Screaming Into the Void

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August we performed a live taping of the show from a theater perched on the edge of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River, overshadowed by the wide open night sky. Three stories about voids. One about a fish that screams into the night – and the mystery of its counterpart that doesn’t. Another about a group of women who gazed at the night sky and taught us just how vast the universe is, and a third about a man who talk to aliens – and the people who tell him he’s putting human civilization at risk by doing so. Finally, we turn back to Earth with the help of a reading from Samantha Harvey’s hit novel Orbital (https://zpr.io/RNi4sY2JVKxK) performed by the artist, actor and podcast host Helga Davis (https://zpr.io/TKGuzzDFnVjN). What does it mean to stand on the edge of a void, and what happens when you scream into it, or choose not to? This episode was originally produced and developed in front of a live audience by Little Island, Producing Artistic Director Zack Winokur, Executive Director Laura Clement. Special thanks to our voice actors Davidé Borella, Jim Pirri, Armando Riesco, and Brian Wiles with casting by Dann Fink. And Anna von Mertens, author of Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt (https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL). EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Miller, Matt Kielty and Latif NasserProduced by - Pat Walters and Matt Kieltywith help from - Jessica Yung, Maria Paz Gutierrez and Rebecca RandOriginal music from - Mantra PercussionSound design contributed by - Matt Kielty and Jeremy Bloomwith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Diane Kelly and Natalie Middletonand Edited by - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Books - Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt (https://zpr.io/j7ZYKX8wSCYL) by Anna von Mertens 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?
0:03.0	Okay.
0:04.0	All right.
0:05.0	Okay.
0:06.0	All right.
0:08.0	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.0	Radio Lab.
0:12.0	From WNY.
0:14.0	See?
0:15.0	Yeah.
0:20.0	The call was coming from the night.
0:24.4	It was eerie, like a foghorn from another dimension rolling through the mists of San Francisco Bay.
0:37.1	This is an actual recording of the sound, which was plaguing residents of San Francisco in
0:44.5	the late 1980s.
0:47.4	People had all kinds of theories about what it might be, secret government activities,
0:53.1	submarines, offshore drilling, UFOs. Whatever it was, it was so
0:59.9	powerful, it was rattling the houseboats of the bay. I'm Latif Nasser. I'm Lattiv Nasser. I'm Latif Nasser.
1:14.8	I'm Lulu Miller.
1:15.7	This is Radio Lab, and it is with that mystery that we kicked off our latest live show about voids.
1:25.1	Which we performed beneath the void of the night sky at this gorgeous venue called Little Island in New York City.
1:32.0	It sits right alongside the Hudson River, which itself empties out into the void of the ocean.
1:38.7	Right. And so in that place, in that very void adjacent place, we wanted to make an episode about, not just about
	...

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