Radiolab – "Darwinvaganza" (February 24, 2009)

Hosts: Jad Abumrad & Robert Krulwich
Summary by WNYC Studios

Overview:

This special, slightly shorter episode of Radiolab celebrates Charles Darwin’s birthday with a curious, lively exploration of his scientific work, his process, and the personal struggles behind his world-changing ideas. Through storytelling, interviews, and signature Radiolab banter, the hosts investigate how Darwin tested his theories, the slow and nuanced development of his evolutionary ideas, and the ways his science intertwined with his relationships—most notably with his deeply religious wife, Emma.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Darwin’s Scientific Process: Evolution of an Idea

• The episode challenges the notion that Darwin had a sudden flash of genius. Instead, his theory of evolution was painstakingly worked out over decades, full of hands-on testing and simple, domestic experiments.
  • Robert Krulwich: "He did not have an excelsior idea. He had a notion which gradually formed into an idea which then required an enormous amount of hard, hard work." [02:36]
• Darwin’s core question: Why do similar environments in different parts of the world have totally different animals?
  • In the 19th century, the common answer was, "God created every species individually and put them down wherever they are." [03:51]

Memorable Experiment – Floating Vegetables

• Darwin tested how seeds might disperse across oceans to distant islands—critical for his theory.
  • He and his butler, Mr. Parslow, conducted quirky experiments in bathtubs, floating various seeds and vegetables in salt water for weeks to see if they could cross oceans and still germinate.
    • "Mr. Parslow... poured salt water into a tub... they plopped radishes and carrots... seeds... And then they'd plant them to see if they would still grow. Some did better than others." [06:09–07:18]
  • Radish and cress seeds floated for 42 days; dried asparagus seeds floated for 85 days, suggesting some plants could, in theory, float thousands of miles across the sea.

Floating Birds and “Flying Clams”

• Young Francis Darwin (Charles’s son) suggested that seeds could survive inside a dead bird floating across the sea—so they fed a bird seeds, killed it, floated it, and later found the seeds still germinated. [08:03]
• A beetle specimen sent to Darwin had a tiny clam attached, inspiring speculation that “clams could fly” via hitchhiking on flying beetles—highlighting Darwin’s delightfully imaginative approach [09:10–10:16]

2. Science as a Family Affair: Darwin at Home

• Darwin’s experiments were collaborative, familial, and playful, involving his butler and children.
  • Robert Krulwich: "This is Charles Darwin with the butler and the tubs." [12:12]
• The approach contrasts sharply with modern science’s formal, credentialed pathways.

Notable Quote

• Jad Abumrad: "It's very optimistic in a way and very homespun." [12:17]

3. Delays, Doubt, and Love: Darwin, Emma, and God

• Why did Darwin wait over 20 years to publish On the Origin of Species?
  • Partly, he wanted to be sure—testing, re-testing, and compiling evidence [12:46].
  • More deeply, he hesitated because of the religious implications—especially its impact on Emma, his devout Christian wife.

Darwin and Emma’s Relationship

• He made a classic pros and cons marriage list titled "marry, not marry. This is the question." [13:53]
  • Concerns: quarreling, time, expense—but he yearned for companionship ("somebody who would sit on the sofa with him") [14:33].
  • The biggest unlisted factor: God and faith.

Spiritual Conflict

• Emma worried about Darwin’s doubts and her fear of being parted eternally if he lost his faith:
  • Robert Krulwich: "If the husband isn't a believer... that person's probably going to go to hell for not having faith in God..." [15:25]
• Emma tries to support Darwin in her own way, writing letters expressing her concerns, which he cherished:
  • "On the letter itself, he wrote at some later point, 'When I am dead, know that many times I have kissed and cried over this.'" [17:14]

Tragedy and Mutual Understanding

• The death of their daughter Annie had a profound effect, testing but ultimately deepening their empathy for each other’s beliefs [17:53–19:32].
  • Deborah Heiligman (author/interviewee): "I believe they actually started to come together more than go apart in the way they were thinking... They were really able to see the other person's point of view, which is really all we need, right?" [19:32]

Emma’s Role in Darwin’s Work

• Despite religious reservations, Emma was Darwin's "first and best reader." She edited and improved his manuscripts and guarded his secret theory before publication [20:10–21:19].

4. Darwinism’s Enduring Public Struggle

• Despite rigorous testing and Emma’s acceptance, Darwin's theory still faces skepticism:
  • "Less than 4 out of 10 [Americans] say they believe in the theory of evolution." [22:01]
  • Darwin has "never had a majority" in popular opinion [22:08]

Why Don’t People Embrace Evolution?

• Two core reasons:
  1. People resist the idea of being “beasts”—not special or angelic, just animals [22:09–22:25]
  2. Adam Gopnik (author/interviewee):
     • Darwinism offers little comfort about existential meaning or the afterlife:
       • "We look to big ideas to take common experience and give us comfort about our core experience. And... Darwinism won’t do that... We can't say, 'I read Darwin and now I feel better about my life.'" [23:01–23:50]
     • Darwin’s lesson: "Knowledge about the common experience gave him no ease in his core experience."
• For Gopnik, Darwin’s legacy is a “tragic grandeur” and a "river of life"—a story about continuity, meaning found in the sweep of life, and caring for the future [24:15–25:44].

Notable Quote

• Adam Gopnik:
  • "Human life isn’t meaningless because it ends... our real afterlife lies in our children and in the afterlife of our ideas and values." [24:15]
  • "We want [children] to be aware that they are fishermen and fisherwomen standing along the long stream of life... where their place is unique but not specially privileged." [25:12]
  • "That... has the virtue of being a genuinely and profoundly inspiring view of how we got here... and also has the not small advantage of being true." [25:48]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Happy Birthday, Darwin & Origin of the Theory: 01:52–04:22
• Seed-floating Experiments & Vegetable Voyaging: 05:10–08:03
• Dead Birds, Hitchhiking Clams, & Scientific Playfulness: 08:03–10:50
• Personal Connection: Walter Crick & Francis Crick: 11:03–11:41
• Darwin’s Delayed Publication & Love Story with Emma: 12:44–15:25
• Loss of Daughter Annie & Interfaith Marriage: 17:53–19:32
• Emma’s Editorial Role & Trust: 20:10–21:19
• Public Skepticism about Evolution: 22:01–22:36
• Adam Gopnik on Darwinism, Meaning, and Legacy: 22:47–26:10

Most Memorable Quotes

• "He did not have an excelsior idea. He had a notion which gradually formed into an idea which then required an enormous amount of hard, hard work."
  – Robert Krulwich [02:36]
• "A wonderful quantity of mucus... because everything about the natural world was wondrous to this guy."
  – Radio Lab Narrator (about Darwin’s delight in natural phenomena) [06:47]
• "Asparagus is king."
  – Robert Krulwich (after calculating how far an asparagus seed could travel at sea) [07:18]
• "This is Charles Darwin with the butler and the tubs."
  – Robert Krulwich [12:12]
• "When I am dead, know that many times I have kissed and cried over this."
  – Charles Darwin to Emma, on her letter about faith [17:14]
• "We look to big ideas to give us comfort about our core experience. And... Darwinism won’t do that… We can't say, 'I read Darwin and now I feel better about my life.'"
  – Adam Gopnik [23:01–23:50]
• "That... has the virtue of being a genuinely and profoundly inspiring view of how we got here... and also has the not small advantage of being true."
  – Adam Gopnik [25:48]

Conclusion

"Darwinvaganza" is a playful, poignant, and illuminating exploration of Charles Darwin as an endlessly curious scientist, a cautious theorist, a loving yet tormented husband, and an unwitting spiritual challenger. The episode draws vibrant connections from the floating seeds in his bathtub to the endurance of scientific skepticism in public opinion, showing both the ordinariness and profundity of Darwin’s legacy.