Red Herring
Summary
Radiolab investigates a Cold War mystery where the Swedish Navy spent decades chasing phantom Soviet submarines. The "typical sound" detected by hydrophones was actually thousands of herring releasing air bubbles from their swim bladders. Scientists Magnus Wahlberg and Håkan Westerberg proved this by recording the fish, revealing the military had mistaken biological noise for espionage.
Topics discussed
Intro: Cold War Summer and the Red Herring mystery
Setting the scene: Cold War tensions in 1981 Sweden
The 1981 incident: Soviet submarine beached in Sweden
The 1982 crisis: Periscopes, nets, and exploding bombs
The 'Typical Sound': A decade of mysterious submarine detections
The investigation: Scientists invited to a secret naval base
Listening to the mystery: The sound is not what they expected
Sponsors: Capital One, Smalls, Bombas, and Planet Money
The hunch: Could the sound be biological? Hunting for herring
The science: How herring use swim bladders to fart
The experiment: Squeezing fish and finding the school sound
The revelation: The Navy was chasing fish farts for 15 years
Conclusion: Herring's revenge and final credits
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