Celebrating Father's Day, David Letterman and IndyCar Racing, U.S. Army Turns 250

At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But, but, we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing, or politics, country music, hockey.

sex of bugs regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers and hopefully make you see the world anew Radiolab adventures on the edge of what we think we know wherever you get your podcasts now streaming everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery we don't know what we're looking for their bodies are the scene of the crime their symptoms and history are clues you saved her life

We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it if I'm being honest. Solve the puzzle. Save the patient. Watson. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+. Good morning and happy Father's Day. I'm Jane Pauley and this is Sunday Morning.

in the spirit of father's day this morning we take you back in time to a popular song with lyrics that resonate to this day about father and child regret and rejection and sadly in the case of the performer behind this beloved tune life and death but it's also a story of enduring hope david pogue has the then and now

Harry Chapin's famous song about fatherhood is a cautionary tale. He didn't want to be that dad. He didn't want to miss moments. The truth of it is he did. But in his short life, Chapin did a world of good for a world of people. Oh, these are good. Ahead on Sunday morning. You might say talk show legend David Letterman is driven by a passion for fast cars, a passion he put into practice just a few weeks ago. With Tracy Smith, we go for a spin.

so just what is it about indie race cars that makes people want to watch for some like david letterman it's the roar of the engines what does that sound do to you if it doesn't accelerate my heart Beyond what humans hearts should be accelerated then there's something wrong She was the red-haired comic beloved by a nation. He was her Cuban band leader husband, Lucy and Desi, quite the couple. We've heard a lot about Lucy and her legacy. His story, not so much.

mo rocca introduces us to desi arnaz tv visionary i think i'll get another station On I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz played straight man to Lucille Ball's zany redhead. But behind the scenes, Arnaz's role was a whole lot bigger. My father was always the guy who asked why. Or... Well, why not? He was trying to learn. And if he hadn't done that, there never would have been a three-camera live audience film technique for I Love Lucy. Later on Sunday morning, television pioneer Desi Arnaz.

Also ahead this Sunday morning. You'll soon be hearing a lot about the semi-quincentennial, the upcoming 250th birthday of these United States. To start us off, David Martin salutes the Army, marking its 250th year. Plus Connor Knighton with a story that's a bona fide can of worms. Father's Day Fair from Steve Hartman. And more this Sunday morning for the 15th of June, 2025. We'll be back after this.

As promised, David Pogue has a Father's Day tale that, while bittersweet, might just make you feel better about the world. Harry Chapin's number one hit, Cats in the Cradle, from 1974, may be one of the most powerful songs ever written about fatherhood. it tells the tale of a very busy dad.

Everyone who hears cats in the cradle somewhere their heads going I wonder if his own kids felt like that because he was on the road the one time when I get a little is when somebody tells me like, oh, your dad, he played a three and a half hour concert, and then he signed every single poetry book, and he kissed my girlfriend, and this, and I'm like.

That's great, but that was time we didn't have. But his children, Jason, Jen, and Josh Chapin want to be clear, Harry Chapin was not the dad in the song.

He really loved kids. When he came home, he wasn't like, oh, I'm just gonna like zone out. He was, yes, projects, trips, family outings. Cats in the Cradle was originally a poem written by Harry's wife Sandy, now 90, but it wasn't about him. It was based on the relationship her first husband had with his...

And my mother was always observing how they didn't connect on a father-son basis. Harry Chapin came from a musical family. He and two of his brothers formed a band. We became the Chapin Brothers. Wow. And we played together for 10 years. And it was the only time we were ever cool, you know? Well, I dreamed I saw you at the end of the rainbow.

Harry's younger brother Tom Chapin has had his own successful performing career. But Harry was always the driven one. When I was a kid, I came up with this line that the family loved. Two's company. Harry's a crowd. So he was the outgoing... Absolutely. And unafraid. He had this energy that was astonishing.

But as his son Jason recalls, Harry's path to success was never a sure thing. He was depressed a lot during college. He had failed in many things, and I think that he was really desperate to be successful at something. His first love was documentaries. In fact, he directed one that got an Oscar nomination. But music won out. In 1972, while he was performing as the warm-up act for his brother's band,

Elektra Records signed him up. He was 30 years old. Were you surprised when Harry got plucked? I was surprised but not shocked. Let's put it that way. He was great. Weren't you all? We were good, but he was great. His first hit was Taxi. Another story of broken dreams. According to son Josh, his mother Sandy encouraged his dad to do something with his celebrity.

She asked, do you want to be on the cover of the Hit Parade or Time magazine? And he thought about it, and he said, you know what? There really is an emptiness to just chasing celebrity and trying to become a bigger rock star. I would hate to be 75 years old and say, if only I had. I wish I had. I wonder what my life meant. My cradle is, when in doubt, do something. Harry decided he'd do something about hunger.

He began devoting his time, money, and fame to charities that addressed food insecurity. He helped convince Jimmy Carter to start a presidential commission on world hunger. And he became the king of the benefit concert. I do about 220 concerts a year, about 100 of which are benefits. Because in a long run, we're not sure about a prior life or an afterlife. We're all hoping for that. But what we can do is maximize what we have in this brief flicker of time in the infinity and try to milk that.

Time for Harry Chapin was short. On July 16, 1981, he died in a car crash. He was 38. The world shook. The universe shook when Harry's suddenly not there. Memorials were held, tribute concerts performed, foundations founded. But Chapin's most lasting legacies are the charities he built. In 1975, he'd co-founded Why Hunger? with a priest and radio DJ named Bill Ayers. Today, it partners with organizations in 25 countries, helping to establish a sustainable farming school in Colombia.

Fostering traditional farming practices in Panama. And supporting programs in the U.S., like this urban farm and co-op in Detroit. Everyone thinks of Long Island as a rich bastion of the country. It's not. Paul Pachter is the CEO of Long Island Cares, a food bank that Chapin started in 1980. There are pockets of affluence here, but most Long Islanders...

a living paycheck to paycheck. This is all going right to the pantry. On an annual basis, we're distributing 16 million pounds of food. That's roughly 14 and a half million meals. What did you think when you heard me back on the radio? What did the kids say when they knew it was their long lost daddy-o? Chapin's biggest hits were his story songs. Most people think of them as tragic tales. Especially Cats in the Cradle.

In the song's ironic twist ending, the grown son becomes too busy for his dad. But Jason Chapin points out that there's another way to look at that turn. Some people interpret the last verse when the dad calls the son to say, let's get together. The son is too busy for his dad because he's busy with his own family being a good dad. It needs a little close reading.

That's good. I think I made this. The surviving Chapins still feel the pain of a life cut short. This certificate hereby proclaims that Harry Chapin has been chosen as best dad of the century. But they're still active in his charities and remain inspired by Harry's message. James, the oldest brother, said at the funeral, we lost Harry. Those are big shoes to fill. But we can't fill them.

You can't be hairy. You don't want to be hairy. Just fill your own shoes a little further. And if in doubt, do something. And when in doubt, do something. Don't forget that. At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics, country music, hockey.

sex of bugs regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers and hopefully make you see the world anew Radiolab adventures on the edge of what we think we know wherever you get your podcasts now streaming everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery we don't know what we're looking for their bodies are the scene of the crime their symptoms and history are clues you saved her life

We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it if I'm being honest. Solve the puzzle. Save the patient. Watson. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+.

These United States are about to mark a very big anniversary. It's our semi-quincentennial. Get used to that word. You'll be hearing it a lot this coming year, starting now, as David Martin celebrates the United States Army, which yesterday turned 250. A relic of the revolution is delicately ushered into the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Paul Miranda has spent four years putting together this exhibit to honor the Army's 250th anniversary. This is the first Rhode Island regimental flag, and if it could talk, the stories it would tell. You almost have to take your word that it's a flag. It's so faded. You can still see the 13 stars of the original 13 colonies. It was at Valley Forge and then, more importantly, carried by soldiers at Yorktown. So it's seen a lot.

Where has it been all these years? This flag has not left the state of Rhode Island since 1784. We actually had to change the law to allow this flag to come out of the state to be on display.

We buckle it in the back, right? Yeah. As precious as the flag may be, what catches the eye is the lifelike figures of real people who won the war for America's independence. Our focus is on the individual soldiers' experience, what they sacrificed, and why they fought. Beginning with Sylvanus Wood, who fought the British at Lexington and Concord, the famous shot heard round the world.

It's a moment of no return. We are in it now, and it's only going to get worse after this. It's the beginning of the war. It's the beginning of the country, actually. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson has just published the second volume of his planned trilogy on the Revolutionary War, beginning when American militiamen took the field at Lexington and Concord.

They're weekend warriors. They're soldiers who turn out once every few weeks to practice the manual of arms, to learn how to load a musket. And what are the... British forces made up of. They're professional soldiers with professional officers. Men enlist in the army for life, usually. So these are troops that know their business. The headline in the local paper called what happened next...

Bloody butchery. It's a long, brutal day for both sides, but particularly for the British. There are bodies all the way from Concord to Boston. The Americans had sent a message.

The Americans show that even though they're not the professional force that the British are, that they know how to fight, they know how to use weapons, and they know how to kill. Two months later, the Continental Congress voted to replace the part-time militias with a full-time army. The militias had given the British more than they could handle. Why do you need an army?

For one thing, they've got jobs. They're farmers, they're tradesmen, they've got families to take care of. You need to make this army into a force that can take on the British full-time. It was June 14th, 1775, the birth date of the United States Army. It will be the central institution that is going to determine whether or not the United States of America really does become a country.

The commander of the new army is known today as the father of our country. You can recognize this guy from a long way away. It's hard to imagine what the Revolutionary War would have been like without George Washington. His ability to stay the course, to believe in the cause, to transmit his belief in the cause to the soldiery makes him the indispensable man. Washington told his troops,

The fate of unborn millions will now depend under God on the courage and conduct of this army. He's got a vision. He refers to generations yet unborn. Generations unborn. That would be us. That would be us.

In the summer of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was just a piece of parchment. We declared our independence on July 4, 1776, but it was up to our soldiers to fight and secure that independence. In New York, a British force of 32,000 attacked Washington's new American army.

This is his first battle, if you will, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So a lot is riding on this. He understands that if he loses this battle, he possibly could lose the war and the revolution itself. The British troops came ashore on Long Island where Washington had dug in. And the British devise a plan in which they outflank him. It's a catastrophe. He nearly loses the whole game at that point. Washington barely escaped with his army.

Washington retreats into Pennsylvania across the Delaware River and he writes to his brother, I think the game is pretty near up. So what's so indispensable about that performance? People were beginning to wonder, frankly, does this guy have the right stuff? He's going to show that, among other things, he's very bold. And when he is desperate, he's dangerous. In an act of daring immortalized in American history,

Washington crossed back over the Delaware and caught the enemy by surprise. The British had lost their chance to destroy the American army, and Washington would fight on for seven more years.

So if we come away a little bit rowdy with this guy, you want to hold that arm on? B.J. Ervik directed a team of artists who recreated the sacrifice of those years. down to the bloody knuckles of Sergeant Major William Seymour, recording the day's events in his journal. I think that's a very reflective moment for somebody who might have just...

been in battle for a few days and has a moment to reflect on what he's doing in life and what is happening around him. Have you had a chance to see the model yet? I have not seen it. This is my first time, so lots of anticipation. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Elaine Conway posed for the figure of Anna Lane. I just lost. My heart just started beating really fast.

Wow, it's pretty powerful. And now I really see how strong she was. Passing the ammunition to her husband, you can see in her eyes the British are coming. She's handing him a cartridge. He's wounded. Leaders of today's army got a VIP tour of their origin story, leading up to an audio-visual display of the battle at Yorktown, Virginia, where British troops finally surrender.

Dismissed as amateurs early in the war, these soldiers withstood every hardship and challenge. And now, this American army stands victorious. Through 1,300 battles and skirmishes, the army had outlasted the british empire we fight get beat rise and fight again said one american general one of the lessons we should take from the revolution is

We're capable of doing remarkable things and overcoming extraordinary odds to get where we want to go. It was nasty, brutish, and long. Should we so revere this war? You know, I think we should revere what came out of it, and we should revere the sacrifices that went into it. The creation of the American Republic, it's one of mankind's greatest achievements, and how can we not be proud of that?

The last thing you see as you leave the exhibit is this quote from John Adams, one of the founding fathers. It is addressed to us. You will never know how much it costs the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.

It happened this past week. We learned of the passing of two giants of popular music, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. Born Sylvester Stewart in 1943, he became sly when a classmate misspelled his first name on the chalkboard. A gifted musician.

By four, he was singing on stage. He made his first recording at nine and was working as a DJ when he formed a band in 1966. Just a year later, Dance to the Music launched Sly and the Family Stone, the first major group to include black and white men and women into superstardom.

A string of hits followed in quick succession. But by the end of the 1970s, drug addiction and mental health issues had taken their toll the band broke up and he faded from the spotlight the band reunited in 2006 when they were honored at the grammy awards It would be the last major performance by a man whose style, social conscience, and revolutionary sound forever changed the course of pop music. died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 82.

Then on Wednesday we learned of the passing of another musical genius with an altogether different sound. Ryan Wilson was born in California in 1942. In his teens, he, along with brothers Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, started a band. Around that time, Dennis started surfing, and as Brian told Sunday Morning's Anthony Mason, the rest is history. Mike and I started writing surf songs, you know.

But I never surfed and he never surfed either. Did you feel the need to surf for any reason? No, I never tried it. But the Beach Boys, Sonic Palette. of surf, sun, cars and endless summers made them an indelible part of America's pop culture. Widely considered one of rock's greatest songwriters, Brian Wilson was 82.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back the all-time IndyCar money winner, Bobby Rahal. Bobby, come on at it. Now you don't drink coffee. No. I try not to. Let's put it that way. Well, here, take some of this back to the garage. Maybe you can clean parts with it. I was just saying, maybe I ought to put that in the tank.

Auto racing champ Bobby Rahal was David Letterman's guest in 1992. Now they're backing an IndyCar team, a sport that's attracting a new generation of fans. Tracy Smith tells us all about it. It's billed as the fastest racing on earth. Indy cars, as they're called, can hit 240 miles an hour on an oval track. That's more than a football field every second, and a second is about all it takes to end someone's day. In this sport, not all the big names are drivers.

David Letterman has co-owned an IndyCar team since 1996, and in that time, Rahal Letterman Landigan Racing has won the Indy 500 twice. God bless you, my friend. Thank you very much. Hi, you have a forlorn look. Am I late? I'm sorry. I'm Dave. No, I don't mean to look forlorn. Nice to meet you. I'm Tracy. A lot of people do when I enter a room. Is this for me? Yes, it is indeed. Oh, my God. We wanted to ask Dave himself what made IndyCar racing so appealing. Is there something for you?

particular that resonates with you when you go to one of these IndyCar races? Yeah because when I when I was a kid my family and every family on our block would have it on the radio and it would be Memorial Day and dad would be home from work and we'd be having a cookout. And I can remember listening to the broadcast sitting in a tree. So that was my first memory of it. It wasn't an option. It was mandatory. It was part of the culture of living in Indianapolis.

And now that you're a co-owner, which you've been for almost three decades now. Isn't that crazy? What's your role on race day? On race day, I listen to the race sitting in a tree. That's what they want me to do. It's P1 for Robert Schwarzman and the crowd salute a new... There are now 17 race days every year at tracks from coast to coast, and the sport is promoting a new crop of heroes like Team Penske driver Joseph Newgarden. This is Joseph Newgarden.

Joseph was conceived to win races. Stopped drinking milk at two, picked it back up at 32. Good for strong bones. Tell that to his clavicle.

And it's not just hype. The Indy 500 is still the granddaddy of the Indy series, and Joseph Newgarden has won it back to back in 2023 and 2024. By tradition, the winning driver celebrates with a big swig of milk. And in 2024, Newgarden's wife and son joined him in another indie tradition, kissing the speedway track.

We caught up with New Garden a few weeks ago before the Long Beach Grand Prix. Do you have a mantra that you say? Anything you tell yourself? I don't know that I have a specific mantra, but I try not to be superstitious. And I just try and be positive more than anything. If that's my mantra, it's positivity. Great fans here, as you can see. That guy's positive. But it seems like the guy with the most fans is Team McLaren driver Cotto Award.

This guy has just about everything a race car driver needs. The only thing he's missing is an Indy 500 win. He's come agonizingly close. and in 2024 pado in the orange and black car just about had it won but joseph newgarden passed him in the final lap just so close again so close i know i'm going to get my indy 500 win because i've been damn good there every single year so i know the more i put myself in that position

I'm going to get at least one. And that milk is going to taste so darn good. Oh my God. It's going to be a party on Sunday night. What's it like to win one of these races? It's a jolt of adrenaline. I have never... Experience in my life. There was a crush of people around me and suddenly I'm not just Dumbbell Dave the talk show host I'm I'm the owner of the Indianapolis 500 winner. And that euphoria stays with you. Well, you may be able to tell. I still have a touch of that in me.

daredevil drivers roll the start of memorial day race at famed indianapolis speedway for more than a century speed demons have been chasing indy car trophies the first indy 500 dates back to 1911 and it quickly became one of the premier sporting spectacles of the year, drawing huge crowds attracted by the sound and the speed. So it skews our dust as 32 speed demons do everything but straighten out the turns as they blaze around.

brick oval at better than 90 miles an hour the benchmark speed to beat 229.091 miles an hour in the last century indycar racing has changed it's much faster obviously and recently more popular The IndyCar brand withered for a few years under an internal reorganization, but now the crowds are coming back. This year's Indy 500 grandstand was sold out for the first time in nearly a decade and the place is starting to look like it did back in 1969 when Mario Andretti took the checkered flag.

I still can't believe it's true. I'm just going to have to be pinching myself all night until tomorrow. How sweet does that milk taste when you finally get to drink it? Honey cannot compare. At 85, Andretti's still in the game. as a team owner. I think the ability of the drivers that you have in place, the talent is unprecedented. It's unprecedented, really? It's unbelievable, yeah. Are you saying those guys are more talented than you were? You know.

Race car safety has come a long way since Mario Andretti's day. The track walls are now padded. The drivers are more protected. But the worst can still happen, says AP Motorsports reporter Jenna Fryer. So it's not safe now, but it's safer. Correct. It'll never be safe. You can never call racing safe.

They can be idiots and they, you know, if they get upset with each other and one wants to retaliate against the other, you know, people do stupid stuff, they see red, they kind of forget what they're doing for a second, you know. There's no way to ever say racing is safe. But for drivers, it really is just part of the game. Do you think about the danger when you're in that car? No. You think of winning.

You think of winning when you're in that car at least I do that's all I think of Vindication for Alex Pillow He has won the Indianapolis 500 This year's Indy 500 winner wasn't Pato. That's the race. Or Joseph. I try not to be superstitious. Or anyone from Letterman's team. It was Spanish driver Alex Pillow. But there are nine more races this season, and on an oval track, you never know what's around the bend. What I love about it is the romance of it.

And the sound is unlike anything you've ever heard. The sound is something humans were not meant to hear. What does that sound do to you? This is a good measure for my heart. If it doesn't accelerate my heart... beyond what humans' hearts should be accelerated, then there's something wrong. So for people who have never seen an IndyCar race, what would you say?

Oh, for God's sakes, it doesn't even pertain to motorsports fans. Just go. I mean, one day. It's unimaginable. And you may not go back, but you'll talk about it the rest of your life.

Steve Hartman this morning has a Father's Day story that will warm the hearts of dog parents everywhere. No parent has a favorite child, but my kids are convinced that I do. And... They have a point. Good girl. I'm so proud of you. I adore Birdie. Although, as my wife Andrea loves to remind me, getting the dog wasn't exactly my idea.

He did not want the responsibility. That's true. He did not want the hassle. He did not want the money. Okay. Like our lives were full already. They got the idea. Everything was going to fall on him. Point made. And I just decided that I was going to do it. by myself. She went rogue and got this Australian Labradoodle. I didn't touch the beast for weeks. And he was kind of just like...

Being critical. But eventually the bond between him and the dog like strengthened. But didn't want to let any of us know that because of his pride. All true. It's embarrassing to admit now, especially to her face, but I take comfort in knowing that I am far from alone. Not long ago, we put out a call on Facebook looking for other formerly reluctant dog dads. We got hundreds of replies about guys who fought getting a dog tooth and nail.

We had a new house that had hardwood floors. We had white carpet. Can't really take them with you on vacation. Just really kind of a nuisance. But, like me, each one had a profound conversion. He kind of stole my heart. We go everywhere together. Definitely the best thing that ever could have happened. That's for sure. Men do have soft hearts.

It's just sometimes it takes a furball to crack through that hard-headed, practical outer layer. Dogs can do that. In fact, it's one of their best tricks. It's almost like dogs know who they have to win over. I hope that this piece encourages all the dads out there on the fence about getting a dog to listen to their wife. Good suggestion, guys. Otherwise, one day, you may be forced to do the unthinkable.

I had to say, I'm sorry. You're right. I hate to admit it, but she was right. I'd have to say she was right. And I suppose I should now join that chorus and tell my wife I was wrong. But this isn't Mother's Day.

Lucy, what have you got to say for yourself? Hello, friends. I'm your Vitamita Vegeman girl. Are you tired? Never mind. Never mind. You poop out at parties. Never mind. It's Sunday morning on CBS, and here again... is jane paulie we couldn't help but love lucy the great lucille ball to this day one of early television's biggest stars as for her then husband desi arnaz

We knew him mainly as Lucy's straight man, a task he excelled at. But it turns out Desi Arnaz excelled at a lot of things, as our Mo Rocca discovered. I'm looking for a fella named Risky Risker Doe. Well, I'm Ricky Ricardo. Oh, well, pleased to meet you. Pleased to meet you. Do you know where I find Risky Risker Doe? In the fall of 1951, television audiences were introduced to a showbiz-obsessed redhead and her bandleader husband.

played by the real-life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. I need someone with a lot of experience. Well, I've had experience. While Lucy was undeniably the star on camera. Off camera, it was Desi, a refugee from Cuba with no connection to the world of entertainment, who would change the way television worked. As you know, this is film. And that's why you see all these cameras down here and the boom and the lights. What is the most significant thing about Desi Arnaz that people don't know?

he and his colleagues made the decision to film I Love Lucy on 35 millimeter black and white film, making possible its preservation. and essentially the invention of the rerun, and then syndication sales, and the whole modern way that television economics work. Todd Purdom is the author of a new biography about Desi Arnaz.

things in your book is for me the revelation of why the show was even created it was partly created to save their marriage Desi was on the road which enabled him to Philander, and that bothered Lucy a great deal. She'd kind of reached the limits of her career in movies, and she'd gotten a radio show. It's time for My Favorite Husband, starring Lucille Ball. Hello, everybody.

She played a kind of a zany housewife married to the fifth vice president of a bank and CBS then said we'd like this show to make the transition to television and Lucy said well I only want to do a television show if Desi can be in it with me and play my husband CBS and sponsors were worried that audiences wouldn't accept them as a couple.

Never mind they'd been married for 10 years. Desi and Lucy also wanted to shoot the show in Los Angeles, where they'd laid down roots. Back then, New York City was the hub of television production. Everything was about the family. It was always about, no, no, no, we have a plan. We want to be together. We want to be in California. Lucy Arnaz was born just six weeks before her parents shot the first episode of I Love Lucy.

Which is crazy when you're nobody. She wasn't a big star. She was a decent star of, you know, B pictures. And that they would put their foot down like that and say, well, no, we don't want to do that. It's crazy. But Desi and Lucy were willing to gamble. CBS agreed to their terms only after the stars agreed to a pay cut. But in return, Arnaz demanded that the couple own the rights to the show.

We're on the Lucy stage at Sunset Las Palmas Studios. It's where they filmed the first two seasons of I Love Lucy.

The gamble paid off. With the very first episode, America fell in love with Lucy and Desi. When we're all together dancing cheek to cheek. Lucy was 39. The man born Desiderio Arnaz was 33 and a world away from his upbringing as an only child to a prominent family in Santiago, Cuba. His father had been mayor of the city, his mother the daughter of a co-founder of Bacardi Rum.

During the Cuban Revolution of 1933, the family lost everything. Teenaged Desi and his father fled to Miami and lived in a rat-infested warehouse. I believe he would often say that he was a refugee, not an immigrant. Yes, he was dislocated. He was not a voluntary arrival on our shores. He came here as a result of... of tragedy really and i think he never got over that but he could play the guitar

Hired by band leader Xavier Cugat, Desi introduced nightclub audiences to the Afro-Cuban conga and what became his signature song, Babalu. Babalu! In 1940, Arnaz jumped to the big screen in Too Many Girls, where he met his match. Will someone please come? There's a waiter fainted out here. They married six months later. I Love Lucy would make the couple very rich. It was Desi's idea to buy RKO Studios, which he and Lucy renamed Desilu.

which became a television producing juggernaut and is it right that they had more sound stages i think i read one an mgm or 20th century fox or warner brothers that was their peak and then it went downhill from there because because of desi's drinking really but drinking wasn't his only addiction People say he had affairs. He never had an affair. He didn't even know these dames' names.

It was transactional. Yeah. He loved my mother. He loved his family. It was a very unique, weird problem to have. And I think that's the reason she stayed with him so long, is that she understood it. I don't think I could do what she did. But somehow at the time, with what they had, with what they needed from each other, they stuck it out as long as they could.

In 1960, when Lucy Arnaz was eight and her brother, Desi Jr., was seven, America's most famous couple announced the end of their show and their marriage. When they decided to split up, did they sit you and your brother down? Yeah, they did. We were at their house in Palm Springs, and they said that we love each other, but the...

Being husband and wife part is broken and we can't live together anymore. And I remember that my brother said, but if it's broken, can't you just fix it? Can't you put stuff on it and fix it? And they said, I don't think so. The truth of it is, Mo, they were happier after they got divorced. The screaming and the arguing and all that stuff stopped. And when you were told, did you sort of instinct...

become protective of your little brother? I wish you'd been my therapist growing up. I think mostly I sort of was very protective of my dad, believe it or not. I felt really sorry for my dad. Why? I don't know. I think because I felt like he was the one that got ousted. We were still in the house.

I felt like he got a lot of the blame, even though I was too young to understand what it was all about. I knew that he had problems. I knew that he would drink sometimes, but that really became worse when I was older, when I was like a teenager. But I just felt bad for him.

both ball and arnaz remarried he to family friend edith hirsch lucy went on to star in several tv shows desi produced the series the mother's-in-law wrote an autobiography and eventually got sober with the help of his son, himself a recovered drug abuser. It was fantastic. It was like my greatest memory of him to this day, to have him, the guy who said, I don't air my dirty laundry in front of other people.

And then when he finally made his decision, after his wife, Edie, darling wonderful Edie, died, he said, I can't do this anymore. And he got up and said, my name is Desi, and I'm an alcoholic. And that's my proudest moment that he stood up next to me and I watched him do that to take responsibility and to try to solve it. Less than a year later, Arnaz was diagnosed with lung cancer. My mother came down to visit my dad in Del Mar when he was sick.

Lucy! I'm home! Try to pull me out of here! And I ran and got as many VHS tapes as I could find. It's me! And they did sit there for a couple hours and look at old I Love Lucy shows and laugh and remember. on november thirtieth nineteen eighty six what would have been their wedding anniversary desi and lucy spoke for a final time

He was very, very sick, and I said, I'm going to put him on the phone now, so say what you want to say, and I just held the phone to his ear, and all I could hear her saying was, I love you, like five times in a row. And he listened, and he said, I love you too, honey. And then he said, good luck with your shows. Two days later, Desi Arnaz died at 69. We end with the man himself during a 1954 tribute hosted by Ed Sullivan.

reflecting on his extraordinary journey. We came to this country and we didn't have a cent in our pockets. From cleaning canary cages to this night here in New York is a long ways. And I don't think there's any other country in the world that could give you that opportunity. I want to say thank you. Thank you, America. Thank you.

Let's go fishing, sort of, with Connor Knighton. The early bird gets the worm. That's why, just before sunrise. Gary Revel is wandering through the woods near Sopchoppy, Florida to stake out the perfect spot. He pounds a piece of wood, known as a stob, into a promising patch of soil and gets to work. After a few minutes of rubbing the top with a flat piece of iron, earthworms begin to emerge from the earth, where Revel's wife Audrey is waiting to snatch them up.

Back at home, they'll clean and process the worms to sell as live bait. Those who buy them to catch fish may never know how their worm was caught. A lot of people think we dig them up. Honestly, between the two choices, digging sounds a lot more logical than doing some sort of magic trick that summons them to the surface. Magic's the best. It's a process known as worm grunting, and this part of northwest Florida has been a hotspot for more than a century.

That's a good, that's what we want. All right. Does it work? All right. All right, hey buddy. Wake up, worms. For a long time, worm grunting really did feel like magic. Nobody was quite sure why this worked. We never give it that much thought. Really? Yeah, we was always interested in going fishing. We'd hear them get the worms. We didn't care what was going on. Why it works, you just know it doesn't work. We gotta get to the water, you know.

In 2008, a Vanderbilt University study finally demonstrated that southeastern diplocardia earthworms most likely perceived the vibrations to be a worm-eating mole digging toward them. And 99 times out of 100, the escaping... worms would be right but then every once in a while they go whoa here comes the big mole and instead they come up to the surface and find you right yeah and they try to get out of the way of me but some of them do

most of them don't revel grew up worm grunting for fun then turned pro while he only works part-time these days he gets around 20 bucks a bucket worm grunting was once a real business around these parts

as our very own Charles Corralt discovered in 1972. The casual passerby through Sopchoppy, Florida, watching Jim Roser at his daily occupation, would surely think he'd taken leave of his senses. But no, he's just doing what a lot of people do around Sopchoppy, grunting for worms. It was possible to work as a full-time worm grunter. Can people actually make a living at this? I do.

But not long after Kuralt stopped by, soft plastic fishing lures started to lure many people away from using live bait. The local worm industry declined. But by then, Sopchoppy had been given a brand. For the past 25 years, Sopchoppy has hosted a worm grunting festival. It's an excuse for the small town to throw a big party, celebrating its favorite invertebrate. There's a wiggle fun run, a gummy worm eating contest, a worm queen is crowned, and children get to give grunting a try.

If you can inspire some of them kids to learn that maybe an office job ain't what I need, then not say wormen, they might take up something like archaeology or some kind of outside occupation. Revel, who's 73, has taught his son Snap to grunt, but he knows there's not a new generation of professional grunters coming up. Me and Aldrin Snaps, one of the last families that does this.

The whole process. And when we're done, that's it. But Revel isn't planning on stopping anytime soon. For him, spending time in the woods with the worms is a way of life. All your worries will go away. And it seems to be fun and the thing to do if you live in the woods. That doesn't get old for you? No. No, I got to go out here and see what them worms is up to. You wake up curious? Yeah, I ain't gonna forget about them overnight either.

Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics, country music, hockey.

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