Can other people's expectations of you alter what you can do physically? Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller of NPR's new radio show and podcast Invisibilia investigate that question – specifically, they look into something that sounds impossible: if people’s expectations can change whether a blind man can see.
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Invisibilia’s first season of six episodes is running on hundreds of public radio stations. Check your local station’s website to see when they might be carrying it. The podcast is at npr.org/invisibilia, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Prologue
Batman Begins
Lulu tells the story of Daniel Kish, who’s blind, but can navigate the world by clicking with his tongue. This gives him so much information about what’s around him, he does all sorts of things most blind people don’t. Most famously, he rides a bike. We learn why he was raised so differently from the way most blind kids are brought up, and how the book The Making of Blind Men by Robert Scott changes everything for him. (25 minutes)
The Dark Knight Rises
Daniel Kish says that through clicking, he forms mental pictures. He actually sees. A neuroscientist Lore Thaler explains how that might be possible. Daniel goes on a mission to teach other blind people to see the way he does. (23 minutes)
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