Transcript

Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast

From Radiolab · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 27 min · 4,778 words · 103 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast", an episode of Radiolab published January 1, 2026 (27 min, about 4,778 words). It mentions 9 people, works and ideas, including Terrestrials, Lulu, Praise the Potato, Brown University, Alan Gofinsky.

What this episode is about

The recap reflects on the highlights and challenges of 2025, as hosts Alan Gofinsky and Anna Gonzalez share their insights on the past year's episodes, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes moments. They also engage in a playful discussion about the creative process behind the original music featured in each episode, showcasing Alan's songwriting contributions and the inspiration that drives them.

Key takeaways

  • Inspiration can strike from anywhere—even a stump can spawn a beloved podcast episode.
  • Meet deadlines and embrace the absurd; it's the recipe for both music and creative success.
  • Alan's songwriting is a masterclass in turning the mundane into the extraordinary—just ask the potato.
  • Curveballs aren't meant to be dodged; they're the spice in both interviews and creative pursuits.
  • Sometimes, the best creative moments come from the simplest ideas—like 'It's raining poop.'

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Terrestrials, Alan Gofinsky
  2. – 10:00: Praise the Potato, Infinite Colors, John Monzari, The Power of the Chowder
  3. – 20:00: Brown University, Nicholas Bench, Terrestrials
  4. – 27:12: Terrestrials

Notable quotes from "Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast"

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Lulu — Person · 3 mentions
  • Alan Gofinsky — Person · 1 mention · first at
    It's just the AG's, Alan Gofinsky and Anna Gonzalez with a onetwo punch for the end of the year.
  • John Monzari — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Nicholas Bench — Person · 1 mention · first at

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

Terrestrials. [singing] Terrestrials. We are not the worst. We are the best. Okay. So, we are here today, Alan, to do our terrestrials 2025 year in review.

That's right. This is waiting to the last minute, too. Very last minute here. It's just the AG's, Alan Gofinsky and Anna Gonzalez

with a onetwo punch for the end of the year. Boom. Just giving our opinions about the episodes, some fun facts, some behind the scenes things that happened that didn't make it in episodes, revisiting some favorites, and then some curveball questions to each other.

Curveball questions. I forgot about the curveball questions. Well, that's why they're curveball. You never see them coming.

We did a lot this year. I know. Had a big year. This is something I want to ask you. This is my first curveball question from Anna to Alan. Alan, you write so much original music for Terrestrials. I don't, you know, I don't write every episode of Terrestrials. Lulu doesn't write every episode of Terrestrials. But Allan, you write a song for every single episode. That's a lot. Like musicians, if we're lucky, famous musicians put out an album a year that maybe has like 10, 12 songs on it, right? I just want to know how do you write a song? I wrote the Beavers episode,

but you wrote the song for the Beavers episode. It's one of my favorite songs of this this year.

Such a good It's like a Ramon's like early punk poppy but like super accurate scientific like fun song. And I just want to know how for something like that does it just come to you? How do you start? Yeah, I don't, you know, that's a tough always a tough question to answer because I don't feel like there is like one answer. I feel like sometimes it's like a melody or like a vibe that feels like a good ender to to the to the episode. Like for me, the biggest like roadblock or the hardest part of writing any song is inspiration.

Like having something to write about, having something worth making a song about. And if you're motivated by the fact that people are going to have a chance to enjoy this and you're motivated by the fact that you literally have to meet the deadline. So like it's like like come on, we like we got a show to put out,

right? Um that's a lot of motivation. That's a lot and it's a lot of inspiration to get to get writing. I mean I have just sometimes as like writing exercises in the past like chosen a story that already exists like from like mythology. So, you're saying that your inspiration for writing can really come from anywhere. What What about

Right. I mean, just dive in. Yeah. Just explore it. Something that like appeals to you or you think is interesting. It can be from your favorite show. It could be about, I don't know, people in your life that you really like or

just like terrestrials. I mean, we made an episode about stumps and it was a hit. It was interesting. And yeah,

you wouldn't think and you crawled into a stump for that. Well, you wouldn't think that like you could find that much material about a stump that would like be not only just like a full episode of a podcast, but like would be like a a favorite, like one that people come back to and love. And it's the same thing about songwriting. You can make a song about anything and you can find something profound in sometimes the weirdest things. I love that and I think it's a great transition into now.

Yeah. Yeah. Favorite songs of the of the whole year. Favorite Allan song Bud songs of 2025. I want to I want to go first.

I I'm sick of tooting my own horn, so you go ahead. All right. Tot. I'm tooting Alan's horn. Obviously, Beaver believer is amazing.

I'm a believer. You little overachiever. [singing] everyone go listen to it. It's so good. And as someone like when you write an episode like you dream of what the songs could be, but you have to kind of just like let Allan be Allen and then you just like get this gift of a song at the end. You're like, "Oh, it's so good." Same thing with both of the songs that Allan wrote for the bats episode. The bats,

creatures of the night, the bats, I see them take to the sky. But raining poop because often times, you know, when you're writing something, you're like voicing it as like a draft, I will write in little jokes or what I think could be a song there just as a placeholder. Maybe it gets Allen's creative juices flowing or whatever. There's this very famous song that you might know. It's called It's raining men. Like the lyrics are It's raining men. Hallelujah. It's raining men. Amen. So I was like, "It's raining poop.

Hallelujah. It's raining poop. Amen." But Allan then took it one step further, sang it himself, changed the lyrics to be, "It's raining poop. Hallelujah. It's raining poop."

That's right. It's raining poop. Hallelujah. It's raining poop. Poopy poopy poop.

That's right. And that's just genius that you really can't. It's just natural. It's just God-given.

You know, if you're gonna do it, you better you you got to do it. You got to go all the way. Let's just

You got to poo it. Let's crank it to 11. And the listeners like appreciate it. I appreciate it more than any other listener.

Everyone appreciates it except Lulu. Uh, love you. Okay. But none of these are my favorite song. They're all Yes. Even I I'm gonna give honorable mention to Infinite Colors.

Yeah. At the end of the rainbow episode, [singing] [singing] infinite colors. A freaky dance trans techno bop that you just created so quickly. Lulu had like a sort of a fever dream of a idea in her mind and I was like, "Yeah, I I mean I can work with that for sure."

Okay. My favorite absolute favorite song is drum roll. Can't wait. Praise the Potato.

Really? Praise the Potato. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The power of the chowder. Is that the name of it? What's the official name?

The power of the chowder. Yeah. Who is a milk? Milk, clam, and potato. Something about it really made me laugh every single time because we did this live. Like we didn't really know what this song was going to be and we kind of had an idea but Allan also made a video for it. So when we played it live there was this huge video behind us of like the lyrics of the of the song play and it was just I mean how howy with the mystical power. It's just such a good song. And then the thing that sticks out in my mind is praise the potato. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. That's really funny to me. And every time I say thank you now, I think thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All to all to an completely unhinged video track. So when writing this one, this one is a fun one because we're doing this live. this is going to be a live show and I want people to sing along. So that so that's like just something that you had to keep in mind when writing this one. It's like okay, no one's gonna sing it the first time through, but if you know sing the same line four times through, then they'll they'll catch on. They'll sing along by the end of it. But the byproduct of that is Anna has to hear me sing thank you, thank you, thank you throughout all the rehearsals and apparently in her sleep. Yes.

Haunting her dreams. Put in the pot and sing it again. Clam. Bam. That's Oh, it's so good. Another amazing live song with the pizza is my bff. Should we read her text from Lulu? Fave Alan Bops from this year. Without overthinking it, it might be pizza bff for me.

Pizza. [singing] We also had to sing that at at Little Island in New York City on the Hudson River. This beautiful outdoor space with all these amazing kids and families and the audience with also a huge a giant inflatable pizza

big prop and apron and then the tap dancer John Monzari. Yes, this is this is what and I'm going to I'm just going to jump ahead right here because

yes because I have not yet said my favorite song. I think my favorite song is actually this song as well because of John Manzari. I've never gotten to like work with a tap dancer in a song before and that's so fun. It's such a cool sound. If you haven't listened to the episode, there's there there's this moment in the song where we're illustrating something that you discovered in your research, Anna, the fact that tomato plants actually make these popping and clicking sounds. And they do it more so when they're stressed out or going through a drought or something like that. And we think they might be communicating with other tomato plants or maybe even other creatures or other species of plants. you speed them up, it sounds like sounds like tap dancing. And uh John, he was so good at illustrating this. He was so such a good communicator with the audience was able to bring everyone along on that journey

of experience and learning and an amazing musician. And you you wrote him into the song,

right? And he he just nailed it. He he tapped it. Oh, [sighs] okay. Well, that's your favorite song.

Yeah. And also, um, I really like pizza. So this is not your first pizza composition.

This song was probably the one that came to me the quickest and easiest. The inspiration was just right there for the pizza.

I love pizza. Um, now I think we should get into our favorite behind thescenes unused moments from our reporting, writing journeys. When I when I made the rat episode, I made this whole section that got cut about like the history of rats in New York City and it's wild.

What's Wait, what's one weird thing about rats in New York City? The wildest weirdest thing is that well, for one, Riker's Island in New York City in the East River used to be a garbage dump. In some ways, it was kind of more trash than it was land. And when the rats found out about it, they, you know, they cuz they would get on the trash, they would get on the barges, the trash boats that would take the trash out to the garbage dump island. They would be on mixed in with the trash.

When they established themselves out on the island, their population grew to over 1 million rats on the island.

What? There were like an estimated 1 million rats on this Riker's Island garbage dump.

That's more rats than the people in the state of Rhode Island. It's It's a lot. It's a lot of rats. I And And this is not a big island. This is a small island.

No. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, it's way smaller than a river. Manhattan. Love that.

Did not make it to the episode. Yeah. That does remind me of for the beavers episode, I ran into a similar thing because beavers are really important to the history of the state of New York. It's actually on the flag of the state of New York. One of the first super wealthy people to make make money in the continent of America was John Jacob Aster selling beaver

pets. Yeah. Yeah. And this is very New Yorky, but if you ever go to Aster Place, which is named after him, there's a subway stop and there are beavers carved into the subway stop that you can see.

So, you're telling me that he became he became wealthy enough to have what? like buildings and places named after him.

Yeah. He owned huge amounts of New York City. What became Time Square? He owned because of beavers.

Wow. Because for selling beavers that selling beaver dead sadly dead killed beavers for their fur because people loved beaver fur because it was super warm and waterproof and it was like high fashion and all the wealthiest people wore it. All of this was part of my beaver research that did not make it into the episode, but that I feel like the people should know.

Wait, like would be okay. I mean, I know that there were certainly more beavers back then than there are here now.

The highest estimate of beavers on the North American continent before colonists came over before the creation of the United States was 400 million beavers. The United States right now has a population of about 303 million people.

Million people, right? So that imagine every single person in the United States was a beaver. That's how many beavers live.

That is incredible. Yeah, that is so many beavers. And imagine how many beaver dams that would be. Like there were dams everywhere.

Unreal. Yes. Feels like it would be a whole different landscape. It was Beaverland.

That's incredible. Also, another thing cut out of the beaver's episode was that, you know, we talked about Jose the Beaver who was spotted in the Bronx River, and then eventually there was another beaver that they named Justin Beaver, which is amazing. But there was another beaver spotted in the Bronx River this year. So, there's a new beaver of the Bronx River taking over Jose and Justin's legacy, and that did not make it into the episode, but that is true.

Big beaver news. Breaking beaver news. So, it is is still happening. The rebavering of the Bronx River.

We're back, baby. Okay. What else? What else did you get cut? What got cut? What got cut? Let me think here. One thing that almost got cut, but like last minute. Last minute got it snuck in. You know how Lulu does the does the whole little I'm not going to tell you this one because I'm nice like to end the episode sometimes. Yeah, it's a great way to sneak in some facts that you want to sneak in.

But yeah, fortunately, like I was so bummed that this one didn't get this fact didn't get into the episode, but like we were recording this together and I was like, we got to get this in the episode somehow. This is my this is my chance. Sloths poop out a third of their body weight every time they go to the bathroom because they're going so infrequently like once a week and it takes and they travel all the way down to the base of the tree to do it. Wow.

They they kind of hug the tree and like kind of dangle their booty a few inches from the ground and use their little stumpy tail to sort of dig a little hole like knock knock some like leaves away and then they they just like unleash these like little pellets like kind of kind of look like um like deer poop or rabbit poop and they just pile it up. They just pile it up, stack it deep. And oh, one thing that did get cut from the episode is the fact that these sloth moths that live on the sloth, they the only time that they ever leave the sloth is while the sloth is pooping, they will climb down into the poop to lay eggs.

So, you cut that part out cuz it's too gross. No, I think we kept that part in, but we did cut the part where we talk about how because they're moths, they turn into caterpillars, like little poop caterpillars. And then they turn into little poop chrysalises where they like cocoon up in the poop and then they emerge from their poop cocoons and fly back up into the treetops. It's like the only time in their whole life that they will use their wings is when they fly up to find a sloth and then they will spend the rest of their life just digging around in that sloth fur.

That's a beautiful life. Little poop. Little poop chrysalis. Little poop chrysalis. Little poon.

Poon. Poon. Oh man, if I had come up with that pun. If I had come up with that rhyme,

where was I, man? Okay, more cut stuff in the farts episode. So, you and I, we went to Brown University's orchestra.

Sure did. rehearsal. They let us in with a bunch of mics and let us record. Very kind. It was so nice. What didn't make it in was that there was a a student there who composed fart pieces.

Yeah. Just for us. Just for us. Composed pieces for an entire 103 piece orchestra to sound like different farts.

Yeah. They were I mean they were like compositions printed on paper, different parts for different instruments.

Yeah. The strings, the horns, the bases, the woodwinds, they all had parts. He shows up and everyone every every musician has in their little binder has sheet music.

Yes. for this like these like 13second compositions. They were short like farts are like movie soundtrack custom fart orchestra.

We know they come in all shapes and sizes. Do we remember the the composer's name?

Yes. Nicholas Bench. Nicholas is the name. Yeah. So, shout out to Nicholas. Thank you so much for your fart.

Yeah. Nailed it. uh and really understands the nuance and the the variety the audio fingerprints of each individual fart.

Remarkable stuff. Lovely. I'm going to say that one of my favorite things about that whole experience like is we started to share some content on social media on our Instagram account and everything. Now this is Brown univers this is Ivy League. Brown University, very prestigious, uh, very enthusiastic about also sharing that content through their channels. So,

big props to them for understanding props to them understanding the the intersection of humor, culture, and education, and the value in that. I mean, they're pretty fart smellers.

Arts are arts, farts are farts, and smarts are smarts. And Brown's got all three. So,

that's right. Okay. Um, do you have other Well, I I just want to say I visited a Komodo dragon in real life at the zoo and I watched it get fed mice and stuff and talk to its trainer and it did not get in the episode because it didn't sound very good, but it looked awesome. Komodo dragons are crazy. Well, on that note, I mean, I would love to know, you've had a big year, not even just in terrestrials, you with our common nature, like the show that we both worked on with YoYo Ma that you hosted.

Got to go on boats with Yo-Yo Ma famous this year. You won a Peabody award, too. Like, you've had a huge year.

Yes. Yes. It's a very prestigious journalism award. Huge. I am I'm starruck on on this call with you here, Anna.

But, uh, it's been a big year. You've gone to a lot of places including award ceremonies, including zoos, including boats, Alaska. True. You've done a lot. Like, what has been your sort of like highlight moment?

I love traveling to Puerto Rico and looking for bats. I don't know if people realize like I had to go to a rainforest at night to look for bats. So, like when you go to Puerto Rico, you're usually out during the day cuz you want to like go to the beach and like see all this stuff. This is I was like showing up at like 8:00 p.m. or staying until like midnight to find bats and have them

I love an early bedtime. My bedtime is early. Okay. I was out and about looking for bats.

Getting batty. Getting batty. And just covered in sweat with headlamps on these huge nets. I don't feel like I have a good visual in my mind of like how you catch a how you just like swinging a butterfly net in the air trying to catch a bat.

It was like a huge 30 ft high volleyball net strung up in the middle of the forest. It's something called a mist net. They called it a maya. The string is so fine that the bats can't sense it with their sonar.

I was going to ask like Yeah, cuz their I they can see. All bats can see. They're not blind. learned that. So they'd fly into it and then they get stuck like like splat, but it doesn't hurt them.

We would check the nets every 15 minutes for like 4 hours. When there were bats, they were like screaming their heads off because they were like, "I'm trapped. I'm trapped. I'm trapped. Get me out."

And they were like little dogs, like little chihuahua, like um and then the guys, the volunteers would reach in. They had leather gloves on, special bat gloves, and they would gently untangle their wings, and they'd be like, "Oh, this is a fruit bat." They're mostly common fruit bats. And then there was one that was like a pig bat that looked like a little piggy

that was huge. It was like I mean, all these are really small. They're all like three or four inches. But the the the pig bat was like six.

Wow. He was a chunker. I mean, I know I learned so much about bats in this trip. There's also a rumor or like a scientific theory that a lot of these bats are afraid of the moon.

Huh? Luna phobia. What? Why? Cuz it's too bright. They don't want to get found and attacked by one of their predators.

Yeah. They like to stick to the shadows. Lunaphobia. Lunophobia. So very cute. But honestly, cheesy answer time. This is true. making all of these episodes with you, Alan. It's my favorite part

because because you're so smart and funny and you make all these poop songs with me.

How rare is that? It's so nice. And then like working with Lulu and Lulu encourages our antics and Meera and Meera's like, "No, this could be funnier." And we're like, "You're right." And then Joe makes it sound like amazing like and then Tanya is doing all of these odd jobs as the associate producer and like making everything actually happen. And then behind us all is our executive producer Sarah Sandback who like supports us and wants us to do really well. So it's like such a a joy to do all of this with people.

I am ending the year feeling very lucky in that regard. Like I know that not everyone gets to work with people that they consider their very good friends and uh that's a that's a really I think a really lucky thing and things can be tough sometimes. We have deadlines. We're trying to get the story done. We're trying to make sure we don't inconvenience our teammates passing things off in time so that they can get edited and sound designed and you know get out to all the listeners. But like even when things are hard, it's like really nice that it's still like stuff that's fun. Even when we're working hard or I get to feel like, you know, at the end of the day, like I'm I got to make something that somebody is going to appreciate. And I got to do it with people who are uh like not only going to encourage me to do my best, but are going to put their best into making like like the things that

I'm envisioning shine. And then there's that rewarding part of having listeners write in and

draw pictures, having people come to our live shows, meeting people afterwards, making new relationships with families and hearing how like different siblings like different episodes and like that has that is so awesome and so rewarding and I wish every episode was a live episode so we were just performing them for you all. We have a blast talking to each other. We make a thing that we like and and that is exciting for us and that we think listeners will like, but as soon as we like click upload and it goes out there to the world, it's like kind of gone. We don't we don't know. Like I think that a lot of people don't understand just how impactful like the emails and

yeah, messages that they send are and how that really fuels like excitement over future episodes. is like when we do get to hear feedback from listeners, a confirmation that this matters to people and that uh and that listeners are being inspired to

view the world in like the magical ways that it actually is. And I think that's a beautiful place to leave it. I think with a little bit of magic and a little bit of hope, I have New Year's resolutions for terrestrials.

You do? Yeah. Hey, my New Year's resolutions are try to make more poop puns. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.

You know, we have been talking about the possibility of doing a butts episode. Maybe save your puns. Maybe save your poop puns.

I think anything that makes Lulu uncomfortable. We love it. We love it. So, like that's kind of my resolution is to just keep doing that.

Yeah. Cool. What are you What about you? Just yesterday, my wife Alita was talking to me. It's like, "Have you guys been doing any cameos with like music lately?" And I was like, "You know what? Not really." Like, we haven't had any musical guests on lately. We've had some good ones on in the past.

Yes. Mike Canella from American Football. We've had Laura Jane Grace from Against Me. We've had some superstars. Your buddy Saba like

Oh, yes. Fantastic cameo. Yeah. but more. So, like if you're a celebrity listening right now, please reach out.

Terrestrials at Wycn.org.org. Maybe we'll throw the jingle in there. There we go. Yeah, cuz

T E R R E S T R I A L S Wyc.org. No, it's hard to say R I A L S. Like, so, thank you to everybody who's listened to Terrestrials in 2025. We hope that at the end of this year, you know, you revisit some of your favorite episodes, spend some time with your family, and um and we'll see you next year.

Yeah. And uh don't be a stranger. Terrestrials. [singing] Terrestrials. We are not the worst. We are the best.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast"?

Alan Gofinsky (Host), Anna Gonzalez (Host), Lulu (Guest), Meera (Guest), Tanya (Host), Sarah Sandback (Guest).

What is "Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast" about?

The recap reflects on the highlights and challenges of 2025, as hosts Alan Gofinsky and Anna Gonzalez share their insights on the past year's episodes, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes moments. They also engage in a playful discussion about the creative process behind the original music featured in each episode, showcasing Alan's songwriting contributions and the inspiration that drives them.

What is mentioned in this Radiolab episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Terrestrials, Lulu, Praise the Potato, Brown University, Alan Gofinsky, Infinite Colors. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Year-end recap: 2025 was a real stinker! | Terrestrials Podcast"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 4,778 words in 103 timestamped sections.

More from Radiolab

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.