The Universe Knows My Name

Summary

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Radiolab: "The Universe Knows My Name"

Date: January 11, 2011
Hosts: Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich
Featured Guests: Paul Auster (novelist), Mike Barrier (animation historian), Lulu Miller (producer)
Main Theme: Fate, coincidence, and the idea that the universe is both the architect and antagonist of our stories.

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Episode Overview

In "The Universe Knows My Name," Radiolab explores the unexpectedly personal intersection between fate, coincidence, and the feeling that the universe is aware of (and perhaps meddling in) our lives. Through author Paul Auster's real-life stories and literary works and an investigation into the philosophical nature of the Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons, the episode teases out why humans are so drawn to patterns and the idea of cosmic notice—whether flattering or cruel.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Paul Auster and “Rhyming Events” (01:27–04:41)

• Introduction to Paul Auster

  • Paul Auster is described as a prolific novelist, particularly intrigued by life's coincidences, which he calls “rhyming events.”
  • Auster: "Rhyming events... For example, the girlfriend I had when I was very young... had a piano in her apartment. And the F above middle C was broken... We went out to Maine... found another piano in an old lodge. The same key was broken." (01:56–02:46)
  • Robert and Jad react with mild disbelief and curiosity at the odds of such coincidences.

• Another Rhyming Event: The War Story

  • Auster recounts a friend’s story: a father hides from Nazis in Paris, twenty years later his son accidentally rents the exact same room.
  • Jad: “Wait a second…so you're saying... the same exact room. Yes. Where his dad... and this really happened?” (04:18)

• Interpretations of Fate

  • The hosts discuss whether these events are meaningful, suggest pre-written scripts, or are mere chance.
  • Jad: “Or maybe like the script has already been written somehow.” (04:55)
  • Auster: “Exactly right. But, you know, it's interesting. You see people... who attract bad luck.” (04:58)

---

The Philosophy of Wile E. Coyote (06:06–10:23)

• Introduction to Mike Barrier and the Roadrunner Cartoons

  • Animation historian Mike Barrier is brought in to discuss the success of Roadrunner cartoons and their resonance with audiences.

• Why the Coyote Feels So Human

  • The cartoon's unique appeal comes from Coyote’s relentless but doomed pursuit, set up by a universe that seems to take things personally.
  • Barrier: “He's an extraordinarily human animal.” (08:13)
  • The universe, not the Roadrunner, is Coyote’s real opponent.
  • Lulu Miller: “The roadrunner isn't his real opponent at all. It's the universe, right?” (09:28)
  • Barrier: “Oh, yeah... the universe is his opponent. Absolutely.” (09:33)
  • Jad: “The very laws of physics are against us.” (09:37)

• The Existential Dilemma

  • Coyote’s predicament—crushed by cartoon logic and cosmic indifference—mirrors the human feeling of “why me?”
  • Paradoxically, being picked on by the universe can feel “flattering.”
  • Barrier: “It's kind of flattering in a way.” (10:01)

• Debate: Cosmic Notice vs. Indifference

  • Jad: “What's more flattering: to live in a world that actively screws you... or one that just doesn't care about you?” (10:23)

  • Robert: “No, totally ignored by the universe? That's the worst.” (10:44)

  • Robert shares personal experience of being chewed out by a boss but feeling “noticed” (11:01–11:26).

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Fate, Defiance, and Narrative (11:35–14:44)

• Wile E. Coyote as Symbol

  • Robert admires Coyote's resilience: “He has no evidence at all that anything good will ever happen to him, and yet he wakes up every day with hope.” (11:35)

• Are Some People Born to Lose?

  • Auster: “Some people really are what we call losers... it's fascinating to try to understand why.” (11:53)

• Do We Get to See the Script?

  • The hosts propose that strange coincidences feel like peeks at a pre-written script or fate.
  • Jad: “When those moments come along... you feel like you're getting a peek at the script.” (12:24)

---

Paul Auster’s “City of Glass” Coincidence Story (12:37–16:28)

• Origin Story of a Novel

  • Auster recounts the real-life wrong-number phone calls that inspired his novel City of Glass.
  • After two wrong numbers for the "Pinkerton Agency," Auster wonders, “What if I'd played along?” That “what if?” becomes the jumping-off point for fiction.
  • Auster reading: “...wheels started turning in my head... an entire world of possibilities opened up to me. When I sat down to write City of Glass a year later, the wrong number had been transformed into the crucial event of the book." (13:37–14:44)

• Life Mirrors Art

  • Years later, a stranger calls Auster’s new number and asks for “Mr. Quinn” (the name of the novel’s protagonist).
  • Auster: “I suddenly grew scared... I'm sorry... there's no Mr. Quinn here. You've dialed the wrong number. This really happened." (15:33–16:25)
  • Robert: “At the moment when he said Quinn, you could have said, well, this is Mr. Quinn, you could have said that.” (16:29)
  • Auster: “I was shaken, I have to say. I was not in full possession of myself.” (16:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Paul Auster (on rhyming events):

  "That, to me, is a rhyming event." (02:46)

• Mike Barrier (on facing the universe):

  "The universe is his opponent. Absolutely." (09:33)

• Jad Abumrad (on cosmic preference):

  "What's more flattering to live in a world that actively screws you at every turn or one that just doesn't care about you? Like a Nietzschean void?" (10:23)

• Robert Krulwich (on being noticed):

  "Instead of being sad and upset inside my head, like Wile E. Coyote himself, I thought, wow, he knows my name. He watched my story." (11:17)

• Paul Auster (on art and coincidence):

  "It is possible for stories to go on writing themselves without an author." (14:53)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:27–02:46] — Paul Auster introduces "rhyming events" with personal anecdote
• [02:59–04:41] — The war story and discussions of fate
• [06:06–10:23] — Mike Barrier explains Roadrunner cartoons and cosmic opposition
• [10:37–11:53] — Hosts debate whether it's better to be ignored or antagonized by the universe
• [12:37–14:44] — Auster tells of wrong-number call that inspired City of Glass
• [15:30–16:28] — Auster gets a real-life call for his fictional character, blurring reality and fiction

---

Tone & Final Reflections

The episode balances philosophical musing with playful banter, blending storytelling, pop culture analysis, and questions of destiny. It invites listeners to consider: Are we subject to random chance, or is there meaning in the coincidences and misfortunes that befall us? Is the universe indifferent, or is it keeping a mischievous eye on us?

Robert Krulwich sums it up:
"I like Wile E. Coyote because I admire the guy. He has no evidence at all that anything good will ever happen to him, and yet he wakes up every day with hope." (11:35)

Paul Auster closes:
"It's inexplicable, but interesting because of that." (16:47)

---

Transcript

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[Robert Krulwich]

Wait, you're listening. Okay.

[Radiolab Sign-off Announcer]

All right.

[Robert Krulwich]

Okay.

[Producer/Interviewer]

All right.

[Genesis/SiriusXM/Wayfair Advertiser]

You're listening to Radiolab.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Radio Lab shorts from wny.

[Robert Krulwich]

See? Yes.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

And NPR on file.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Could you. Could you introduce yourself?

[Robert Krulwich]

Yes.

[Paul Auster]

Oh, my name is Paul Auster.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And what do you do?

[Paul Auster]

What do I do? I sit here and talk to people like you.

[Robert Krulwich]

No, he doesn't. Paul Auster is one of the most prolific writers we have.

[Paul Auster]

I do the best I can.

[Robert Krulwich]

But I went to see him because anytime you open a Paul Auster book, you notice that he is noticing that in the world there are lots of strange repeats. He calls them rhymes.

[Paul Auster]

Rhyming events.

[Robert Krulwich]

What is a rhyming event?

[Paul Auster]

Well, a rhyming event would be something. For example, the girlfriend I had when I was very young, college freshmen, sophomores, had a piano in her apartment. And the F above middle C was broken. It was the only note that didn't work on the piano. That summer we got together and we went out to Maine, way, way out in the wilds of Maine, near Eastport. And we were walking through pretty much an abandoned town. And we walked into what looked like an old elk's lodge or moose lodge. And we walked up to the piano that was sitting in the room. And my girlfriend could play very well, and she tested out the piano. One key was broken, F above middle C. So that, to me, is a rhyming event.

[Jad Abumrad]

Rhyming.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Psst.

[Jad Abumrad]

The Fs always break.

[Robert Krulwich]

I don't know if that doesn't impress you, and I, you know, I'm gonna give you another one. This is a true story, by the way, the one you're. And it's a whopper. This is too weird.

[Paul Auster]

Well, it is the room just five pages in. During the war, M's father had hidden out from the Nazis for several months in a Paris Chambeau de Bonne. Eventually, he managed to escape.

[Robert Krulwich]

What's a Chambeau de Bonne?

[Paul Auster]

A maid's room. It's a small room on the top floor of a Paris apartment building, Chambre de Bon. Eventually, he managed to escape, made his way to America, and began a new life. Years passed, more than 20 years. M had been born, had grown up, and was now going off to study in Paris. Once there, he spent several difficult weeks looking for a place to live. Just when he was about to give up in despair, he found a small Chambre de Bonne. Immediately upon moving in, he wrote a letter to his father to tell him the good news. A week or so later, he received a reply. Your address, wrote M's father. That is the same building I hid out in during the war. He then went on to describe the details of the room. It turned out to be the same room his son had rented.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wait a second. So the father flees the Nazis, stays in this room In Paris, leaves. 20 years go by. The son happens to be in Paris, needs a room, he finds a little. Finds. So you're saying it turns out room the same. Exact same room, yes. Where his dad and this really happened. You're not.

[Robert Krulwich]

It didn't happen to Paul, it happened to a friend of Paul's. Yes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow, that is weird.

[Robert Krulwich]

Yeah.

[Jad Abumrad]

And what do you make of that?

[Robert Krulwich]

Well, I'm not sure what to make of it, except that it gives you a funny sense that sometimes in your life when something happens and then weirdly, it happens again, that maybe that's intentional.

[Jad Abumrad]

Or maybe like the script has already been written somehow.

[Paul Auster]

Exactly right. But, you know, it's interesting. You see people. There are people, it seems to me, who attract bad luck. We know these people. We've all known them. And there are people who are accident prone. Also, they're always breaking their toe or breaking their leg.

[Jad Abumrad]

Well, speaking of which, let me get our producer, Pat Walters, in here.

[Robert Krulwich]

Wait, maybe before you do that, you should. You should just mention that this, this is the. This is Radiolab, the pod. We haven't done that yet.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, right.

[Robert Krulwich]

This is Radiolab, the podcast.

[Jad Abumrad]

Right. I'm Jad Abumrad.

[Robert Krulwich]

I'm Robert Krulwich.

[Jad Abumrad]

And our subject is fate. Really?

[Robert Krulwich]

We always seem to talk about things.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, it's funny. I mean, like we. We'll have sometimes scientists on the show and we talk to them about whatever it Is that they study. But it always ends up being the case that the real topic of conversation is destiny. Like, is it there? If it is, can you beat it? We could be talking about flowers and somehow this would come up. So we thought today we would attack it a little more playfully. And Pat, our producer, got kind of obsessed with something to do with fate and bad luck and I don't really know. Pat, do you want to just roll the tape?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Yeah, just one second here. You live in Arkansas, is that right?

[Mike Barrier]

That's correct.

[Paul Auster]

Yeah.

[Robert Krulwich]

Yeah.

[Producer/Interviewer]

I don't think you have roadrunners down there, do you?

[Mike Barrier]

No, they're roadrunners. I think they've maybe gotten into the far western part of the state.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Meep, meep, meep. Know what that is, Jad?

[Jad Abumrad]

I hate that freaking bird.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Yeah, exactly.

[Jad Abumrad]

It's the roadrunner. And who is this this dude?

[Producer/Interviewer]

This is Mike Barrier.

[Mike Barrier]

I'm the author of a book called Hollywood American Animation and its Golden Age.

[Producer/Interviewer]

He's basically the guy you call if you have like a big profound question about Looney Tunes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Looney Tunes?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Yeah. A few months ago, Lulu and I started wondering, like Lulu Miller, our former.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

Producer, why is roadrunner so good? Because I'm at least in the camp.

[Mike Barrier]

That's her question.

[Paul Auster]

Yeah.

[Producer/Interviewer]

But before we get to the answer, I just want to give you a little background on the cartoon.

[Jad Abumrad]

Alright, go for it.

[Producer/Interviewer]

It's 1949 and you're at the movies with your wife. You go in and you take a seat, and when the movie starts, one of the very first things you see is a cartoon. And in the 40s and 50s, most of these cartoons were chase cartoons.

[Mike Barrier]

Tom and Jerry being the prime example.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Problem was, this chase thing was a formula. It was rigid and it got a lot of cartoonists kind of bored.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Producer/Interviewer]

So one day, this kind of famous cartoonist named Chuck Jones sitting around with his buddy Mike Maltese, just talking about.

[Mike Barrier]

What oddball combinations of characters that could be chasing each other. I think Maltese thought about having an aardvark chasing a gnu or something like that.

[Producer/Interviewer]

What's a gnu? I don't even know what a gnu is. But just to cut to the chase, eventually they decided, let's make a cartoon.

[Mike Barrier]

About a coyote chasing a roadrunner.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And when this cartoon came out, it was huge. It was a hit.

[Jad Abumrad]

What does it mean for a cartoon to be a hit?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Like in those days, cartoons usually only ran one time, but this one was different.

[Mike Barrier]

Six months after it came out, they started making another one.

[Producer/Interviewer]

This was almost completely unheard of. Which brings us back To Lulu's question.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

Why is roadrunner so good? Because I'm at least in the camp, that it's way better than Tom and Jerry.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And Mike says it's actually all about the coyote.

[Mike Barrier]

He's an extraordinarily human animal.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And not just like in the facial expressions that he made and the ways that he looked at the camera a lot. But actually, it kind of was about the predicaments that he found himself in.

[Jad Abumrad]

Meaning.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Take, for example, this one really famous cartoon. Like always, Coyote has got a plan. He has made a painting of the.

[Mike Barrier]

Road showing the road continuing over a chasm.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Like, he's put this painting right at the edge of the cliff.

[Mike Barrier]

The idea being the roadrunner would run through the painting. Gravity would take hold of him and he would plunge into the chasm.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Roadrunner comes flying down the highway, and he gets to the painting, but it doesn't fall.

[Mike Barrier]

Instead, the roadrunner runs into the painting as if it were the road were actually continuing. But then when the coyote tries to follow the roadrunner into the painting, he runs through the painting and falls.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And he looks up at the camera and he shrugged, and he's like, why did the bird get to run into the painting and not me?

[Mike Barrier]

Gravity isn't this uniform, indifferent force. It's a malignant force that actually comes in and out of play according to how inconvenient it can be for the coyote.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

But that's interesting. The roadrunner isn't his real opponent at all. It's the universe, right?

[Mike Barrier]

Oh, yeah. No, he's chasing the roadrunner, but the universe is his opponent. Absolutely.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And that's kind of what makes the coyote seem so human. He's in that situation that all of us feel like we're in sometimes. Like the very laws of physics are against us.

[Paul Auster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Barrier]

It's almost a primitive way of thinking. But I think all of us lapse into this. You know, how can this happen?

[Robert Krulwich]

Right.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

The universe is out to get me.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Barrier]

You can't be human and not feel that way.

[Producer/Interviewer]

On the other hand, even though the universe is screwing you, at least it's noticing you.

[Mike Barrier]

It's kind of flattering in a way.

[Producer/Interviewer]

It's totally flattering. Yeah. And this, Mike says, is why the cartoon works. Like, on the one hand, it confirms our paranoias, and the other kind of plays to our vanity.

[Jad Abumrad]

Flattering?

[Paul Auster]

Is that really.

[Jad Abumrad]

I mean, when you said flattering a second ago.

[Producer Lulu Miller]

Is that really what it is?

[Producer/Interviewer]

You don't see it that way? I don't know.

[Jad Abumrad]

I've never liked this cartoon because he never wins. It's like, what's more flattering to live in a world that actively screws you at every turn or one that just doesn't care about you? Like a Nietzschean void?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Um, I don't really know. That's kind of tough.

[Jad Abumrad]

I go with the void.

[Robert Krulwich]

No.

[Jad Abumrad]

What do you mean?

[Robert Krulwich]

Totally ignored by the universe?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Yes, that's the worst.

[Jad Abumrad]

As opposed to being actively, actively screwed by the universe. Yeah, sure. Ignore me.

[Robert Krulwich]

You don't know what you don't know. Let me tell you this story. I went to ABC News and I did a story that went very well. And then the next week, I did a story which went very badly. And the head of the place, Roon Arledge, called me into his office. And this was Roon Arledge, a legend in broadcasting. And then he put his face right in front of my face, his nose almost touching my nose, and said to me, I hated this, I hated that. What's wrong with you? And instead of being sad and upset inside my head, like Wile E. Coyote himself, I thought, wow, he knows my name. He watched my story.

[Jad Abumrad]

But if Rune Arlich had said that to you every single day, he didn't.

[Robert Krulwich]

Do it every single time.

[Jad Abumrad]

I know, but in cartoon form, that's essentially what's happening here.

[Robert Krulwich]

Yes, but cartoons yelling at you. But the reason I like Wile E. Coyote is because I admire the guy. He has no evidence at all that anything good will ever happen to him, and yet he wakes up every day with hope.

[Paul Auster]

But some people really are what we call losers. And it's fascinating to try to understand why that person's always getting fired from his job or is unlucky in love all the time or just can't seem to make a go of it.

[Robert Krulwich]

But now let's suppose that unlike Mr. Coyote, you can't really be sure whether the script that's been written for you, if indeed there is one, is going to get you deeper and deeper into doo doo, or whether it's going to make you a star or what.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. And when those moments come along, you know, when you feel like you're getting a peek at the script, maybe, and then you think, well, a, is this real? And if it is, what do you do? Yeah.

[Robert Krulwich]

In fact, Paul got to one more story which. You want to read it or you want to just.

[Paul Auster]

Yeah, why don't I read it? Because I know where it is. Yeah, it's the last one in the red notebook. It is a very strange story. My first novel was inspired by A wrong number. I was alone in my apartment in Brooklyn one afternoon, sitting at my desk and trying to work, when the telephone rang. If I'm not mistaken, it was the spring of 1980. I picked up the receiver, and the man on the other end asked if he was talking to the Pinkerton Agency. I told him no, he had dialed the wrong number, and hung up. Then I went back to work and promptly forgot about the call. The next afternoon, the telephone rang again. It turned out to be the same person asking the same question I had been asked the day before. Is this the Pinkerton Agency? Again I said no, and again I hung up. This time, however, I started thinking about what would have happened if I had said yes. What if I had pretended to be a detective from the Pinkerton Agency? I wondered. What if I had actually taken on the case? To tell the truth, I felt that I had squandered a rare opportunity. If the man ever called again, I told myself I would at least talk to him a little bit and try to find out what was going on. I waited for the telephone to ring again, but the third call never came. After that, wheels started turning in my head, and little by little, an entire world of possibilities opened up to me. When I sat down to write City of Glass a year later, the wrong number had been transformed into the crucial event of the book, the mistake that sets the whole story in motion. A man named Quinn receives a phone call from someone who wants to talk to Paul Auster, the private detective. Just as I did, Quinn tells the caller he has dialed the wrong number. That happens again on the next night, and again Quinn hangs up. Unlike me, however, Quinn is given another chance. When the phone rings again on the third night, he plays along with the caller and takes on the case. Yes, he says, I'm Paul Auster. And at that moment, the madness begins.

[Robert Krulwich]

And not just for the character in the story, but for Paul Auster himself. Because when he wrote this book, the City of Glass, it became a enormous success.

[Paul Auster]

And this is now. I'm writing in 1992 here. I finished the book 10 years ago, and since then I've gone on to occupy myself with other projects, other ideas, other books. Less than two months ago, however, I learned that books are never finished, that it is possible for stories to go on writing themselves without an author. I was alone in my apartment in Brooklyn that afternoon, sitting at my desk and trying to work, when the telephone rang. This was a different apartment from the one I had in 1980. A different apartment with a different telephone number. I picked up the receiver, and the man on the other end asked if he could speak to Mr. Quinn.

[Robert Krulwich]

Quinn, remember, is the name of the man in the story who got the call.

[Paul Auster]

He had a Spanish accent, and I did not recognize the voice. For a moment I thought it might be one of my friends trying to pull my leg. Mr. Quinn, I said. Is this some kind of joke or what? No, it wasn't a joke. The man was in dead earnest. He had to talk to Mr. Quinn. Would I please put him on the line just to make sure? I asked him to spell out the name. The caller's accent was quite thick, and I was hoping that he wanted to talk to Mr. Queen, but no such luck. Q U I N, N, the man answered. I suddenly grew scared, and for a moment or two I couldn't get any words out of my mouth. I'm sorry, I said at last. There's no Mr. Quinn here. You've dialed the wrong number. The man apologized for disturbing me, and then we both hung up. This really happened. Like everything else I have set down in this red notebook, it is a true story.

[Robert Krulwich]

So it really did.

[Paul Auster]

It really did, and I guarantee it.

[Robert Krulwich]

Did you.

[State Farm Advertiser]

Did you.

[Robert Krulwich]

At the moment when he said when, you could have said, well, this is Mr. Quinn, you could have said that.

[Paul Auster]

I was shaken, I have to say. I was not in full possession of myself.

[Robert Krulwich]

Huh.

[Paul Auster]

It really disturbed me.

[Robert Krulwich]

And did it take a while to settle down in you? Because it's such a weird.

[Paul Auster]

Yes. It's inexplicable, but interesting because of that.

[Robert Krulwich]

Paul Auster is the author of the Red Notebook, which these readings are from. The New York Trilogy, of course, which contains the City of Glass, also man in the Invisible Sunset Park. He writes book after book after book.

[Jad Abumrad]

Or we should be off. Thanks for listening. I'm Jad Abumrad.

[Robert Krulwich]

I'm Robert Krulwich. Thank you.

[Jad Abumrad]

We'll see you later.

[Radiolab Sign-off Announcer]

Start of MESSAGE My name is Alvaro Lozano. Roberto. I'm originally from Spain, but live in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and I am a Radiolab listener. Radiolab is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloan. adios y gracias. End of message.

[Genesis/SiriusXM/Wayfair Advertiser]

This holiday season, find something extraordinary. The Genesis Signature Event is your moment to experience power you can feel. And every Genesis comes with SiriusXM. Three months of AD, free music, plus sports news and more make Genesis a memorable start to your season.

[State Farm Advertiser]

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[Producer/Interviewer]

Hey, Chihuahua. Holy schnauzers.

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But if you need someone who can actually help, just say, like a good.

[Paul Auster]

Neighbor, State Farm is there.

[State Farm Advertiser]

And get help filing a claim from your local State Farm agent for your small business insurance needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.