The Times They Are a-Changin'

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With the help of paleontologist Neil Shubin, reporter Emily Graslie and the Field Museum's Paul Mayer we discover that our world is full of ancient coral calendars. This episode first aired back in December of 2013, and at the start of that new year, the team was cracking open fossils, peering back into ancient seas, and looking up at lunar skies only to find that a year is not quite as fixed as we thought it was. With the help of paleontologist Neil Shubin, reporter Emily Graslie and the Field Museum's Paul Mayer we discover that our world is full of ancient coral calendars. Each one of these sea skeletons reveals that once upon a very-long-time-ago, years were shorter by over forty days. And astrophysicist Chis Impey helps us comprehend how the change is all to be blamed on a celestial slow dance with the moon. Plus, Robert indulges his curiosity about stopping time and counteracting the spinning of the spheres by taking astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on a (theoretical) trip to Venus with a rooster and sprinter Usain Bolt. We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Submit your name ideas now through September, or vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon 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	Listen to Support it, W NYC Studios.
0:12.0	Imagine your arms break off and your flesh turns to poison and your body begins
0:20.4	turning strange colors.
0:23.0	Bright yellow and tindering orange.
0:25.0	And you suddenly get really good at math.
0:28.0	Bugs can do math?
0:30.0	Mm-hmm.
0:32.0	There is a whole new season of terrestrial's coming.
0:35.8	Radio Lab's family-friendly, ever-so-occasitionally musical series about nature.
0:41.8	On each episode, we tell you a story about a creature that may
0:45.1	seem fantastical. It was like unbelievable, but is entirely true. Oh my
0:51.6	goodness. And this season we scoured high and low all over the globe.
0:56.6	Underwater. In the desert in the wind.
0:59.1	Underground. Up to the Arctic.
1:01.7	Oh, it is cool.
1:03.0	Braving dangerous terrain.
1:05.0	All right, mud's getting deeper down here, guys.
1:07.0	Wild beasts.
1:08.0	It's been me several times.
1:11.0	There was blood everywhere.
1:12.0	And our own confusion. So honey doesn't come out of bees?
1:18.0	No, it doesn't come out of bees.
	...

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