Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.

Krulwich is a Science Correspondent for NPR. His NPR blog, "Krulwich Wonders" features drawings, cartoons and videos that illustrate hard-to-see concepts in science.

He is the co-host of Radiolab, a nationally distributed radio/podcast series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. "There's nothing like it on the radio," says Ira Glass of This American Life, "It's a act of crazy genius." Radiolab won a Peabody Award in 2011.

His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, economics, in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. On television he has explored the structure of DNA using a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, "Ratto Interesso" to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight.

For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News.

He won Emmy awards for a cultural history of the Barbie doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout online advertising and the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Krulwich earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Oberlin College and a law degree from Columbia University.

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Krulwich Wonders...
1:25 pm
Wed April 10, 2013

Don't Go Near The World's Champion Rainbow Watcher. It's Mean. Very Mean

Originally published on Wed April 10, 2013 1:46 pm

A few months ago on Radiolab, we did an hour on color, which included a segment on rainbow watching. We imagined a man, a dog, a sparrow and a butterfly all gazing at the same rainbow and we asked: How many colors does each see?

Dogs See Bleaker Rainbows

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Krulwich Wonders...
12:18 pm
Mon April 8, 2013

The Big Squeeze: Can Cities Save The Earth?

Originally published on Mon April 8, 2013 3:04 pm

Let's get dense. If we take all the atoms inside you, all roughly 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them, and squeeze away all the space inside, then, says physicist Brian Greene:

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Krulwich Wonders...
8:27 am
Fri April 5, 2013

Monty Python's John Cleese Almost Explains Our Brains

Credit YouTube

Originally published on Fri April 5, 2013 9:50 am

Krulwich Wonders...
11:09 am
Wed April 3, 2013

Daring, Dangerous DIY: Pants With Benefits?

Credit Vimeo

Originally published on Wed April 3, 2013 5:34 pm

They are pants. Or maybe we should call them Pants with Benefits. Some of you — especially parents of young teens — will find them totally inappropriate. The folks at Instructables.com find them totally silly, which is why they invented them.

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Krulwich Wonders...
12:58 pm
Tue April 2, 2013

Sing, Fly, Mate, Die — Here Come The Cicadas!

Originally published on Thu April 4, 2013 11:33 am

If you live in Missouri, they've already gone.

But back East, cicadas are about to climb out of their little holes in the ground, wriggle out of their skins, like this ...

... so after 17 years of getting ready, they can now do the thing they hope, hope, hope to do — which is, if at all possible, make a baby.

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Krulwich Wonders...
11:06 am
Mon April 1, 2013

Trapped By The Web — But For How Long? Take the Kelberman Challenge

You sit down, turn on the computer, up comes an image, could be anything, a cloud, a koala bear, a video. On the right side of the screen there are more images like it, or almost like it, so you click on one of those, just because ... because what? Because it's there? Because it's waiting? Because, for no conceivable reason, you suddenly have a yearning for balloon pictures? You don't plan this, you have no plan, but you keep going, gently pulled by the lure of "next."

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Krulwich Wonders...
11:00 am
Thu March 28, 2013

Six-Legged Critters In Dicey Places: What Science Reporters Do To Get Your Attention

Credit YouTube

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 6:19 pm

Krulwich Wonders...
9:40 am
Wed March 27, 2013

Socrates (In The Form Of A 9-Year-Old) Shows Up In A Suburban Backyard In Washington

Credit YouTube

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 11:16 am

Krulwich Wonders...
5:05 am
Sat March 16, 2013

The Naming Of The Shrew

It looks kinda like a squirrel, except its ears are too small, its tail is ratty, then bushy, and its mouth? Definitely un-squirrel. More like a shrew, a fox, or a dog. And the teeth? Strange. What is it?

It's an act of edited, elegant imagination.

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Krulwich Wonders...
10:39 am
Thu March 14, 2013

Let's Get Literal: Calculating Pi With Pies. Actual Pies

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