Hi all! Jad Abumrad, who created Radiolab, is leaving the show, and his co-hosts Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser are taking the reins. More details below, for those interested, including a nice note at the bottom from Jad. Onward! Marisa *From:* WNYC Distribution [mailto:distribution@lists.wnyc.org] *Sent:* Wednesday, January 26, 2022 9:01 AM *To:* marisa@kcbx.org *Subject:* An Announcement about Radiolab Dear Stations, Happy New Year! I’m writing today to share some news: after 20 great years, Jad Abumrad is announcing that he’s departing from his role as host of* Radiolab *and handing the reins over to his brilliant co-hosts, Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser. His announcement – posting publicly shortly – is below. This is no small moment for our industry. *Radiolab* is one of the world’s most beloved and influential podcasts, but it started as and remains one of public radio’s most innovative and industry-defining programs. *Radiolab’s *deep connection with its listeners is an achievement we share with all of you, the stations who took a risk and introduced a very different-sounding show to your audiences and helped us expand the idea of what public radio could sound like. But as Jad notes, Radiolab has grown around him and beyond him and has become a magnet for some of the most talented producers and storytellers in our industry. Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser – who have been doing a wonderful job co-hosting with Jad since 2020 – will now take center stage as the show’s hosts. They lead an incredible 21 person team who will continue to tell ambitious, meaningful, original stories with the show’s signature style of wonder, skepticism, and joy This was never a show that rested on its laurels, and the team in place now has the same ferocious ambition, drive and enthusiasm that has always propelled the show to its next height. Which means *Radiolab *will feel familiar and take daring new leaps all at the same time. And listeners will still hear Jad on the show from time to time in episodes from our rich back catalog. We hope you’ll join us in thanking Jad for 20 years of inspired storytelling, and in rooting Lulu, Latif, and the team on for the next 20. Melissa LaCasse and Alicia Allen of the WNYC Studio distribution team are always available for any questions you or your teams may have. Warmest wishes for 2022, Andrew Golis Chief Content Officer, WNYC ------------------------------ Hello everybody. I'm starting the new year with big personal news. I've decided to step aside as host of *Radiolab*. This show that I started in 2002 — literally, in my basement — is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and this feels like the right time. For the last few years — since 2016 really — I've told myself that there'd come a point when the team would be "ready" for me to leave. When they might even need me to. I wasn't sure when that would be or how I'd know, but I made a pact with myself to stay watchful, to create space rather than filling it, and to listen rather than talk. And in the last year, an odd feeling has started to follow me around. A not-so-unpleasant sense of being displaced, of becoming a smaller and smaller part of a larger thing rather than the main event. I've felt it during edits with Simon on the “MIXTAPE” series. With Sarah Q. on *More Perfect* stories. While working with Molly on countless Covid dispatches. I got a concentrated dose of it while listening to the “Breath” episode and hearing Annie and Matt yell at each other — joyfully — while trying to park a car. Most of all, I've felt it during "brain-dumps" with my brilliant co-hosts: Lulu and Latif. In other words, I think we're at that point. This insanely talented group of people each embody the spirit of experimentation that first put *Radiolab* in motion, but they're taking the show in directions I could’ve never imagined myself. That’s a bit humbling, for sure. But to see that what I’ve started could have so many more chapters … that feels like the truest form of wealth. And I couldn't be more excited to experience their journey as a listener. To everyone I ever worked with who helped lead us to this point: thank you. Actually, let me be more specific with my gratitude. · Thank you Robert Krulwich for 17 years of genius. You're the most talented human I've ever met. · Thank you Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser, my co-hosts at *Radiolab* · . You are the direct descendants of the great Bobby K — you bring wonder, skepticism and joy to every moment. I am beyond proud to leave the show in your hands. · Thank you Soren Wheeler (*Radiolab’s * · executive editor) for literally *everything*. You remain *Radiolab’* · s Atlas and the best editor in the business. I am in awe of you. · Thank you Suzie Lechtenberg (*Radiolab* · 's executive producer) for being the industry's most gifted plate-spinner. And a true friend. · Thank you Dylan Keefe (*Radiolab* · 's director of sound design) for a decade of making me sound good and making me laugh. · Thank you to the many contributors, partners and collaborators we’ve worked with through the years. · Thank you to all my colleagues — past and present — at WNYC for your support, especially Goli Sheikholeslami, Andrew Golis, and our publicist from the beginning, Jennifer Houlihan Roussel. · Thank you Mikel Ellcessor and Dean Cappello for setting me on this course. · Thank you Ellen Horne for helping breathe life into it. · Thank you to all the public radio stations who have carried our show and welcomed me to your city or town. · And finally, my deepest, truest, most heartfelt thank you to the most amazing team in audio: Simon Adler, Jeremy Bloom, Becca Bressler, Rachael Cusick, W. Harry Fortuna, David Gebel, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Maria Paz Gutiérrez, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Alex Neason, Sarah Qari, Sarah Sandbach, Arianne Wack, Pat Walters, and Molly Webster. I bow before all of you. Making this show with you has been the honor of a lifetime. As for me, after 20 years, hundreds of episodes, several spin-offs and one pandemic, I’ll be doing some writing, some teaching, some music-making, some thinking, and frankly, some being. And I’ll always be here for the team to advise, counsel, or just listen. Twenty years ago, if you told me even a hundred people would listen to this show, I’d have laughed. Now millions tune in and download *Radiolab *each year. That still doesn’t quite compute. Maybe the *Radiolab *team can figure out the math. Or perhaps, I’ll just let the mystery be and step back in gratitude to all the listeners who have invited us into your homes, car radios and earbuds. I will always be truly thankful to all of you for giving me this chance. 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