What can machines tell us about being human? This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert meet humans and robots who are trying to connect, and blur the line.

A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, like your whole life hangs in the balance. This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert wonder why we get so invested in something so trivial. What is it about games that make them feel so pivotal?

Our lives are filled with loops that hurt us, heal us, make us laugh, and, sometimes, leave us wanting more. This hour, Radiolab investigates the strange things that emerge when something happens, then happens again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and … well, again.

The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds. In epidemiology, this central character is known as Patient Zero—the case at the heart of an outbreak. This hour, Radiolab hunts for Patient Zeroes from all over the map.

Cruelty, violence, badness... This episode of Radiolab, we wrestle with the dark side of human nature, and ask whether it's something we can ever really understand, or fully escape.

In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why one creature might stick its neck out for another?

In this episode, Radiolab steers its way through a series of stories about getting lost, and asks how our brains, and our hearts, help us find our way back home. 

What do you do when your own worst enemy is...you? This hour, Radiolab looks for ways to gain the upper hand over those forces inside us--from unhealthy urges, to creative insights--that seem to have a mind of their own.

In this episode, stories of unlikely (and surprisingly simple) answers to seemingly unsolvable problems.

This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence--from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror.

Oops. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of unintended consequences--from a psychologist whose zeal to safeguard national security may have backfired, to a toxic lake that spawned new life.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But in this hour of Radiolab, we try to do just that. A woman teaches a 27-year-old the first words of his life, and a neurologist suffers a stroke that wipes out the language center of her brain.

This hour, Radiolab rollicks through stories of falling. We plunge into a black hole, take a trip over Niagara Falls, and upend some myths about falling cats.

One tidy mathematical formula may hold the key to how cities work. This hour, Radiolab takes to the streets to test the numbers...and ask what really makes cities tick.

In this hour of Radiolab: the tug of war between force of will and fate. From predictors of success in a kid’s ability to resist a marshmallow...to warning signs of dementia in an 18-year-old’s writing.

This hour of Radiolab: communicating across species. We get the story of a rescued whale that may have found a way to say thanks, ask whether dogs feel guilt, and wonder if a successful predator may have fallen in love with a photographer.

Chimps. Bonobos. Humans. We're all great apes, but that doesn’t mean we’re one happy family. On this hour of Radiolab: stories of living together--from a chimp named Lucy, to the basics of bonobo culture (be careful, they bite).

A journey to the edge of human limits. On this hour of Radiolab, we test physical endurance with a bike race that makes the Tour de France look like child’s play, and mental capacity with a mind-stretching memory competition.

This hour of Radiolab: famous tumors. Say hello to the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, and get to know the woman whose cancer cells changed modern medicine. The good, bad,…and ugly side of anatomical aberrations.

How well can you ever really know the people around you? This hour of Radiolab: a disorder that turns family members into impostors, and a scientific take on newborns that challenges Jad's warm fuzzies.

Stochasticity is a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness. This hour of Radiolab: making sense of the patterns we see-- from lucky streaks to gambling odds, to two girls named Laura.

Death is inevitable. But is it truly final? This hour: Radiolab stares down the very moment of passing, and speculates about what may lay beyond. 

What's gotten into you? In this hour of Radiolab: encounters with parasites. Tales of lethargic farmers, zombie cockroaches, and even mind-controlled humans (kinda, maybe).

This hour of Radiolab: stories of adaptation. Is a peacenik baboon, a man in a dress, or a cuddly fox a sign of things to come? Or just a flukey outlier? We reframe our ideas about normalcy.

Regardless of how you feel about numbers, chances are you rely on them every day. This hour, Radiolab ponders the nature of numbers, and wonders what life might look like without them.

When presented with a choice, logic and emotion pipe up. This hour of Radiolab, we turn up the volume on those voices in our heads, and try to get to the bottom of what really steers our decisions.

Sperm carry half the genes needed for human life. In this hour of Radiolab, we examine our beginnings, take a tour of the animal kingdom, and ponder a world where frozen sperm can last for all eternity.

Our genes are nearly all the same, but that hasn't made race meaningless. This hour, Radiolab asks what race is, and whether it's fixed or fluid, genes or culture?

What's in a name? In this hour of Radiolab: diagnosis—our attempt to find out what's wrong, and give it a label. We examine how we get to the root of a problem, and how we react when we get there.

The pursuit of knowledge leads sometimes to answers, often to failure, and almost invariably to more questions. In this hour of Radiolab, stories of love and loss in the name of science.

This hour of Radiolab teases out stories of laughter--from a baby’s crib, to a rat’s cage, to a remote village in Tanzania that was struck by a laughing epidemic 45 years ago.

We examine the strange power of lies with a charismatic cast of characters (from pathological liars to lying snakes to drunken psychiatrists) on this hour of Radiolab.

In 1938, Orson Welles produced a radio play that sounded an awful lot like a news report about Martians invading New Jersey. On this hour of Radiolab: deconstructing “The War of the Worlds,” and the power of mass media to create panic.

The uneasy marriage of biology and engineering raises big questions about the nature of life. In this hour, Radiolab journeys to the first billion years of life on Earth, looks at how modern engineers tinker with living things, and meets a woman who could have been two people.

This hour of Radiolab, pop music's pull: nightmarish stories of musical hallucinations, songs that transcend language, and the triumphant return of the Elvis of Afghanistan.

From the symbolic power of the doctor coat, to the very real stash of opium in your brain, this hour of Radiolab explores the healing powers of belief and imagination.

Sleep is one of science's greatest mysteries. This hour of Radiolab, we look for answers in iguanas who doze with one eye open, new parents in the throes of sleep deprivation, and rats who may be dreaming.

Blood-thirsty Romans, frozen carcasses, wild jaguars, and a question: how do you build a better cage? This hour of Radiolab, we head to the zoo.

Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour of Radiolab: implanting false memories in loved ones, and erasing painful memories by simply swallowing a pill. Plus: the story of a man with the worst case of amnesia ever documented.

Some scientists claim that aging is a disease that can be cured. On this hour of Radiolab, the modern search for the fountain of youth, and personal stories of witnessing death: the death of a cell, the death of a loved one, and the aging of a society.

Digging up the past leads to some very unexpected finds. This hour, Radiolab plays detective and goes sleuthing in some rather unusual places: an ancient trash dump, the side of the highway, and in the blood of millions of Asians.

This hour of Radiolab: we explore the line between music and language, and turn to physics and biochemistry to ask how sound becomes feeling.

For thousands of years philosophers have debated the essence of morality. Now, neuroscientists may have answers. This hour of Radiolab, stories of chimps sharing, human toddlers fighting, and 4th graders playing slumlords.

Under high gravity forces, fighter pilots often lose consciousness while flying jet planes. This hour of Radiolab, examining the connection between your brain and your body...and what happens when it breaks.

This hour of Radiolab, we ponder our insignificant place in the universe. We boldly go after stories of optimism, narcissism, and cynicism--stories all about Outer Space.

The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. But in this hour of Radiolab, neurologists lead the charge. We  reflect on the illusion of selfhood, contemplate the evolution of consciousness, and meet a woman who one day woke up as a completely different person.

Stress may save your life if you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're stuck in traffic, it may be more likely to make you sick. This hour of Radiolab, stories of stress--from a singer who loses her voice, to an author caught in a body that never grew up.

What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form amazingly complicated societies. This hour of Radiolab: a look at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, and even our brains.

This hour, Radiolab revels in the elasticity of Time, and takes a spin through history--stopping at a 19^th-century railroad station in Ohio, a track meet, and a Beethoven concert.

This hour of Radiolab: fighting the inevitable march of time. We meet a scientist and his particle accelerator, an artist, and a whole cast of characters in the Mojave Desert, where geologic time flows like a frozen hourglass.