Making a Monster

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode one of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Rodney Fox went into the ocean one summer day in 1963. He came out barely alive, his body torn apart by a great white shark. At the time, it was one of the worst shark attacks ever survived. After he recovered, he was pulled back into the shadowy world he feared most. Again and again and again. That shark attack left behind a question that still lingers, for Rodney, and for all of us: When you can’t see the thing that scares you, what kind of monster does your mind create? And how do you fight past it? Special thanks to Surekha Davies, Asa Mittman, Scott Poole, and Maria Tatar. EPISODE CREDITS:Reported by - Rachael Cusickwith help from - Pat WaltersProduced by - Rachael Cusick and Pat WaltersSound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloomwith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Diane Kellyand Edited by - Pat Walters 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 and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, 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	Oh, wait, you're listening?
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	See?
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yep.
0:19.5	December the 8th, 1963 was the exact date.
0:29.4	I was just drifting in really quietly with my gun in front of me.
0:35.9	And I was just caressing the trigger
0:38.3	and I was just about to pull it.
0:52.3	It's a funny thing, you know,
0:53.9	I thought I'd been hit by a train.
0:57.0	And I don't know, I'd never been on a train.
1:01.0	But it was such a big, powerful whack.
1:06.0	Knocked the mask off my face, knocked the gun out of my hand, thumped me into the bottom, and then I was
1:14.8	being hurled through the water faster than I'd ever, ever, ever swam.
1:21.9	This is Radio Lab. I'm Lulu Miller. And I'm Latif Nasser, and that voice was Rodney Fox.
	...

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