Desperately Seeking Symmetry

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This hour of Radiolab, former co-hosts Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence -- from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror. Along the way, we look for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton to peer inside our brains, and turn up an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - Back in the day, when we first aired this episode, the film collective Everynone, filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante and Julius Metoyer III were inspired with our yearning for balance, and aimed to visually reveal how beautiful imperfect matches can be.Radiolab Presents: Symmetry (https://youtu.be/zEQskIsHKT8) Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter/X and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Latif Nasser.
0:02.1	This is Radio Lab.
0:03.2	And today we're bringing back a classic episode from way back in the Chad and Robert days.
0:07.4	It starts with an ancient parable, winds its way through a brain scanner, a trick mirror, and a disastrous high school prom night, and somehow ends with the Big Bang.
0:22.1	Here it is.
0:22.9	Wait, wait, you're listening.
0:24.4	Okay.
0:25.7	All right.
0:26.8	Okay.
0:28.2	All right.
0:29.6	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:32.5	Radio Lab.
0:33.2	From W-N-Y-S.
0:35.2	See?
0:36.3	Yep.
0:39.3	Rewind.
0:43.8	So you're going to identify the Washington Place because I can't remember what you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:44.3	Okay, three, two, one.
0:45.9	Ready?
0:46.4	I am ready.
0:47.3	But we should tell the audience that we're not going to, we're going to start this, not in our usual studio spot.
0:51.3	Not here, here, where we're sitting now.
	...

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