The Punchline | Radiolab Podcast @Radiolabpod

Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

This episode, first aired in 2019, brings you the story of John Scott, the professional hockey player that every fan loved to hate. A tough guy. A brawler. A goon. But when an impish pundit named Puck Daddy called on fans to vote for Scott to play alongside the world’s greatest players in the NHL All-Star Game, Scott found himself facing off against fans, commentators, and the powers that be. Was this the realization of Scott’s childhood dreams? Or a nightmarish prank gone too far? Today on Radiolab, a goof on a goon turns into a parable of the agony and the ecstasy of the internet, and democracy in the age of Boaty McBoatface.

Special thanks to Larry Lynch and Morgan Springer.

Check out John Scott's "Dropping the Gloves" podcast and his book "A Guy Like Me".

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Latif Nasser
Produced by - Matt Kielty
Original music and sound design contributed by -
John Dryden, Thee Oh Sees, Weedeater and Bongzilla.

Episode Segments:
0:00 Intro
12:15 Chpt 1
25:41 Chpt 2

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Photo illustration by Mikey Burton
Video by W. Harry Fortuna

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$Argentine Invasion | Radiolab Podcast From the Radiolab podcast: Think of that anthill in your backyard, now stretch it out over five continents. From a suburban sidewalk in southern California, in this episode from 2012, Jad and Robert witness the carnage of a gruesome turf war. Though the tiny warriors doing battle clock in at just a fraction of an inch, they have evolved a surprising, successful, and rather unsettling strategy of ironclad loyalty, absolute intolerance and brutal violence. David Holway, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist from U.C. San Diego, takes us to a driveway in Escondido, California, where a grisly battle rages. In this quiet suburban spot, two groups of ants are putting on a chilling display of dismemberment and death. According to David, this battleline marks the edge of an enormous super-colony of Argentine ants. Think of that anthill in your backyard, and stretch it out across five continents. Argentine ants are not good neighbors. When they meet ants from another colony — any other colony — they fight to the death, and tear the other ants to pieces. While other kinds of ants sometimes take slaves or even have sex with ants from different colonies, the Argentine ants don’t fool around. If you’re not part of the colony, you’re dead. According to evolutionary biologist Neil Tsutsui and ecologist Mark Moffett, the flood plains of northern Argentina offer a clue as to how these ants came to dominate the planet. Because of the frequent flooding, the homeland of Linepithema humile is basically a bootcamp for badass ants. One day, a couple ants from one of these families of Argentine ants made their way onto a boat and landed in New Orleans in the late 1800s. Over the last century, these Argentine ants wreaked havoc across the southern U.S. and a significant chunk of coastal California. In fact, Melissa Thomas, an Australian entomologist, reveals that these Argentine ants are even more well-heeled than we expected — theyve made to every continent except Antarctica. No matter how many thousands of miles separate individual ants, when researchers place two of them together — whether theyre plucked from Australia, Japan, Hawaii, or even Easter Island — they recognize each other as belonging to the same super-colony. But the really mind-blowing thing about these little guys is the surprising success of their us-versus-them death-dealing. Jad and Robert wrestle with what to make of this ant regime, whether it will last, and what, if anything, it might mean for other warlike organisms with global ambitions. 🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: https://bit.ly/3trXDLe 🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3I9KI53 🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: https://radiolab.org/newsletter 🌱 Check out Radiolabs Starter Kit Playlist: https://bit.ly/3sX8f4P 👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment! Follow Radiolab: Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/radiolab X (Twitter) — https://twitter.com/Radiolab Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/Radiolab Threads — https://www.threads.net/@radiolab Our newsletter includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up here: https://radiolab.org/newsletter Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: https://radiolab.org/the-lab 🌝 We have some exciting news! In our “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named our first-ever quasi-moon, and now its your turn! Weve teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Submit your name ideas now through September, or vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon Listen to the Zoozve episode here: https://youtu.be/AA-1Xg2t0wQ Photo illustration by Jared Bartman Video by W. Harry Fortuna$

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