History
The original version of Radiolab was a three-hour weekly show on New York City radio station WNYC's AM signal. Abumrad, a freelancer for WNYC, produced and hosted the show, which presented documentary radio work in an original style. Dean Cappello, then the chief content officer of WNYC Radio, told The New York Times that it was conceived back in 2002 as a space for experimentation and also as a way to fill a "blank space" on the station’s Sunday-night schedule.[7]
The early themed episodes were not always science-related, but tackled issues such as the death penalty, religious fundamentalism and politics in Africa and the Middle East.
In 2003, Abumrad was given a freelance assignment by WNYC to interview ABC News science reporter Robert Krulwich and the two men discovered they had a lot in common: both were alumni of Oberlin College (though 25 years apart), and both had worked at WBAI before moving on to WNYC and NPR.[7] They became fast friends and began collaborating as co-hosts on experimental radio pieces — initially outside of Radiolab. In 2003, they sent their first piece to radio producer Ira Glass for a proposed Flag Day episode of This American Life.[7] The 2-minute piece, which never aired on This American Life, was included in the 2008 Radiolab episode “Jad and Robert: The Early Years.” In the episode Abumrad and Krulwich interview Glass, and ask him his recollection of the piece. "It was horrible", Glass said. In an interview with Abumrad and Krulwich, Glass said: "I never would have put the two of you together on anything again… It's just amazing that you were able to put together such a wonderful program after that."[8]
In 2003, Abumrad was joined on Radiolab by Executive Producer Ellen Horne, whom Abumrad credits with breathing life into the show.[9] They developed the show,[10][11][12] and by January 2004, Radiolab had become an hour-long, science-themed program characterized by Abumrad's unique sound design style. The program was then still considered experimental.[12] In June 2004, Robert Krulwich appeared as a "guest host" on an episode titled "Time."[13] By the following episode ("Space", aired two weeks later), they were co-hosts. In 2005, the program had its first official season, with five episodes, on WNYC.[7][14]
Initially distributed nationally by NPR, WNYC began distributing the show in 2015. The change was marked by the omission of NPR's name in the show's opening audio sequence after the tagline, "You're listening to Radiolab...from WNYC."[16]
Horne left RadioLab in 2015,[3] and Krulwich retired as co-host in February 2020.[4] That September, Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser became co-hosts, succeeding Krulwich.[17] In January 2022, Abumrad announced his retirement from Radiolab, handing over the reins to co-hosts Miller and Nasser.[18] The podcast offers a subscription called The Lab with which listeners can directly support the production.
