The Septendecennial Sing-Along

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While most of us hear a wall of white noise, squeaks, and squawks....David Rothenberg hears a symphony. He's trained his ear to listen for the music of animals, and he's always looking for chances to join in, with everything from lonely birds to giant whales to swarming cicadas.

In this podcast, David explains his urge to connect and sing along, and helps break down the mysterious life cycle and mating rituals of the periodical cicadas into something we can all relate to.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening to radio lab from WNYC.
0:15.3	Hey, Chad here.
0:22.8	So this spring, many of us, some of us are starting to emerge from a year of being stuck
0:29.2	at home or apart from our friends and family.
0:33.3	And we are not alone.
0:35.5	We humans that is because there is something else emerging in the coming weeks from the
0:40.4	ground to sing and dance and make babies and try not to get eaten.
0:44.0	And that's something is cicadas.
0:46.9	There is another brood about to awaken after 17 years of slumber and about to swarm many
0:53.9	places across the country.
0:55.6	So in their honor, I thought we might replay this old piece of ours, which we made last
1:00.4	time there was a big cicada awakening around here.
1:02.6	It was from 2013.
1:04.0	And it's pretty fun.
1:06.3	Very Robert Crowewich.
1:08.8	I'll just say that.
1:10.6	And here it is.
1:11.6	Here we go.
1:12.6	Hey, I'm Chad, I'm Ron.
1:13.6	I'm Robert Crowewich.
1:14.6	This is Radio Lab the podcast and today...
1:22.2	So interesting about the cicada sounds is when you just hear it for the first time, you
	...

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