r/Radiolab • u/sispehar • 1d ago
Every book mentioned on Radiolab in the first half of 2026
I run a site that logs books mentioned on podcasts, so I went back through the first six months of Radiolab and pulled everything that came up. It ranges wide, from origin-of-life science to Shakespeare to true crime.
The two the hosts were most into:
- Life Itself by Francis Crick, where the Nobel winner argues, from a scientific angle, that life could not have gotten started on this planet on its own.
- The Once and Future World by J.B. Mackinnon, which one of them called their favorite of his books.
The rest, roughly grouped:
- Science and nature: Full House and The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, Eager by Ben Goldfarb (the beaver one), Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, and Ether Day by Julie Fenster.
- Shakespeare, plus one about him: Othello, Titus Andronicus, and Contested Will by James Shapiro.
- True crime: Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen, Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule, and The Murderer Next Door by David Buss.
- Fiction: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.
Also in the mix: Animal Liberation by Peter Singer and Raven Rock by Garrett Graff.
Full list is here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/radiolab. Free, no signup.