IN A tumultuous time for the audio industry, with millions of active programs around ever-changing platforms and business models, “Radiolab” has managed to stay ahead of the competition. Dagher says its listener count has remained constant since the server switch. And this is the rare podcast that is still capable of creating something like a widely shared listening experience, as it did with a show last year about Helen Keller’s reclusive lifeor a string from the year before tracing cultural history of cassettes.
One of Miller and Nasser’s ambitions is to extend that legacy for another two decades. Almost in unison, they describe their most sacred obligation to the program in three words:
“Don’t break it!”
Under the leadership of Abumrad, in partnership with his co-host and longtime host, Robert Krulwich (who helped define the show in 2005 and retires in 2020) and original executive producer, Ellen Horne (who left in 2015), “Radiolab” has since become a source for raw materials. materials for sound, intellectual, and emotionally engaging storytelling. It popularized some of the conventions of modern podcasting, including layered tracks, cold openings (“Hey, can you hear me?”) and the “brain dump” episode format. in which a reporter leads the host through a story.
“It was revolutionary,” said Jay Allison, founder of Transom.org and chief executive officer of Atlantic Public Media. “We are an audio medium but a lot of times you won’t know it when you listen to public radio. On ‘Radiolab’, every second is built entirely for the ears, treated as a note in the music.
The new presenters are recognized followers of the “Radiolab” doctrine. Miller, 39, joined the show as an intern in 2005 and later became the show’s fourth employee. She was working as a carpenter’s assistant in Brooklyn when she was hooked by an episode on science of appearancein which a segment about synchronized Southeast Asian fireflies incorporates an ethereal soundtrack and inspirational sound design: the ripples of the lake, the chirping of birds.
“It’s like nothing I’ve heard before,” she said. “I was like, What is that? I want to go in there.“
Nasser, 37, wrote a cold pitch for the show in 2010 after hearing an episode about a laugh translation in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), the subject of his doctoral thesis at Harvard.
