Radiolab Black Box
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Feb 27, 2026 
Jesse Cox, radio producer who unearthed his grandparents’ mysterious Piddingtons; Molly Webster, producer who probes the chrysalis transformation; Patrick Purden, anesthesiologist studying brain activity under anesthesia; Tim Howard, producer who narrates the anesthesia and magic strands. They trace disappearing consciousness, a liquefied metamorphosis that keeps memory, and a decades‑old radio telepathy mystery. Each story stays delightfully unknowable.
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Ether's First Public Miracle In 1846
- In 1846 William T. G. Morton demonstrated ether anesthesia by rendering a patient insensible before Dr. John Warren's neck tumor operation.
- The operation's silence stunned observers and rapidly propelled surgical anesthetics into clinical use worldwide.
Anesthesia Switch Breaks Brain Connectivity
- Loss of consciousness from anesthesia correlates with a sudden collapse in brain connectivity marked by slow (~1 Hz) waves and frontal alpha rhythms.
- Patrick Purden's EEG and single-neuron recordings show slow oscillations impose staggered firing windows so neuronal groups talk but can't listen to each other, breaking consciousness.
Consciousness Requires Cross Brain Conversation
- Consciousness appears tied to rich, chaotic back-and-forth signaling across brain regions rather than simple synchrony.
- Under anesthesia many areas still respond (e.g., auditory cortex), but inter-area communication collapses, severing unified experience.