WNYC Studios’ Radiolab Presents SWIMMING WITH SHADOWS: A Radiolab Week of Sharks
A Five-Part Audio Event Inspired by the 50th Anniversary of Jaws
New episodes released daily Monday, June 16 – Friday, June 20
Listen to the trailer here
(June 9, 2025 – New York, NY) On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s iconic film Jaws, Radiolab dives into the depths with a new five-part audio event, Swimming with Shadows.
In 1975, Jaws – the original summer blockbuster – scared a generation of people out of the water. And yet, that infamous shark had very little screen time. With the appearance of more fin than teeth and a legendary film score, imaginations ran rampant, conjuring searing impressions far worse than reality. Now, half a century later, Radiolab dives deep beneath the surface to ask: Who are sharks, really? And do they warrant the level of terror so many of us have of them?
Hosted by Radiolab’s Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser with lead reporting by producer Rachael Cusick, Swimming with Shadows documents the team’s globe-spanning journey to Australia, South Africa, Malta and ….Madison, Wisconsin – in pursuit of the truth about sharks. Along the way, we meet scientists, conservationists, and one of the world’s most famous shark attack survivors who now advocates for their protection. We descend into the sea in a shark cage and visit secret laboratories to talk to scientists who now believe that sharks’ extraordinary immune systems may hold crucial clues for curing cancer. And finally, while sharks have historically been one of the most resilient creatures on Earth – predating the appearance of trees on our planet and surviving five mass extinction events – the series concludes with a remarkable story of one man’s mission to raise baby sharks by hand in an effort to save them from the present-day threat of extinction.
Episode descriptions are as follows:
June 16: OUR DEEPEST FEAR
Ever since he was a little kid, Rodney Fox was obsessed with the ocean. His life took a fateful turn when in 1963, at the age of 21, he was brutally attacked by a great white shark and almost died. To this day, it’s still considered one of the worst shark attacks to have ever been survived. Instead of running away from the ocean, Rodney made understanding sharks his life’s work: he invented one of the first shark cages so that he could safely see these creatures up-close. But attacks like this are extremely rare. And yet, we’ve been taught to fear them, largely by a movie that came out 50 years ago this week: Jaws. What makes the shark in that movie, and by extension all sharks, seem like the scariest monster? And what can we do to get over our fears? Rodney, who was a consultant on Jaws and regretted how the film demonized sharks, shares his thoughts.
June 17: THE CAGE
Reporter Rachael Cusick and a crew of people travel to the Southern Coast of Australia to look past, around or through their fears, hoping to find a great white shark. When the shark finally appears from the depths, it’s something more complex, mysterious and beautiful than they’d ever imagined. Rachael sees a creature that has perfectly evolved not to kill, but to survive. Paleontologist John Long and marine biologist Jaida Elcock explain how sharks have existed for over 500 million years, longer than the Earth has had trees. Longer than Saturn has had rings. Sharks have survived five mass extinction events and continue to survive the ever-changing ocean ecosystems.
June 18: IMMUNITY
In the early 1960s, a group of evolutionary immunologists tried to figure out how humans developed the most sophisticated immune system on Earth. Unlike many creatures, we produce specific antibodies to fight off each new disease we encounter – we can even make antibodies for diseases never before seen in nature. Where did that come from? Sharks, and their incredible ability to evolve and survive. Hundreds of millions of years ago, an evolutionary miracle unfolded which gave rise to our modern immune systems. In recent years, scientists discovered that the shark’s immune system – primitive, first-generation, seemingly simplistic – can do radical things and could hold the key to curing cancer.
June 19: FALSE BAY
False Bay, South Africa was once home to one of the largest populations of great white sharks in the world, famous for their ferocious hunting behaviors. This bay was a shark’s paradise. The prey animals who also lived there resided in what one wildlife biologist calls “a landscape of fear.” But in 2015, the whole place turned upside down; suddenly the sharks had something to be afraid of as well. Sharks started washing up on shore dead, with their livers surgically removed. Biologist Alison Kock suspected fishermen at first. Then one day, two orcas surfaced ominously beside her boat. Could an orca kill a white shark? And what does it mean when the ocean’s most feared hunter becomes the hunted?
June 20: BABIES
Several years ago, Greg Nowell, a diver and shark fanatic based in Malta, started going to the fish market to examine sharks after struggling for weeks to find sharks on his dives. He would dissect and study them, learning about their anatomy and how they breathe, eat, digest food and reproduce. One day, while examining a female shark, he found a single egg and wondered: could it survive? Thus began a years-long quest to learn how to raise baby sharks from eggs in captivity. In 2013, Greg became the first person to release a captive-bred shark back into the wild. Since then, he’s raised and released hundreds of sharks and his techniques have been adopted by researchers, aquarists and conservationists all over the world in the fight to keep sharks from extinction.
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Radiolab is a documentary podcast that investigates complex ideas across science, law, history, and culture through rigorous reporting and innovative sound design. Hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser, the show combines in-depth journalism with immersive audio to explore how the world works—and how we understand it. Founded in 2002, Radiolab has been recognized as a pioneer in narrative audio storytelling. It has received two Peabody Awards, been named one of the “10 nonfiction podcasts that changed everything,” and was described by Vulture as “revolutionary” for its contributions to the form. In 2024, it was ranked among the top 50 U.S. podcasts by Edison Research.
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