The Good Show

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The standard view of evolution is that living things are shaped by cold-hearted competition. And there is no doubt that today's plants and animals carry the genetic legacy of ancestors who fought fiercely to survive and reproduce. But in this hour that we first broadcast back in 2010, we wonder whether there might also be a logic behind sharing, niceness, kindness ... or even, self-sacrifice. Is altruism an aberration, or just an elaborate guise for sneaky self-interest? Do we really live in a selfish, dog-eat-dog world? Or has evolution carved out a hidden code that rewards genuine cooperation? Sign up 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] 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	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	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:20.0	This is Radio Lab. I'm Lathif Nassasser. It's the holidays. And as usual at this time of year,
0:26.5	everyone's become so nice all of a sudden. Giving gifts, donating to charities, showing up with a plate of
0:34.3	cookies. Everything feels so warm and gooey and selfless.
0:39.1	But where is all of this goodness coming from?
0:44.2	This week, we're bringing back an episode from 2010 that asks a simple question.
0:49.2	Why do we sometimes help others even when it hurts us to do so? It feels like the right episode for right now,
0:57.9	not because it's a holiday story, although there is a little Christmas parable in there,
1:02.5	but because it asks what generosity is, where it comes from, and whether it truly exists at all.
1:12.4	Here it is the good show.
1:15.2	All right.
1:15.7	Okay, so let's just do the open.
	...

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