Escape | Radiolab Podcast

From the Radiolab podcast: Whether to defy death or just to slip out of an awkward situation, we all need to sneak away now and again. Here’s your escape!

This episode originally aired in 2012.

An all-star lineup of producers — Pat Walters, Lynn Levy, and Sean Cole — bring you stories about traps, getaways, perpetual cycles, and staggering breakthroughs.

We kick things off with a true escape artist — a man who’s broken out of jail more times than anyone alive. Why does he keep running... and will he ever stop? Next, the ingeniously simple question that led Isaac Newton to an enormous intellectual breakthrough: why doesn’t the moon fall out of the sky? In the wake of Newton's new idea, we find ourselves in a strange space at the edge of the solar system, about to cross a boundary beyond which we know nothing. Finally, we hear the story of a blind kid who freed himself from an unhappy childhood by climbing into the telephone system and bending it to his will.

Now sit back, relax and enjoy what we hope will prove to be a welcomed Escape.

Episode Segments:
0:00 Intro
03:30 Escape Artist — "Little Houdini"
25:40 Reaching the limits of human imagination — "The Outer Limits"
47:00 The story of a blind kind — "Honest Escape"

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Guests in this episode include:
Ben Montgomery, reporter at the Tampa Bay Times
Christopher Daniel Gay
Terry Gay
Leann Gay
Missy
Ed Dolnick
Ann Druyan
Merav Opher
Phil Lapsley
Steven Gibb

With mentions of:
Crystal Gayle
Johnny Depp
Joe Engressia Jr.

Photo illustration Anna Rascouët-Paz.