The Swerve

This is the best piece of radio I have heard in a long time. Because it is 9:00 on the evening of one of the busiest days I've had in months, I can't recall the details. I can only tell you that it winds from the world of ants to the 28th Street flower district and makes more sense than anything else you'll hear from now until a while. If you have ever wondered how a neighborhood forms, why there is no one person to identify in its coming together yet you see that it is rich, consistent, flavorful and functioning, if you wonder what a queen ant, not to mention queen bee, does when it is done laying eggs, have a listen. (Oh, and if you want to know how it is that walls of fireflies light up in unison along the banks of a river in Thailand, you won't find out here. But you will be mesmerized at the description anyway.)

Robert Krulwich is a genius. (But we knew this.) Newfound respect to Jad Abumrad. Featuring Oliver Sacks. Here is Radio Lab's description:

"What happens when there is no leader?  Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine.  In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony.  How?  That’s our question this hour.  We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very brains.  Featured are: author Steven Johnson, mathematician Steve Strogatz and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch. "

If you can listen on WNYC, here is when it will air:

EMERGENCE
February 18   3pm 93.9 FM; 7pm AM820
February 20   4pm 93.9 FM; 8pm AM 820
March 1   3pm 93.9 FM
March 8   7pm AM 820

Otherwise: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/current