Stochasticity

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First aired way back in 2009, this episode is all about a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness, Stochasticity, and how it may be at the very foundation of our lives. Along the way, we talk to a woman suddenly consumed by a frenzied gambling addiction, hear from two friends whose meeting seems to defy pure chance, and take a close look at some very noisy bacteria. EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - Stochasticity Music Video (https://zpr.io/uZiH9j9ZU6be) Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. 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 radiolab@wnyc.org. 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	Hey, it's a lot of happy new year. Look at you, so fresh it's a new you and a new me and a new page and a new lease on life for all of us and as we start to chart out our new year I wanted to
0:18.8	play an episode from the archives that asks an important question that I think is helpful to consider, you know, as we make
0:26.4	plans and goals and set expectations.
0:30.0	So here's the question.
0:31.4	Here's the question. how much can we control what happens in our lives?
0:38.0	And how much is it just whatever you want to call it, luck or fate or just the random and fickle universe having its way with
0:46.6	us this is an episode about that how that applies to E. coli bacteria, how it applies to dimes and quarters,
0:55.6	how it applies to blades of grass on a golf course,
0:58.6	and of course how it applies to you.
1:03.4	I hope you enjoy.
1:04.7	This is stochasticity.
1:07.3	Yeah, wait, you're a, wait, you're a,
1:08.6	you're a, okay.
1:10.2	All right.
1:11.5	Okay. All right. You're listening to Radio Lab.
1:17.0	Radio Lab.
1:18.0	From WNYC.
1:20.0	See?
1:21.0	Yeah.
1:22.0	Rewind. See? Which at least initially involves this girl right here.
1:32.6	Um, hello, I'm Laura Buxton.
1:35.0	Laura Buxton is her name, remember that name.
	...

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