Robert Krulwich

Co-host of Radiolab, which explores the mysteries of science and life through visceral storytelling.

Robert Krulwich is co-host of Radiolab, which explores the mysteries of science and life through visceral storytelling. The double Peabody Award–winning show—which Ira Glass of This American Life claims “invented a new aesthetic for the medium”—can be heard on more than 500 public radio stations, and its podcasts are downloaded over five million times each month. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine awarded Radiolab its top honor for excellence in communicating science to the general public. Slate named a 2004 episode of Radiolab to their list of the 25 Best Podcast Episodes Ever.

At National Geographic Krulwich authors the Curiously Krulwich blog, where he illustrates hard-to-fathom concepts in science using his own fanciful drawings, plus cartoons, videos, and whatever else suits him.

For 22 years, Krulwich was also a science, economics, general assignment, and foreign television correspondent at ABC and CBS News and a frequent host/reporter on the PBS investigative series FrontlineTV Guide called him “the most inventive network reporter in television.”

As host and executive editor of PBS’s documentary series NOVA scienceNOW, Krulwich teamed with NPR’s “car guys” to explain how hydrogen fuel cells work and explored the intricate chemistry of RNAi. As the sole correspondent on ABC’s Brave New World series, he examined subjects ranging from string theory to human cloning. On the BBC’s Late Show, he produced profiles of artists, performers, and writers. In the 1970s he hosted a series on accounting on Nebraska Public Television, and in 1975 he created a regular feature called Economics for Dummies for Pacifica Radio. He was, briefly, Washington Bureau Chief at Rolling Stone magazine.

“I like talking about big ideas, and I especially like creating images that will keep those ideas in peoples’ heads for hours, days, even months,” Krulwich says.

He has won Emmy Awards for a cultural history of Barbie, a Frontlineinvestigation of Internet privacy, and a look at the savings and loan scandal. He also took home the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the Extraordinary Communicator Award from the National Cancer Institute, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.