The Shark Inside You
Radiolab
06/18/25
•28m
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This is episode three of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks.
Today, we take a trip across the world, from the south coast of Australia to ... Wisconsin. Here, scientists are scouring shark blood to find one of nature’s hidden keys, a molecular superhero that might unlock our ability to cure cancer: shark antibodies. They’re small. They’re flexible. And they can fit into nooks and crannies on tumors that our antibodies can’t.
We journey back 500 million years to the moment sharks got these special powers and head to the underground labs transforming these monsters into healers. Can these animals we fear so much actually save us?
Special thanks to Mike Criscitiello, David Schatz, Mary Rose Madden, Ryan Ogilvie, Margot Wohl, Sofi LaLonde, and Isabelle Bérubé.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Becca Bressler
Produced by - Becca Bressler and Matt Kielty
Original music from - Matt Kielty and Jeremy Bloom
Sound design contributed by - Matt Kielty, Jeremy Bloom, and Becca Bressler
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly
and Edited by - Pat Walters
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Previous Episode
The Cage
June 17, 2025
•18m
This is episode two of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks.
Jaws spawned a thousand imitators: sharks in tornados, sharks in avalanches, sharks that battle giant octopuses. Hollywood has officially turned sharks into monsters of every shape and size. And yet, somehow, there will always be more.
But drop below the surface, into the cold, quiet blue, and another creature appears. One that has survived mass extinctions, outlasted ancient predators and pre-dates Mount Everest, the existence of trees, even the rings of Saturn. A shark that is somehow even more remarkable than sharks in tornadoes.
Today, we go visit that shark.
Special thanks to Andrew Fox, the entire team at Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, John Long whose book The Secret History of Sharks inspired our obsession with sharks, and Greg Skomal, whose wonderful new book on his life studying white sharks is Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Rachael Cusick
with help from - Pat Walters
Produced by - Rachael Cusick and Simon Adler
with help from - Pat Walters
Sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton
and Edited by - Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Loved learning about all the different kinds of sharks there are? Check out even more Jaida Elcock’s videos on sharks.
Book -
The Secret History of Sharks by John Long
Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark by Greg Skomal
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Next Episode
Mystery Bay
June 19, 2025
•21m
This is episode four of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks.
Alison Kock was working at a car wash in Cape Town when she made a discovery that completely changed the course of her life. Inside a customer’s trunk, she found photographs of white sharks flying so high above the water they looked like airplanes. She followed those photographs to False Bay, “the Great White Capital of the World.” These sharks, in this place, are the apex of apex predators. Or they were. Until they mysteriously began to disappear.
Special thanks to Kathryn Ayres.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Rachael Cusick
Produced by - Simon Adler and Maria Paz Gutierrez
with help from - Rebecca Laks
Original music from - Simon Adler and Maria Paz Gutierrez
Sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Pat Walters
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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