Happy Birthday Bobby K
It’s Robert’s birthday! (Or it was, anyway, a couple days back.) So today we celebrate with some classic Krulwich radio and a backwards peek into the spirit and sensibility that, in many ways, drives our show.
For his birthday surprise we all listened to some old NPR pieces that Robert did in the 70s, 80s and early 90s — a news piece on the dawn of the ATM, a fake opera on interest rates, and the story of a family business splintered into relatives fighting to be first in the phone book. Along the way, we hear some incredible stories from Robert’s life …
And, just to celebrate the man whose infectious curiosity draws so many people (including us) to his side … we share with you the kind of gonzo, full-throated Krulwich story we usually can’t include in the show … an epic of secret zoos, sewing machines, an alligator farm, a marching band, and a bus full of French tourists that save the day.
- Duration
- 31m
- Broadcast on
- 07 Aug 2014
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
It’s Robert’s birthday! (Or it was, anyway, a couple days back.) So today we celebrate with some classic Krulwich radio and a backwards peek into the spirit and sensibility that, in many ways, drives our show.
For his birthday surprise we all listened to some old NPR pieces that Robert did in the 70s, 80s and early 90s — a news piece on the dawn of the ATM, a fake opera on interest rates, and the story of a family business splintered into relatives fighting to be first in the phone book. Along the way, we hear some incredible stories from Robert’s life …
And, just to celebrate the man whose infectious curiosity draws so many people (including us) to his side … we share with you the kind of gonzo, full-throated Krulwich story we usually can’t include in the show … an epic of secret zoos, sewing machines, an alligator farm, a marching band, and a bus full of French tourists that save the day.
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That's the question. Wait, you're listening to RadioLab. RadioLab. Shorts! From WNYC. Let's see. NPNPR. Anything says, "I don't know what's happening." We can do a little, yeah. So, a couple of days ago, we did this thing. We got Robert into the studio. And we ambushed him. The whole staff rushed in, singing cake, the whole deal. Now Robert famously hates his birthday. But you can't really hide your birthday these days. I have had the extremely good fortune to work with this man for over ten years. So, if you'll excuse us just as once, we want to take this podcast to celebrate Mr. Robert Krollwich. So Robert, we didn't just bring you in here for cake and to listen to things to act on memory land. We were sort of thinking that we would love to share some of your earlier work as the next podcast. No. So, let's talk about it. That's our executive producer, Ellen Horns. She dug up a bunch of his old work from the archives and he eventually agreed to let us play some. It's really interesting to hear this stuff because I'm not sure a lot of people who listen to RadioLab really get how much Robert's sensibility drives this show. Like his combination of theater and play and his desire to sound different than other stuff on the radio and to ignore the rules. But in always, always in service of a genuine attempt to understand or explain something. And also, it's just amazing how many creative lives he lived before he came to RadioLab. Like, here's a piece from 1979, which is just a few years after NPR began. In banks these days, you've noticed they're trying out new systems. More and more, we're being asked to deal with machines instead of tellers. And that's the way the banks wanted, according to our business correspondent, Robert Krollwich. Right here in Washington, a few doors away from National Public Radio. There's not listening to you. It offers you a chance at a colored television set and they have a treasure chest with ten Susan B. Anthony dollars inside, which could be yours if you are willing to stand through a three-minute demonstration of their new automatic teller system. I don't know, it's just sort of a period I went to. It's strongly nasal because I thought nasal is sort of powerful. I think if you have a nose, you should use it. And the piece is actually about how banks are starting these crazy things called ATMs and people are a little freaked out. I've had some interesting problems with these machines. They have eaten my card from time to time. Do you mean they mutil in it? No, they go. And at one point, Robert, in order to explain why the banks were lobbying so hard for these ATMs, he almost bursts into song. Okay, sure it goes. You send the check to Sears, Sears opposes the check in its bank. The bank sends a check to a regional bank, from there it goes to your regional bank, which is in your very own area. They mail it back to your hometown bank, which mails it back to you in a statement you get at the end of the month. The check shows up in the packet, hopefully.
Transcription truncated.
It’s Robert’s birthday! (Or it was, anyway, a couple days back.) So today we celebrate with some classic Krulwich radio and a backwards peek into the spirit and sensibility that, in many ways, drives our show.
For his birthday surprise we all listened to some old NPR pieces that Robert did in the 70s, 80s and early 90s — a news piece on the dawn of the ATM, a fake opera on interest rates, and the story of a family business splintered into relatives fighting to be first in the phone book. Along the way, we hear some incredible stories from Robert’s life …
And, just to celebrate the man whose infectious curiosity draws so many people (including us) to his side … we share with you the kind of gonzo, full-throated Krulwich story we usually can’t include in the show … an epic of secret zoos, sewing machines, an alligator farm, a marching band, and a bus full of French tourists that save the day.