with the disease. The single performance was preceded by lots of dismal rehearsals due to the actors' physical difficulties, but it ended up being a huge success - far better than they ever could have hoped. It was a moving segment about what one does when is faced with the end of one's way of life and the end life in one fell swoop. These two men did it with grace and humor. One of the actors was in the audience, and when Jad pointed him out everyone gave him a standing ovation.

Our intrepid hosts

The show was over before I knew it. While I really enjoyed it and seeing it live was a lot of fun, I have to say that I didn't find the live show to be markedly better than the radio version. This is a comment motivated by my admiration of their recorded shows, however, not by my distaste for the live show. The live show was great. But their radio shows are great, too. I'd still recommend that people go to see Radiolab live, if they have a chance. But for those who don't, download free podcasts or tune in to NPR at the right time and you'll be just as pleased with your experience.