Radiolab: "Bliss"

Date: December 17, 2012
Hosts: Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich, Lulu Miller, Latif Nasser
Producer: WNYC Studios

Episode Overview

This episode of Radiolab explores the elusive and multifaceted nature of bliss—those fleeting (and sometimes lasting) moments of perfect happiness or insight. Through stories that span the icy landscapes of Antarctica, invented languages, the ephemeral beauty of snowflakes, and psychedelic religious experiences, the episode asks: What separates us from bliss, and can it be captured or engineered? The show blends curiosity, science, history, philosophy, and deep emotion, maintaining the signature Radiolab style of narrative storytelling.

Key Sections & Discussion Points

1. Opening: Bliss in Antarctica

00:55 – 10:30

• Story of Alexander Gamme:
  • Norwegian adventurer on a solo 3-month trek across Antarctica, surviving on rationed supplies.
  • Gamme discovers his final food cache after weeks of deprivation, first disappointed, then elated upon unearthing a forgotten stash of Cheese Doodles, chocolate, and candy.
  • The moment, captured on film, reveals pure, childlike bliss from an unexpected source.
• Hosts’ Reflection:
  • Discuss how deprivation (three months of hunger, isolation) created the conditions for this moment of perfect happiness.
  • Sparks the broader inquiry: What stands between us and bliss? Is it only attainable through extreme circumstances?

“What stands between you and that feeling is a really interesting question.” – Host, discussing Gamme’s ecstasy (09:24)

2. The Inventor of Bliss: Charles Bliss & His Universal Symbols

10:31 – 37:45

a) The Origins of Charles Bliss

• Born Karl Blitz (Ukraine, 1900s), inspired as a boy by tales of polar explorers—a symbol of seeking perfect worlds.
• Survives WWI, becomes a mandolin virtuoso, endures concentration camps during WWII. His wife Claire smuggles his mandolin into the camps, providing solace through music.

b) Birth of Blissymbolics

• Encounters Chinese written language in exile—realizes that pictorial symbols transcend spoken language and manipulation, unlike words which can be twisted (as by Nazi propaganda).
• Epiphany: If everyone communicated in universal, ideogram-based symbols, misunderstanding and violence ("evil words") could be avoided.

“Words were dangerous instruments. They cause violence. They cause wars.” – Charles Bliss [21:30]

• Devotes years to developing "Blissymbolics": a system of simple, typewriter-ready symbols meant to communicate universal meanings without the ambiguity of language.
• Launches a massive book explaining the logic, sends it to thousands of institutions, only to be met with silence and failure.

c) Redemption and Tragedy: Blissymbolics Adoption

• Years later, nurse Shirley McNaughton at a children's center for cerebral palsy finds Bliss's book and applies the symbols to help nonverbal kids communicate.
• Blissymbolics enables children to express complex ideas, improvise, and share identities (“vampire” story).

“It sounds like an explosion with these kids. It was.” – Shirley McNaughton describing the breakthrough (33:32)

• Conflict:
  • As teachers and therapists evolve the system—adding symbols, adapting for local needs—Bliss resents the "corruption" of his universal vision.
  • Initiates a bitter feud, legal action, and demands strict adherence to his original system, ultimately undermining its own spread.
• Resolution: Financial settlement, program damage, and Blissymbolics’ use remains limited.

d) Reflection and Impact

• Despite personal conflict, users felt that symbol-thinking changed their minds—“like poetry in its purest form.”
• Shirley holds compassion for Bliss despite his obstructive behavior.

“You can just take the symbols and put them into one composite, and they say things that only art can say. It’s beautiful. They transmit a meaning that is beyond any words.” – Shirley McNaughton [37:25]

3. Chasing Perfection: The Perfect Snowflake

39:00 – 1:01:30

a) Wilson Bentley: The Snowflake Man

• 1880s Vermont: Young Wilson Bentley receives a microscope, becomes obsessed with drawing (then photographing) snowflakes, calling them “masterpieces.”
• He spends a lifetime documenting thousands of “perfect,” symmetrical snowflakes, selling prints to museums and universities.

b) The German Challenge

• German meteorologist Gustav Hellmann and photographer Richard Neuhaus reproduce Bentley’s process; their snowflakes appear flawed, broken—debunking the myth of universal perfection.
• Reveal Bentley retouched his photos, editing imperfections for aesthetic “truth.”

“In many images, Bentley did not limit himself to improving the Outlines. He let his knife play deep inside the heart of the crystals so that fully arbitrary figures emerged.” – Richard Neuhaus (56:14)

• Debate: What is more real—the unedited, flawed snowflake or the idealized, retouched one? Is perfection an artistic or scientific construct?

c) Modern Perspective: Ken Libbrecht

• Caltech physicist, modern “snowflake expert,” creates and photographs artificial snowflakes (over 10,000 photographed).
• Explains the extreme rarity of "perfect" flakes, conditions needed (temperature, humidity), and how most snowflakes are ephemeral, vanishing unnoticed.

“Imagine just all the beautiful little works of art that are just falling down totally unnoticed and then they just disappear…” – Ken Libbrecht (1:00:45)

4. Engineered Bliss: The Marsh Chapel Experiment & Psychedelic Mysticism

1:01:31 – 1:22:41

a) The 1962 Marsh Chapel Experiment

• At Boston University, 20 theology students receive either psilocybin (magic mushrooms) or placebo during a Good Friday service, in a controlled study by Walter Pahnke (inspired by Timothy Leary).
• Mike Young’s Experience:
  • On psilocybin, Young experiences a vivid, ineffable vision of colors, choices, death, and rebirth; the preacher’s voice syncs poetically with his hallucination, anchoring his transformation.

“I was floating through technicolor bars, and I could choose any life I wanted, but I couldn’t choose. It was painful… and I died. And at that moment, I heard Howard Thurman say, ‘I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for death.’ And I stopped dying.” – Mike Young (1:07:16)

b) Long-Term Consequences & Cultural Impact

• 9 of 10 psilocybin group become ministers, none from the placebo group.
• Research on psychedelics is shut down amid anti-drug backlash—until recent decades.

c) Modern Research: Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins

• Studies on psilocybin and engineered mystical experience resume.
• Volunteers in controlled settings describe their session as “the most important experience of my life,” ranking alongside the birth of a child or death of a parent.

“About 75% of people are saying it’s in the top five most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their life.” – Roland Griffiths (1:13:55)

• Characterizes the psychedelic religious experience: awe, transcendence, positive mood, unity, ineffability.
• Links between mystical form and measurable behavioral change: e.g., smoking cessation linked to profound, “rearranging” experience on psilocybin.

“We’re talking about rewiring personality at a fundamental machine programming level… a rearranging experience.” – Roland Griffiths (1:20:20)

d) Reflection: Can Bliss Last?

• Personal story from a producer recalls a campfire Christian experience—an ecstatic moment, lasting long after the context evaporates.
• The show considers whether bliss can be described or measured, or whether its ineffable, fleeting nature is what makes it valuable.

“The final characteristic is ineffability… people claim that it can’t be described in words… and that’s what I’ll take from all this. It’s just how hard it is to talk about the thing I’ve just spent the last 20 minutes trying to talk about.” – Andy Mills (1:22:24)

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On deprivation and joy:
  • “Have you ever been that happy in your life?” – Host, on Alex Gamme’s Antarctic moment (07:12)
• On the power and peril of language:
  • “Words were dangerous instruments. They cause violence. They cause wars.” – Charles Bliss (21:30)
• On symbol-thinking:
  • “It’s like poetry in its purest form… They transmit a meaning that is beyond any words.” – Shirley McNaughton (37:25)
• On ideal snowflakes:
  • “You think there are such things as exquisitely beautiful flakes? I would like to think so. No.” – Ken Libbrecht (47:00)
• On engineering religious experience:
  • “All but one became ministers.” – Mike Young on the Marsh Chapel psilocybin group (1:11:22)
  • “If you can take this drug and for the majority of people, induce a religious experience, what does that say?” – Discussion among hosts (1:14:40)
• On ineffability:
  • “The final ingredient was ineffability… people claim that it can’t be described in words, that it’s non-verbal, basically indescribable.” – Producer Andy Mills (1:22:18)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:55-10:30: Alexander Gamme’s Antarctic bliss
• 10:31-37:45: The story of Charles Bliss and Blissymbolics
• 39:00-1:01:30: The hunt for the perfect snowflake—Bentley, Neuhaus, Libbrecht
• 1:01:31-1:22:41: The Marsh Chapel Experiment, psilocybin, and engineered religious experience
• Interspersed throughout: Listener definitions of bliss (shown between main stories)

Tone & Language

Radiolab retains its vibrant, curiosity-driven tone throughout; the language is thoughtful, occasionally humorous, and emotionally nuanced. Hosts and guests speak candidly and personally, reflecting on both the marvel and tragedy inherent in chasing perfect happiness—be it through adventure, science, art, innovation, or a single profound experience.

Summary

"Bliss" artfully navigates the thin line between fleeting ecstasy and lasting transformation. Through diverse stories—ranging from Antarctic euphoria and utopian symbols, to impossible snowflakes and induced mystical visions—the episode investigates how bliss arises, what blocks it, and what remains when it’s gone. Along the way, Radiolab asks not just what bliss is, but how we might recognize, spark, or lose it, and what it means to try.