Over the years, many of my classes have heard the recording of the famous Orson Welles broadcast “War of the Worlds.”  The broadcast, and especially the subsequent social research done by Hadley Cantril and his colleagues at Princeton, is a really interesting way to introduce topics in collective behavior, mass media, and social psychology.

If the broadcast interests you, you will get a major kick out of this broadcast from RadioLab, the program produced at WNYC radio in New York City by Jad Abumrad, supported by his colleague Robert Krulwich.

This incredibly entertaining and informative broadcast puts the “War of the Worlds”  in the larger context of a series of hoaxes over the 20th century that showed just how persuadable many of us are.

Superbly done.

Enjoy.