Vanishing Words

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Alana Casanova-Burgess set out to make a podcast series about Puerto Rico, she struggled with what to call it. Until one word came to mind, a word that captures a certain essence of life in Puerto Rico, but eludes easy translation into English. We talk to Alana about her series, and that particular word, then turn to an old story about treating words as signals of something happening just beneath the surface.

Agatha Christie's clever detective novels may reveal more about the inner workings of the human mind than she intended. According to Dr. Ian Lancashire at the University of Toronto, the Queen of Crime left behind hidden clues to the real-life mysteries of human aging in her writing. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelvin Lim and Dr. Serguei Pakhomov from the University of Minnesota add to the intrigue with the story of an unexpected find in a convent archive that could someday help pinpoint very early warning signs for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Sister Alberta Sheridan, a 94-year-old Nun Study participant, reads an essay she wrote more than 70 years ago.

La Brega update was produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening to radio lab from WNYC.
0:18.6	Hey I'm Lula Miller.
0:19.8	Hey, hey, hey, this is Radio Lab and before we get to the show, it's so great to talk
0:24.8	to you.
0:25.8	I want to introduce you to someone as I'm now obsessed with your work.
0:29.8	Oh goodness.
0:30.8	This is Elana Casanova-Burgess.
0:33.8	She's another reporter here at WNYC and earlier this year, she released a new show.
0:39.2	Yeah, a history podcast about Puerto Rican life wherever that takes place.
0:44.2	And the reason she's here is because, well, honestly, I just wanted you to know about
0:49.0	the show.
0:50.0	I have a hunch you like podcasts and this one is beautifully sound designed.
0:54.8	It is full of stories with all kinds of plot twists and really interesting people.
1:00.6	But I also wanted to take just a couple of minutes to talk to her about this very interesting
1:05.9	and kind of maddening choice she made, which is what she named the show.
1:13.2	Okay, so before you say what it is, were there any runner-up names?
1:16.5	I think the worst one is this Puerto Rican life.
1:21.9	Super bad.
1:22.9	Yeah, it's pretty bad.
1:23.9	And here's another, this allego, which means like relief or venting because allego means
1:30.4	to drown.
1:31.7	And so when you say to your friend like, oh, can I just have a this allego?
	...

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