Radiolab – "Beyond Time" (July 24, 2007)

Overview

In this episode of Radiolab, hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich embark on an exploration of time—how we experience it, how science tries to explain or disprove it, and how humans attempt (often futilely) to outwit, reverse, or live outside of it. Through a blend of science, philosophy, and poignant storytelling, the episode features artists collaborating with time, physicists denying its existence, and ordinary people grappling with their fleeting place in history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Art and the Long Arc of Time

[00:52 – 05:09]

• The episode opens with artist Terry Wilcox and his colossal sculpture, anchored on a boulder above the Hudson River, constructed with aluminum and magnesium designed to merge through diffusion—a process that will take nearly 1,500 years.
• Wilcox hopes the sculpture lasts until the year 3500 AD, far outlasting contemporary civilization, acting as a collaboration with time itself.
• Kids interact with the sculpture, reflecting a universal urge to leave a trace on the future.

Notable Quote

• “He says this piece won’t be done until time takes the aluminum and magnesium and fuses them together, which he calculates will take 1,495 years. In a sense, that’s when this clock will chime.” — Jad Abumrad [02:09]

2. The Physics of Time – At the Colliders’ Edge

[06:00 – 10:41]

• Robert tours the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s particle collider, a place where scientists recreate conditions almost identical to those just after the Big Bang.
• Discussion with physicist Brian Greene about the elemental simplicity at the universe’s origin and how complexity (and time) builds outward from there.

Notable Quote

• “In some sense, being cast out of Eden by having all of those simple things come up and create very, very complex situations.” — Brian Greene [09:43]

3. Defying the Present: Life as Time Travel

[11:25 – 22:25]

• Marcus Lindeen visits artist David McDermott, an American who has dedicated his life to living in the 19th century, from chamber pots to period clothing, refusing credit cards and other trappings of modernity.
• McDermott expresses a deeply nostalgic, even metaphysical longing for “the place” of the past, seeing time as an ever-present, overlapping reality.
• For McDermott, “time experimentation” is possible: choosing to live in another era is a form of practical time travel.

Notable Quotes

• “Most people do not need to live in the present… through living in the past, I find secrets.” — David McDermott [11:51]
• “In order to travel in time, we have to first accept the principle that time is here, has always been here, and always will be here.” — David McDermott [20:34]

4. Time as an Illusion: Physics Challenges the Flow

[26:15 – 34:52]

• Physicists Brian Greene and Michio Kaku support a “block universe” view, where all moments in time exist simultaneously.
• Drawing inspiration from Einstein, who believed that the distinction between past, present, and future is a persistent illusion.
• This view calls into question the reality of free will, the possibility of choice, and our intuitive experience of time’s progression.

Notable Quotes

• “Each moment just exists... every moment is and is forever.” — Brian Greene [27:02]
• “Time beats at different rates depending upon how fast you move.” — Michio Kaku [30:21]

5. Quantum Possibilities: Parallel Universes & the Many Worlds

[35:23 – 40:07]

• Quantum theory's “many worlds” interpretation is discussed, where every possible outcome actually happens in a branching multiverse.
• The unsettling notion that we have “an infinite number of you’s” living out every possibility—yet the idea remains speculative.

Notable Exchange

• “So all the consequences that flow from my vanilla... I marry Vanilla, we have our lovely banilitos. But if I choose chocolate, I go into a mocha thing... Don’t you see that this is like dumb?” — Robert Krulwich [36:32]
• “This proposal... was not put forward in order to restore anything to do with free will.” — Brian Greene [37:14]

6. The Neuroscience of Free Will

[41:22 – 45:03]

• Referencing experiments by V. S. Ramachandran and others, the show highlights research showing that the brain initiates actions before we consciously “choose” them, undermining traditional notions of will.
• Raises deep questions about agency, responsibility, and the subjective sense of “deciding.”

Notable Quote

• “Even a simple thing like moving my finger, I can’t do on my own without the blip telling me ahead of time... your so-called thinking is a post hoc rationalization.” — Chad Abumrad [43:00]

7. Making Peace with Time: Life and Art in the Mojave

[47:27 – 61:05]

• In the Mojave Desert, Ben Adair interviews miners and desert dwellers—including artists like Marta Becket, a former New York dancer who created the Amargosa Opera House, and remembers sculptor Noah Purifoy.
• The sense of time here shifts from concern over legacy and memory (as in Wilcox’s sculpture) to acceptance of geologic and cosmic insignificance.
• The desert becomes a metaphor for both oblivion and creative possibility—where art, legends, and memories are inevitably reclaimed by wind and sand.

Notable Quotes

• “A hundred human empires will rise and fall in the time it takes Death Valley to notice our passing.” — Ben Adair [52:54]
• “A sculpture is never done, he surmised. After he built it, the weather continued the process.” — On Noah Purifoy [59:17]

Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• On collaborating with time:
  “Time cracks foundations, erodes borders, erases anything. Man creates civilization, art. Particularly art. Time hates art. That’s why museums have restorers. But here’s Terry trying to collaborate with time.” — Jad Abumrad [02:09]

• Physics’ view on time:
  “The time that we seem to experience as a continuous flow is actually not a flow at all... each moment just exists.” — Brian Greene [26:44]

• Einstein on the illusion of time:
  “Time is an illusion… there is no distinction between the past, the present, and the future.” — Michio Kaku quoting Einstein [31:30]

• Free will, or the lack thereof:
  “Even a simple thing like moving my finger, I can’t do on my own… your so-called thinking is a post hoc rationalization.” — Chad Abumrad [43:00]

• Desert perspective:
  “A hundred human empires will rise and fall in the time it takes Death Valley to notice our passing.” — Ben Adair [52:54]

Episode Timeline

• [00:52 – 05:09]: Terry Wilcox and the 1,495-year sculpture
• [06:00 – 10:41]: Supercollider tour and the search for the universe’s beginnings
• [11:25 – 22:25]: David McDermott, living in the past
• [26:15 – 34:52]: Brian Greene & Michio Kaku on the “block universe” and Einstein’s legacy
• [35:23 – 40:07]: Parallel universes and quantum possibilities
• [41:22 – 45:03]: Neuroscience and the experimental challenge to free will
• [47:27 – 61:05]: Stories of the Mojave: miners, artists, and making peace with cosmic insignificance

Concluding Reflections

• The episode closes on the understanding that while time may be an illusion or an eternal, unchanging block, the acts of art-making, remembering, and connecting with others remain deeply human.
• In the longest view—geologic, cosmic, or quantum—human endeavors seem ephemeral, yet in the moment, they are real and meaningful.

Summary crafted in the inquisitive, playful, and occasionally philosophical tone characteristic of Radiolab’s hosts.