Robert Krulwich, who has co-hosted WNYC Studios’ Radiolab for nearly 15 years, will retire in January, he announced Thursday.
“I’ve decided it’s time for me to retire from Radiolab,” he said in a statement. “Not because anything bad has happened, more like the opposite.”
Known for his ability to break down complex topics for listeners, Krulwich has co-hosted the science-themed show with creator Jad Abumrad since 2005. “When we set up shop years ago, the idea was to create a space where hard, hard subjects that nobody would think of as entertainment could be — well, entertaining,” Krulwich said in the statement. “And disturbing. And Absorbing. Against the odds, and against our expectations, the thing took off.”
The weekly show airs on 589 public radio stations.
Before joining WNYC, Krulwich spent 22 years as a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News.
“Bobby K leaves us in a good place, with an incredible team that he helped train and mentor,” Abumrad said in a press release. “I’m truly sad that I won’t get to see him everyday. But more than the sadness, I’m grateful beyond words for his friendship and guidance and blinding brilliance.”
Krulwich said in the statement that while sitting in an editorial meeting about a year ago, he realized, “I was no longer crucial to what was going on.”
“I was crucial for a long time, but in a healthy system, you make way for the new, the fresh, the untested,” he wrote.
An episode of the show paying tribute to Krulwich will air in late January.