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Comment from Jody
Date: March 25, 2008, 11:53 am

Love the show. I thought I had heard all about this a billion times, but I had no idea that they did it more than once. You also did a great job making me understand how people could actually fall for this. WELL DONE! Can’t wait for the next show.

Comment from Jessica
Date: March 25, 2008, 12:48 pm

I was lucky enough to be there at the Fitz for the taping of this show. It’s great that the show works even without all the enhancements we got (visuals, extra music). I hope you do more live shows; it was fascinating. I only have one complaint: you cut out my boyfriend’s line read! I suppose I can forgive you.

Comment from Dave
Date: March 25, 2008, 6:01 pm

I really loved this episode. Thanks!

Comment from Brian
Date: March 25, 2008, 9:07 pm

Just finished listening to “War of the Worlds” and I have to say that going in, I was skeptical that there was anything new to say about it. Once again, y’all managed in the last 10 minutes or so to elevate the subject to a totally unexpected level. I thought the segment of “fear blurbs” was dead on insight into how the tricks that Welles developed to critique media have been co-opted to further manipulate. Perhaps Welles himself was under the naive opinion that we would only be fooled once. Great work as always, gang. We need more than 5 shows a season!

Comment from jonathan
Date: March 26, 2008, 2:01 am

I’ve been listening to RadioLab for something like a year now, and Kudos on one of the best shows yet. Loved the ending.

Comment from Bill
Date: March 26, 2008, 11:41 am

Loved the conclusion you came to at the end of this episode. Great way to tie media from the past to the present. Any chance of a live show in Chicago?!

Comment from Rob
Date: March 26, 2008, 12:35 pm

Jad and Robert: Another great show.

A tangentially related story: “War of the Worlds” meets “Woodstock”. Back in the early 1990’s, a Maryland radio station, WGRX, held a make believe three day free concert “on a farm somewhere in the Hagerstown area”. They called it “Livestock”. Despite repeated announcements that it was a fake, and performances by dead musicians, hordes of the station’s listeners made a bee line for western Maryland, causing traffic jams and a little havoc for the Maryland State Police.

Comment from Christopher
Date: March 26, 2008, 5:14 pm

A wonderful show (as always), made that much better by the music of Zoe Keating.

I was very excited to hear her in the show. I may be wrong, but that’s not the first time RadioLab has used Zoe’s music, is it?

Good work, folks!

Comment from Creighton
Date: March 27, 2008, 12:37 am

I’m not sure if you guys did this on purpose, but cutting it off at the end was a nice touch. Made me wonder just a little….

Thanks for the free podcasts!

Comment from Rob Palmer
Date: March 27, 2008, 10:25 am

Great Show!

Comment from gboone
Date: March 27, 2008, 11:40 am

A great show, almost as good in podcast as it was live. Only thing I really missed was seeing Tom Keith.

Comment from Todd
Date: March 27, 2008, 5:56 pm

Great episode, but it’s a shame that you stopped short of examining how fear-mongering has continued to evolve to much greater levels. i.e. global warming, bird flu, Y2K, AIDS, etc…

The blueprint Wells provided has served not only the media, but the government itself. The same fear that keeps people tuned in until after the break, keeps other people voting in politicians who promise to protect them.

Comment from Len
Date: March 28, 2008, 9:49 am

Great show.

I’m glad you discussed how the “War of the Worlds” formula has become the norm for news broadcasts. Still, you could have looked beyond trivial examples like the snake in the toilet.

False news stories have ignited wars. Why not discuss the Maine Incident (Wells refers to it in “Citizen Kane”), the Gulf of Tonkin, or the Reichstag fire?

Comment from frank patrick
Date: March 28, 2008, 12:25 pm

Listened to WOTW podcast on last night’s commute home. You got me so paranoid about radio hoaxes that I became absolutely convinced that the Quito and Buffalo stories were themselves hoaxes that RadioLab had concocted to prove we are all still subject to being fooled. Then, the podcast ends with a premature silence in the middle of Jad saying something to the effect that “Everything you hear on RadioLab is…SILENCE”

That was it. I was absolutely convinced of my premise…

…until I did a search on ["war of the worlds" quito].

I guess I was right. You did get me…in a roundabout way.

Comment from Jesse Kirsch
Date: March 28, 2008, 12:53 pm

Like Frank Patrick, I also was listening to the podcast that cuts off to dead silence right when Jad says “Everything you hear on RadioLab is…” I wondered if this was indeed planned since it would make all to much sense… but noticed I still had 40 seconds left to the podcast on my ipod. Perhaps this was just a glitch? perhaps it was intended, either way it was a great way to end the program. I did however just listen to the last minute on the blog and noticed is does continue past where it cut off on my ipod. Maybe there are microscopic aliens messing with us from the far off planet of Apple. Great show!

Comment from Radiolab
Date: March 28, 2008, 2:33 pm

folks-aw. if only we were so clever to have the podcast cut out… we didn’t think of that, but it would have been cool if we had. we’ve dowlnoaded the podcast on a few computers here and don’t seem to be getting any files chopping off, so you may both be experiencing a flukey glitch. if you try downloading the mp3 or resubscribing to the podcast, it may fix the problem. let us know!

Comment from clickykbd
Date: March 29, 2008, 2:25 am

Excellent show as always. I’m a stagehand as a profession and it would be an honor to work on a live radiolab, definitely do more of them!

I first encountered War of the Worlds in full in a highschool theatre class but the connection is deeper. There really is something to the innate human propensity for becoming emotionally ensnared in the narrative despite all the evidence that it might be a fiction/fabrication. If this weren’t true, live theatre (among countless other formats) simply would not work! (Which includes your live production of this show)!

FYI mp3 version here and no end-cutting glitch.

Comment from Matthew F
Date: March 30, 2008, 2:48 am

Very, very clever. Thanks for much for the “tell” after the one break, it’s just the confirmation I needed. Very, very well done.

Comment from Calvin
Date: March 30, 2008, 7:09 pm

Since this was your first live show, I’m curious if you have more photographs of the performance to share.

Comment from Brandon
Date: March 31, 2008, 3:44 pm

thank you again for another great episode.
I had wondered about how people could be so ignorant, but you really helped put it in context and I see that I could easily have bought into it

Comment from Luke Hinsull
Date: March 31, 2008, 10:14 pm

I too had the cut off at the end of the podcast, and had to come on here to see if it was intentional…. trust me it had the right effect, i was just about to get in to bed while listening and then silence….and i freaked out….anyway, best regards from the UK, this is awesome stuff, keep it going, it keeps my mostly lazy student brain now quite active

Comment from Martin
Date: April 4, 2008, 7:43 pm

I have always found your show to be consistently enlightening, and even mind blowing, but never offensive… until now. I was shocked to hear you describe Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds as disco! I have listened to this work dozens of times and never felt the urge to dance.
So, just to put you in your place with authority, I looked up the album on Amazon. What the $#%^! It’s not only disco, but it’s currently ranked number 21 on Amazon’s disco chart. Not bad for a 30-year old album. That was on April 2nd. Today (April 4th) it has settled to #51. I suspect that your recent mention gave it a boost.
OK, I learned something. However, I encourage you to enjoy this masterpiece of music and give it the credit it deserves.

Comment from Speed Reeder
Date: April 7, 2008, 5:03 pm

Hey Radiolab, I want to comment on what a terrific show the “War of the Worlds” episode was.
I’ve been an Orson Wells fan for a long time, and was quite familiar with the War of the Worlds radio show. It was nice to hear a new take on an old subject.
Usually, the WOTW phenomenon is regarded as: a hoax, example of mass-hysteria, people-were-so-stupid-back-then, the power of media to deceive, etc..
However, I have never heard anyone put the story in a broader context, particularly, that radio shows were being interrupted by news about World War 2 (which had essentially just started in Europe.)
I find it telling that many people who panicked thought that the Germans had attacked!
As Kyle K mentioned above, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force panic that happened in Boston is a great example of how a mass panic can happen in our day and age. (Ironically, the ATHF panic also involved an alien invasion!) Despite all of the changes in society, and advanced technology and media, it shows we can still fall victim to mass hysteria and panic. Maybe the people in 1938 weren’t as simple or naive as we think, and maybe we’re not as smart and advanced as we think we are.
This Radiolab episode examines a well-known and familiar topic and shows us how it can be relevant to us today. Excellent show!

Comment from Lee Munsick
Date: May 26, 2008, 8:33 am

Do you folk really think Orson Welles deliberately tried to cause panic? FDR’s comment to the effect that all the intelligent people were listening to Bergen & McCarthy hits home again. Except that probably the really educated, intelligent people were regular Orson Welles listeners and knew better - it’s the un-with-it folk that started twisting dials in the middle of something and then didn’t have sense enough to check elsewhere, that fell “victim”. From everything I’ve read, the amount of “panic” has historically been VERY over-estimated. So THEN who were the manipulators and fear-mongers? Right again - the ‘news’ media who built it all out of proportion, creating one of the greatest ‘urban myths’ of all time. Right up there on the list with ‘The Jazz Singer’ being the first sound movie. It wasn’t even Jolson’s first sound film! I’m not sure whether your excellent program helped overcome the WOTW myth or spur it on. But well done! Lee Munsick

Comment from Sara
Date: January 20, 2009, 2:32 am

Please come and do a live show in L.A. I love you guys!

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Date: April 20, 2009, 10:56 am

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