Radiolab - Short Cuts: Drawn Onward

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

As a treat for the first palindrome date of the calendar year 2024, 4/2/24, (for those who use U.S. formatting of dates anyway), we are releasing a special audio palindrome. A piece that plays the same forward and backward. It’s called “Drawn Onward” and it comes from the producers Alan Goffinski and Sarita Bhatt. It originally aired on the wonderful BBC show Short Cuts which curates fresh, experimental, adventurous audio journeys. Special thanks to Alan Goffinski, Sarita Bhatt, Josie Long, Eleanor McDowall, BBC Short CutsEPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Alan Goffinski, Sarita Bhatt,with help from - Alan Goffinski, Sarita BhattOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Alan GoffinskiEPISODE CITATIONS:Articles - BBC Short Cuts full episode: Meeting Myself Coming BackOur newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [e-mail] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Oh, wait, you're listening. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. You are listening to Radiolab. Radiolab. From WNYC.

See? Hello, it's Lulu. This is Radiolab and I'm whispering because I have a secret for you, which is that if you are listening to this on the day we released it, April 2nd, 2024, then you may not realize it, but you are currently standing in the middle of a secret holiday, 4-2-2-4, 4-2-2-4.

4-2-2-4, 4-2-2-4, it is the first palindrome date of the calendar year. Yeah! And apparently this month we've got a bunch of them. 4-20-24 is also a palindrome. 4-21-24, 4-22-24, actually all the 20s. So anyway, first of all, I just wanted to let you know that we are walking into a month with a bunch of palindrome dates in case you want to celebrate and throw a palindrome party, which would, I don't know, what do you like? You serve some upside down pineapple cake with a layer of right side up pineapple cake,

so it's a palindrome cake, or you go for a ride in a kayak, or in a race car. I don't know. Anyway, so that, cool, palindromes. But second, to honor this secret little holiday hiding in the calendar squares, I wanted to play a tiny morsel of audio for you. Going back to the original spirit of Radiolab, which was, you know, Jad just spinning audio documentaries, strange little pieces from all over the world,

I wanted to bring you one that I recently heard that is itself an audio palindrome. It is the same if you play it forwards or backwards. It involved a crazy amount of production. There's a lot of voices, some eerie sound design. I really don't even understand how they did it. But for me, when I listened to it, this sort of odd thing happened, which is that over these layers of confusion and beauty,

a sort of meaning or feeling rose, almost like a steam about how moving forward always involves some degree of moving backwards. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy. If you don't, if it's a little too addy for you, you know, addy like my people in the homeland of Boston say, then you know, it's okay, it's six minutes of your life.

We will be back with more narrative Radiolab very shortly. But yeah, I just thought I'd toss this out into the week, a little morsel of Sonic candy as I palindrome parade by you. It comes from the show, the wonderful BBC show Shortcuts. If you don't know them, every week they are putting out experimental and adventurous audio. And this comes from their episode, Meeting Myself Coming Back. Here's their host, Josie Long. Hannah, Anna, Eve, a man, a plant, a canal, Panama. I love it when it feels almost as if they're saying something

deeply profound and important, the very rules of their existence meaning that you have to repeat and reorder the same sounds again and again. What I didn't fully appreciate is that palindromes extend to sequences of symbols and sequences of music. You're currently listening to J.S. Bach's Crabb Canon, an arrangement of two musical lines, the second line actually being the first in reverse. And when they're played together they form something conceptually similar to a palindrome and I love what this kind of thing does to my brain but what about audio documentaries?

In our next piece, Sarita and Alan explore a common theme among those who immigrate to new places, the yearning to return to the lands and the people left behind, to go back to where one begins. In doing so, they set out to experiment with a novel production technique, creating the first ever completely symmetrical audio documentary. A sonic journey that ends where it begins. When the tape is

played in reverse, every word, note and noise sounds exactly the same. Down to the millisecond, a true sonic palindrome titled Drawn Onward. I grew up in Bombay in India. My family and I came here from Coapa, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. Very close to Kailah. It's where the sun rises first. I was born and raised in western Germany. I came here from Mexico. I could see the whole Queen's Neck here from the HECO. I could see the whole Queen's Necklace, the Arabian Sea.

Each immigration community carries their own histories, experiences and narratives. More hot cells name like my community. The quail, or the bird. Early in the morning the bird will sing. Birds, birds, phelians of birds. You could hear all the noises from outside. The sunsets were gorgeous as always. The city lights come on. The snow of the summer, warm summer. The new emperors, the very recent Arabs, the flow of life.

Even though it's crazy, it's poetic. In the monsoons, you would hear the wind. The wind would whistle through the cracks. And the valley of the earth would grow in your food. Growing in the west of the earth is like a big deal for us. On holidays, all the 34 cousins would come to grandmother's place. They would just sing and dance. In Hindi, it's very poetic.

My dad used to say, life is fleeting. One song which I loved as a kid and I sang to my son. I'm gonna go in the one body. I'm not afraid. It's like this trans-border spirit that now hunts the community on both sides. Here I am, 22 years later. I have been here the same time I lived in Maheepa. I left India in 2008.

Now I'm thinking about my mom. I was so iffy, scared, and I had no idea. In the 1990s, my brother and I were smuggled into New York City. I grew up in Indiana. Most of the diaspora is now there. It's so funny. I love it. But it's also odd.

Really. Even that. It's more here. I can see. I don't have anything that I brought from Mexico. No, nothing. I did have this little picture of Lalin of baby Krishna. The year was Nishirgham.

The grey bag which is totally worn out. It has all my old photographs in it. Wherever I traveled that journal is always with me. I've always had a little diary and a pen. that journalist always with me. That's so shame, so awful. I've always had a little diary and a pen. And I read out a little, and I say, walk back. My clothes, my shoes, and that's it. Because it wasn't much, that's so back there.

I didn't know the language, no people. And that's very good for the way I was acted. I was so afraid. No, I know, we lose the stuff. language, no people. And that's very good for the way I was acted. I was so afraid. I know, we lose it too. Yeah, I mean. It's just like a lot of migration stories. Initially, I used to get very homesick. At the beginning, I was crying every single day.

It was really difficult. It was harsh. It took time. It is growing. It's growing. At the same time, I have learned the language which makes me feel so at home. The moment I became fluent in this language, I was not an outsider. I'm not Indian enough to be in India anymore.

I'm not American enough to be American. It was all really very different. The streets, food, the stores. We are here for the moment, but we don't know when we're going to go back. I'm never quite natural here. I'm just stepping out and I'll be back. Even if it's going to be for 17 years. You're coming back to finding your roots, but it's at a higher level now.

What is home now? What does home mean for the new generations? When I truly say home, it means where I can see the Arabian Sea out of my window. My smoke, my cigarettes. No, but the Alidah said, see what's that, that's a joke. That's nothing. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's the only thing I'm really thinking. What's the name of it?

It's the name of it. It's the name of it. It's the name of it. It's the name of it. It's the name of it. It's the name of it. The Alidah said, oh, it's the name of it. It's the name of it.

It means let's go home. It's the end. It's the end. It's the end. It's the end. It's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end.

It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. It's their end, it's their end. The universe is a very old, old world. The surface is our mother Earth. The Earth is our ship. I'm up. It's more than home.

It's a very old, old world. It describes your roots. Very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new, very new That was Drawn Onward, an audio palindrome by musician and producer Alan Gafinski and producer Sarita Bhatt. If you wanna hear the rest of that episode, again, search for BBC Shortcuts. The episode is called Meeting Myself Coming Back. The other stories in it, by the way, are really great. There's a really funny one about a woman who makes a newspaper all about the mundanity of her life,

and then a really dark one about a dad who kinda a newspaper, all about the mundanity of her life, and then a really dark one about a dad who kind of regrets becoming a dad. And is very honest about it. Anyway, it's great. Special thanks to Falling Tree Productions and Eleanor McDowell. And that's it, enjoy your palindrome day. I will say all this really has me thinking,

why isn't the word for palindrome a palindrome? Dictionary makers, linguists, get on that. Can you get on that, please? I humbly submit that the word palindrome should be extended to be palindromordinolap. Palindromordinolap, so itself is a palindrome. Anyway, thanks for listening. Have a good one.

Bye. Hi, this is Tamara. Have a good one. Bye. Hi, this is Tamara from Pasadena, California. Leadership support for Radiolab science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox Assignment Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.