Sean Cole came to Radiolab from the American Public Media program Marketplace where he reported on everything from the rental market in Dubai to a new type of hand gel laced with nicotine. He’s done stories for lots of different public radio programs including All Things Considered, Only a Game, Studio 360 and This American Life where he’s also worked on staff. Sean got his start at the Boston NPR-affiliate WBUR as a newsroom intern. He spent nine years there, ending up as a reporter and producer for the award-winning documentary series Inside Out. He writes poems, some of which have been published. And, yes, he wrote this bio.
In our latest short, The Turing Problem, we described the importance of a wholly imaginary invention--Alan Turing's theoretical "universal machine." But thanks to a listener, we found out that someone actually figured out a way to build one! And there's video.
Sean Cole tries to square the idea that the fallout from a war between teensy organisms and teensier viruses can be seen from space. Luckily, he finds a perspective-shaking demo built by two 14-year-old boys that helps him get his bearings. Read more, and play with the demo, here.
In the mid-1950's, a blind seven-year-old boy named Joe Engressia Jr. made a discovery that changed his own life and many others. While idly dialing information on the family telephone, he heard a high-pitched tone in the background and started whistling along with it. Slowly, he learned to recognize all ...
After hearing our Death Mask podcast, a listener writes in with another sighting of l'inconnue--and includes some pictures.
Near the end of the 19th century, a mysterious young woman with a beguiling smile turned up in Paris. She became a huge sensation. She also happened to be dead. You'd probably recognize her face yourself. You might have even touched it.
The New York City Parks Department would probably want me to start this way: North Brother Island is a ruin. It hasn’t been occupied, nor used for anything by anyone except nesting herons, since the early 70’s. Thus, it’s dangerous.
In 1906, a rich family vacationing in Oyster Bay, NY started to get sick. Very sick. It turns out they'd come down with typhoid, a disease forever associated with one woman: Typhoid Mary. You think you know this story, and we thought we knew this story too. But as producer ...