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Octomom

A mile under the ocean, we get to watch an octopus perform a heroic act of heart and determination.
Duration
38m
Broadcast on
23 Oct 2026
Audio Format
other

First aired back in 2020, this episode follows the story of an octopus living one mile under the ocean as she performs a heroic act of heart and determination.

In 2007, Bruce Robison’s robot submarine stumbled across an octopus settling in to brood her eggs. It seemed like a small moment, but as he went back to visit her month after month, what began as a simple act of motherhood became a heroic feat that has never been equaled by any known species on Earth. 

This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen. 

If you need more ocean in your life, check out the incredible Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams (especially the jellies!): www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams

Here’s a pic of Octomom sitting on her eggs (© 2007 MBARI), Nov. 1, 2007.

If you need more ocean in your life, check out the incredible Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams (especially the jellies!): Live Cams of Monterey Bay Aquarium!!

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RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, an eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. Hey, it's Latif. I would like to pull up from the watery depths, a story of perseverance. It's a story of focus. It's a story of one little creature fighting, fighting to the extreme extent of every fiber of its being for the future of its progeny. Part of the thing I love about it is it's so far from anything you're reading about otherwise in the news. It feels almost like it says far as you can get on planet Earth from your own personal drama and it helps remind you how much more is out there that has nothing to do with you. That's Octomom, originally broadcast in 2020, but just as timeless as ever today. I hope you enjoy. Yeah, wait, you're listening to RadioLab from WNYC. Hey, I'm Jad Abumrod. This is RadioLab and Danny McEwen. Yes. Well, what do you got for me? Well, first of all, Robert, let me just get the levels on you. OK, I'm here. We've got Robert. Robert. Maybe you can tell. I'm sitting in on this one with Annie. As many of you know, he retired from RadioLab not too long ago, but I brought him out of retirement and back into the studio to sit in with me on this interview. We just sometimes pile on when it looks like it's going to be a candy fun thing to do. And second of all, I have a hero and a story that I don't know. I just feel like it's exactly the kind of story that we all need right now at this moment. OK. Let's go. OK. So let's start with our main character. Excuse me. This is our hero? Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, our main storyteller, I guess. My name is Bruce Robeson, reaching out to you from K-A-Z-U in Monterey, California. California State University Monterey Bay. Whoa. I got it all in there. So Bruce is a deep-sea explorer and a Southern California beach kid who just kept going out deeper and deeper.

Transcription truncated.

A mile under the ocean, we get to watch an octopus perform a heroic act of heart and determination.