Radiolab: "Screaming Into the Void"

Date: September 5, 2025
Hosts: Lulu Miller & Latif Nasser
Produced by: WNYC Studios
Episode Theme:
A live show under the night sky exploring how humans confront the concept of the void—whether it's depthless waters, the infinite cosmos, or the silence in ourselves. Through three stories—a mysterious underwater hum, the vastness of the universe, and a search for extraterrestrial communication—Radiolab probes what we do when faced with emptiness and the unknown.

Episode Overview

This special live episode, performed at Little Island in New York City, centers on the idea of "voids": physical, existential, and metaphorical. The show weaves together science, history, and personal reflection through three main narratives:

1. Lulu Miller explores the world of singing fish and the evolutionary role of silence.
2. Senior producer Matt Kilty tells the story of how our conception of the infinite void shifted from ocean to cosmos, featuring the astronomical breakthrough by Henrietta Leavitt.
3. Latif Nasser takes listeners to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence—how we reckon with cosmic loneliness and the debate over whether we should just listen to the void or try to scream into it.

The episode closes with a moving reading by Helga Davis from Samantha Harvey's novel "Orbital," reflecting on our fragile, beautiful planet as seen from space.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mystery of San Francisco's Nighttime Hum

Timestamps: 01:01–13:43
Speakers: Lulu Miller, Dr. Andrew Bass

• Background: In the late 1980s, San Francisco residents were plagued by a mysterious, foghorn-like nocturnal sound. Theories ranged from government activity to UFOs.
• Revelation: Dr. Andrew Bass (Cornell University) identifies the source: the California singing fish, or midshipman fish, which produces a loud underwater hum as a mating call.
• Biology of the Song: The fish uses its swim bladder as a drum, vibrating powerful muscles to generate an "om" that can last over two hours and be heard above water.
• Risks and Rewards of 'Singing into the Void':
  • Attracts mates, but also predators.
  • If successful, the female lays eggs while the male continues his song, after which he tends the eggs alone.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Bass (on the chorus):
  "It's mesmerizing. ... It's almost like a lullaby, I think." [04:50]
• Dr. Bass (on predation):
  "You'll see gulls fly in and grab them. ... Even eagles, sweeping down and taking them out of the water." [05:35]

The Value of Silence

• Discovery: Among the singers exists a second type: the silent (or "sneaker") male, anatomically unable to hum.
• Lulu's Reflection: She wonders if the silent male's quiet is evolutionarily valuable, an honest "offering of self" (10:11), perhaps even preferable to the female.
• Scientific Reality:
  • Dr. Bass: "We have no evidence to support what you just said." [10:19]
  • The silent male's strategy is sneaky: They sneak into another male’s nest during egg-laying, releasing large quantities of sperm in hopes of fertilization.
  • The singing male, meanwhile, is left to care for the brood, not knowing some are not his own.
• Lulu’s Closing Reflection:
  • The seductive idea of silence as virtue is upended; sometimes quiet is not pure, but a form of stealth or even deception.
  • "Those words are meant for people... who have the choice to become unsilent, to heave up from that cozy refuge of silence and risk disinterest, ridicule and attack." [13:43]

2. From Endless Oceans to the Infinite Cosmos

Timestamps: 17:56–32:04
Speaker: Matt Kilty

• Sea as the Ancient Void:
  • Civilizations viewed the sea as the boundary surrounding Earth—the edge of their world.
  • As explorers sailed further, the concept of the ocean as infinite and terrifying grew; “the biggest thing any of us could conceive of." [21:29]
• Astronomy’s Women Computers & The Leap to Infinity:
  • In 1890s Boston, the Harvard Observatory's team of female "computers" (including Henrietta Leavitt) catalogued stars from glass plates.
  • Leavitt discovered a pattern: the period of a variable star’s brightness correlates to its true luminosity.
  • This breakthrough let scientists measure cosmic distances for the first time.
• The Universe Reimagined:
  • Edwin Hubble, in the 1920s, uses Leavitt’s work to show certain stars are millions of light years away—outside our galaxy.
  • Consequence: We are not the center. The cosmos is a vast, ever-expanding void, full of galaxies.
• Art, Philosophy, and Awe:
  • “To gaze into the depths of the sea, is in the imagination like beholding the vast unknown.” [20:37]
  • Vastness shifts from the sea to the stars, exacerbating our cosmic smallness—“a void that goes on forever.” [31:07]

Notable Quotes

• Matt Kilty (on paradigm shift):
  “In a matter of a century, the ocean went from something that was contained to something that was terrifyingly, staggeringly huge.” [20:12]
• On the Hubble breakthrough:
  “Suddenly we were confronted by another sort of dark mirror … an even bigger void for us to confront.” [31:41]

3. Screaming Into Cosmic Loneliness: The Search for Aliens

Timestamps: 34:47–49:23
Speaker: Latif Nasser with guest Doug Vakoch

• Facing Cosmic Insignificance:
  • Latif recounts the “Total Perspective Vortex” from Hitchhiker’s Guide: a machine that reveals your insignificance in the universe.
  • But there’s something worse: the possibility that, in the universe’s infinite vastness, we are totally alone.
    "The cosmic loneliness is just too much to bear. It's like we're all a toddler wandering alone at night in the middle of the Sahara." [35:16]
• SETI and SETI@home:
  • As a teen, Latif participated in SETI’s distributed computing program, analyzing sky data for signs of alien life.
  • His interviewee, Doug Vakoch, is SETI’s ‘alien translator,’ trained in diverse disciplines—from psycholinguistics to animal communication.
• Listening vs. Sending a Message (SETI vs. METI):
  • Doug advocates not only for listening for alien signals, but for actively broadcasting messages (hence founding METI—Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).
  • This stance is contentious:
    • Stephen Hawking and others worry loud transmissions risk attracting hostile civilizations.
    • Doug’s view: “If everyone is simply doing what we are doing, simply sitting here and listening and not transmitting, it's gonna be a really quiet universe.” [43:13]
    • Plus, radio leakage from Earth has already made our presence known.
• What Would We Say?
  • Suggestions for outbound messages include math, music, or even AI programs.
  • In 2017, Doug and his team beamed a mixture of math and electronic music at a planet 12 light years away; earliest possible reply wouldn’t arrive until the 2040s.

Notable Quotes

• Latif Nasser (about cosmic messaging):
  “It's like a high school prom ... someone's gotta say something, anything. It could be as simple as, you know, just like a Yoo Hoo...” [43:42]
• Doug Vakoch (on METI vs. SETI):
  “If we have a reputation in the galaxy, we're lurkers.” [49:10]
• Doug Vakoch (on scientific boldness):
  “Some of the big discoveries sometimes require a capacity to say what if? And then a willingness to follow through.” [49:23]

4. The Astronaut’s View: Earth from the Void

Timestamps: 49:23–58:29
Speaker: Helga Davis, reading Samantha Harvey's "Orbital"

• A Poetic, Panoramic View:
  • Six astronauts orbiting Earth reflect on its bright cities, invisible borders, and natural beauty.
  • From space, human-made divisions fade away; planet becomes a shared, fragile "suspended jewel."
• The Astronaut’s Paradox:
  • They are moved by both hope and despair: seeing oneness from the void, but knowing violence and division prevail below.
  • "Can we not stop tyrannizing and destroying and ransacking and squandering this one thing on which our lives depend? ... Their hope does not make them naive." [50:40–58:29]

Memorable Moment

• Helga Davis, concluding reflection:
  “They’re humans with a godly view. And that’s the blessing and also the curse.” [58:28]

Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Dr. Andrew Bass: “It’s mesmerizing. ... It’s almost like a lullaby, I think.” [04:50]
• Matt Kilty (on awe of the sea): “To gaze into the depths of the sea is in the imagination like beholding the vast unknown.” [20:37]
• Latif Nasser: "The cosmic loneliness is just too much to bear. It's like we're all a toddler wandering alone at night in the middle of the Sahara." [35:16]
• Doug Vakoch: “If everyone is simply doing what we are doing, simply sitting here and listening and not transmitting, it’s gonna be a really quiet universe.” [43:13]
• Helga Davis: “You’ll see no countries, just a rolling, indivisible globe which knows no possibility of separation, let alone war.” [50:40+]
• Lulu Miller: “Those words are meant for people...who have the choice to become unsilent, to heave up from that cozy refuge of silence and risk disinterest, ridicule and attack.” [13:43]

Segment Timestamps

• 1. San Francisco’s Singing Fish and the Value of Silence – [01:01–13:43]
• 2. The Cosmic Void: From Oceans to Stars – [17:56–32:04]
• 3. Screaming Into the Void: Alien Communication – [34:47–49:23]
• 4. The Astronaut’s Eye: Earth as Home – [49:23–58:29]

Conclusion

Radiolab’s "Screaming Into the Void" is a vibrant, immersive meditation on how we confront emptiness—be it the noisy waters of the bay, the measureless cosmos, or the unknown audience listening for our broadcast into the stars. Through stories that move from the depths of the sea to the reaches of the universe to the psychic interior, the episode asks: When we face the void, do we make noise, go silent, or dare to reach out? And what happens—scientifically, personally, existentially—when the void answers, or does not?