Mia Lobel

Distillations #139: The Brain on Sports

MiaLobel — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:57:16 +0000

Dedicated to my sports-crazed husband. J-E-T-S! (maybe next year)

From the Distillations website:

Whether it’s football season, baseball season, or basketball season, one thing is constant: a good chunk of the population has sports on the brain. On today’s episode of Distillations we explore why this is the case. First, producer Lindsay Patterson follows a high school basketball team to learn about the role chemistry plays in winning a big game. Then we check in with the fans at home, learning what happens in your brain when you’re cheering on your favorite team. One word: Dopamine! (Thanks to Ric Seaberg for the great song.)

Image courtesy of Flickr user seantoyer.

Distillations #138 – Your Genome

MiaLobel — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:55:50 +0000

The latest Distillations is all about the genome. This from the Distillations website:

“Each of us is made of more than 20,000 genes that determine everything from our tendency towards baldness to our likelihood to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. On today’s episode of Distillations we look at how researchers have sought to identify our individual genomes and how they can be interpreted. First, we learn how advances in DNA sequencing technology are increasing the likelihood that soon we will all have our genomes mapped. Then we talk to an expert in personalized medicine about the pros and cons of having such sensitive information available.”

Image courtesy of Flickr user skreck.

Improv and Emergency Response

MiaLobel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:42:51 +0000

I reported this piece over the summer and it’s finally out in the world! It’s about an RPI engineer who studied how jazz music can help teach first responders to improvise better under pressure.

It was produced for IEEE Spectrum Radio in collaboration with the NSF, and was mixed (beautifully) by Dennis Foley. You can listen to the complete one-hour show on PRX here (we’re at minute 40) or you can listen to my standalone piece below.

Distillations #137 – Cocktail Chemistry

MiaLobel — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:48:41 +0000

It’s official – reporting on alcohol has become a Distillations holiday tradition. In 2007 we covered champagne. In 2010 it was beer. And this year, the hard stuff. First, producer Catherine Girardeau visits St. George Spirits in Alameda, California, where master distillers concoct tasty artisan spirits. Catherine also visits one of my favorite Bay Area spots – the Exploratorium – for a distillation demonstration. Then, a segment about the morning after – a study of the hangover. Pickled sheep eyes in tomato juice, anyone?

Photo of Buddha’s Hand Citron Vodka by Erin Hall, courtesy of St. George Spirits.

Distillations #136 – The Chemistry of Music

MiaLobel — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:05:46 +0000

On this episode of Distillations, it’s a symphony of science. First, our assistant producer Anne Fredrickson reveals one of the secrets of Stradivari violins’ phenomenal sound. Then, a profile of sound artist Susan Alexjander, who uses vibrational frequencies from the natural world – from DNA to planetary spins – to create her music. I produced that one, my first non-narrated piece in awhile.

Image courtesy of the Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, Othmer Library of Chemical History, Chemical Heritage Foundation.

Distillations #135 – Black Friday

MiaLobel — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:04:52 +0000

Attention all shoppers, this episode of Distillations is all about what happens to you chemically when you hit the mall. First, producer Sheri Quinn has the story of her mom, a shopoholic. She interviewed my good friend Mauricio Delgado, a neuroscientist at Rutgers, Newark, about what happens in your brain when you shop. Then, Lindsay Patterson explains the dangers hiding in… receipts?

Image courtesy of Flickr user kevinspencer.

Distillations #134 – Is Anybody Out There?

MiaLobel — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:28:08 +0000

In this latest episode of Distillations, we ask the age-old question: are we alone in the universe? First, a segment about how two famous cosmologists battled it out over the Big Bang. Then, producer Andrew Stelzer visits the SETI Institute to learn about the search for extra terrestrial life, and, once we find it, how we’ll go about making conversation. If you’re a space nerd like me, you’ll love hearing the Arecibo message. It’s like an intergalactic techno song. So cool.

Image courtesy of NASA.

Audio Slideshow – Franco Pagetti, Lebanon

MiaLobel — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:48:14 +0000

This is the third and final audio slideshow I produced for the Zoom Photo Festival in Quebec in collaboration with Thomas Keenan of Bard College’s Human Rights Project and the VII Photo Agency. This show highlights the experiences of photojournalist Franco Pagetti, working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to document Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon from November to December 2008.

Audio Slideshow – Ed Kashi, Malawi

MiaLobel — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:31:14 +0000

This is the second audio slideshow I produced in collaboration with Thomas Keenan of Bard College’s Human Rights Project and the VII Photo Agency for the Zoom Photo Festival in Quebec. This one is about photojournalist Ed Kashi working with the Open Society Justice Initiative to document the effects of pretrial detention on health and families in Malawi. He traveled there in August 2010.

Audio Slideshow – Ron Haviv, Congo

MiaLobel — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:25:58 +0000

I recently completed a series of three audio slideshows in collaboration with Thomas Keenan of Bard College’s Human Rights Project and the VII Photo Agency for the Zoom Photo Festival in Quebec. Each show highlights the experiences of a photojournalist working with an NGO in a war-torn region. The first is about photographer Ron Haviv working with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in January 2009. He documented the efforts of the ICRC to reunited lost children with their families among other things.