Translation

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How close can words get you to the truth and feel and force of life? That's the question poking at our ribs this hour, as we wonder how it is that the right words can have the wrong meanings, and why sometimes the best translations lead us to an understanding that's way deeper than language. This episode, a bunch of stories that play out in the middle space between one reality and another — where poetry, insult comedy, 911 calls, and even our own bodies work to close the gap. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate. Special thanks for the music of Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra

Transcript

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0:00.0	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.
0:14.3	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.3	Hey, this is Radio Lab. I'm Chad Abumrad. So in our last few episodes, you know, about the evolution of typing in Chinese and Lebanese guys road trip across America, visiting all the towns in the U.S. called Lebanon, it just got us thinking about jumping across borders and, you know, borders of culture and language and technology.
0:37.9	And it reminded us of a show that we did a few years ago
0:41.2	that was basically all about that called translation.
0:44.8	Hope you like it.
0:48.4	It's time now to practice some very useful phrases.
0:52.3	I'll say them first, you repeat, and we'll learn together. Let's begin.
0:56.8	Today's seven experiments in translation. Lesson number one, the best poem was by my mother.
1:03.6	Do kaka-ahari tepore di Mama. Now you try. Hello? Hi there.
1:11.6	Hi.
1:12.3	Is that Doug?
1:12.9	Yes.
	...

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