Radiolab, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is one of my favorite radio shows, second only to the stellar, amazing and incredibly delightful This American Life. Today I came across an article in the New Yorker that i think goes great with a recent episode of Radiolab.
David Eagleman is a neurologist who first got interested in the way the brain processes information and how that information is presented to the owner of that brain under varying circumstances when he took a tumble off of a roof when he was a kid. To this day Eagleman remembers what he felt when he stepped onto what he though was firm ground, only to discover that it he had stepped onto a piece of tarpaper extended over an open space:
His body stumbles forward as the tarpaper tears free at his feet. His hands stretch toward the ledge, but it’s out of reach. The brick floor floats upward—some shiny nails are scattered across it—as his body rotates weightlessly above the ground. It’s a moment of absolute calm and eerie mental acuity. But the thing he remembers best is the thought that struck him in midair: this must be how Alice felt when she was tumbling down the rabbit hole.
Eagleman has made a vocation of these kinds of mental moments, collecting and studying hundreds of similar stories and there’s an article about Eagleman and his studies, titled The Possibilian in the latest issue of the New Yorker.
Fortunately for you and me, there’s also a full episode of Radiolab called Falling that includes Eagleman as a guest, as well as several other short segments in which Eagleman takes a part, all of which explore Eagleman’s studies on the sensation of falling.
Incredibly good listens and a great read which I highly suggest that you take some time to enjoy.