Episode Synopsis "Sound as metaphor"
Radiolab, like most successful storytelling podcasts, is able to marry mainstream popular taste with an advanced artistic sensibility. This episode, along with some other canonical hour-long episodes of theirs from this period, advanced audio storytelling years beyond where it was in the earlier parts of the decade through ingenious sound design and an unintimidating approachability to their subject matter. Jad Abumrad was a visionary and, perhaps most importantly, a leader with a specific vision for both the future of his show and the possibilities of the medium. His relentless success has been both impressive and, seemingly, inevitable.