Jad Abumrad is the founder of the smash hit public radio show and podcast Radiolab. Radiolab exploded what narrative audio could sound like. Jad and his co-host Robert Krulwich made a show that was smart, and fast-paced, with incredibly detailed sound design. As much musical composition as it is journalism. At first, Radiolab brought us fascinating human stories and insights from researchers, mainly about science. How the world works. How our bodies work. Listeners often left with feeling of wonder. At a certain point, Jad shifted his focus to society and politics. He started a spin-off series on the Supreme Court, called More Perfect. Then, in 2019, he did a series called Dolly Parton’s America, which asks the question – in a time of incredibly political division, what is one thing we can all get excited about? Dolly is the answer. Along the way he won a MacArthur Genius Award, and the show won two Peabody Awards. He also built a team of some of the best radio makers in the business, and when he handed off the reins in 2022, the show could go on, and continue to evolve.
Jad is coming to the Indiana University campus as a Patten Lecturer next week, we had a chance to talk before his visit. Jad has said that by the end of his time at Radiolab, he felt like he was doing interviews, preparing, having done all his research, and they weren’t clicking. He wasn’t getting to that natural chemistry. So he started interviewing interviewers. Not just journalists. Therapists. Conflict mediators. Salespeople. And he learned some things. That’s what we talk about here.
