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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 95 (2-43)

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

KUT's O’Dark 30 is back on the bike and bringing you the very best from the world of independent radio production this week. Every Sunday at midnight on Austin's KUT 90.5 and also at 4pm on digital KUT2 we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production.

Episode 95 (2-43) includes Clever Apes: Trick of the Light...How Would You Haunt?...The Mikie Show #26, Fionntan...KUT's Portrait of an Artist with Tee Double...Snap Judgment #211: Behind the Wheel...Torture...Backstory--Independence Daze: A History of July 4th

Clever Apes: Trick of the lgiht

From WBEZ | Part of the WBEZ's Clever Apes series | 08:59

In this installment, we consider why photosynthesis remains a puzzle to science. And we’ll find out how a research team at Argonne National Laboratory has begun to crack the code.

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Photosynthesis is one of the oldest biological processes on earth. Microorganisms figured it out more than two billion years ago, and completely transformed the planet. Sure, there was life before photosynthesis, but unless you like breathing rust, it probably wouldn’t have been your bag.

Photosynthesis put oxygen into the air, fueled the plants that feed us and formed the organic molecules that would become fossil fuels. Life on earth is positively drenched in sunshine, and yet the basic processes of how green things turn light into energy are still shrouded in mystery.

In this installment of Clever Apes, we consider why photosynthesis, a concept familiar to most third-graders, remains a puzzle to science. And we’ll find out how a research team at Argonne National Laboratory has begun to crack the code.

Plus, how a Chicago scientist homes in on tiny atomic clocks to figure out how long it’s been since the sun shone on a specimen. That can tell you when, say, a layer of sediment was covered over, and consequently how old stuff buried in that layer is. The optical dating technology has already led to major discoveries, including one that helped overturn the conventional wisdom about when North America was settled.

How Would You Haunt?

From Carolina Wheat | 10:06

Impromptu responses contemplating death and astral mobility

Vault_small "If you were to die, suddenly; whom would you haunt?" This is the question I asked scores of individuals who are invincible and presumably unclose to death. The answers are improvisational and diverse interpretations of the after life as well as the astral plane. Background sound contains field recordings with storms, swamp creatures and the breath of the artist placed on the grounds of a haunted plantation in rural Louisiana.

The Mikie Show # 26, Fionntan

From Michael Carroll | Part of the The Mikie Show series | 28:04

Did you know there might be a negative curvature surrounding us that we can’t see? We find out about that and other interesting things during our conversation with research mathematician Fionntan Roukema. He is currently living in Italy so we can all fantasize about that as well. We thought about running a contest as to how to pronounce his name but soon realized that you’ll probably listen to this episode and find out anyway, so… Plus, I think someone stops by, there’s a quiz, some news and Mikie recalls a childhood fantasy. All this, free in specially marked boxes!

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Did you know there might be a negative curvature surrounding us that we can’t see? We find out about that and other interesting things during our conversation with research mathematician Fionntan Roukema. He is currently living in Italy so we can all fantasize about that as well. We thought about running a contest as to how to pronounce his name but soon realized that you’ll probably listen to this episode and find out anyway, so… Plus, I think someone stops by, there’s a quiz, some news and Mikie recalls a childhood fantasy. All this, free in specially marked boxes!

Torture

From KVNF | Part of the Belief Systems and Other B.S. series | 03:31

That others are tortured makes me feel tortured: let's stop.

Playing
Torture
From
KVNF

Bwheadcopysmooth_small I have a weakness for obsessive thought, and torture in the news and in popular entertainment sets off days of detailed ideation about specific torture techniques. Plus, is it crazy to think we are changing as a nation when we countenance torture in our name?