Robert Krulwich

Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.

Krulwich is a Science Correspondent for NPR. His NPR blog, "Krulwich Wonders" features drawings, cartoons and videos that illustrate hard-to-see concepts in science.

He is the co-host of Radiolab, a nationally distributed radio/podcast series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. "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.

His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, 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.

For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News.

He won Emmy awards for a cultural history of the Barbie doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout online advertising and the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Krulwich earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Oberlin College and a law degree from Columbia University.

Pages

Krulwich Wonders...
9:39 am
Mon June 17, 2013

Why Men Die Younger Than Women: The 'Guys Are Fragile' Thesis

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 8:53 am

The 19th century just lost its last living man.

Read more
What's New?
2:54 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

The Most Dangerous Traffic Circle In The World?

Credit Rob Whitworth / Vimeo

Originally published on Tue June 11, 2013 10:22 am

I've been to New Delhi where traffic is frightening. I've seen pictures of Nairobi and Bangkok, where it's even scarier. But Ho Chi Minh City? The town we used to call Saigon? I don't think I'd put myself in a truck, car, bike or even a Sherman tank in that town. This video opens in the scariest traffic circle I could imagine — actually, it's beyond imagining — where bikes, cars and people seem simultaneously, collectively and individually heading straight at each other (when you look, just count the vehicles and people on collision course; there are at least two or three in every frame).

Read more
What's New?
7:37 pm
Mon June 10, 2013

Watts For Lunch? (Or Why Humans Are Like Light Bulbs)

Credit Robert Krulwich / NPR

Originally published on Mon June 10, 2013 12:06 pm

There's a new lunch place down the block, so like you do when the menu looks interesting, I walked in and ordered something mysterious, which for me was the "Red Lentil and Edamame Salad," mostly because I can never remember what edamame is, and because that word suggests doing something slightly frightening, like munching accidentally on one's mother.

How Much Energy Am I Eating? Enough To Power A Flashlight?

Read more
What's New?
9:27 am
Wed June 5, 2013

MIT's Magic Bag Of Sand

Originally published on Wed June 5, 2013 9:48 am

What's New?
10:24 am
Tue June 4, 2013

What Did Rachel Carson Hear? The Mystery Of The 'Fairy Bell Ringer'

Originally published on Mon June 3, 2013 2:08 pm

This is the season of night noises, chirps, buzzes, little cries. The air is telling you, "Things are going on out here," and if you like you can step out onto the porch and do what the writer Rachel Carson did back in 1956: She played a hunting game. The rules were simple: You stand outdoors, near the house. You go quiet. When you hear something interesting, you either: a) take a flashlight and go hunt for it; or b) you don't go anywhere. You just imagine it.

The best find Rachel Carson ever made, she never found.

Read more
Krulwich Wonders...
6:41 am
Sat May 25, 2013

What If There's No Internet?

Credit Vimeo

Originally published on Sat May 25, 2013 2:38 pm

I email. I search. I shop. I Facebook. I stream. I Skype. Every year I seem to do these things a little bit more. Stroke by stroke, as I slip deeper into the Internet's embrace, I find myself wondering:

"What would happen if the Internet went away?"

Can it? It was famously built to be indestructible, with no center, no hub, no "off" or "on" switch. It is, after all, a creature of the U.S. Defense Department, designed, supposedly, to survive a global war.

Read more
Krulwich Wonders...
9:13 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Who's The Best Drinker? Dogs? Cats? Or Pigeons?

Credit Newspix/Rex/Rex USA

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 10:56 am

Krulwich Wonders...
10:45 am
Tue April 30, 2013

The Boomerang Rocket Ship: Shoot It Up, Back It Comes

Krulwich Wonders...
10:55 am
Wed April 17, 2013

A 'Who Do You Hang With?' Map of America

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 12:31 pm

Look at the center of this map, at the little red dot that marks Kansas City. Technically, Kansas City is at the edge of Missouri, but here on this map it's in the upper middle section of a bigger space with strong blue borders. We don't have a name for this bigger space yet, but soon we will.

Read more
Krulwich Wonders...
12:18 pm
Mon April 8, 2013

The Big Squeeze: Can Cities Save The Earth?

Originally published on Mon April 8, 2013 3:04 pm

Let's get dense. If we take all the atoms inside you, all roughly 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them, and squeeze away all the space inside, then, says physicist Brian Greene:

Read more

Pages