Radiolab is a Peabody-award-winning show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and the human experience.

Radiolab Mixtape is a special 4 part series

Mixtape 1: Dakou - explores how musicians who took the damaged plastic scraps of Western music, changed the musical landscape of China.

Through the 1980s, the vast majority of people in China had never heard Western music, save for John Denver, the Carpenters, and a few other artists included on the hand-picked list of songs sanctioned by the Communist Party. But in the late 90s, a mysterious man named Professor Ye made a discovery at a plastic recycling center in Heping.

Radiolab talks to Chinese historians, music critics, and the musicians who took the damaged plastic scraps of Western music, changed the musical landscape of China, and reimagined rock and roll in ways we never could’ve imagined.

From WNYC. First broadcast on public radio in the USA in 2021. Show less