Jad Abumrad: How Did Radiolab Happen? Gut Churn

What's gut churn? At the 99U Conference, Radiolab creator and host Jad Abumrad describes it as the radical uncertainty that's a core part of any creative process that really pushes the envelope. You're entering unknown territory, and working without a map.

Using examples from Radiolab's own evolution, Jad shares the benefits of negative feedback and how we can look out for "pointing arrows" that can help guide our work (even when it hurts).

Jad Abumrad is the host and creator of Radiolab, which reaches roughly 2 million people per month. He's been called a "master of the radio craft" for his unique ability to combine cutting edge sound-design, cinematic storytelling and a personal approach to explaining complex topics, from the stochasticity of tumor cells to musical languages to the mathematics of morality. Jad studied creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. He composes much of the music for Radiolab, and in the past has composed music for film, theater and dance.

In 2011, Radiolab received a Peabody Award, the highest honor in broadcasting, and Jad received the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.

The Week's Links: February 1, 2013

All the links posted on social networks this week:

• How to write a good bio ➞
• New Project Maps the Wiring of the Mind ➞
• Why We Need Theater Now More Than Ever ➞
• Escaping The Cult Of The Average & The Happy Secret To Better Work ◉
• A Board Game Designed For Classical Music Buffs ➞
• The Future of Work: Quantified Employees, Pop-Up Workplaces, And More Telepresence ➞
• Are the arts trading in happiness? If so, what kind? ➞
• Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president ➞
• The WWF app for iPad is amazing, beautiful and free: ➞
• Twitter middle finger: Logo sketches show designs other than blue bird. ➞
• Nature Has A Formula That Tells Us When It's Time To Die ➞
• Crossword author uses puzzle to reveal he's dying ➞
• Please don't help my kids ➞
• The Making Of A Groundbreaking Animation: Paperman ◉
• Arthur Miller on writing The Crucible ➞
• Programmer Interrupted ➞
• Working overtime doesn't increase your output. It makes you stupid. ◉
• If You Think You're Good At Multitasking, You Probably Aren't ➞
• Gorgeous vintage record sleeves for classical music. ➞
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets and MLK’s Speech Stored in DNA Speck ➞
• Richard, A Documentary about a London Piano Tuner Who Chooses to be Homeless ➞
• Second TEDx conference on the Great White Way asks 'What is the best Broadway can be?' ➞
• The School of Life: Mark Earls on Copying and Originality ◉
• A hotel room changed Matisse's art. This is how: ➞
• Leo Burnett's classic speech "When to take my name off the door" animated ◉
• Did Shakespeare Have Syphilis? ➞
• Very useful: Exporting Images With Usuable Names From Evernote ➞
• Stocking Up: Uncovering the Secrets to the Best Broth ➞
• Origami: A Blend of Sculpture and Mathematics ➞
• Beautiful: Orchids of Latin America ➞
• This Is What Being a Google Maps Editor Is Like ➞
• The First Canned Beer Went on Sale 78 Years Ago ➞
• The Story Behind Banksy ➞
• The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories ➞
• It's Okay To Be Smart: The PBS Renaissance Continues ◉
• This Explains Everything: 192 Thinkers Each Select the Most Elegant Explanation of How the World Works ➞
• Popular Lies About Graphic Design ➞
• Are You A Hipster? Do You Think Video Games Are Art? And Other Important Questions ◉
• PBS Off Book: The Art of Creative Coding, Graphic Design & Other Explorations ◉
• Ira Glass on the strange life of the producer ◉
• Inventors: The First Software Patent & The Digital Camera ◉
• Cassandre: Gorgeous Vintage Posters by One of History's Greatest Graphic Designers ➞
• We Need Technology to Help Us Remember the Future ➞
• Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses ➞
• The Never-Before-Told Story of the World's First Computer Art (It's a Sexy Dame) ➞
• Why Living Cells Are The Future Of Data Processing ➞
• Introducing Courier Prime, commissioned by screenwriter John August, it's Courier, just better: ➞
• Understanding How to Frame Your Creative Expertise ➞
• Happy Two-Hundredth Birthday, "Pride and Prejudice" ➞
• Creativity Top 5: January 28, 2013 ◉
• Popular Lies About Graphic Design ➞
• If You Think You're Good At Multitasking, You Probably Aren't ➞
• Cicero on Dance ◉
• NASA Sends Image of the Mona Lisa to the Moon and Back ➞
• Great Clients ◉
• Why Subtraction Is the Hardest Math in Product Design ➞
• TED Playlists: The artist is in. ➞
• Your Storytelling Brain ◉
• Cleverness ◉
• 37 Hitchcock Cameos over 50 Years: All in One Video ➞
• The Surprising Health Benefits of Anger ➞
• Who Designed the Seal of the President of the United States? ➞
• If you missed Shakespeare Uncovered last Friday night you can catch the first two episodes online: ➞
• This Explains Everything: 192 Thinkers Each Select the Most Elegant Explanation of How the World Works ➞
• Join Cartoonist Lynda Barry for a University-Level Course on Doodling and Neuroscience ➞
• Original Creators: Synthesizer Pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey ➞
• Seth's Blog: Eleven things organizations can learn from airports ➞
• Meet Ad Age's 40 Under 40 ➞
• What happens when we build things for free? ➞
• So Good: The challenges of conversational journalism ➞
• Margaret Atwood's writing tools are as forward-looking as her books ➞
• The Fascinating Business Cards of 20 Famous People ➞
• Social Workflow - A Future Of Work Trend - PSFK ➞
• Day of Light: A Crowdsourced Film by Multimedia Genius Brian Eno ➞
• Underground Kingdom, Interactive Choose Your Own Adventure Style Gamebook Released As iOS App ➞
• ATTENTION folks, there is currently an astronaut posting to Tumblr from space. ➞
• The Data of Death – A Visualization ➞
• Love this, watch full screen: London 360 Panorama ➞ /via @Coudal
• An architectural blueprint of Brooklyn Bridge elevations from Old Blueprints. ➞
• Fantastic: The Birth of Grand Central Terminal ➞
• 20 Great Writers on the Art of Revision ➞

Recommended This Week: 

The Making Of A Groundbreaking Animation: Paperman

Meet Meg and George, the two leads of Disney/Pixar's Paperman. Introducing a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques, first-time director John Kahrs takes the art of animation in a bold new direction with this Oscar®-nominated short. Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him. Created by a small, innovative team working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Paperman pushes the animation medium in an exciting new direction.

For more on the making of Paperman check out It's Art Magazine's collection of movie art and clips presented by the director. 

The School of Life: Mark Earls on Copying and Originality

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation", said Oscar Wilde. Today we too prize individuality and originality almost above everything else. We lionise the solitary genius or the promethean hero who overcomes all the odds to force their unique vision on the world. We fetishize the unique, the one-off – in art and music, politics and every aspect of our lives.

But this cult of the original is very recent in human history, and a minority one at that. Even today most cultures don’t share it. It also happens to be very one-eyed: it's increasingly clear that much of our success as a species stems from the heartily unoriginal, and much of our lives as individuals depends on learning or stealing ideas from others. We are Homo mimicus.

Mark Earls, at a The School of Life's Secular Sunday Sermon, will explore the lie of originality in all its aspects and show the value of "social learning" (copying, to you and me) to help us put unoriginality back in its rightful place. And of course most of what he says will be other people's ideas.

It's Okay To Be Smart: The PBS Renaissance Continues

It would be easy to think that PBS is all about Downton Abbey and Sherlock. Or only think of it when it becomes the unexpected subject of a presidential debate. That is far from it. For over a year now PBS Digital Studios, the online branch of PBS, has been producing extraordinary, thoughtful, funny and educational work continuing what PBS does on television. 

Earlier I shared their work with their Inventors series, by meeting the man that acquired the very first patent for software. I also shared Off Book, and their more recent episodes on graphic design and creative coding. And then there is the Idea Channel, clever, funny, and underneath it all really interesting, most recently talking about their suggestions for the top five most artful video games. 

That is not all. 

This week they have introduced It's Okay To Be Smart. This is a show about science. But it's probably not about science the way you're used to it. Hosted and written by Joe Hanson, known from his blog of the same name, this is a look at the world around us that encourages a deeper inquisitiveness into science. The first episode, above, is all about life by the numbers. 

There are now more than 7 billion human beings on Earth, and that got Hanson wondering: How successful are we compared to other species? He takes a look at how our numbers stack up to some other domains of life. It turns out that biomass, or what things weigh, can be more important than how many of something there are. Find out how our numbers stack up against everything from bugs to bacteria, and get ready for some mind-blowing numbers! (Check out his blog for additional content, an episode extra if you will.) 

It is indeed okay to be smart. It is more than okay to be curious and interested. PBS is helping us stay that way.