[Media Treat]
NYC's Radio Lab is essential listening for anyone interested in science or the best in documentary radio. Its quirky subject matter, innovative sound design and offbeat humor could rather lazily be called a This Life American for Geeks. Although surely far from faint praise, Radio Lab is even even better than that might sound.
The first episode of the new season on "Parasites" is a fascinating topic of the wild and wonderous world of the oft-maligned little creatures. Of special interest for animal lovers is a segment on love-struck rodents, bohemian cats and dare I say it cat scratch fever?
It is almost worth listening to the short piece (11 mins) just for the soothing and purr-fect introduction by the reporter's cat Moose...
The Scratch
When executive producer Ellen Horne was expecting a baby, she really had no particular intention of becoming a self-made expert on a parasite named Toxoplasma Gondii. Robert Sapolsky explains to us why Ellen had reason to worry when she was scratched by her cat, and he traces the unlikely path that the parasite might follow, right up to the point that it rewires a rat's brain. Fuller Torrey details Toxoplasma's potential associations with other human disorders, possibly even schizophrenia.
Look for Radio Lab on the schedule of your local NPR affiliates, subscribe at Itunes or listen to it here:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/25
...and remember to support your local public radio station.
"Toxo"
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