The Idea Hour / July Series

RadioLab

July 5: Yellow Fluff, Rocket Lizards, and other Curious Encounters

After many months, years, or decades of meticulous work, a scientist may discover he’s moved backward instead of forward. Find out how scientists remain passionate despite frustrating encounters.
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July 12: Choice

Having an abundance of choices is the hallmark of freedom, but does it make you happy? From picking fruit to placing bets, find out how emotion and logic interact to get through the million decisions we make a day.
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July 19: Diagnosis

What’s in a name? Everything, if that name is carcinoma, or Alzheimer’s, or AIDS. Discover the tangled entourage of emotional, social, and medical implications associated with diagnoses.
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July 26: Race

At the turn of the millennium, researchers succeeded in sequencing the human genome and announced that humans, regardless of race, are more than 99.9 percent the same. But it turns out that maybe race, or rather ancestry, does have a genetic signature.
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