The Deaf Composer: How Beethoven wrote music he couldn’t hear
What happens when one of history’s greatest composers begins to lose the very sense he relies on most? In this episode, we explore how Ludwig van Beethoven continued to create…
Sound Off: Pinball Pings, Borrowed Melodies & Airport Acoustics
Presenting the second short story collection from our Sound Off competition, featuring five pieces written and produced entirely by our listeners. From the sonic evolution of pinball to reused classical…
Super Mario Bros: Koji Kondo’s 8-Bit Masterpiece
From the springy jump sound to the iconic Overworld Theme, the sound of Super Mario Bros. is instantly recognizable. With just five lo-fi audio channels and 40 kilobytes of space,…
Speaker Terror Upper: When Bass Tapes Shook the Streets
In the late '80s and early '90s, a seismic subculture shook the streets… literally. “Boom Cars,” decked out with custom sound systems, roamed neighborhoods blasting the bassiest music ever recorded.…
Radio Station Jingles: 80 Years of Earworms
If you turn on the radio, there’s one thing you’re almost guaranteed to hear: a catchy, over the top jingle proclaiming the name and call letters of the radio station.…
“blah, blah, blah…”
“Blah, blah, blah” and “yada, yada, yada” have had plenty written about them. But there’s a longtime cousin of these phrases that’s much less understood. We use it all the…
The Voice Inside
Many of us talk to ourselves in our heads pretty much all day long. But it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t. In fact, thinking comes…
Twenty Thousand Hertz – Tune Tech
From electric guitars to samplers to drum machines and beyond, the music we love is only possible thanks to the technology used to create it. In many ways, the history…