Episode Summary
Executive Summary: This Radiolab episode frames a remix contest as a creative experiment in reuse, then spotlights standout submissions: a Grand Prize remix of "Sum" that turns the afterlife story into music, a runners-up techno-style piece, and a director’s-choice remix of a vertigo essay recast as an exploration of love and identity. The hosts emphasize how remixing can reveal hidden meanings in source material.
Main Topics: Radiolab remix contest announcement and purpose: The hosts explain that they released multitrack versions of stories so listeners could rework voice, interview, and music into new creations, aiming to see their work transformed in ways they could not predict. Grand Prize remix of "Sum": David Minnick’s remix of David Eagleman’s afterlife story is praised for turning spoken cadence into musical structure, using repetition and abrupt shifts to evoke the experience of grouped life moments in the afterlife. Artistic response to the remix style: The hosts debate the aesthetic of the remix, joking that it feels "too Broadway" while acknowledging its compositional skill and emotional force. Runners-up and genre experimentation: A runner-up remix by Jeff Barr uses pacing, rhythm, and sound fragments to create a music-like texture from non-musical speech, with the hosts comparing it to the sound of the studio or dead space between thoughts. Director’s Choice: vertigo reimagined as love: A remix by Mark Godfrey and Ryan Vinson reframes a vertigo medical essay as a love story about losing one’s balance and identity in another person, blending rap and production around the original narration. Creative value of remix culture: The episode closes by reflecting on how the contest drew 136 submissions and revealed unexpected dimensions in the source stories, proving that audience reinterpretation can add meaning the original creators didn’t foresee.
Key Arguments: Remixing can uncover latent meaning in a story that the original producers did not consciously know was there. Spoken-word rhythm, especially in Jeffrey Tambor’s reading, can guide composition and generate musical structure. A strong remix can preserve story while transforming its emotional register, rather than simply overlaying new music. Vertigo works as a metaphor for falling in love because both involve instability, disorientation, and altered spatial identity. Audience creativity is valuable not despite being derivative, but because it re-sculpts raw material into something new and surprising.
Data Points: Remix contest submissions: 136 - Number of submissions received for the first Radiolab remix contest. Grand Prize: $500 - Prize awarded to the grand prize winner, David Minnick. Contest duration for winner: About 60 hours - Time David Minnick spent creating the winning remix, over a few weeks. Number of contests entered by winner: About 30 - Minnick says he has entered roughly 30 remix contests since 2009. Family constraint on editing time: 3 kids - Minnick says he could not work 60 straight hours because he has three children. Podcast contest entries reference: Not necessarily annual - Hosts describe this as the first ever, not necessarily annual, Radiolab remix contest.
Pivotal Quotes: "we put out a bunch of our stories, but as multi-track versions so that the voice, the interview, the music, everything is separated out on its own track." — Jad Abumrad: Explaining how the remix contest was structured and what participants were given. "I just wanted the whole idea of the story to be manifested in music." — David Minnick: Describing the intention behind his winning remix of "Sum." "they found something that was in the story that we didn't even know was in there." — Robert Krulwich: Reflecting on how the remixers revealed hidden meaning in the original material.
Implications: The episode suggests podcasts can function as open-source art, where listeners become collaborators. Remix culture can deepen engagement, reveal unnoticed themes, and expand what audio storytelling can be.
From the Episode
Hey, I'm Jad Ab Umran. I'm Robert Quilwich. This is Radiolab, the podcast remixed. So here's the thing, we make this show and we worry about each and every word, every sound, every breath. But really what we're hoping for is that the stuff ends up in your head and just becomes some set of thoughts that we could have never imagined. So with that in mind, a couple months ago, we teamed up with this site called Indaba Music to host a Radiolab remix contest. What we did was we put out a bunch of our stories, but as multi-track versions so that the voice, the interview, The music, everything is separated out on its own track. So people could take what we've done and do anything they want with us. Anything. And they did. And our job was to pick a bunch of winners. So, here we are with the results of the first ever, not necessarily annual, Radiolab remix contest. Yes. Five months straight, you flipped through magazines while sitting on it. We got 136 submissions. Every style that you can imagine.
Six days clipping your nails. I just wanted the whole idea of the story to be manifested in music. So you actually feel the long lengths of time when it's two years of doing this, a little less when it's 18 months. Staring into the refrigerator. 15 hours writing your signature. Et starting to get shorter and shorter. Seven hours vomiting. And then, when he describes that you imagine your life, all the events in your life being in different order, like real life actually is on Earth, I just wanted to cut from one thing to another, to another in random order, sort of the way life actually works. In this part of the afterlife, you imagine something waiting for a green light analogous to your earthly life. Reading books and the thought cars crash is blissful, watching commercials, a life where episodes are split into tiny, swallowable pieces, swallowing swords.
It's a strange place to be. I guess I sat there for a long time. You know what's really what's kind of like humbling about that whole thing for me is that like they found something that was in the story that we didn't even know was in there. I think that's kind of beautiful. Yeah. Well, see, that's the thing. When this idea was created, it wasn't created by me because I thought it was insane. I thought, why would people, in the busyness of their lives, go into our raw material and re-sculpt it? I said, nobody is going to do that. It's just dumb. But the fact that 136 people took the time to do it, it brought so much talent and energy. Energy and cleverness and interestingness to the whole thing. It's quite, it's just, I don't know what to call it. Well, I think it's kind of wonderful, is what it is. Yeah, it's just cool.
About Radiolab
Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, legal history, and into the home of someone halfway across the world. The show is known for innovative sound design, smashing information into music. It is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.