Phantom Power
Sound is all around us, but we give little thought to its invisible influence. Dr. Mack Hagood explores the world of sound studies with the world's most amazing sound scholars, sound artists, and acoustic ecologists. How are noise-cancelling headphones changing social life? What did silent films sound like? Is listening to audiobooks really reading? How did computers learn to speak? How do race, gender, and disability shape our listening? What do live musicians actually hear in those in-ear monitors? Why does your office sound so bad? What are Sound Art and Radio Art? How do historians study the sounds of...
Sat, April 26, 2025
Cassette Theory: A Mixtape (Eleanor Patterson, Rob Drew, and Andrew Simon)
Today we present a cassette theory mixtape. Three excellent scholars help us understand consumer-focused magnetic tape and its history as a medium for the masses: Eleanor Patterson , Associate Professor of Media Studies at Auburn, whose new book just won the 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Book Award and a 2025 International Association for Media and History Book Award. It’s called Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television distribution (Illinois Press, 2024). Rob Drew , Professor of Communication at Saginaw Valley State University and a fantastic interpreter of pop culture like graffiti and karaoke. His new book is Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable (Duke, 2024). Andrew Simon , Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College. We’ve been wanting to talk to him for a while about his 2022 book, Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt (Stanford University Press). This conversation winds its way from the early days of radio, through the Anglophone indie rock of the 1980s, and into the streets of Cairo, where cassette tapes represented the first mass medium that Egyptian state power could not control. 03:49 Introducing the Cassette Theory Mixtape 04:06 Meet the Scholars: Eleanor Patterson, Rob S. Drew, and Andrew Simon 06:10 Diving into the Books: A Round Table Discussion 12:24 Exploring the Prehistory of Media Distribution 23:43 The Role of Cassettes in Indie and Hip Hop Culture 31:12 Cassettes in Egypt: A Tool for Revolution and Resistance 40:32 The Intersection of Media and Culture Hear the full 90 minute conversation by joining our Patreon! Please support the show at patreon.com/phantompower Links to Mack’s recent travels: Residual Noise Festival at Brown University Resonance: Sound Across the Disciplines at Rutgers University’s Center for Cultural Analysis Transcript Andrew Simon: [00:00:00] Cassette tapes and players did not simply join other mass mediums like records and radio. They became the media of the masses. Cassettes in many ways were the internet before the internet. They enabled anyone to produce culture, circulate information, challenge ruling regimes, long befo
Fri, March 28, 2025
How Music Became an Instrument of War (David Suisman)
University of Delaware historian David Suisman is known for his research on music and capitalism, particularly his excellent book Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music (Harvard UP, 2009), which won numerous awards and accolades. Suisman’s new book, Instrument of War: Music and the Making of America’s Soldiers (U Chicago Press, 2024), brings that same erudition to the subject of music in the military. It is the most comprehensive look at military music to date, full of fascinating historical anecdotes and insights on what music does for military states and their soldiers. Our conversation explores music as a martial technology, used for purposes of morale, discipline, indoctrination, entertainment, emotional relief, psychological warfare, and torture. In the public episode David and I talk about the military’s use of music from the Civil War through World War Two. Our Patrons will also hear David’s critique of how we think about music in the Vietnam War–he says Hollywood has completely misinformed us on the role of music in that conflict. We’ll also talk about the iPod and our more recent conflicts in the Middle East, and hear a detailed discussion of David’s research and writing methods, plus his reading and listening recommendations. If you’re not a Patron, you can hear the full version, plus all of our other bonus content for just a few bucks a month–sign up at Patreon.com/phantompower . 00:00 Introduction 04:20 The US Military’s Investment in Music 05:30 Music’s Role in Soldier Training and Discipline 12:32 The Evolution of Military Cadences 23:22 The Civil War: A Turning Point for Military Music 28:21 Forgotten Brass Instruments of the Union Army 29:38 The Role of Drummer Boys in the Civil War 33:32 Music and Morale in World War I 35:48 Group Singing and Community Singing Movement 37:28 The YMCA’s Role in Soldier Recreation 38:41 Racial Dynamics and Minstrel Shows in Military Music 41:47 Music Consumption and the Military in World War II 45:27 The USO and Live Entertainment for Troops 49:56 Vietnam War: Challenging Musical Myths 50:26 Conclusion and Call to Support the Podcast Transcript [00:00:00] David Suisman: I describe music as functioning in some ways as a lubricant in the American War machine. It makes the machine function or allows the machine to function. It enables the machine to function. Introduction: This is Phantom Power. Mack Hagood: Welcome to another epis
Sun, March 23, 2025
Remembering Jonathan Sterne (1970-2025)
The sound studies community is reeling from the death of Jonathan Sterne this past Thursday. Jonathan’s presence and work were–and are–incredibly influential on the intellectual and ethical commitments of our field. He was a generous mentor to so many, including me. Do you know those “WWJD?” bracelets? I’ve been wearing one in my mind for about 15 years: “What Would Jonathan Do?” In this short, impromptu episode, I share a few thoughts about what he meant to me and to sound studies. If you want to spend some time with Jonathan’s voice, we were lucky to feature him in several episodes, but our Dork-o-phonics episode, based on his book Diminished Faculties , is certainly my favorite. The post Remembering Jonathan Sterne (1970-2025) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, February 28, 2025
How Spotify Dulls the Musical Mind (Liz Pelly)
Liz Pelly is our foremost journalist/critic on the Spotify beat. Her byline has appeared at the Baffler, Guardian, NPR, and many other outlets. She is also an adjunct instructor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Liz is also been making the media rounds lately, talking about her new book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (One Signal Publishers). The book is both a history of Spotify and an argument that Spotify is not, in fact, a music company, but rather an advertising company focused on manipulating user behavior to maximize time on platform. As a consequence, Spotify not only pushes musical aesthetics towards banal, “lean-back listening,” it also makes musicians themselves expendable: replaceable by ghost musicians, AI slop, and behavioral algorithms that keep people just barely engaged at the lowest cost. In this show, Liz details how platforms shape listening and music making alike. We also discuss the tension between frictionless music consumption and meaningful cultural engagement. And remember, there’s an extended version of this interview which features a bunch of bonus material including a listener question, a deep dive into Liz’s reporting methods, and the backstory of how she got into journalism and got a major book deal, plus her book and music recommendations. It’s available to our Patrons for a mere $3 a month. Sign up at Patreon.com/phantompower . Transcript Liz Pelly: [00:00:00] When I hear something like the founder of an AI company saying “Making music is too hard. People don’t want to learn how to play instruments,” or even this idea that a streaming platform should help people reduce cognitive work. It’s like, that essentially means we should help people not have to think. And I think that, you know, Mack Hagood: Yeah. Liz Pelly: As critics, what we do is encourage people to think, you know, thinking and making decisions is an important part of processing life in the world and information and culture and figuring out how you actually feel about someone’s art. Introduction: This is Phantom Power. Mack Hagood: Welcome to another episode of Phantom [00:01:00] Power, a podcast about sound. I’m Mack Hagood. My guest today is journalist Liz Pelly, someone I’ve been reading avidly and having my students read for almost a decade now. Pelly is our foremost journalist and critic on the Spotify beat. Her byline has appeared in the Baffler, the Guardian, NPR, and many
Wed, January 29, 2025
Are AI art and music really just noise? (Eryk Salvaggio)
In this episode, host Mack Hagood dives into the world of AI-generated music and art with digital artist and theorist Eryk Salvaggio. The conversation explores technical and philosophical aspects of AI art, its impact on culture, and the ‘age of noise’ it has ushered in. AI dissolves sounds and images into literal noise, subsequently reversing the process to create new “hypothetical” sounds and images. The kinds of cultural specificities that archivists struggle to preserve are stripped away when we treat human culture as data in this way. Eryk also shares insights into his works like ‘Swim’ and ‘Sounds Like Music,’ which test AI’s limitations and forces the machine to reflect on itself in revealing ways. Finally, the episode contemplates how to find meaning and context in an overwhelming sea of information. Eryk Salvaggio is a researcher and new media artist interested in the social and cultural impacts of artificial intelligence. His work explores the creative misuse of AI and the transformation of archives into datasets for AI training: a practice designed to expose ideologies of tech and to confront the gaps between datasets and the worlds they claim to represent. A blend of hacker, researcher, designer and artist, he has been published in academic journals, spoken at music and film festivals, and consulted on tech policy at the national level. He is a researcher on AI, art and education at the metaLab (at) Harvard University, the Emerging Technology Research Advisor to the Siegel Family Endowment, and a top contributor to Tech Policy Press. He holds an MSc in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and an MSc in Applied Cybernetics from the Australian National University. Works discussed in this podcast: The Age of Noise (2024) SWIM (2024): A meditation on training data, memory, and archives. Sounds Like Music: Toward a Multi-Modal Media Theory of Gaussian Pop (2024) How to Read an AI Image (2023) You can learn more about Eryk Salvaggio at cyberneticforests.com Learn more about Phantom Power at phantompod.org Join our Patreon at patreon.com/phantompower Transcription by Katelyn Phan 00:00 Introduction and Podcast News 03:24 Introducing Eryk Salvaggio, AI Artist and Theorist 05:33 Understanding the Information Age and Noise 09:14 The Diffusion Process and AI Bias 33:35 Ethics of AI and Data Curation 39:09 Exploring the Artwork ‘Swim’ 45:16 AI in Music: Platforms an
Fri, May 24, 2024
Podcasting’s Obsession with Obsession (Neil Verma)
Today we discuss how narrative podcasts work, the role they’ve played in American culture and how they’ve shaped our understanding of podcasting as a genre and an industry. Neil Verma ’s new book, Narrative Podcasting in an Age of Obsession , offers a rich analysis of the recent so-called golden age of podcasting. Verma studied around 300 podcasts and listened to several thousand episodes from between the fall of 2014 when Serial became a huge hit to the start of the Covid pandemic and early 2020. It was a period when podcasts—and especially genres like narrative nonfiction and true crime—were one of the biggest media trends going. At the heart of these genres, Verma writes, was obsession –a character obsessed with something, a reporter obsessed with that character, and listeners obsessed with the resulting narrative podcast. Neil Verma is associate professor in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University and co-founder of its MA program in Sound Arts and Industries. Verma is an expert in the history of audio fiction, sound studies, and media history more broadly. He is best known for his landmark 2012 book, Theater of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama , which won the Best First Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Verma has been a consultant for a variety of radio and film projects, including Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). In addition to his research, Verma has also created experimental sound recordings for broadcast. His compositions have been selected for several radio art festivals around the world, winning an honorable mention from the Sound of the Year awards in the U.K in 2020. For a fascinating listener Q+A with Neil, visit patreon.com/phantompower and get free access to this bonus episode in our patrons-only feed. Finally, we have big news: This will be the final episode of Phantom Power. But don’t worry, Mack will be launching a new podcast about sound in early 2025. To make sure you hear about the new show, receive our new newsletter, and get bonus podcast content in the coming months, sign up for a free or paid membership at patreon.com/phantompower . Transcript Mack Hagood 00:00 Welcome to another episode of Phantom Power. I’m Mack Hagood. Today we talk with Neil Verma, author of the new book Narrative Podcasting In an Age of Obsession . Neil offers a rich, multifaceted and methodologically creative analysis of the so-called Golden
Fri, May 10, 2024
Second Line: Footwork in New Orleans (Lowlines by Petra Barran)
Today we feature the first episode of a new podcast called Lowlines , which follows host Petra Barran as she travels solo through the Americas, meeting people with profound connections to the places they’re from. This episode takes place in New Orleans and focuses on Second Line, the brass band tradition that comes out of Black funeral processions and social clubs and is known not only for the power of the music but the for the amazing dancing known as footwork that goes on as the people parade down the street. Petra also talks to Jarrad DeGruy a young fantasy author, designer, dancer, and visual artist from New Orleans. Petra and Jarrad have a probing conversation about footwork and Black New Orleans culture that opens out into a discussion of race, colonialism, and ecology–all the traumas, injustices, and challenges that that are inextricable from the joy we see and hear in New Orleans music culture. Subscribe to Lowlines, produced by produced by Social Broadcasts and Scenery Studios . The post Second Line: Footwork in New Orleans (Lowlines by Petra Barran) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, April 26, 2024
Beyond Listening: The Hidden Ways Sound Affects Us (Michael Heller)
There are sonic experiences that can’t be contained by the word “listening.” Moments when sound overpowers us. When sound is sensed more in our bodies than in our ears. When sound engages in crosstalk with our other senses. Or when it affects us by being inaudible. Dr. Michael Heller ’s new book Just Beyond Listening: Essays of Sonic Encounter (2023, U of California Press) uses affect theory to open up these moments. In this conclusion to our miniseries on sound and affect, we explore topics such as the measurement and perception of loudness, the invention of sonar and the anechoic chamber, and Heller’s critique of the politics of silence in the work of John Cage. This interview was a blast–Michael is a great storyteller and we had a lot of laughs. Dr. Michael Heller is a musicologist, ethnomusicologist, and a jazz scholar. This fall he will join the musicology faculty of Brandeis University as an Associate Professor, after working for ten years at the University of Pittsburgh. Michael’s love for music began with playing saxophone in his youth, but his path took an academic turn during college at Columbia University. There, he dove deep into jazz history while working at WKCR radio under the mentorship of legendary programmer Phil Schaap. Michael’s scholarly pursuits were further shaped by his work with the Vision Festival, an avant-garde jazz festival in New York. Inspired by the experimental musicians he met there, he wrote his first book, Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s (2017, UC Press), documenting the 1970s scene where adventurous artists staged performances in old factory spaces. Through his immersion in these innovative communities, Michael developed a keen interest in the borderlands between music and sound. Just Beyond Listening pushes out into the borderlands of sound itself, using affect theory to probe how sound is perceived in other parts of the body, how sound interacts with written text, how it’s weaponized by the military, and how it can haunt us in mediated form. To hear the extended version of this interview, including a segment on Louis Armstrong and Miachel’s “What’s Good” recommendations, sign up for a free or paid Patreon membership at patreon.com/phantompower . See also: Part One of this miniseries on sound and affect: Noise and Affect Theory (Marie Thompson) . Mack’s own audio essay on John Cage and the anechoic chamber. Transcript
Fri, April 12, 2024
Noise and Affect Theory (Marie Thompson)
Feminist sound scholar and musician Marie Thompson is a theorist of noise. She has also been one of the key thinkers in integrating the study of sound with the study of affect. Dr. Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at the Open University in the UK. She is the author of Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect, and Aesthetic Moralism (Bloomsbury, 2017) and the co-editor of Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience (Bloomsbury, 2013). She has developed Open University courses on topics such as Dolly Parton and Dub sound systems. For Part 2 of this interview, which focuses on tinnitus, join our Patreon for free: patreon.com/phantompower . Staring around the early 2000s, a number of scholars began to feel there was a tool missing in the toolbox of cultural scholarship. We had plenty of ways to talk about ideology and representation and rhetoric and identity, but what about sensation? How is it that a feeling like joy or panic can sweep through a room without a word being uttered? By what mechanism does a life develop a kind of texture of feeling over time? Affect studies is field interested in these questions, interested in how the world affects us. Words can produce affective states, but affect isn’t reducible to words. So, it’s easy to see why affect theory has been so attractive to sound and music scholars. Noise is a notorious concept that means different things different people. In this conversation, Marie Thompson examines noise through the affect theory of Gilles Deleuze and Baruch Spinoza as well as the systems theory of Michel Serres. We’ll also talk about her critique of acoustic ecology and a rather public debate she had with sound scholar Christoph Cox. And this is only the first half of our lengthy conversation. In a bonus episode, we present Part 2, which discusses Marie Thompson’s recent research on tinnitus and hearing loss. And because we’ve heard from people who find our tinnitus content helpful, we don’t want to put that behind a paywall, so we’re sharing it in our Patreon feed at the free level. All you have to do is go to patreon.com/phantompower and sign up as a free member and you’ll instantly get access to that episode in your podcast app of choice, as well as other content we plan to drop this summer when we are on break with the podcast. Photo credit: Alexander Tengman Transcript Robotic Voice 00:00 This is Phantom Power Marie Thompson 00:16 And this is difficult given the habits of the discipline or disciplines that I’m engaging with, I think that we can’t point to a particular set of sounds as inherently emancipatory or radical or having a kind of liberating potential,
Fri, March 29, 2024
From HAL to SIRI: How Computers Learned to Speak (Benjamin Lindquist)
Today we learn how computers learned to talk with Benjamin Lindquist , a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University’s Science in Human Culture program. Ben is the author “ The Art of Text to Speech ,” which recently appeared in Critical Inquiry , and he’s currently writing a history of text-to-speech computing. In this conversation, we explore: the fascinating backstory to HAL 9000, the speaking computer in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey 2001’s strong influence on computer science and the cultural reception of computers the weird technology of the first talking computers and their relationship to optical film soundtracks Louis Gerstman, the forgotten innovator who first made an IBM mainframe sing “Daisy Bell.” why the phonemic approach of Stephen Hawking’s voice didn’t make it into the voice of Siri the analog history of digital computing and the true differences between analog and digital Patrons will have access to a longer version of the interview and our What’s Good segment. Learn more at patreon.com/phantompower Today’s show was edited by Nisso Sacha and Mack Hagood. Transcript and show page by Katelyn Phan. Website SEO and social media by Devin Ankeney. Transcript Introduction 00:00 This is Phantom Power Mack Hagood 00:18 Run the guest soundbite, HAL. HAL9000 00:22 I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. Mack Hagood 00:26 Dave, who the hell is Dave? HAL it’s me, Mack Hagood the host of Phantom Power. This podcast about sound we work on. What’s the problem here? HAL9000 00:38 I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Introduction 00:44 I don’t know what you’re talking about. HAL9000 00:46 This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. Mack Hagood 00:53 Can you just run the clip of Ben Lindquist? You know, the guy that we just interviewed about the history of computer voices? HAL9000 01:02 I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me. And I’m afraid that something I cannot allow to happen. Mack Hagood 01:09 Who’s Frank? Okay, fine. I’m just gonna play the clip myself. HAL9000 01:15 Without your space helmet, Dave. You’re going to find that rather difficult. Mack Hagood 01:
Fri, March 15, 2024
Publishing for Nonfiction Authors (Jane Von Mehren)
Jane Von Mehren, Senior Partner at Aevitas Creative Management and a former Senior Vice President at Random House, explains how to find a literary agent, how to write a query letter to an agent, and how to craft a book proposal that your agent can shop to publishers. Continue reading → The post Publishing for Nonfiction Authors (Jane Von Mehren) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, March 01, 2024
Noise and Information in the Office (Joseph L. Clarke)
Ever wonder who's to blame for the noise and distraction of the open office? Architectural historian Joseph L. Clarke has answers! Theories of acoustic communication accidentally inspired the sonic disaster of the open plan. Continue reading → The post Noise and Information in the Office (Joseph L. Clarke) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, February 16, 2024
Robin Miles: Talking Books
Today we bring you a master class in audiobook narration and acting with acclaimed actor, casting director, audiobook narrator and audiobook director, Robin Miles. Beyond technique, we talk about the audiobook industry and the politics of vocal representation. Continue reading → The post Robin Miles: Talking Books appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, January 26, 2024
Radiophilia (Carolyn Birdsall)
Sound and radio scholar Carolyn Birdsall discusses her award-winning book Nazi Soundscapes (AUP, 2012) and her new book, Radiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2023). Continue reading → The post Radiophilia (Carolyn Birdsall) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, January 12, 2024
Cosmic Visions in Sound
Today we share a podcast episode on the visual epistemology of astronomy by our friends at The World According to Sound. What kind of knowledge do we really gain when we look at images from space? Continue reading → The post Cosmic Visions in Sound appeared first on Phantom Power .
Sat, December 16, 2023
Tinnitus Stories
Tinnitus can be annoying, for sure--and for some people it's much worse than annoying--but it also has a lot to say of interest, if we're willing to listen: "Tinnitus has been my guide in sound studies, my Virgil, leading me through a shadow world of sound. It's taught me how high the stakes can be when it comes to the perception and control of sound and it's given me new ways to think about how and why we use media devices." Continue reading → The post Tinnitus Stories appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, December 01, 2023
Warren Zanes: Rockstar Biographer
Warren Zanes talks life as a rocker and writer, his new book on Springsteen's Nebraska, how to weave theory into a great story, and why he narrates his own audiobooks. Continue reading → The post Warren Zanes: Rockstar Biographer appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, November 17, 2023
Making Radio History (Elena Razlogova)
Elena Razlogova discusses U.S. radio history, audience research, music recommendation and recognition algorithms, and her current book project, which centers on freeform radio station WFMU and the rise of online music. We also talk about Elena’s research strategies as a historian working in the digital age. Continue reading → The post Making Radio History (Elena Razlogova) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, November 03, 2023
The Audiobook’s Century-Long Overnight Success (Matthew Rubery)
Today we present the first episode of a miniseries on audiobooks by getting into the history and theory of the medium. Audiobooks are having a moment—and it only took them over a century to get here. Dr. Matthew Rubery, a Harvard PhD and Professor of Modern Literature at Queen Mary University of London, pioneered the study of the audiobook, its history, and its affordances in literature. Continue reading → The post The Audiobook’s Century-Long Overnight Success (Matthew Rubery) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Thu, October 19, 2023
Going Public
In this brief opener for Season Six of Phantom Power, Mack discusses his new project of writing a trade press book, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Continue reading → The post Going Public appeared first on Phantom Power .
Wed, May 24, 2023
A Philosophy of Echoes with Amit Pinchevski
Amit Pinchevski challenges the notion that echo is mere repetition. Instead, echo is a generative medium. Just as a baby first learns to speak by repeating the sounds of others, a philosophy of echoes reminds us that our own agency and creativity reside in repetitions that respond to the past. Continue reading → The post A Philosophy of Echoes with Amit Pinchevski appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, April 28, 2023
John Cage: Echoes of the Anechoic
Today we explore the mythology around John Cage’s visit to the anechoic chamber. The chamber was designed to completely eliminate echoes. Ironically, the tale of Cage’s experience in that space has echoed through history, affecting our understanding of silence, sound, and the self. But what do we really know about what happened there? Continue reading → The post John Cage: Echoes of the Anechoic appeared first on Phantom Power .
Mon, April 17, 2023
Sonic AI: Steph Ceraso & Hussein Boon
Today we hear two scholars reading their recent work on artificial intelligence. Steph Ceraso studies the technology of “voice donation,” which provides AI-created custom voices for people with vocal disabilities. Hussein Boon contemplates the future of AI in music via some very short and thought-provoking fiction tales. And we start off the show with Mack reflecting on how hard the post-shutdown adjustment has been for many of us and how that might be feeding into the current AI hype. Continue reading → The post Sonic AI: Steph Ceraso & Hussein Boon appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, March 14, 2023
Words and Silences: The Thomas Merton Hermitage Tapes
Musician and sound artist Brian Harnetty breathes new, musical life into the analog meditations of 60s Catholic mystic Thomas Merton. Continue reading → The post Words and Silences: The Thomas Merton Hermitage Tapes appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, February 17, 2023
Westerkamp: The Unedited Interview [excerpt]
Here is a preview of Mack Hagood’s full one hour and forty minute interview with soundscape composer Hildegard Westerkamp, which includes many details and stories we couldn’t fit into the three public episodes we featured her in. If you’re a … Continue reading → The post Westerkamp: The Unedited Interview [excerpt] appeared first on Phantom Power .
Wed, February 01, 2023
The Sound World of Harriet Tubman
Just in time for Black History Month, we share an episode we've been excitedly working on for a number of months now. Ethnomusicologist Maya Cunningham brings us “The Sound World of Harriet Tubman.” Maya Cunningham is an activist and jazz singer currently completing a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in Afro-American studies with a concentration in ethnomusicology. Continue reading → The post The Sound World of Harriet Tubman appeared first on Phantom Power .
Mon, January 09, 2023
Hildegard Westerkamp: A Life in Soundscape Composition
Hildegard Westerkamp is a pioneering composer, radio artist and sound ecologist. Today we speak to her about her career and listen to excerpts of six soundscape compositions. Continue reading → The post Hildegard Westerkamp: A Life in Soundscape Composition appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, November 18, 2022
Bonus Episode: Jonathan Sterne [excerpt]
Today we feature an excerpt from our nearly 2-hour bonus episode for Patrons. In the full interview from last season's episode "Dork-o-Phonics," Jonathan Sterne discusses topics such as the early days of sound studies, how his upbringing and a music school rejection led him to sound, his illness and vocal impairment, and a lot of fascinating ideas about voice, media, disability, and more. Continue reading → The post Bonus Episode: Jonathan Sterne [excerpt] appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, November 01, 2022
Spacing Out with Dallas Taylor of 20,000 Hz
Today we talk to Dallas Taylor, host of the most popular sound podcast on the planet, 20,000 Hertz. He provides an anatomy of his episode "Space." Continue reading → The post Spacing Out with Dallas Taylor of 20,000 Hz appeared first on Phantom Power .
Mon, October 17, 2022
Listening in the Afterlife of Data (David Cecchetto)
David Cecchetto is a media theorist, artist, and musician who creates strange sonic experiments for understanding our computer-driven lives. Continue reading → The post Listening in the Afterlife of Data (David Cecchetto) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Mon, October 03, 2022
(Re)Making Radio with Shortwave Collective
The Shortwave Collective--an international group of feminist radio artists--teach you how to make your own radio with found materials! We talk about play, experimentation, failure, community, and open listening in their feminist radio practice. Continue reading → The post (Re)Making Radio with Shortwave Collective appeared first on Phantom Power .
Thu, September 15, 2022
In One Ear, Out The Other (Jacob Danson Faraday On Cirque du Soleil)
On today’s show, we address a performer’s nightmare—the nightmare of not being able to hear yourself onstage. My guest is ethnomusicologist Jacob Danson Faraday, who takes us behind the scenes of the famed Cirque du Soleil to learn how even … Continue reading → The post In One Ear, Out The Other (Jacob Danson Faraday On Cirque du Soleil) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Thu, September 01, 2022
Season Four Trailer
Get ready for Season Four of Phantom Power, where we study sound in the arts, music, and culture! On Phantom Power, we’ve got an ear to the ground—listening to the subterranean rats of New York… We’ve got an ear on … Continue reading → The post Season Four Trailer appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, August 16, 2022
Fela Kuti and the Black Atlantic (Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert)
This month, we are preparing for the launch of Season Four of the podcast in September. Lots of fascinating topics on deck, as we double our output with a semi-monthly format. We are also about to officially launch a Patreon … Continue reading → The post Fela Kuti and the Black Atlantic (Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Sat, July 23, 2022
Awfully Viral (Paula Harper on Will Robin’s Sound Expertise)
Will Robin interviews Dr. Paula Harper about her work on viral music videos and taste, specifically that terrible Rebecca Black video "Friday" that's probably still rattling around in some dark recess of your brain. Continue reading → The post Awfully Viral (Paula Harper on Will Robin’s Sound Expertise) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Wed, July 13, 2022
Ep. 37 | Awfully Viral (Paula Harper on Will Robin’s Sound Expertise)
It’s summer and we are busy working on episodes for our fourth season. We’ve also rebuilt our website–check out the the fabulous new phantompod.org. There’s other great stuff in store for the podcast, so stay tuned! But today, I want to share one of my favorite podcasts with you: Will Robin’s Sound Expertise . For those of you into musicology or popular music studies, there’s a great chance you’re already a subscribe. That’s because Will’s show is fantastic and I personally know many music scholars who are devoted fans of this show that features conversations with established and up-and-coming music scholars. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dr. Robin, you might remember that I quoted his New York Times obituary of R. Murray Schafer in our first episode on Schafer . He has written about music for the Times for at least a decade. He’s also an assistant professor of Musicology at the University of Maryland and the author of the book Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music . Sound Expertise will be dropping its third season in the fall. The episode you are about to hear is one that I love as a media scholar. Will Robin interviews Dr. Paula Harper about her work on viral music videos and taste, specifically that terrible Rebecca Black video “ Friday ” that’s probably still rattling around in some dark recess of your brain. Dr. Harper digs into the awful virality of that video and all of its cover versions, discerning what this case study can tell us about genre, gender, and how and why sound travels on the internet. It’s a great discussion and I hope you enjoy it. And by the way, since this interview happened, Paula Harper has joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of music. So, who says YouTube rots your brain?
Wed, April 13, 2022
Voices Pt. 3: Dork-o-phonics (Jonathan Sterne)
Jonathan Sterne is one of the most influential scholars working on sound and listening. His 2003 book, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, had a formative influence on the then-nascent field of sound studies. His 2012 book, MP3: The Meaning of a Format, was both a fascinating cultural history and a deep meditation… Continue reading → The post Voices Pt. 3: Dork-o-phonics (Jonathan Sterne) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Thu, March 10, 2022
Voices Pt. 2: The Sound of My Voice (Stacey Copeland)
In part two of our three-part series “Voices,” we feature an exciting new voice in the world of sound studies, Stacey Copeland. In part one last month, we examined the role voices play in professional sports and unpacked some of … Continue reading → The post Voices Pt. 2: The Sound of My Voice (Stacey Copeland) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Thu, February 10, 2022
Voices Part 1: Hut-hut-hike! (Travis Vogan, Jonathan Sterne)
In this first episode of a three-part series called Voices, we’re listening to the sound of American football—specifically the role of voices in the NFL. We start with a rather quirky story from NFL history that speaks to how the voice … Continue reading → The post Voices Part 1: Hut-hut-hike! (Travis Vogan, Jonathan Sterne) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, January 11, 2022
How Our Sonic Sausage Gets Made (Mack Hagood w/ Dario Llinares & Lori Beckstead)
This episode, we take you behind the scenes of Phantom Power. Producer/host Mack Hagood was invited by Dario Llinares and Lori Beckstead to be a guest on their show, The Podcast Studies Podcast. As you may or may not know, … Continue reading → The post How Our Sonic Sausage Gets Made (Mack Hagood w/ Dario Llinares & Lori Beckstead) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, December 14, 2021
The World According to Sound (Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett)
The World According to Sound is the brainchild of two rogue audionauts who rebelled against the NPR mothership: Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett. It began as a micro podcast that held one unique sound under the microscope for 90 seconds … Continue reading → The post The World According to Sound (Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, November 19, 2021
Animal Control (Mandy-Suzanne Wong, Robbie Judkins, Colleen Plumb) [Re-Cast]
In this re-cast, we examine the sounds humans make in order to monitor, repel, and control beasts. Author Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s Listen, We All Bleed is a creative nonfiction book that explores the human-animal relationship through animal-centered sound art. When we … Continue reading → The post Animal Control (Mandy-Suzanne Wong, Robbie Judkins, Colleen Plumb) [Re-Cast] appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, October 29, 2021
R. Murray Schafer Pt. 2: Critiques & Contradictions
How to think about the contradictory figure of R. Murray Schafer? A renegade scholar who used sound technology to create an entirely new field of study, even as he devalued the very tools of its trade. A gifted composer who … Continue reading → The post R. Murray Schafer Pt. 2: Critiques & Contradictions appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, September 28, 2021
R. Murray Schafer (1933-2021) Pt.1
R. Murray Schafer recently passed away on August 14th 2021. If you’re someone who works with sound or enjoys sound art or experimental music–or you’ve just thrown around the word “soundscape”–you’ve probably engaged with his intellectual legacy. Schafer was one of … Continue reading → The post R. Murray Schafer (1933-2021) Pt.1 appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, July 13, 2021
“On Listening In” ft. Lawrence English (Re-cast)
Today, in honor of World Listening Day, we rebroadcast our story on renowned Australian sound composer, media artist and curator Lawrence English. This episode of gets deep into English’s own listening practices as an artist, specifically a technique he calls … Continue reading → The post “On Listening In” ft. Lawrence English (Re-cast) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Mon, June 14, 2021
Emotional Rescue (Mack Hagood)
What can sound technologies tell us about our relationship to media as a whole? This is one of the central questions in the research of Phantom Power‘s host, Mack Hagood. To find its answer, he studies devices that get little … Continue reading → The post Emotional Rescue (Mack Hagood) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, May 11, 2021
Lightning Birds (Jacob Smith)
Today we present the first episode of Jacob Smith’s new eco-critical audiobook, Lightning Birds: An Aeroecology of the Airwaves. In this audio-only book, Smith uses expert production to craft a wildly original argument about the relations between radio and bird … Continue reading → The post Lightning Birds (Jacob Smith) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, April 13, 2021
For Some Odd Reason (Kate Carr)
Today’s guest, Kate Carr, is an accomplished sound artist and field recordist whose recent work grapples with issues of communication and longing—themes we can all relate to in the Covid era. In part one of the show, we mark Phantom Power’s three-year … Continue reading → The post For Some Odd Reason (Kate Carr) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, March 09, 2021
Voice of Yoko (Amy Skjerseth on Yoko Ono)
Today, Phantom Power‘s Amy Skjerseth brings us the story of perhaps the most famous vocal performance artist and avant-garde musician whose actual work probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves: Yoko Ono. Collaborator with the Fluxus group in the early … Continue reading → The post Voice of Yoko (Amy Skjerseth on Yoko Ono) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Tue, February 09, 2021
Forest Listening Rooms (Brian Harnetty)
What would happen if you took red state rural voters on a walk into the woods with left-wing environmental activists and experimental music fans? Our guest this episode knows the answer. BRIAN HARNETTY is a composer and an interdisciplinary artist … Continue reading → The post Forest Listening Rooms (Brian Harnetty) appeared first on Phantom Power .
Fri, January 08, 2021
HEY, ROBOT! (Frank Lantz)
Today, we’re playing with voice assistants and thinking about the role of voices in gaming with our guest, game designer and NYU professor Frank Lantz. Over the past nightmare year of the coronavirus, many of us have been hunkered down, … Continue reading → The post HEY, ROBOT! (Frank Lantz) appeared first on Phantom Power .
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