FeedCity

Will Wiesenfeld of Baths breaks down his song Miasma Sky, which came out last year on his highly-praised sophomore album Obsidian. Will talks about using the computer to intentionally destroy sounds, trying to find a balance in his music between simplicity and complexity, and what went into making his drum tracks. 

The FiOS net-neutrality non-story and last summer's YouTube-throttling story. More FU on iPads going pro, giant-tablet-desk ergonomics, trying to understand John's theory again, and a train analogy from Casey. New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Bill Gates' new wildcard role,...

Claire and Jona of the band YACHT deconstruct their brand new single Plastic Soul, a fun pop song about human suffering. They explain how technology inspired them musically as well as lyrically, and how they recycle bits of their old recordings to create new songs. 

Follow-up on why an iPad "Pro" needs to be larger and why iOS is "better for people". Can iOS add more power-user functionality without harming its simplicity or usability? Whether Macs should ship with ARM CPUs, how such a transition would be challenging today, and whether...

Follow-up: Genius Bar employee reports of how most people deal with iCloud backups, photo backups, and storage limits, iExplorer for exporting iMessages. iOS' storage model is a leaky abstraction. Google may have wanted Nest for its smart-home project as well as the more ob...

This hour, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—those peculiar spaces where it’s clear what’s going in, we know what’s coming out, but what happens in-between is a mystery. From the darkest parts of metamorphosis, to a sixty year-old secret among magicians, to the nature of consciousness itself, we confront the stubborn gaps in our understanding.

Hi Radiolab listeners, we want to hear from you! Take this podcast survey and let us know how you feel about the show. It only takes about 20 minutes and your feedback will help us make our podcast better! There are no wrong answers, we want your honest takes. You can help out by taking the survey here (www.radiolab.org/survey).

Follow-up: whether iMessage problems are widespread, reasons behind flattening the Mac Mini, and HDR TVs. The storage costs of Casey's emoji. Google buying Nest for $3.2 billion. Ben Thompson on Google's business model. Nest has over 200 employees, including many ex-Apple...

Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf takes apart The Outer Banks, a song he recorded in Iceland with members of Sigur Ros accompanying him. He reveals how the melody of the song was made from a glockenspiel, violin, and Moog synthesizer; and he talks about the importance of letting go of control during the recording process. 

Follow-up: IBM AS/400 (aka System i) and single-level store. Marco's Retina theory. PS4 and Xbone sales. Trying to care about CES. Who "needs" the Mac Pro? Justifying toys and improving quality of life with smart purchases. Panasonic’s new LCD TVs compared to great TVs o...

• Mac Pro follow-up: socketed CPUs and potential upgrades, and the benefits of only using stock Apple parts.
• Scoring Apple's performance on John's 2013 to-do list.
• Concerns about Apple's recent Mac apps, including iWork '13 and Messages/iMessage.
• AnandTech's Mac Pro review.
• The Mac Pro's 4K/Retina monitor situation.
• The iMac vs. the Mac Pro, and the hardware needs of developers.
• Why do John and Marco care so much about Retina?
• What the next big computer-hardware shift may be.
• After-show: our future as old men, saturating USB 3, and the often-neglected Mac Mini.

Sponsored by:

• OmniGraffle: Sketchy mockups or pixel-perfect designs for UX, UI, and diagrams.
• Hover: High-quality, no-hassle domain registration. Use promo code TECHBYCHANCE for 10% off.
• Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code MARCO for 10% off.

Our first guest on Song Exploder is Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel, aka one half of The Postal Service (the other half being Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie). Jimmy breaks down the song The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, and talks about his instruments, his influences, and accidentally making a loop out of Jenny Lewis's backing vocals.

At the start of this new year we crack open some fossils, peer back into ancient seas, and look up at lunar skies to find that a year is not quite as fixed as we thought it was.

 

Hi Radiolab listeners, we want to hear from you! Take this podcast survey and let us know how you feel about the show. It only takes about 20 minutes and your feedback will help us make our podcast better! There are no wrong answers, we want your honest takes. You can help out by taking the survey here (www.radiolab.org/survey).

• Explaining our podcast artwork.
• Facebook Likes in the App Store and ad-banner blindness.
• Dual-input displays and how they enable the 5120x2880 display that John and Marco want.
• Turbo Boost and the Mac Pro's CPU options.
• Using a laptop on a stand with an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
• The benefits of desktops and ECC.
• Mac Pro configurations for best value and future-proofing.
• Building separate gaming PCs, switching to iMacs, or trying to wedge PC gaming into Mac Pros.
• Mac Pro price stratification over time.
• Outlook 2011 for Mac complaints and John's multiple-selection-invalidation bug.
• Casey said some stuff at the end.
• Special holiday theme song by Jonathan Mann.

Sponsored by:

• Hover: High-quality, no-hassle domain registration. Use promo code ATP for 10% off.
• Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired eyewear at a revolutionary price.

Jilted lovers and disrupted duck hunts provide a very odd look into the soul of the US Constitution.

Hi Radiolab listeners, we want to hear from you! Take this podcast survey and let us know how you feel about the show. It only takes about 20 minutes and your feedback will help us make our podcast better! There are no wrong answers, we want your honest takes. You can help out by taking the survey here (www.radiolab.org/survey).

What if the new USB connector is too similar to Lightning? (John Gruber on Lightning) Potential for 5120-wide Retina displays to overcome Thunderbolt bandwidth limits by using "dual-input displays"? John's "quick" tips for TV calibration. (THX TV-calibration app) "Rate Th...

Accidental Fountain Screenplay: The Case of Liss by Joe Steel. (And Bionic.) Desktop 4K/Retina resolutions hitting bandwidth limitations of Thunderbolt 2 and DisplayPort 1.2, and the Sharp/Apple non-news. John's Squarespace-reseller idea already exists. Why aren't iOS App ...

Cataclysmic destruction. Surprising survival. In this new live stage performance, Radiolab turns its gaze to the topic of endings, both blazingly fast and agonizingly slow.

Hi Radiolab listeners, we want to hear from you! Take this podcast survey and let us know how you feel about the show. It only takes about 20 minutes and your feedback will help us make our podcast better! There are no wrong answers, we want your honest takes. You can help out by taking the survey here (www.radiolab.org/survey).

FU on PrimeSense. Apple's acquisition of Topsy and speculation on why. Apple's possible difficulty in getting and keeping enough engineering talent, and how they might make bigger strides in web services. Which group wears the pants in a company? Marco's embarrassing FiOS s...

• David Chartier's clarification on Photo Stream limits.
• Space Monkey, Transporter, Box, and Xdrive.
• Results of John's Disk Utility repair survey. (John on Debug)
• Xbox One launch sales.
• Apple buys PrimeSense.
• Apple's potential expansion into the TV business.
• Penny Arcade's job posting, Marco's reaction, and the outgoing employee's description.
• Extended after-show: how we deal with criticism, trolls, and our own flaws when facing our audience.

Sponsored by:

• Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired eyewear at a revolutionary price. Use coupon code ATP for free 3-day shipping.
• Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use. iPhone now available.

Follow-up on Cisco VPNs on Mavericks and [photo backups] to SkyDrive on Windows Mobile Phone Series Metro Not-Metro Phone Windows. Why enterprise software is so hard, and the barriers to entry for small companies targeting the enterprise market. Game-console sales by gener...