The World According to Sound

GroupAccount image

We’re a weekly, 90-second radio show that tells stories with sounds instead of, well, stories.


Each episode features a new sound and the story behind it. Sometimes the sounds come from things you’ve seen but never listened to: bridges , muddy holes in the ground, or wifi networks . We’ve found sounds that express data , tell a piece of history , and let you get inside someone else’s head –maybe someone’s head you don’t really want to be in.  Sometimes the sounds have surprising sources: cult leaders , silent musicians , or a classics professor . Every episode features roughly thirty seconds of talking and sixty seconds of sound, and it’s best to listen with headphones, unless you have a sweet sound system. For the second season we are also packaging episodes together into longer 4-1/2 minute series all on the same topic.

 

Here's how radio stations use our show: 1) As a weekly segment; 2) To fill in the two-minute slots in Morning Edition; 3) To replace the holes left as Jim Hightower cuts back on his weekly commentaries; 4) And generally, wherever there are short station breaks which you'd rather fill with content that is new and thought-provoking (as opposed to, say, with just music).


We hope you enjoy The World According to Sound and that it gets you to think a little bit about the world through your ears instead of your eyes. Thanks for listening!



Chris Hoff & Sam Harnett

Series

Series image
1 Piece

Longer episodes of The World According to Sound.

Series image
61 Pieces

A 90-second radio show that brings you different sounds and the stories behind them.


Pieces

Piece image
Achtung! I guess if I had to secretly communicate with foreign agents, I'd just say a bunch of random numbers too.

Bought by PRX Remix, KALW, and KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:45
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
33 percent of America's electricity comes from coal. You're probably using energy generated from that black rock right now. It's extracted from the...

Bought by PRX Remix, KVNF, KALW, and KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 02:03
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
Not all of America takes kindly to Trump's ban of immigrants.

Bought by KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Making plum wine in your kitchen is unexpectedly melodious.

Bought by KVNF, KALW, and KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
The confederate war cry resembled "a foxhunt yip mixed up with sort of a banshee squall."

Bought by PRX Remix, KALW, and KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
The mellifluous tones of a Japanese electronics store.

Bought by KALW and KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:36
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
The sound of Donald Trump getting elected in San Francisco.

Bought by KALW


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 01:30
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
This song shows that Western music is almost a 1,000 years older than we used to believe.

Bought by KALW, New Hampshire Public Radio, KALW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 11, 2016
  • Length: 01:35
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
About a hundred years ago, Berlin sounded like this.

Bought by KALW, KALW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 11, 2016
  • Length: 01:35
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
The Pacific Ocean's uncanny undulations.

Bought by KVNF, KALW, KVNF, KALW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 11, 2016
  • Length: 01:35
  • Purchases: 5