Robert Krulwich

Co-Host, NPR Radio Lab

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Robert Krulwich

Co-host of NPR’s Radiolab, Robert Krulwich is one of the most original and widely listened to broadcasters in the world. His boundless curiosity and ability to explain complex subjects in creative, compelling, and entertaining ways has made him, as The New York Times said, “a storied figure in public radio history.”

On Radiolab, Krulwich explores the mysteries of science and life through visceral storytelling. The Peabody Award-winning show — which Ira Glass claims “invented a new aesthetic for the medium” — has been praised throughout the intellectual community. The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine awarded Radiolab its top honor for excellence in communicating science to the general public. The show’s podcasts are downloaded over four million times each month. Slate named a 2004 episode of Radiolab #7 in their list of the 25 Best Podcast Episodes Ever.

Krulwich illustrates hard-to-see concepts in science with anything at his disposal, using drawings, cartoons, videos, and more. Early in his career, he applied his signature style to technology and economics as well as science. Over the years, he has explored the structure of DNA with a banana; created his own Italian Opera, “Ratto Interesso,” to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; and explained arbitrage by wearing Groucho glasses.

“I like talking about big ideas, and I especially like creating images that will keep those ideas in peoples’ heads for hours, days, even months,” Krulwich says.

As a Special Correspondent for ABC News, Krulwich made regular appearances on Nightline, ABC News Tonight, and Good Morning America. TV Guide called him “the most inventive network reporter in television.”

As host and executive editor of PBS' documentary series NOVAscienceNOW, Krulwich looked at scientific breakthroughs and their applications, from fuel cells and hydrogen-powered cars to nanotechnology. For ABC's Brave New World series, he examined subjects ranging from artificial intelligence to human cloning.

Krulwich has won Emmy Awards for a cultural history of Barbie, a Frontline investigation of internet privacy, and a look at the Savings & Loan scandal. He also took home the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, The Extraordinary Communicator Award from the National Cancer Institute, and the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia Award.

In his presentations, speeches, and personal appearances, Robert Krulwich is a show and an education all by himself.

Robert Krulwich was fantastic! He helped make the event. He was everything we wanted on the panels -- he brought the light touch, brought a complex issue down to a common understanding level for anyone in the room, engaged all of the panelists beautifully, brought out the points each of them needed to make and did it with great skill. I just can't say enough about what a great job he did today. Healthcare Leadership Council

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Robert Krulwich

Suggested Topics Inside Science with Radiolab's Robert Krulwich Radiolab is a podcast/radio/stage show about science, philosophy, history — Big Ideas. It’s an ongoing experiment that has attracted large, young audiences to complex topics, and it does that by exploring new ways to match words, sounds, music (and on stage, puppetry, dance, animation, theater, comedy) to tackle some of the densest questions we can ask, like “where does music come from?”, do plants, animals have an inner life? Why are animals (including people) sometimes very kind to their enemies? In this talk, Robert Krulwich dissects a series of Radiolab stories, sometimes sharing early drafts, changes his partner, Jad Abumrad, and Krulwich made, arguments they had, ideas that turned out to be mistakes, stories that worked wonderfully, and tales that got them into trouble. This lecture includes lots of audio clips, video clips and, in some cases, experiments in theater and web design.

Hard Stories Told Easily There are ways, lots of ways, to take technically complex stories and tell them to a lay audience — not dumbing them down, not ignoring the hard parts, but making them compelling, even fun. In this lecture, Robert Krulwich describes some of the techniques he uses on his show, Radiolab, or that he steals from the most adventurous, daring explainers to show how voice, movement, music, dance, design, writing, drawing, and animation can attract lots of ordinary, curious people to difficult subjects and get them thinking. Having spent decades covering economics and science (with little forays into warfare and diplomacy), having worked at CBS, ABC, Pacifica, Frontline, NOVA, Rolling Stone, and NPR, and most recently on the web, Krulwich has lots of examples to show and lots of stories to tell. Think of it as a Short Introduction To the Newest Experiments in Journalism — not just the stories that worked, but also some of his biggest bloopers. The gist, though, is simply that explaining things has never been more fun. Educators, businesses, journalists, theater folks, movie makers might be curious to hear what the talented people we admire are up to.

Talking Science to Non-Scientists: Saddam Hussein’s Secret Octopus and Other Stories This presentation will be about how to talk about complex science to people who don’t think they have the knowledge or patience to listen. Robert's argument is: anybody, and he means ANYBODY -- even a kid who got a C+ in biology in 9th grade and hopes never to think about science again -- can be seduced into listening to and enjoying a nuanced tale about how the world works and how things came to be. Robert will play short pieces, TV and radio stories, including an Octopus with Saddam Hussein, but also stories about how crows seem to be able to identify individual people (but people can’t identify a particular crow), two squids on a blind date, and a bird that invents an anti-gravity device; Robert will explore the difference between radio and TV, try my hand at very abstract subjects that would ordinarily baffle kid and adult audiences but that can be made suddenly clear and accessible. Basically, this is an examination of story telling on TV and radio. It's about how story telling is deeply musical and visual; even (especially) if it's on the radio. And doing it right, you can talk about subjects that people think of as difficult; but really aren't.

Why Things Are the Way They Are

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Robert Krulwich

Books and Other Works

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Robert Krulwich

Biography

Robert Krulwich has been called “the most inventive network reporter in television” by TV Guide. His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, and economics, in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. On television, he has explored the structure of DNA using a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, “Ratto Interesso” to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight.

Robert now reports for National Public Radio. He is also (with Jad Abumrad) co-host of “Radiolab”, a nationally distributed radio series that exploreslarge, often science-like questions for people who are curious but not wellversed in science. (“There’s nothing like it on the radio,“ says Ira Glass of This American Life. “It’s a act of crazy genius.”) Radiolab won a Peabody Award in 2011. Robert spent 30 years as a news correspondent, first at Pacifica Radio, then at Rolling Stone, then NPR, then CBS News, ABC News, with sidetrips to PBS and ESPN. Krulwich hosted a CBS weekly special during the first Gulf War, presented a PBS/BBC culture show “The Edge” in the 1990’s, covered economics for Frontline and CBS, then, at ABC, he moved on to science reporting. With Ted Koppel, he co-hosted a prime time series,Brave New World, about technology and its effect on our lives, which included commercial television’s only hour long look at string theory. He explored possible cures for cancer with Barbara Walters; with Peter Jennings he produced an animated history of Yugoslavia for an ABC childrens’ special when US troops went to Croatia and Bosnia. He has won Emmy awards for a cultural history of Barbie, the world famous doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and an Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout. For years, he also hosted an improvisational comedy group on NPR with his friends Jane Curtin, Buck Henry and Tony Hendra. They performed for President Clinton at the White House. Krulwich has won the AAAS Science Journalism Award for a 2001 a NOVA Special, Cracking the Code of Life, The Extraordinary Communicator Award from the National Cancer Institute, a Polk and a Dupont Award and the2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Krulwich earned a BA in history from Oberlin College, a law degree from Columbia University in 1974. He never practiced law. Instead he joined Pacifica Radio during President Nixon’s impeachment hearings, became Pacifica’s Washington Bureau chief, then did a stint as an editor for Rolling Stone magazine in Washington before moving to National Public Radio where he started as an editor but eventually became a Business and Economics Correspondent.

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com