Build-A-Dragon (Replay)

On February 17, in places like China, Malaysia, Korea and Chinatowns across the globe, dragons will rise in the form of massive puppets. Today we bring you a special Terrestrials episode on dragons to understand what they have to do with the New Year, what the dragon myth means, and explore the tiny chance that dragons could have ever been real. First, we meet Mr. Lu Dajie, one of China's most renowned dragon dancers, who tells us about the significance of dragons in China. Then producer bud Ana and song bud Alan ask whether there’s any chance that dragons were ever real. And if not, could we make a dragon out of the things already evolved on Earth? Were there any reptiles as large as and shaped like dragons? Any large reptiles that flew? Any that spat fire? The answers may surprise you. Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Tanya Chawla, Sarah Sandbach, Joe Plourde, and Lulu Miller. Fact-checking by Diane Kelly. Learn more about storytellers, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website, Terrestrialspodcast.org . Badger us on social media: @radiolab and or by emailing us at terrestrials@wnyc.org . HEY GROWN-UPS! Love the show? Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review on your podcast app—it helps curious listeners find us! Terrestrials is made possible in part by listeners like you. Support the show by joining The Explorers Club —and we’ll send you a special puzzle as a thank-you gift from our team! We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about Terrestrials with us .

You can listen to Build-A-Dragon (Replay) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Build-A-Dragon (Replay) is an episode from Radiolab for Kids by WNYC.

This episode is 00:26:32 long.

This episode was published on Feb 12, 2026.

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