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Relearning Boléro: How our brains rewrite the sounds we hear
Episode 149
In the same way that optical illusions can trick our eyes, auditory illusions can trick our ears. This raises a serious question: what is hearing, an…
4 years, 2 months ago
Ghosts in the Hit Machine: The secrets of musical ghostwriters
Episode 148
Many of today’s biggest songs are written and produced by people whose names don’t appear anywhere in the credits. They’re called ghostwriters and gh…
4 years, 2 months ago
Why Windows Got Rid of Startup Sounds
Episode 147
Part 2 of our series on the Windows startup sounds picks up when Microsoft made the radical decision to kill the startup sound in Windows 8. In this …
4 years, 3 months ago
Ta-da! The history of Windows’ classic startup sounds
Episode 146
Over the years, Microsoft has made at least ten iconic startup sounds for Windows—from the triumphant “Ta-da!” of Windows 3.1, to the ambient chime t…
4 years, 3 months ago
The Waterphone: Hollywood’s spookiest sound effect
Episode 145
For nearly half a century, one eerie sound has been showing up again and again in movies and TV shows. It’s typically used when something spooky or m…
4 years, 3 months ago
Mind the Gap: NYC & London’s iconic transit voices
Episode 144
The voices of subway and train announcements are deeply ingrained in peoples’ lives. Many of us hear them every day, for years on end. And yet, hardl…
4 years, 4 months ago
Hidden Hitmakers: The unsung heroes behind pop’s biggest hits
Episode 143
The names of pop and rock stars are known by millions of people around the world, but the people who actually write their music often stay in the sha…
4 years, 4 months ago
Happy Little Episode: The soothing voice of Bob Ross
Episode 142
In the forty years since The Joy of Painting first started airing, Bob Ross has become a cultural icon. His gentle, soothing voice is instantly recog…
4 years, 5 months ago
Pirate Radio: Britain’s AM rebels of the ’60s
Episode 141
In the 1960s, the BBC had a vise grip on British radio, and rarely played the pop and rock music that was all the rage. So a group of rebellious radi…
4 years, 5 months ago
Being Dallas Taylor: Meeting my name twins
Episode 140
Your name is so much more than the sound that people call you by. It’s an entire human identity, distilled into a few syllables. So what do six peopl…
4 years, 6 months ago