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Taking into account(ing) the 7 billionth baby

Where do Babies Come From?
janwillemsen
/
Flickr
Where do Babies Come From?

Where do babies come from? We may be unqualified to answer that one, but we can tell you with confidence that there’s a sucker born every minute.

Consider that worldwide 384,000 new babies are born each day, equal to the size of Wichita, Kan. Of course, some people die each day — about 153,000, equal to Sioux Falls, S.D. So that leaves a net daily gain of 231,000 humans, about the size of Lubbock, Texas.

Spin the musical wheel

In some cases maternity has made it onto the music charts. Around 1980 Loretta Lynn revealed this shocker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTwa8dGaSRU

It took us awhile to realize that this was a music video and not a home movie, here’s Sandy Posey from 1966-ish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYyKtWUgjA

And here’s a song from Steppenwolf that gave birth to the phrase “heavy metal:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5DPlNCmtk

There is a fascinating website called Worldomoters with up-to-the-second counters on all kinds of global statistics, including population, energy consumption, economics and health.

So where do babies come from? Go ask your mother.

Every week on “Record bin Roulette,” KPLU’s John Kessler and John Maynard put an insightful and fun spin on a century's worth of discarded vinyl. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Thursday during Morning Edition, All Things Considered and on Weekend Saturday Edition.

John has worked as a professional bassist for 20 years, including a 15 year stint as Musical Director of the Mountain Stage radio program. John has been at KNKX since 1999 where he hosts “All Blues”, is producer of the BirdNote radio program, and co-hosts “Record Bin Roulette”. John is also the recording engineer for KNKX “In-Studio Performances”. Not surprisingly, John's main musical interests are jazz and blues, and he is still performing around Seattle.
John Maynard started working in radio in the seventies as a DJ at Seattle’s KJR AM which at the time was the dominant AM station in the Seattle market. After a brief stint as a restaurateur and night club owner, Maynard returned to radio with Robin Erickson, creating the hugely popular “Robin and Maynard Show.” In the more than 20 years under that marquee, Maynard flew with the Blue Angels, piloted the Goodyear Blimp, sang with Donny Osmond and hung out in a Universal Studios bar with Kojak (Telly Savalas).