Transcript for Short Cuts: Drawn Onward

video lab is supported by progressive insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call the shots on your auto insurance, too. With the name your price tool from progressive, it works just the way it sounds, you tell progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust progressive progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law Wait, you're listening to radio lab Radio from WNYC Hello, this is Radio Lab, and I'm whispering because I have a secret for you, which is that if you are listening to this, on the day we released it, April 2nd, 2024, then you may not realize it, but you are currently standing in the middle of a secret holiday for two, two, four. Four, two, two, four. It is the first palindrome date of the calendar year. Yeah, and apparently this month, we've got a bunch of them for 2024. There's also a palindrome for 21, 24, 4, 22, 24, actually all the 20s. So anyway, first of all, I just wanted to let you know that we are walking into a month with a bunch of palindrome dates in case you want to celebrate and throw a palindrome party. which would I don't know what do you like you serve some upside down pineapple cake with a layer of right side of pineapple cake so it's a palandrum cake or you go for a ride in a kayak or in a race car I don't know anyway so that cool palandrums uh but second to honor this secret little holiday hiding in the calendar squares. I wanted to play a tiny morsel of audio for you. Going back to the original spirit of radio lab, which was you know, spinning audio documentaries, strange little pieces from all over the world. I wanted to bring you one that I recently heard that is itself an audio palindrome. It is the same if you play it forwards or backwards. It involved a crazy amount of production. There's a lot of voices, some eerie sound design. I really don't even understand how they did it. But for me, when I listen to it, this sort of odd thing happened, which is that over these layers of confusion and beauty, a sort of meaning or feeling rose, almost like a steam about how moving forward always involves some degree of moving backwards. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy. If you don't, if it's a little too adi for you, you know, adi like my people in the homeland of Boston say, uh, then you know, it's okay. It's six minutes of your life. Uh, we will be back with more narrative radio lab very shortly. Uh, but yeah, I just thought I'd toss this out into the week a little more Slov Sonic candy as I palindrome parade by you. It comes from the show, the wonderful BBC show Shortcuts. If you don't know them every week, they are putting out experimental and adventurous audio and this comes from their episode, meeting myself coming back. Here's their host, Josie Long.

that was drawn onward, an audio palandrome by a musician and producer, Alan Gophinski, and producer, Serita Bot. If you want to hear the rest of that episode, again, search for BBC shortcuts, the episode is called meeting myself coming back. The other stories in it, by the way, are really great. There's a really funny one. about a woman who makes a newspaper all about the mundaneity of her life, and then a really dark one about a dad who kind of regrets becoming a dad. And it's very honest about it. Anyway, it's great. Special thanks to falling tree productions and Elinormic Daule. And that's it. Enjoy your palindrome day. I will say all this really has me thinking, why isn't the word for palindrome a palindrome? Dictionary makers, linguists, get on that. Can you get on that, please? I humbly submit that the word palandrome should be extended to be palandrome more than the lap. Palandrome more than the lap, so itself is a palandrome. Anyway, thanks for listening. Have a good one.