Why are there so many songs about rainbows (and what’s on the other side)? A bridge between worlds, a map to a pot of gold, the centerpiece of a Lisa Frank trapper-keeper, and of course, an ever-changing symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, the rainbow has been a profound part of the human experience for thousands of years. For this early Pride Month episode, science correspondent and bisexual seagull Lulu Miller explains to Sarah the history of our understanding of rainbows: why they exist, what they are made out of, and what they have represented. Together they discuss the figures that have tried to pin down this natural wonder, the power of its spectrum of meaning, and the comfort and terror of the infinity it once represented. Digressions include the boring transcendence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the secret joys of trigonometry, and the best gay Hannibal Lecter.

More Lulu Miller:
https://radiolab.org/team/lulu-miller

Lulu on Instagram

Lulu's book Why Fish Don't Exist

Original music in this episode brought to you by Magpie Cinema Club featuring Brendan Liu

Except for "Roy G Biv" from this episode of Lulu's WNYC show Terrestrials, which is written and performed by Alan Goffinski and included on The Bridge EP

And also Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert

Edited + Produced by Miranda Zickler:
http://linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

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Ada Blackjack wants one thing: To make enough money to bring her son home from an orphanage. But good work is hard to find in 1920s Nome, Alaska, so when four strangers come to town, looking to hire someone for a secret yearlong expedition, Ada embarks on the trip—not knowing that she’ll be the only one of them to survive.

This is the first episode of YWA correspondent Blair Braverman's new podcast, What to Carry, What to Burn. To hear the second half of Ada's story (also featuring Sarah Marshall!), visit the links below:

RSS feed: https://shows.acast.com/what-to-carry-what-to-burn

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-to-carry-what-to-burn/id1896260781

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatToCarryPod

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4L7FCFQLcmG2NwPw7ayE1D

More Blair Braverman:
www.blairbraverman.com

More You're Wrong About:
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What would you do for a desperation pie? Kitchen correspondent Sarah Archer is here to talk with Sarah about the American food trends that marked the 20th century and how they related to the political and cultural changes of a nation in need of constant culinary inventiveness. They discuss the specialties of the barren Depression Era, the food-related propaganda and rationing of the wartime years, the meteoric rise of post-war disposability, the premade mixes and “exotic” dishes of midcentury housewives, and the special tastes of Soviet Cold War diplomacy. Throughout the episode, they discuss the messages these eras transmitted to the women in charge of the kitchen and draw parallels to our new era of trad wife cooking and carnivore dieting. Digressions include the unique features of Star Trek aliens, why cottage cheese is the Cher of foods, and how ironing sheets can be a potent tool for procrastination.

More Sarah Archer:
https://www.sarah-archer.com/

Design for Dreaming 1956 appliance fantasy film: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/design-for-dreaming-1956/

Midcentury Menu exhibition at the MFAH: https://www.mfah.org/art/exhibitions/midcentury-menu-dining-in-the-atomic-age

Meals with a Foreign Flair: https://archive.org/details/mealswithforeign00desm

Edited + Produced by Miranda Zickler:
http://linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

More You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch

Support the show