3 posts tagged “podcast”

Kobe Beef makes a return after many months of absence.  Click to listen:  KBS68

Since I have public radio on my mind, I would like to promote WNYC's Radio Lab, my current favorite National Public Radio program and most listened to podcast.  The hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, take a philosophical question, such as "what is time" or "what is morality", and over the hour long show interview scientists from various fields and tell stories in a fun and engaging format.  The show features a lot of background sounds that utilize with the stereo mix to help liven the dialogue and make the show even more fun to listen to.  Each topic is very fascinating and I often listen to an episode more than once.  Highly recommended.  Airs on New York public radio and also available as a podcast through the Radio Lab website or iTunes.

Here's a sample episode:  "Morality"

I just finished listening to episode #110 of This American Life, "Mapping", which has a very interesting segment about sound.  The theme of the show is about, well, mapping, but not just road mapping, but for example, mapping the sounds we hear around us.  In the sound mapping segment of the show, a man tells a story of how he began measuring the frequencies of the sounds in his environment, and what intervals those sounds generated together.  For example, the sound of the humming from his computer monitor combined with the low drone of the heater in his office created a minor chord, while his kitchen appliances generated an augmented 4th (a terribly dissonant sound which the Catholic Church put on the top of their list of bad chords). 

His point was that we are constantly surrounded by sounds.  Of course we have always been surrounded by sounds, but it is the new sounds created by machines that may have an effect on how we feel.  Machines, like the old computer monitor in front of me, produce constant, steady sounds at a specific frequency that when combined together (like my monitor with the fan in my PC) produce sound intervals that can affect me either in positive or negative ways.  Minor chords have long been thought of as sounding sad.  So if I am sitting in an environment producing a steady minor chord all day that may have an effect on how I feel.

This episode really got me thinking about all the sounds I hear throughout the day generated by machines, and how sound has an impact on how people feel and behave.  It's quite puzzling if you think about why different frequencies affect our brain.  One of the episodes of Radio Lab addresses that question (another excellent show worth hearing).  Both This American Life and Radio Lab are National Public Radio programs also available as podcasts.