September 25, 2026 • 28 mins
Ever wondered what sound the origin of the universe made? Or why British people are so turned off by the sound of Tasmanian Devils? From the crowds at Shakespeare's Globe to the ugly grunts of baby koalas, we're covering the funniest, strangest, most annoying sounds in the universe.
This episode originally aired on December 27, 2017.
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Artist's rendering of a distant galaxy with an active quasar by Joseph Olmsted/NASA. Thanks, Joseph and NASA!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's up, Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So I was looking back at some stories that I'd
bookmarked from this year, and there was this one, this
really good one about a bagpiper. And I felt like
I needed to share it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This already sounds awful. I know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But all right. So this is from Glasgow and it's
late in the night and people are on a commuter train.
They're trying to get home from the pub or the
office or wherever. And this guy just steps onto the car.
and starts wailing away on his bagpipes. Can you imagine this?
I mean, they sound like one thing from a distance,
but up close. So he's in a partying mood and
he genuinely wants to keep the party going, but, you know,
(00:34):
using his bagpipes. So he starts playing a rousing rendition
of Yellow Submarine.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I mean, I guess that's sort of upbeat, but does
everyone get into it?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, just the opposite. So the chorus comes around and
you think people are going to start breaking out singing.
And then everyone just keeps staring at him in total anger.
It's pretty amazing. And the comments were brutal. One person
said he'd rather opt for waterboarding than hear that noise again. But,
you know, remembering this Piper's tale made me wonder, what
(01:05):
are some of the most unusual sounds in history? What
did the Big Bang sound like? Or Tyrannosaurus's roar? And
what are some sounds worth blocking out? And that's what
today's episode is all about. Let's dive.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
In.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson.
And as always, I'm joined by my good friend, Mangesh Hatikadur.
And on the other side of the soundproof glass, singing
the hit song from The Bodyguard. That's our friend and producer,
Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I really wish you could hear it because Tristan sings
like an angel. And, you know, every time I hear
that song, I will always love you.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You tear up, right?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
No. But every time I hear it, I think about
the fact that Saddam Hussein used it as his campaign song. Like,
it's just so ridiculous to me.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's one of my favorite facts of all time. I
did look it up again recently because I wanted to
see the ads again. And the song he used was
actually an Arabic cover by a pop star from Syria.
So still still the same emotional impact, but slightly different.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, I've already gotten us off track or I guess
Tristan's gotten us off track. But well, I know our
episodes all over the place. So today we're covering some
of the strangest, loudest and most irritating sounds in history.
Where do you want to start?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I think we should go back to the beginning. So
I think we should start with the actual earliest sound
in the universe. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds a little theoretical or theological,
I guess. And, you know, in Hinduism, there's a sound
of OM that's supposed to be like the beginning, middle
and end of time sound. Like, I mean, you hear
it in yoga classes, too. But in Christianity, I'm guessing
it's like when God flipped the light switch. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, before there was light, I think there was actually
the sound of water sloshing, if I remember correctly, you know,
since there's water and earth referenced in that darkness. But
I was actually taking more of a scientific slant here.
I was talking about the earliest sounds in the universe,
as in, you know, the Big Bang.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, that makes more sense. Although the word Big Bang
already seems descriptive, right? I'm guessing it just sounds like
a massive crash.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, that's what I thought, too. And I think most
people would assume. But the truth is actually weirder than that.
So there's a physicist from the University of Washington. His
name is John Kramer. And back in 2001, he wrote
this article that described the sound of the Big Bang.
You know, the physics here is above my pay grade,
but according to the Atlantic article, quote, during the first
100 to 700,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe
(03:43):
was far denser than the air on Earth, which means
that the sound waves could actually move through it. So
he published this piece about how the universe kept ringing
in this slow, low frequency way until the universe grew
to these massive proportions and it stopped making the hum.
And the sound would have been too low frequency for
human ears to pick up on, but Then a couple
(04:04):
years later, this was in 2003, I think, a mom
who was helping her 11-year-old with a fifth grade project
asked if there's a recording of it anywhere. And when
Kramer responded no, he then decided to synthesize it for them.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, that's awesome that we know what the Big
Bang sounds like because of a fifth grader. And it's
also crazy to me that the universe is, what, like
14 billion years old?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And we have indications of what it actually sounded like
from the start?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I mean, that's insane.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
What's it actually sound like?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, so like you, I assume the Big Bang was
going to sound terrifically big or powerful. But as our
friend Lucas Riley puts it, it sounds a little bit
more like a motorcycle fart.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I both don't know what that means. And also, it
seems gross. Yes. But what does it sound like to you?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well, Kramer has a few versions up on his site,
and they're worth checking out. They range from 20 seconds
to even eight minutes long, and they're all pretty similar.
So to me, it sounded somewhere between like a video
game character dying or like an old school computer powering
down or something like that. I don't know if that
makes any sense or just maybe we'll go with motorcycle fart.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All these noises, I don't know what they mean. You
do have a link to the sound, right? So, I mean,
I think we should put a link of it to
Facebook and then we can ask listeners to describe it.
And we'll send T-shirts to like the funniest three descriptions.
Sound good to you?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But now I'm curious, how did Kramer make this sound
for human ears? Like, I think he said it was
too low frequency for us to actually be able to hear.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, that's a good question. So from the way I
understand it, he used data from satellites and pulled something
called a cosmic microwave background. The site futurity.org refers to
it as a fossilized fingerprint of the Big Bang. And
then he made some calculations and pulled the data into
a sound file. But You know, to create something we
could hear, Kramer had to boost the frequency 100 septillion times.
(05:59):
You know how big that is? That's one followed by
29 zeros. Uh-huh. And so when he played it in
his office for the first time, his sheepdogs ran in
and started howling. They were not fans of this.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Maybe they're creationists. I love that. But it reminds me
of when I started playing the violin in third grade
and I was so awful. But when I screeched and played,
my pup would just run and face me and just
howl along. And I think both my family and my
dog were so relieved when I finally quit the violin.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Sounds familiar.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I love this idea of cataloging sounds. And we've got
the Big Bang on file now, which is awesome. And
there's actually a guy who's gone around New Jersey cataloging
all the sounds of New Jersey for future generations.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
This just sounds like a joke, though. Is this true?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, it's real. His name's Bernie Wagon Blast.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's just a joke, right?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's also true.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
But he's visiting every county trying to capture something that
feels rare about each place. So he'll like tape the
rumble of the Kingda Ka roller coaster as it's going
up or the sound inside this old covered bridge or
even like the music of ice skates cutting and gliding
across the ice at an old historic rink. Yeah, it's
really beautiful and poetic. And it's like a sound library
(07:13):
of New Jersey. But there's this even more ambitious project
I want to talk about. And it's called the Sonic
Wonders of the World. It's from this British acoustic engineer
named Trevor Cox. And It's kind of like these beautiful
sonic destinations that are worth visiting.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That sounds like a lot of fun. So what all
is on the list?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, one of the first things I saw was the
singing sands in California in the Mojave Desert. So according
to CNN, when you slide down the sand on your backside,
that unusual sand makes a, quote, deep parping sound resembling
propeller aircraft or a sousaphone accident.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, Cox calls it more of a weird droning.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So does this have to do with like the shape
of the sand or the size of the sand or what? Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So it has to do both with the shape of
the dune and the size of the sand grains, apparently.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Wow, that's pretty cool. All right. So what else does
he talk about?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, some of it is man-made sounds. Like there's some
acoustic wonders. There's this chirping Mayan pyramid where when you
clap your hands, it echoes back with the sound of
this sacred Mayan bird. It's pretty awesome. And it was
used for religious ceremonies. But There's also a place in Karnataka, India,
where I've actually been. It's called Gol Gumbaz. And there's
(08:21):
this massive whispering gallery. You can speak into a column
on one side and hear the message on the other side.
And if you speak in a different part, the dome
kind of echoes the sounds over and over. And the
way it was described in the article was it's almost
like a 1960s horror flick where there are all these
like layered sampled sounds just echoing over each other.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
But it's actually way less terrifying actually. And more like,
I don't know, like the open swim at your YMCA.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's a little different.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But my favorite thing he talks about is the musical
Road in California, which has the William Tell and Lone
Ranger song like grooved into the pavement. And as Cox
and CNN put it, it is a very bad rendition
of the William Tell overture, like someone gargling with water
in an adjacent room. But it does make you laugh.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wow. I mean, I do love the musical highways and runways.
I know we covered in a previous episode, the one
at Disney, you know, where they when the when the
plane goes over, do you hear when you wish upon
a star? I guess it's as they land, I think.
But now that we've covered one sound no one has
heard and a bunch of sounds you travel to hear,
I think we should probably cover some terrible sounds that
(09:29):
nobody wants to hear.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So I'm a little hesitant about what that means, but
I'll go with it. But let's pause for a quick
break first.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius. So before the break, you
were teasing that we get into some awful sounds. Well,
I found this list from 2007, and it's of the
worst sounds in.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius. So before the break, you
were teasing that we get into.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Some awful sounds. Well, I found this list from 2007
and it's of the worst sounds in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay. So 2007, I'm going to put myself back in
the mindset of when Ratatouille was in theaters and that
show Chuck was on the air, I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I forgot about Chuck. I'm not sure you have to
think that deeply about it, but so this is a
British list. So most of the sounds are pretty similar
as the ones that we might think of here. And
There are things like feedback from a microphone or crying babies.
And I guess maybe they knew about your violin playing
you were talking about because poorly played violin is actually
number six on the list here.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
But what about something like nails on a chalkboard? Honestly,
just saying that phrase gives me the shivers and makes
me uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, surprisingly, that wasn't on there. I mean, I
guess the closest thing to that they have here, let's see,
the train scraping on the track. So that's on there.
But there are a few on here that I actually
didn't see, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
This feels a little bit like British Family for you,
but I'm still going to make you take a guess.
So what are some of the other top 10 worst
sounds in the world?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
In England specifically?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I think anywhere.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I don't know. I'd have to say throwing up is
probably top of the list.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Nicely done. Survey says that's actually number one. Didn't expect
you to nail that. So, I mean, vomiting is definitely
a sound people would love to block out, but there
are others on here that are pretty hilarious. So Squeaky
Seesaw comes in at number five. I don't even think
that's that annoying of a noise right above Violin. It's
on there. Whoopie Cushion comes in at number seven. I
(11:27):
don't know what makes people think about these things. Number
eight is an argument from a soap opera.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
These are so specific.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
It is.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, the funniest thing on the list, though, is number 10,
Tasmanian Devil.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
What? I mean, that makes no sense. How did that
many people in England even know what a Tasmanian Devil
sounds like?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
All right, well, Here's the strange thing, though. I mean,
I had no idea you were going to bring up
Trevor Cox earlier. He's the guy that's been collecting sounds
from around the world. But oddly enough, he's also responsible
for this survey. Basically, he and some colleagues took 34
repellent sounds and they played them for a group of
men and women. And part of the reason he did
(12:05):
this is that Cox has been trying to figure out
what drives such strong emotions and reactions, you know, to
various sounds.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And also the engineers are trying to find out if
there are ways to re-engineer these sounds to be less offensive,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
So do they find out anything interesting?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, there were some differences in gender. You know, women,
for instance, tended to find a baby's crying a little
less jarring than men. But I think what's interesting is
how some of the things you'd think would annoy people
were far lower on the list. Howling cats and things
like snoring were far less annoying to most people than
Tasmanian devils. Snoring ranked number 26 on the list. That's
such an annoying sound.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I mean, you'd obviously take snoring over the sound of
someone vomiting.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But this idea of reengineering sounds is pretty interesting. So
what does that mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Well, I don't know what Cox is thinking about exactly,
but actually there is this ignoble study about nails and chalkboards.
So these scientists isolated the high pitch frequencies as well
as the middle and low frequencies. And then they tried
to figure out what made people cringe. And they realized
it's actually not the high frequencies. but actually the middle
ones that cause the hair to go up on your neck. So,
(13:13):
you know, in a movie, taking out or reducing that
middle frequency would be much easier to watch. All right,
but two last quick discoveries about this before we move on.
So number one, if you're given warning about someone scraping
a chalkboard before you do it, you actually react way,
way worse than if you just hear the sound.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That's actually pretty funny because I heard that behavioral economist
Dan Ariely talk about removing bandages and how if someone
tells you or warns you that they're going to do it,
and then gently pulls the bandages off your body, you've
got this higher tolerance for pain versus the idea of
just ripping them off and getting it over with. And
it's funny to think about what your mind can and
can't handle knowing in advance.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
That's pretty interesting. Well, here's the other thing I was
going to say. So scientists have wondered whether our aversion
to that nails on a chalkboard sound is actually because
it's the same frequency as some primate warning calls.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Oh, that's crazy. So primate warnings and nails on a
chalkboard are actually emitted at the same frequency?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, that's right. So it might accidentally be triggering this
danger instinct that's in.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
All of us.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Well, I'm certainly glad that part of the show is over.
And I know we want to talk about earworms, too,
which are the songs that get stuck in your head.
But before we do that, how about we have a
little palate cleanser of cute facts?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
All right, sure. So what do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So did you know that baby turtles all hatch at
the same time because they're actually communicating through their eggshells?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Oh, so it's like synchronized hatching. That is pretty cute.
Good job, Mango.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, it gives them a better chance of survival. And actually,
I've got another one for you. So did you know
that scientists at Georgia Tech have created software for barns
and hen houses that tries to create happier chickens? It
does this all by listening to their clucks and squawks. Apparently,
you can tell whether a chicken is stressed or too
cold or a whole host of other things by listening
to a group's clucking. And this smart barn software... actually
(15:03):
listens to the sound feed of chickens and adjusts things
like the lighting or temperature or whatever makes chickens a
little happier in their coops. Apparently, it makes for more
eggs and plumper chickens.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
All right.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, why don't we move from eggs to earworms? And
as you know, earworms are those catchy songs and refrains
that get stuck in your head. And sometimes they're there
for a few hours. Sometimes, honestly, for me, it feels
like they'll stay there for days and days. But the
founding director of the Music, Mind and Brain program at
Goldsmiths in London. Her name is Lauren Smith. Well, she's
been studying this phenomenon since 2009.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
But earworms feel like they've been around for longer.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Than that, right? Well, the phenomenon is a whole lot older.
And there's a great New Yorker piece by Maria Konnikova.
You know, we actually had her on the program before.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Oh, yeah, she was so great. She did that wonderful podcast,
The Grift.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, it was a really interesting one. But in this
piece specifically, she references this Russian musical prodigy named Nicholas Slonimskiy.
And he wrote a book in the 1940s all about
creating musical patterns that, quote, hook the mind and force
mimicry and repetition. And I don't know if he's exactly
talking about earworms here, but he is talking about catchy music.
(16:11):
And Frank Zappa and John Coltrane, among others, were influenced
by Slonimski's work. So the term earworm then gets coined
back in the 1970s. And this happens in Germany. But
even that has some old roots. Konnikova writes about the
old folk music that was known to stick in your
craw like, quote, a piper's maggot. I don't know exactly
what that means, but it sounds gross. Which is all
(16:34):
to say that earworms have a long history. But it
was only with Lawrence Smith in 2009 that they really
studied what makes an earworm.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So what does make an earworm?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, part of it has to do with hearing a
song a few times. But another part is that the
song itself normally has notes that are very close together.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So you're talking about like musical intervals here.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, that's right. A lot of half steps or whole
steps between a lot of the notes. But also, you know,
the notes getting held for a long time and then
it repeats. So if you're thinking about something like, you know,
the White Stripes Seven Nation Army, where the song is
repeating that like bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. And
those notes are all right there next to each other
(17:15):
on the keyboard.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Hmm. I mean, that's both fascinating and terrifying to me
that like Justin Bieber or Fifth Harmony songwriters or whoever
know exactly what makes a song stick in our heads.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Why is that terrifying? It seems wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Because I don't need any more than my head. They're
already there. But do we have any insight on why
songs catch or like why they pop up when we
don't expect them to?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well, we don't know for sure, but there is one
hypothesis that's pretty interesting. And it's the idea that people
either get an earworm because it matches their mental state
or because it's helping you change your mental state. So
as this article points out, if you're feeling super sluggish,
you might hear a song that revs you up, or alternately,
you know, one that can calm you down if the
(17:58):
situation demands it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
And that's amazing that like your body is, your mind's
regulating your.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Body that way. Right, right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So one last question on this before we move on.
How do you get rid of them? Like I'd heard
the best way was to just sing yourself another catchy song,
but that seems like a terrible cure to me.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, distracting yourself is one way, but the better way,
according to researchers, is just to belt the song out.
Like if you sing it, your mind gets over it
or at least gets closer to being over it. And
then you can actually move on.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Crazy. Well, I want to talk about some of the
more weird, funny sounds. But before we do, let's go
to a break.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
So Welcome back to Part-Time Genius.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Now we're talking about some of the biggest, strangest, and
most irritating sounds in the universe. And basically a whole
lot of noise you'd love to block out.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And listeners, while we did mention this in the episode description,
both this episode and the one we did a few
episodes back on The Art of Trash Talking were made
possible by Beats by Dre and their noise-canceling headphones. And
just for the record, Dr. Dre did not personally collaborate
or participate in this episode, but we do look forward
to working with him in the future.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Right, of course. Well, so, Mango, before we get back
to it, you wanted to talk a little bit about
sound in history, right?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, so I was reading this story at the Huffington
Post by David Hendy about the history of sound, and
Nolan pointed it to me, but it's filled with all
sorts of great stories. And one of them's like how
medicine changed when stethoscopes were invented. So doctors have been
listening to the body for clues forever, you know, heartbeats
and pulse and whatever. But suddenly there were all these
(19:43):
gurgles and rattles and hisses that they could now hear.
And there was this new level of sophistication. And it
made the body so much more wondrous and opened up
all these new mysteries and ideas through advances in sound.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's pretty cool. So what else?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, there was a bit on how the early phonographs
and gramophones weren't really exciting to people because of their
ability to play music. It was really more because they
were thought of as these recording devices, like they were
a way that you could preserve your dying uncle's voice
and his words of wisdom for posterity instead of, I
don't know, just like a way of playing your power
of love, best of the 80s power ballads album. So
(20:20):
the article had these interesting things I hadn't realized about
sound in history. But the most fascinating thing to me
was just how music has been used to control people.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
All right. Well, you'll have to explain this to me.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So in one section, the article talked about town bells
in history and how they were used for the whole
town to know, I don't know, when to get up
in the morning or when to sleep. But they also
let you know when to pray or when to take
up arms or when to do dinner. And this all
sounds so harmless. But as the article put it, it
actually tightens both the secular and religious authorities hold over
(20:52):
the daily life of all within hearing distance. Yeah, so
that's one part of it. But in terms of things
like music, it also works, right? Like, How background music
is often organized to this rhythm that either tries to
calm you down or get us to work harder or
eat faster or buy more.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, I mean, you always hear about that at restaurants
where they don't want you lingering or that old story
of the mall parking lot. And when I think it
was in Australia where they were playing Barry Manilow and
music like that just to keep the kids from loitering
there at night.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
All right.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Well, I know we've got a fact off to get to,
but before we do, why don't we each tell one
story of an annoying sound in history? Do you want
to do this?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, I'm for it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
All right. Why don't you go first?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
How about one of the best and worst venues to
be a performer, which was Shakespeare's Globe Theater?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Shakespeare's Globe Theater. I mean, you get to work with Shakespeare,
perform for royalty. Why would this be a terrible place?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Honestly, it was because the crowds were so awful. I mean,
the sound is only part of the experience. And for
the actors, they were constantly under the threat of like
having rotten vegetables thrown in their direction, you know, if
the rowdy crowd didn't like their work. But the smell
was a huge assault on the senses. So according to LiteraryTraveler.com,
the penny seats in the yard, which went to the
(22:03):
folk known as, I don't know, the groundlings or sometimes
the stinkards, it was full of drunks and they were
just waiting and standing ankle deep in mud. And according
to the site, because the crowds were so thick, Like
the bathroom breaks for men just meant aiming between your shoes.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Oh, my God. That's so gross.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I know. It wasn't exactly hygienic, but you get what
you pay for. And for the actors, it was even
worse because in addition to all the stink, the acoustics
were miserable. Like the crowds would be yelling and chatting
and fighting. And so just to get the stories communicated.
The actress would have to over exaggerate their gestures and
like boom their lines, which totally changes how you'd imagine
(22:44):
like a Shakespeare play. If you're thinking about Hamlet just
yelling to be or not to be over this noisy crowd.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It is pretty funny, though, just to imagine that.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Just always angry.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I could see why an actor would want to tune
that out.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Well, my story is about music being used by interrogators.
I'm sure you remember how the FBI played Tibetan monk
chants outside the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, you know,
just to drive them crazy. But it isn't the only
case of them doing this. Apparently, in 2003, the BBC
reported that the US was blasting songs from Metallica, Skinny Puppy.
(23:16):
And of course, the theme song to Barney to get
people to talk.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
How about that? Like Barney gets thrown in that mix.
Somehow that feels like even crueler.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I just don't think that should be allowed. Well, but
according to Newsweek, 24 hours of it will drive someone insane.
24 hours. I'm thinking like 30 minutes of this and
I'd be ready to talk. That's definitely a sound you
want to block out. But the story got weirder because
when the band Skinny Puppy heard about this, they realized
the government owed them royalties for playing their music. So
(23:47):
they sent the Department of Defense a $ 600, 000 bill for royalties. Actually,
it was $ 666, 000 because, you know, I guess they were
trying to make a point here.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
That's funny and pretty cavalier. But now that we've gotten
a little warmed up with the back and forth, why
don't we start the fact off?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
All right, I'm for it. Well, we knew we'd be
talking about some terrible sounds. So we agreed in advance
that we would keep this one focused on, you know,
maybe something a little happier. So we're going to do
a cute animal edition. Are you still up for this? Yeah,
that's right. All right, well, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So I know we both watched that David Attenborough clip
on YouTube about the lyrebird. It's amazing because in it,
like this bird imitates all these sounds like a car
alarm and a cell phone or even a chainsaw in
the wild. And the doc makes it seem like the
lyrebirds picked up those sounds from, I don't know, developers
invading the forest. But the real reason the bird on
(24:47):
camera could actually make those sounds was that it had
been living in captivity at the zoo.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Oh, OK.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So apparently the bird named Chook had overheard construction on
the new panda enclosure. And that's how he added all
this like hammering and drilling and saw sounds to his repertoire.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's still incredible, though, that they can do that. It's
pretty wild. Well, did you know that dolphins actually don't
have vocal cords? So when they're squeaking and chirping, they're
actually doing it through a lip-shaped tissue in their nose,
and these are called phonic lips.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That's super weird. Speaking of water critters, did you know
that walruses come with bells and whistles? They make a
bell sound underwater, not from their vocal cords, but instead
from these inflatable sacks called pharyngeal pouches. It's actually kind
of beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, you know what isn't beautiful, Mango? What's that? And
that's the sound of a koala. They might look like bears,
but they actually grunt more like pigs.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
So this isn't exactly an animal, but I did want
to talk about Wolverine and the sound his claws make
in the X-Men movies.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
He is not an animal.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But to make the sound of him flashing and retracting
those adamantium claws, the sound designer used the sound of
a knife being drawn from a sheath, right?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But because the sound didn't make it seem like the
claws were emerging and then slipping back into Wolverine's flesh enough,
The sound designer mixed it with the juicy sound of
a chicken carcass being pulled apart. So you get like
a little squishing noise in there, too, if you listen closely.
Isn't that gross?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
It's weird just saying squishing noise kind of makes me react.
All right, well, speaking of movies, I've got a great
one from Jurassic Park. And obviously it's hard to figure
out exactly what a T-Rex roar would have sounded like.
So the sound designer sampled and blended a number of
different sounds. Everything from a baby elephant crying to a
hissing tiger to... An alligator's gurgle, apparently. I don't know
(26:37):
exactly what that is, but that's what it says. But
they all got slowed down and mixed together to make
for this, what they considered a realistic T-Rex roar.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's pretty amazing. And it is better than a motorcycle fart,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
I think you're probably right about that. Also, to make
the dinosaurs' breathing sound, the engineers modified the sound of
air coming out of a whale's blowhole. That's pretty cool, huh?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, it's awesome. And while none of those are sounds
I'd seek out, I am sufficiently impressed that I'm going
to crown you this week's winner.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, thank you very much. And thanks to Beats by
Dre for sponsoring this episode. If there are some great
noises from the natural world or history that you'd love
to share with us, remember, you can always email us
parttimegenius at howstuffworks.com. You can always reach us on our
24-7 fact hotline. That's 1-844-PT-GENIUS. And of course, you can
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, too. Thanks so
(27:27):
much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part-time genius is
a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible
without several brilliant people who do the important things. We
(27:47):
couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Gabe Luzier is our lead researcher with support from the
research army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown, and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And Yves Jeffcoat gets the show to your ears. Good job, Yves.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe.
And if you really, really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Did we forget Jason?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Jason who?
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's up, Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So I was looking back at some stories that I'd
bookmarked from this year, and there was this one, this
really good one about a bagpiper. And I felt like
I needed to share it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This already sounds awful. I know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But all right. So this is from Glasgow and it's
late in the night and people are on a commuter train.
They're trying to get home from the pub or the
office or wherever. And this guy just steps onto the car.
and starts wailing away on his bagpipes. Can you imagine this?
I mean, they sound like one thing from a distance,
but up close. So he's in a partying mood and
he genuinely wants to keep the party going, but, you know,
(00:34):
using his bagpipes. So he starts playing a rousing rendition
of Yellow Submarine.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I mean, I guess that's sort of upbeat, but does
everyone get into it?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, just the opposite. So the chorus comes around and
you think people are going to start breaking out singing.
And then everyone just keeps staring at him in total anger.
It's pretty amazing. And the comments were brutal. One person
said he'd rather opt for waterboarding than hear that noise again. But,
you know, remembering this Piper's tale made me wonder, what
(01:05):
are some of the most unusual sounds in history? What
did the Big Bang sound like? Or Tyrannosaurus's roar? And
what are some sounds worth blocking out? And that's what
today's episode is all about. Let's dive.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
In.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson.
And as always, I'm joined by my good friend, Mangesh Hatikadur.
And on the other side of the soundproof glass, singing
the hit song from The Bodyguard. That's our friend and producer,
Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I really wish you could hear it because Tristan sings
like an angel. And, you know, every time I hear
that song, I will always love you.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You tear up, right?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
No. But every time I hear it, I think about
the fact that Saddam Hussein used it as his campaign song. Like,
it's just so ridiculous to me.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's one of my favorite facts of all time. I
did look it up again recently because I wanted to
see the ads again. And the song he used was
actually an Arabic cover by a pop star from Syria.
So still still the same emotional impact, but slightly different.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, I've already gotten us off track or I guess
Tristan's gotten us off track. But well, I know our
episodes all over the place. So today we're covering some
of the strangest, loudest and most irritating sounds in history.
Where do you want to start?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I think we should go back to the beginning. So
I think we should start with the actual earliest sound
in the universe. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds a little theoretical or theological,
I guess. And, you know, in Hinduism, there's a sound
of OM that's supposed to be like the beginning, middle
and end of time sound. Like, I mean, you hear
it in yoga classes, too. But in Christianity, I'm guessing
it's like when God flipped the light switch. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, before there was light, I think there was actually
the sound of water sloshing, if I remember correctly, you know,
since there's water and earth referenced in that darkness. But
I was actually taking more of a scientific slant here.
I was talking about the earliest sounds in the universe,
as in, you know, the Big Bang.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, that makes more sense. Although the word Big Bang
already seems descriptive, right? I'm guessing it just sounds like
a massive crash.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, that's what I thought, too. And I think most
people would assume. But the truth is actually weirder than that.
So there's a physicist from the University of Washington. His
name is John Kramer. And back in 2001, he wrote
this article that described the sound of the Big Bang.
You know, the physics here is above my pay grade,
but according to the Atlantic article, quote, during the first
100 to 700,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe
(03:43):
was far denser than the air on Earth, which means
that the sound waves could actually move through it. So
he published this piece about how the universe kept ringing
in this slow, low frequency way until the universe grew
to these massive proportions and it stopped making the hum.
And the sound would have been too low frequency for
human ears to pick up on, but Then a couple
(04:04):
years later, this was in 2003, I think, a mom
who was helping her 11-year-old with a fifth grade project
asked if there's a recording of it anywhere. And when
Kramer responded no, he then decided to synthesize it for them.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, that's awesome that we know what the Big
Bang sounds like because of a fifth grader. And it's
also crazy to me that the universe is, what, like
14 billion years old?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And we have indications of what it actually sounded like
from the start?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I mean, that's insane.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
What's it actually sound like?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, so like you, I assume the Big Bang was
going to sound terrifically big or powerful. But as our
friend Lucas Riley puts it, it sounds a little bit
more like a motorcycle fart.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I both don't know what that means. And also, it
seems gross. Yes. But what does it sound like to you?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well, Kramer has a few versions up on his site,
and they're worth checking out. They range from 20 seconds
to even eight minutes long, and they're all pretty similar.
So to me, it sounded somewhere between like a video
game character dying or like an old school computer powering
down or something like that. I don't know if that
makes any sense or just maybe we'll go with motorcycle fart.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All these noises, I don't know what they mean. You
do have a link to the sound, right? So, I mean,
I think we should put a link of it to
Facebook and then we can ask listeners to describe it.
And we'll send T-shirts to like the funniest three descriptions.
Sound good to you?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But now I'm curious, how did Kramer make this sound
for human ears? Like, I think he said it was
too low frequency for us to actually be able to hear.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, that's a good question. So from the way I
understand it, he used data from satellites and pulled something
called a cosmic microwave background. The site futurity.org refers to
it as a fossilized fingerprint of the Big Bang. And
then he made some calculations and pulled the data into
a sound file. But You know, to create something we
could hear, Kramer had to boost the frequency 100 septillion times.
(05:59):
You know how big that is? That's one followed by
29 zeros. Uh-huh. And so when he played it in
his office for the first time, his sheepdogs ran in
and started howling. They were not fans of this.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Maybe they're creationists. I love that. But it reminds me
of when I started playing the violin in third grade
and I was so awful. But when I screeched and played,
my pup would just run and face me and just
howl along. And I think both my family and my
dog were so relieved when I finally quit the violin.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Sounds familiar.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I love this idea of cataloging sounds. And we've got
the Big Bang on file now, which is awesome. And
there's actually a guy who's gone around New Jersey cataloging
all the sounds of New Jersey for future generations.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
This just sounds like a joke, though. Is this true?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, it's real. His name's Bernie Wagon Blast.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's just a joke, right?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's also true.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
But he's visiting every county trying to capture something that
feels rare about each place. So he'll like tape the
rumble of the Kingda Ka roller coaster as it's going
up or the sound inside this old covered bridge or
even like the music of ice skates cutting and gliding
across the ice at an old historic rink. Yeah, it's
really beautiful and poetic. And it's like a sound library
(07:13):
of New Jersey. But there's this even more ambitious project
I want to talk about. And it's called the Sonic
Wonders of the World. It's from this British acoustic engineer
named Trevor Cox. And It's kind of like these beautiful
sonic destinations that are worth visiting.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That sounds like a lot of fun. So what all
is on the list?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, one of the first things I saw was the
singing sands in California in the Mojave Desert. So according
to CNN, when you slide down the sand on your backside,
that unusual sand makes a, quote, deep parping sound resembling
propeller aircraft or a sousaphone accident.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, Cox calls it more of a weird droning.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So does this have to do with like the shape
of the sand or the size of the sand or what? Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So it has to do both with the shape of
the dune and the size of the sand grains, apparently.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Wow, that's pretty cool. All right. So what else does
he talk about?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, some of it is man-made sounds. Like there's some
acoustic wonders. There's this chirping Mayan pyramid where when you
clap your hands, it echoes back with the sound of
this sacred Mayan bird. It's pretty awesome. And it was
used for religious ceremonies. But There's also a place in Karnataka, India,
where I've actually been. It's called Gol Gumbaz. And there's
(08:21):
this massive whispering gallery. You can speak into a column
on one side and hear the message on the other side.
And if you speak in a different part, the dome
kind of echoes the sounds over and over. And the
way it was described in the article was it's almost
like a 1960s horror flick where there are all these
like layered sampled sounds just echoing over each other.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
But it's actually way less terrifying actually. And more like,
I don't know, like the open swim at your YMCA.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's a little different.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But my favorite thing he talks about is the musical
Road in California, which has the William Tell and Lone
Ranger song like grooved into the pavement. And as Cox
and CNN put it, it is a very bad rendition
of the William Tell overture, like someone gargling with water
in an adjacent room. But it does make you laugh.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wow. I mean, I do love the musical highways and runways.
I know we covered in a previous episode, the one
at Disney, you know, where they when the when the
plane goes over, do you hear when you wish upon
a star? I guess it's as they land, I think.
But now that we've covered one sound no one has
heard and a bunch of sounds you travel to hear,
I think we should probably cover some terrible sounds that
(09:29):
nobody wants to hear.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So I'm a little hesitant about what that means, but
I'll go with it. But let's pause for a quick
break first.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius. So before the break, you
were teasing that we get into some awful sounds. Well,
I found this list from 2007, and it's of the
worst sounds in.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius. So before the break, you
were teasing that we get into.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Some awful sounds. Well, I found this list from 2007
and it's of the worst sounds in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay. So 2007, I'm going to put myself back in
the mindset of when Ratatouille was in theaters and that
show Chuck was on the air, I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I forgot about Chuck. I'm not sure you have to
think that deeply about it, but so this is a
British list. So most of the sounds are pretty similar
as the ones that we might think of here. And
There are things like feedback from a microphone or crying babies.
And I guess maybe they knew about your violin playing
you were talking about because poorly played violin is actually
number six on the list here.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
But what about something like nails on a chalkboard? Honestly,
just saying that phrase gives me the shivers and makes
me uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, surprisingly, that wasn't on there. I mean, I
guess the closest thing to that they have here, let's see,
the train scraping on the track. So that's on there.
But there are a few on here that I actually
didn't see, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
This feels a little bit like British Family for you,
but I'm still going to make you take a guess.
So what are some of the other top 10 worst
sounds in the world?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
In England specifically?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I think anywhere.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I don't know. I'd have to say throwing up is
probably top of the list.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Nicely done. Survey says that's actually number one. Didn't expect
you to nail that. So, I mean, vomiting is definitely
a sound people would love to block out, but there
are others on here that are pretty hilarious. So Squeaky
Seesaw comes in at number five. I don't even think
that's that annoying of a noise right above Violin. It's
on there. Whoopie Cushion comes in at number seven. I
(11:27):
don't know what makes people think about these things. Number
eight is an argument from a soap opera.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
These are so specific.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
It is.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, the funniest thing on the list, though, is number 10,
Tasmanian Devil.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
What? I mean, that makes no sense. How did that
many people in England even know what a Tasmanian Devil
sounds like?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
All right, well, Here's the strange thing, though. I mean,
I had no idea you were going to bring up
Trevor Cox earlier. He's the guy that's been collecting sounds
from around the world. But oddly enough, he's also responsible
for this survey. Basically, he and some colleagues took 34
repellent sounds and they played them for a group of
men and women. And part of the reason he did
(12:05):
this is that Cox has been trying to figure out
what drives such strong emotions and reactions, you know, to
various sounds.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And also the engineers are trying to find out if
there are ways to re-engineer these sounds to be less offensive,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
So do they find out anything interesting?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, there were some differences in gender. You know, women,
for instance, tended to find a baby's crying a little
less jarring than men. But I think what's interesting is
how some of the things you'd think would annoy people
were far lower on the list. Howling cats and things
like snoring were far less annoying to most people than
Tasmanian devils. Snoring ranked number 26 on the list. That's
such an annoying sound.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I mean, you'd obviously take snoring over the sound of
someone vomiting.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But this idea of reengineering sounds is pretty interesting. So
what does that mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Well, I don't know what Cox is thinking about exactly,
but actually there is this ignoble study about nails and chalkboards.
So these scientists isolated the high pitch frequencies as well
as the middle and low frequencies. And then they tried
to figure out what made people cringe. And they realized
it's actually not the high frequencies. but actually the middle
ones that cause the hair to go up on your neck. So,
(13:13):
you know, in a movie, taking out or reducing that
middle frequency would be much easier to watch. All right,
but two last quick discoveries about this before we move on.
So number one, if you're given warning about someone scraping
a chalkboard before you do it, you actually react way,
way worse than if you just hear the sound.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That's actually pretty funny because I heard that behavioral economist
Dan Ariely talk about removing bandages and how if someone
tells you or warns you that they're going to do it,
and then gently pulls the bandages off your body, you've
got this higher tolerance for pain versus the idea of
just ripping them off and getting it over with. And
it's funny to think about what your mind can and
can't handle knowing in advance.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
That's pretty interesting. Well, here's the other thing I was
going to say. So scientists have wondered whether our aversion
to that nails on a chalkboard sound is actually because
it's the same frequency as some primate warning calls.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Oh, that's crazy. So primate warnings and nails on a
chalkboard are actually emitted at the same frequency?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, that's right. So it might accidentally be triggering this
danger instinct that's in.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
All of us.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Well, I'm certainly glad that part of the show is over.
And I know we want to talk about earworms, too,
which are the songs that get stuck in your head.
But before we do that, how about we have a
little palate cleanser of cute facts?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
All right, sure. So what do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So did you know that baby turtles all hatch at
the same time because they're actually communicating through their eggshells?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Oh, so it's like synchronized hatching. That is pretty cute.
Good job, Mango.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, it gives them a better chance of survival. And actually,
I've got another one for you. So did you know
that scientists at Georgia Tech have created software for barns
and hen houses that tries to create happier chickens? It
does this all by listening to their clucks and squawks. Apparently,
you can tell whether a chicken is stressed or too
cold or a whole host of other things by listening
to a group's clucking. And this smart barn software... actually
(15:03):
listens to the sound feed of chickens and adjusts things
like the lighting or temperature or whatever makes chickens a
little happier in their coops. Apparently, it makes for more
eggs and plumper chickens.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
All right.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, why don't we move from eggs to earworms? And
as you know, earworms are those catchy songs and refrains
that get stuck in your head. And sometimes they're there
for a few hours. Sometimes, honestly, for me, it feels
like they'll stay there for days and days. But the
founding director of the Music, Mind and Brain program at
Goldsmiths in London. Her name is Lauren Smith. Well, she's
been studying this phenomenon since 2009.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
But earworms feel like they've been around for longer.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Than that, right? Well, the phenomenon is a whole lot older.
And there's a great New Yorker piece by Maria Konnikova.
You know, we actually had her on the program before.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Oh, yeah, she was so great. She did that wonderful podcast,
The Grift.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, it was a really interesting one. But in this
piece specifically, she references this Russian musical prodigy named Nicholas Slonimskiy.
And he wrote a book in the 1940s all about
creating musical patterns that, quote, hook the mind and force
mimicry and repetition. And I don't know if he's exactly
talking about earworms here, but he is talking about catchy music.
(16:11):
And Frank Zappa and John Coltrane, among others, were influenced
by Slonimski's work. So the term earworm then gets coined
back in the 1970s. And this happens in Germany. But
even that has some old roots. Konnikova writes about the
old folk music that was known to stick in your
craw like, quote, a piper's maggot. I don't know exactly
what that means, but it sounds gross. Which is all
(16:34):
to say that earworms have a long history. But it
was only with Lawrence Smith in 2009 that they really
studied what makes an earworm.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So what does make an earworm?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, part of it has to do with hearing a
song a few times. But another part is that the
song itself normally has notes that are very close together.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So you're talking about like musical intervals here.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, that's right. A lot of half steps or whole
steps between a lot of the notes. But also, you know,
the notes getting held for a long time and then
it repeats. So if you're thinking about something like, you know,
the White Stripes Seven Nation Army, where the song is
repeating that like bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. And
those notes are all right there next to each other
(17:15):
on the keyboard.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Hmm. I mean, that's both fascinating and terrifying to me
that like Justin Bieber or Fifth Harmony songwriters or whoever
know exactly what makes a song stick in our heads.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Why is that terrifying? It seems wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Because I don't need any more than my head. They're
already there. But do we have any insight on why
songs catch or like why they pop up when we
don't expect them to?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well, we don't know for sure, but there is one
hypothesis that's pretty interesting. And it's the idea that people
either get an earworm because it matches their mental state
or because it's helping you change your mental state. So
as this article points out, if you're feeling super sluggish,
you might hear a song that revs you up, or alternately,
you know, one that can calm you down if the
(17:58):
situation demands it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
And that's amazing that like your body is, your mind's
regulating your.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Body that way. Right, right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So one last question on this before we move on.
How do you get rid of them? Like I'd heard
the best way was to just sing yourself another catchy song,
but that seems like a terrible cure to me.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, distracting yourself is one way, but the better way,
according to researchers, is just to belt the song out.
Like if you sing it, your mind gets over it
or at least gets closer to being over it. And
then you can actually move on.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Crazy. Well, I want to talk about some of the
more weird, funny sounds. But before we do, let's go
to a break.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
So Welcome back to Part-Time Genius.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Now we're talking about some of the biggest, strangest, and
most irritating sounds in the universe. And basically a whole
lot of noise you'd love to block out.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And listeners, while we did mention this in the episode description,
both this episode and the one we did a few
episodes back on The Art of Trash Talking were made
possible by Beats by Dre and their noise-canceling headphones. And
just for the record, Dr. Dre did not personally collaborate
or participate in this episode, but we do look forward
to working with him in the future.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Right, of course. Well, so, Mango, before we get back
to it, you wanted to talk a little bit about
sound in history, right?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, so I was reading this story at the Huffington
Post by David Hendy about the history of sound, and
Nolan pointed it to me, but it's filled with all
sorts of great stories. And one of them's like how
medicine changed when stethoscopes were invented. So doctors have been
listening to the body for clues forever, you know, heartbeats
and pulse and whatever. But suddenly there were all these
(19:43):
gurgles and rattles and hisses that they could now hear.
And there was this new level of sophistication. And it
made the body so much more wondrous and opened up
all these new mysteries and ideas through advances in sound.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's pretty cool. So what else?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, there was a bit on how the early phonographs
and gramophones weren't really exciting to people because of their
ability to play music. It was really more because they
were thought of as these recording devices, like they were
a way that you could preserve your dying uncle's voice
and his words of wisdom for posterity instead of, I
don't know, just like a way of playing your power
of love, best of the 80s power ballads album. So
(20:20):
the article had these interesting things I hadn't realized about
sound in history. But the most fascinating thing to me
was just how music has been used to control people.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
All right. Well, you'll have to explain this to me.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So in one section, the article talked about town bells
in history and how they were used for the whole
town to know, I don't know, when to get up
in the morning or when to sleep. But they also
let you know when to pray or when to take
up arms or when to do dinner. And this all
sounds so harmless. But as the article put it, it
actually tightens both the secular and religious authorities hold over
(20:52):
the daily life of all within hearing distance. Yeah, so
that's one part of it. But in terms of things
like music, it also works, right? Like, How background music
is often organized to this rhythm that either tries to
calm you down or get us to work harder or
eat faster or buy more.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, I mean, you always hear about that at restaurants
where they don't want you lingering or that old story
of the mall parking lot. And when I think it
was in Australia where they were playing Barry Manilow and
music like that just to keep the kids from loitering
there at night.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
All right.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Well, I know we've got a fact off to get to,
but before we do, why don't we each tell one
story of an annoying sound in history? Do you want
to do this?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, I'm for it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
All right. Why don't you go first?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
How about one of the best and worst venues to
be a performer, which was Shakespeare's Globe Theater?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Shakespeare's Globe Theater. I mean, you get to work with Shakespeare,
perform for royalty. Why would this be a terrible place?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Honestly, it was because the crowds were so awful. I mean,
the sound is only part of the experience. And for
the actors, they were constantly under the threat of like
having rotten vegetables thrown in their direction, you know, if
the rowdy crowd didn't like their work. But the smell
was a huge assault on the senses. So according to LiteraryTraveler.com,
the penny seats in the yard, which went to the
(22:03):
folk known as, I don't know, the groundlings or sometimes
the stinkards, it was full of drunks and they were
just waiting and standing ankle deep in mud. And according
to the site, because the crowds were so thick, Like
the bathroom breaks for men just meant aiming between your shoes.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Oh, my God. That's so gross.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I know. It wasn't exactly hygienic, but you get what
you pay for. And for the actors, it was even
worse because in addition to all the stink, the acoustics
were miserable. Like the crowds would be yelling and chatting
and fighting. And so just to get the stories communicated.
The actress would have to over exaggerate their gestures and
like boom their lines, which totally changes how you'd imagine
(22:44):
like a Shakespeare play. If you're thinking about Hamlet just
yelling to be or not to be over this noisy crowd.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It is pretty funny, though, just to imagine that.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Just always angry.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I could see why an actor would want to tune
that out.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Well, my story is about music being used by interrogators.
I'm sure you remember how the FBI played Tibetan monk
chants outside the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, you know,
just to drive them crazy. But it isn't the only
case of them doing this. Apparently, in 2003, the BBC
reported that the US was blasting songs from Metallica, Skinny Puppy.
(23:16):
And of course, the theme song to Barney to get
people to talk.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
How about that? Like Barney gets thrown in that mix.
Somehow that feels like even crueler.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I just don't think that should be allowed. Well, but
according to Newsweek, 24 hours of it will drive someone insane.
24 hours. I'm thinking like 30 minutes of this and
I'd be ready to talk. That's definitely a sound you
want to block out. But the story got weirder because
when the band Skinny Puppy heard about this, they realized
the government owed them royalties for playing their music. So
(23:47):
they sent the Department of Defense a $ 600, 000 bill for royalties. Actually,
it was $ 666, 000 because, you know, I guess they were
trying to make a point here.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
That's funny and pretty cavalier. But now that we've gotten
a little warmed up with the back and forth, why
don't we start the fact off?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
All right, I'm for it. Well, we knew we'd be
talking about some terrible sounds. So we agreed in advance
that we would keep this one focused on, you know,
maybe something a little happier. So we're going to do
a cute animal edition. Are you still up for this? Yeah,
that's right. All right, well, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So I know we both watched that David Attenborough clip
on YouTube about the lyrebird. It's amazing because in it,
like this bird imitates all these sounds like a car
alarm and a cell phone or even a chainsaw in
the wild. And the doc makes it seem like the
lyrebirds picked up those sounds from, I don't know, developers
invading the forest. But the real reason the bird on
(24:47):
camera could actually make those sounds was that it had
been living in captivity at the zoo.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Oh, OK.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So apparently the bird named Chook had overheard construction on
the new panda enclosure. And that's how he added all
this like hammering and drilling and saw sounds to his repertoire.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's still incredible, though, that they can do that. It's
pretty wild. Well, did you know that dolphins actually don't
have vocal cords? So when they're squeaking and chirping, they're
actually doing it through a lip-shaped tissue in their nose,
and these are called phonic lips.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That's super weird. Speaking of water critters, did you know
that walruses come with bells and whistles? They make a
bell sound underwater, not from their vocal cords, but instead
from these inflatable sacks called pharyngeal pouches. It's actually kind
of beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, you know what isn't beautiful, Mango? What's that? And
that's the sound of a koala. They might look like bears,
but they actually grunt more like pigs.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
So this isn't exactly an animal, but I did want
to talk about Wolverine and the sound his claws make
in the X-Men movies.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
He is not an animal.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But to make the sound of him flashing and retracting
those adamantium claws, the sound designer used the sound of
a knife being drawn from a sheath, right?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But because the sound didn't make it seem like the
claws were emerging and then slipping back into Wolverine's flesh enough,
The sound designer mixed it with the juicy sound of
a chicken carcass being pulled apart. So you get like
a little squishing noise in there, too, if you listen closely.
Isn't that gross?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
It's weird just saying squishing noise kind of makes me react.
All right, well, speaking of movies, I've got a great
one from Jurassic Park. And obviously it's hard to figure
out exactly what a T-Rex roar would have sounded like.
So the sound designer sampled and blended a number of
different sounds. Everything from a baby elephant crying to a
hissing tiger to... An alligator's gurgle, apparently. I don't know
(26:37):
exactly what that is, but that's what it says. But
they all got slowed down and mixed together to make
for this, what they considered a realistic T-Rex roar.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's pretty amazing. And it is better than a motorcycle fart,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
I think you're probably right about that. Also, to make
the dinosaurs' breathing sound, the engineers modified the sound of
air coming out of a whale's blowhole. That's pretty cool, huh?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, it's awesome. And while none of those are sounds
I'd seek out, I am sufficiently impressed that I'm going
to crown you this week's winner.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, thank you very much. And thanks to Beats by
Dre for sponsoring this episode. If there are some great
noises from the natural world or history that you'd love
to share with us, remember, you can always email us
parttimegenius at howstuffworks.com. You can always reach us on our
24-7 fact hotline. That's 1-844-PT-GENIUS. And of course, you can
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, too. Thanks so
(27:27):
much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part-time genius is
a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible
without several brilliant people who do the important things. We
(27:47):
couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Gabe Luzier is our lead researcher with support from the
research army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown, and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And Yves Jeffcoat gets the show to your ears. Good job, Yves.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe.
And if you really, really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Did we forget Jason?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Jason who?
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