Health
Sound plays a deeper role in our lives than many of us may realize. It doesn't just connect us to the world and each other: it connects us with our own bodies, and with parts of our brains that we aren't even aware of most of the time. These podcasts focus on the relationship between sound and our physical and mental well-being, and how we can utilize sound to help us relax, inspire ourselves and teach our brains to think in new ways and recognize signs of hearing loss and impairment.
ASMR: You’ll Hear a Slight Tingling
One of the most phenomenally popular audio developments since the turn of the millennium has been the emergence of ASMR videos. ASMR is short for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” and it describes an oddly relaxing tingling along the spine that certain soft sounds, like whispering voices or rustling leaves, can trigger in the listener. It’s also the name of a new category of online videos featuring talented artists who work with a variety of sound effects to create that state of relaxation for their audience. It’s become one of YouTube’s most popular genres, and these podcasts take a closer look at the science and history of ASMR and at some of the best “ASMRtists” online.
Inspiration: Playing By Ear
Sound can also serve as a bridge between ourselves and the deeper, less conscious parts of our brains, and in these episodes, we discuss that powerful connection with a variety of expert guests. We look at the subconscious effects that sound has on us, from the sense of dread that low-frequency infrasound can create to such unusual medical phenomena as auditory-visual synesthesia and misophonia, to the mystery of binaural beats, and whether they can alter our brain's state of awareness.
Audiology: Hearing Loud and Clear
We also focus on the medical side of sound and feature guests who help us delve deeper into the field of audiology, the science of hearing, balance, and all the surprising connections between our ears and the rest of our bodies. Sound's becoming increasingly important in our daily lives, which can also mean that it's louder, more uncomfortable, and more widespread than ever before. These episodes offer a closer look at recognizing signs of hearing trouble, managing our personal soundscapes, and the work being done to create a healthier, more satisfying audio environment for everyone.
The complex and often subtle link between sound, our ears, our brains, and our overall health is something that’s still being studied, and we're constantly making new discoveries. Audio is all about connection: it connects us to the world around us, to our audience, and even to ourselves.
“We go through all these things and talk about all these problems with annoying sounds and how important it is for the bellows sounds to be informative. And all this just hearkens back to the point where the essential goal here of these so-called auditory ‘alarms’ isn’t to alarm, it’s to notify. And I think […]
“Persuading hospitals and manufacturers to adopt better alarms aside from the standard is to persuade them that this is important and that it’s cool to do so, and that this is what everybody is doing and it’s a selling point for you if you’re using better alarms or more safe alarms or your false alarm […]
It’s been over two years since the pandemic started, and for many of us, our daily lives have changed in ways we hardly imagined when this decade began. More and more of us are working from home these days, and we’re staying at home even when we aren’t working. We’re more isolated than we used […]
“I came into the world listening. Other people came in noticing, visually, or touching things, tactically, which is why there are sculptors and visual artists, and some of us were just innately oriented toward the sound of the world.” – Michael Joly This week is the second half of my interview with Michael Joly, founder […]
“In tone therapy, we’ve created a space which is both safe and intriguing so we can solve some of the discomfort problem with mindfulness meditation and we can also solve some of the boredom aspects of it.” – Michael Joly This episode’s guest is the founder of solu®, maker of n.o.w. Tone Therapy™, a sound […]
When you close your eyes and think about being in a hospital, what do you imagine hearing? Are the sounds soothing, or do they make you tense up with even more anxiety? Hospitals aren’t usually relaxing places, and they don’t always sound very relaxing either. Heart monitors beep, respirators pump, and voices murmur in the […]