Sound Sensation: June 2021 podcast playlist

As a hobbyist musician, I quickly fell in love with the production values and the spectrum of sensations and experiences captured by podcasts like Radiolab, The Truth, Love + Radio, Snap Judgement, Third Coast, etc. The list is endless and I realized recently that I have started taking this for granted!

With the onset of COVID, I started taking our now two-year-old to a county park for a morning stroll during which I would always don a pair of headphones. One Wednesday morning during the recent wildfires that plagued the Bay Area, the sky had turned the most apocalyptic red with ashen clouds and it seemed that most people had chosen to stay indoors. With not a soul in sight, curious, I took my headphones off and was immediately taken in by all of the sounds that had come alive from the lack of interfering noise. All sorts of chatter from the birds and insects, scrambling lizards, the rustling wind, the calm lapping of water; all of it separate, but coming together as a lovely orchestra.

The experience reminded me of my love for the very nature of sound, in all its different temperaments, in all its varying cadence, and the simplicity in which it exists, but the complexities in which it manifests. In fact, even the lack of it is often craved.

I hope this list captures that sentiment – that of sound and sensation.

Curated by Abhijit with help from Alexandra, both from our San Francisco Podcast Brunch Club chapter.

Podcast Listening List on SOUND SENSATION

Get the full listening list on your podcast player of choice using these platforms:

Invisibilia: “The Last Sound” (March 2020, 46 min)
What can we learn about ourselves and the world around us if we quiet down and listen?

Twenty Thousand Hertz: “Synesthesia” (January 2021, 28 min)
Synesthesia is a neurological condition where one sensory experience gets combined with another, meaning someone might hear sounds when they eat, or see colors when they listen to music. So what exactly is synesthesia? And what’s it like to go through life with these unique sensory connections?

The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry: “The Noises That Make Us Cringe” (January 2021, 48 min)
Why do some people find noises like a fork scraping a plate so terrible? asks Findlay in Aberdeenshire. Rutherford and Fry endure some horrible noises to find out the answer.

Radiolab for Kids: “Behaves so Strangely” (March 2020, 19 min)
Diana Deutsch, a professor specializing in the Psychology of Music, along with Jad and Robert, will duke it out over the merits of perfect pitch. A sign of genius, a nuisance, or an evolutionary superpower? You decide.

Bonus podcast episodes:

• Sound Matters: “22 – Tick Tock Tokyo” (September 2018, 25 min)
• The Rest Is Just Noise: “Ep.1 ‘The Birds’ with Dr Ellie Ratcliffe” (January 2021, 44 min)
• SoundWorks Collection: “Jad Abumrad: The Sound of Radiolab” (December 2016, 46 min)
• This is Love: “The Town That Stayed Quiet” (May 2019, 25 min)

Conversation Starter Questions:

1. Have you ever spent time pondering or understanding why music/sounds are intrinsically appealing or do you enjoy it in all its abstractness?
2. You have decided to give the daily hustle a rest and soak in a beautiful bath, indulging in your favorite drink and anything you fancy. What are you listening to?
3. Are there specific sounds you look forward to or averse to?
4. How do you feel about listening to your own voice? When you hear a recording of yourself, is it very different from how you hear your own voice?