Radiolab | The Cataclysm Sentence | Radiolab Podcast @Radiolabpod | Uploaded July 2023 | Updated October 2024, 16 hours ago.
From the Radiolab podcast: What’s the one thing you’d pass on if we all disappeared tomorrow?
Sad news for all of us: producer Rachael Cusick— who brought us soul-stirring stories rethinking grief (zpr.io/GZ6xEvpzsbHU) and solitude (zpr.io/eT5tAX6JtYra), as well as colorful musings on airplane farts (zpr.io/CNpgUijZiuZ4) and belly flops (zpr.io/uZrEz27z63CB) and Blueberry Earths (zpr.io/EzxgtdTRGVzz)— is leaving the show. So we thought it perfect timing to sit down with her and revisit another brainchild of hers, The Cataclysm Sentence, a collection of advice for The End.
To explain: one day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” Now, Feynman had an answer to his own question—a good one. But his question got the entire team at Radiolab wondering, what did his sentence leave out? So we posed Feynman’s cataclysm question to some of our favorite writers, artists, historians, futurists—all kinds of great thinkers. We asked them “What’s the one sentence you would want to pass on to the next generation that would contain the most information in the fewest words?” What came back was an explosive collage of what it means to be alive right here and now, and what we want to say before we go.
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👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
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Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
People featured in this episode include:
Richard Feynman, physicist (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)
Caitlin Doughty, mortician (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs)
Esperanza Spalding, musician (12 Little Spells)
Cord Jefferson, writer (Watchmen)
Merrill Garbus, musician (I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life)
Jenny Odell, writer (How to do Nothing)
Maria Popova, writer (Brainpickings)
Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist (The Gardener and the Carpenter)
Rebecca Sugar, animator (Steven Universe)
Nicholson Baker, writer (Substitute)
James Gleick, writer (Time Travel)
Lady Pink, artist (too many amazing works to pick just one)
Jenny Hollwell, writer (Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe)
Jaron Lanier, futurist (Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now)
Missy Mazzoli, composer (Proving Up)
Photo illustration Justin Buschardt, edited to add Radiolab's logo by Jared Bartman.
From the Radiolab podcast: What’s the one thing you’d pass on if we all disappeared tomorrow?
Sad news for all of us: producer Rachael Cusick— who brought us soul-stirring stories rethinking grief (zpr.io/GZ6xEvpzsbHU) and solitude (zpr.io/eT5tAX6JtYra), as well as colorful musings on airplane farts (zpr.io/CNpgUijZiuZ4) and belly flops (zpr.io/uZrEz27z63CB) and Blueberry Earths (zpr.io/EzxgtdTRGVzz)— is leaving the show. So we thought it perfect timing to sit down with her and revisit another brainchild of hers, The Cataclysm Sentence, a collection of advice for The End.
To explain: one day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” Now, Feynman had an answer to his own question—a good one. But his question got the entire team at Radiolab wondering, what did his sentence leave out? So we posed Feynman’s cataclysm question to some of our favorite writers, artists, historians, futurists—all kinds of great thinkers. We asked them “What’s the one sentence you would want to pass on to the next generation that would contain the most information in the fewest words?” What came back was an explosive collage of what it means to be alive right here and now, and what we want to say before we go.
🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: bit.ly/3trXDLe
🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: radiolab.org/newsletter
🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: bit.ly/3sX8f4P
👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
Follow Radiolab:
Instagram — instagram.com/radiolab
Twitter — twitter.com/Radiolab
Facebook — facebook.com/Radiolab
Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
People featured in this episode include:
Richard Feynman, physicist (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)
Caitlin Doughty, mortician (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs)
Esperanza Spalding, musician (12 Little Spells)
Cord Jefferson, writer (Watchmen)
Merrill Garbus, musician (I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life)
Jenny Odell, writer (How to do Nothing)
Maria Popova, writer (Brainpickings)
Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist (The Gardener and the Carpenter)
Rebecca Sugar, animator (Steven Universe)
Nicholson Baker, writer (Substitute)
James Gleick, writer (Time Travel)
Lady Pink, artist (too many amazing works to pick just one)
Jenny Hollwell, writer (Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe)
Jaron Lanier, futurist (Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now)
Missy Mazzoli, composer (Proving Up)
Photo illustration Justin Buschardt, edited to add Radiolab's logo by Jared Bartman.
