I went to a taping of the NPR show Science Friday at the Harris Theater, which would make a good bomb shelter if things don’t work out with Kim Jong-un.

Unlike some of my friends, I’ve never been an NPR junkie. Over the years my listening has been limited to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me; Car Talk (gone); and Whad’ya Know (gone), for which I was part of a test audience before they went on the air in 1985. I was selected to compete in the quiz and, when interviewed by Michael Feldman, made some wise crack response to him that he didn’t appreciate because he was supposed to get the laughs. No big deal as I figured the show was a rip-off of You Bet Your Life that had no chance of succeeding. Sure enough, it only lasted 31 years, so there!

The Science Friday taping included a segment on urban coyotes and a description of how, in the 19th century, they used to make Indian yellow paint from the urine of cows that were fed mango leaves. They didn’t discuss the effect on humans of eating mango. The show also included a disappointing Second City skit about the bidding war over a meteorite that fell to earth in Park Forest, Illinois in 2003. I would have rather seen scenes from The Blob.

The best part of the evening was Eugenia Cheng, the Scientist-in-Residence at the School of the Art Institute (cool job), who gave a reasonably understandable explanation of the intersection of music and mathematics as it relates to piano tuning (the twelfth root of two comes into play), played a couple piano selections, and engaged in a discussion with another mathematician about math as an art (even though the show isn’t called Art Friday). I would go see her speak again anytime (watch a video of her on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert).

The American Writers Museum has a Science Friday program coming up in August that I plan to attend, so I guess I’m heading toward becoming a groupie.