Christopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer, which means he was chief cheerleader for all the radio and podcast projects. He helped to select and shape stories, or put them to a gentle death if necessary. He was also the coordinating producer for Science Friday’s live stage events around the nation, and has skated Olympic ice and served as a prop in an optical illusion for SciFri.
Christopher started at Science Friday as an intern in summer 2008, until the day Ira Flatow called him at home, triggering enormous anxiety about the latest script he’d written, to ask if he wanted to be a producer. His favorite stories usually involve microbes or food or both, but anything can pique his interest—other than ocean chemistry. Sorry.
He also reports regularly for Scientific American‘s “60-Second Science” podcast, and was a 2015 Woods Hole Ocean Science Journalism fellow. Prior to becoming a science journalist, he taught English to soldiers and bankers in Verona, Italy, and traversed the Sierra Nevada mountains as a field biologist, on the lookout for mountain yellow-legged frogs. He speaks fluent Italian, awkward Japanese, and passable Ira Flatowese.
He is now an editor for All Things Considered.
8:42
Amyloid Proteins Help Paralyzed Mice Walk Again
Scientists say the proteins, once thought to be enemies of the nervous system, may actually be protective ‘guardians.’
25:37
Searching for the Roots of ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’
Primatologist Frans de Waal explores the origins of morality in The Bonobo and the Atheist.
36:35
Gripping Science Tales Need Not Be Science Fiction
How can scientists tell compelling stories without hyping or distorting the science?
17:25
Grand Central: An Engine of Scientific Innovation
Standard time zones and electric trains were both pioneered at New York’s Grand Central Terminal.
16:37
Birds Evolve Shorter Wings to Escape Traffic Crush
Cliff swallows with shorter wings appear better suited to avoid becoming roadkill.
21:35
Improving Healthcare, One Search at a Time
By combing through 100 million search queries, researchers detected a previously unknown interaction between two commonly prescribed drugs.
12:23
Curiosity Hits Paydirt: New Clues to Life on Mars
Microbes may once have thrived in a freshwater lake on Mars, according to clues in an ancient rock.
5:38
When the Earth Swallows
Sinkholes have gobbled up swimming pools, buses, and homes. But what causes them? And is there any way to predict where they’ll strike?
16:20
‘Nightmare Bacteria’ Defy Even Last-Ditch Drugs
The superbugs have been found lurking at hospitals nationwide, and kill one in two patients with a bloodstream infection.
24:11
Al Gore Envisions ‘The Future’
The climate guru’s latest book tackles everything from American politics to nanotech, and of course, climate change.