Radiolab - Our Podcast comes in all shapes and sizes

Episode Date: February 11, 2008

Jad plays one of his favorite pieces of all time, 'IF' by Sherre DeLys.

I should quite. You're listening to Radio Lab. The podcast from New York Public Radio. Public Radio. WNYC. And NPR. Hello everyone. I'm Jad from Radio Lab.

I'm here to tell you that we're getting very close to season four. But before we get started, I wanted to just point you to something. We have started a blog, a Radio Lab blog, which will contain and all kinds of stuff, ringtones even, extra interviews, videos. I'll be posting some music, putting some cool articles. Robert will be putting some posts on there. So if you need a fix, if you're bored at work, if you're just interested in cool ideas, check out RadioLab.org, click on blog.

Now, about to change your life, just a little bit. I'm going to play you one of my favorite pieces of all times. One of my favorite producers of all time. Her name is Sher Deleis. She's an Australian, and she makes all of these pieces, which are kind of in the same manner that Radio Lab sometimes does radio, which sounds a little bit like music, but it's also like radio, but it's like music. She's in that spirit as well.

She will take speech and edit it into a musical little situation. And I don't want to say too much more about it, except to say that it is called simply if. If. If. If. If. If... If...

If I were a fish trying to help someone... If I were a fish, if I were a finch... If I were a flame with a friend of a fish... If... If... If I was a bird... Looking at the children that were really sick... If...

If... If... If... ... if I were a crocodile... If... If... If I were a plant, sorry, if I were a kid, kid, kitty, if, if. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If...

If... If... If... If I was a bird and I saw a bandage around someone's head, I'd pretend it was my nest and start laying eggs there. If I was a bird...

Oh, hidden. If I were a finch, nesting, and in the children's hospital, and I saw a cast around someone's leg, I think is that a big what they call it the thing you find around in the beach Scuttlefish is it?

Yeah I'd think it was a scuttle fish and I'd start sharpening my beak on it fish inside a fishbowl. In the children's hospital I'd be thinking thinking who's in the cage, is it me or is it you?

Well it's me your fish. When I first down, get there. They weigh me, you know, take a blood test, see how high I am, write it all down. And about an hour later, someone comes in and says, well, this is what's up with you. This, this, this, this and this. In my case, it was low calcium and this, this, this, this, this, and this. A kid, oh wait, if I were playing, it's a plant, it's a little, and this. the children's hospital and I saw the kids go past. I think to myself, I'm lucky to be

a plant, seeing all these sick kids go by and I'm as fit as a fiddle. Well, I might be turned into a fiddle, but I'll be fit as a fiddle. Oh, in just the other week I had a biopsy. They, they put you to sleep and then everything goes all funny when you're going to sleep. Like, it just goes as if it's a lollip. You know those big ones, how they roll. No, it's like when you get a pencil and you paint red in certain places so it goes in a spiral kind of plate.

And when you roll it, it goes all funny. Yeah, that's what it felt like. Everything was going round and round and round and round and round. I wake up and then I go this bad feeling my throat. It was all funny? If? If I were a frog in the children's hospital, I'd be stuck in someone's throat

because they swallowed me. Now they've got a frog in their throat. If I was a bird, if I were a bird in the children's hospital drawing a picture, I'd draw a cat and say, ooh, I'd draw a putty tat. Wrath!

I always. ruin a good picture. I add things on and think, oh this is nice and now I keep adding and adding and adding and adding and adding. And when I've finished I think I've got too many things. See like in this, I drew a dog here and then I decided to do a bed and then I just tried to do the pillar, then I decided to do the nurse, then I decided to do his hands, then I decided to do little shadow of him in bed and I'm under the sheep. the dog here spewing up. Like the drawings and the art.

They made me get better because once I did them, I thought, oh, this is a nice picture. And then inside it made me feel all, you know, that fuzzy feeling, yeah. If, if, if. If, if. If I're a kitty, sorry,

If I are a kid, sleeping on a bed. That's if by Australian producer Sherid Elise. To find out more about Sherid Elise, check out our new blog. We have links there. That's RadioLab.org. Click blog. And you know what, if that story didn't make sense, if you're sitting here like, what? Just listen to it again.

Trust me, the second time you're here, it'll make perfect sense. In any case, that is it for this week. Radio Lab is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the National Science Foundation. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned to next podcast for season four. I'm Chad Abumran.