The First Known Earthly Voice

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when a voice emerges? What happens when one is lost? Is something gained? A couple months ago, Lulu guest edited an issue of the nature magazine Orion. She called the issue “Queer Planet: A Celebration of Biodiversity,” and it was a wide-ranging celebration of queerness in nature. It featured work by amazing writers like Ocean Vuong, Kristen Arnett, Carmen Maria Machado and adrienne maree brown, among many others. But one piece in particular struck Lulu as something that was really meant to be made into audio, an essay called “Key Changes,” by the writer Sabrina Imbler. If their name sounds familiar, it might be because they’ve been on the show before. In this episode, we bring you Sabrina’s essay – which takes us from the beginning of time, to a field of crickets, to a karaoke bar – read by the phenomenal actor Becca Blackwell, and scored by our director of sound design Dylan Keefe. Stay to the end for a special surprise … from Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls! Special thanks to Jay Gallagher from UC Davis.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Sabrina ImblerProduced by - Annie McEwen and Pat Walterswith help from - Maria Paz GutiérrezOriginal music from - Dylan KeefeFact-checking by - Kim Schmidtand Edited by - Tajja Isen and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles - Check out Queer Planet: A Celebration of Biodiversity, Orion Magazine (Spring 2025)Read Sabrina Imbler’s original essay, “Key Changes,” Orion Magazine (Spring 2025)Read Lulu Miller’s mini-essay, “Astonishing Immobility,” Orion Magazine (Spring 2025) Listen to Amy Ray’s song “Chuck Will’s Widow” from her solo album If It All Goes South Check out Sabrina Imbler’s Defector column Creaturefector all about animalsBooks - How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures, by Sabrina Imbler 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 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	heads up today's show does include a couple of curse words so anyway here we go
0:06.8	wait you're listening okay okay you're listening to radio lab
0:15.5	from w n y c c yeah um From W-N-Y-S. See? Yeah.
0:28.5	Okay, well, I'll play this, and then I don't think you're going to be able to hear it, Lulu.
0:29.0	That's fine.
0:31.8	Ho, ho, honey.
0:34.1	Harness the karaoke vibe.
0:36.4	You got the proverbial sweaty beer in your hand?
0:39.1	Yes, I do. Yeah, I'm really feeling it.
0:41.8	Hey, I am Lulu Miller. This is Radio Lab. And we are
0:45.3	warming up in the studio with an actor named Becca Blackwell.
0:49.2	Oh, yeah. I used to do a sound...
0:51.5	I'm so... I was so excited you're going to read this for us.
0:54.8	I am too.
0:55.5	I'm just going to.
0:56.8	Who we brought in to voice a truly gorgeous essay about song in the animal world.
1:03.3	From crickets to whales to humans and karaoke bars, we count too.
1:08.5	It's written by the author Sabrina Imbler, who is a friend of the show. We've had
1:12.7	them on before. They write about nature and feelings, basically, which is kind of my favorite genre.
1:19.2	And this is a brand new essay of theirs just off the presses. And when I read it, it just screamed
1:24.6	at me that it wanted to be freed from the page, that its words wanted to
1:29.3	be filled with air, and the spaces between them filled with music and natural sounds.
	...

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