Outside/In - Shhhhhh! It’s the sound and silence episode

Shhhhhh! It’s the sound and silence episode

07/13/23 • 29 min

1 Listener

Humans are noisy. The National Park Service estimates that all of our whirring, grinding, and revving machines are doubling or even tripling global noise pollution every 30 years.

A lot of that noise is negatively affecting wildlife and human health. Maybe that’s why we’re so consumed with managing our sonic environments, with noise-cancelling headphones and white noise machines — and sometimes, we get into spats with our neighbors, as one of our guests did...

So for this episode, producer Jeongyoon Han takes us on an exploration of three sonic landscapes: noise, silence, and something in between.

Featuring Rachel Buxton, Jim Connell, Stan Ellis, Mercede Erfanian, Nora Ma, and Rob Steadman.

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Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

LINKS

Behavioral ecologist Miya Warrington and her colleagues found that Savannah sparrows changed the tune of their love songs as a result of noisy oil fields in Alberta, Canada (The New York Times)

Bats have changed their day-to-day habits because of traffic noise, according to research conducted in the U.K.

Natural sounds are proven to improve health, lower stress, and have positive effects on humans. Rachel Buxton and her colleagues wrote about that in their study from 2021.

Erica Walker’s organization, the Community Noise Lab, monitors noise levels in Boston, Providence, and Jackson, Mississippi. You can read more about her work in this article from Harvard Magazine.

Are you interested in going to a Quiet Parks International-designated quiet park? The organization has a list of spaces across the world that they’ve certified.

Here’s a radio story from NPR that serves as an homage to John Cage’s 4’33”.

If you were ever curious about why bird songs are good for you... This article from the Washington Post should be on the top of your reading list!

This New Yorker piece from 2019 outlines how noise pollution might be the next public health crisis. Since that article, there’s been even more research showing that noise can take years off of our lives.

So, you’ve heard lots of sounds in this episode. But do you want to see what sounds look like? Click here — and this is not clickbait!

Ethan Kross, who is a psychologist and neuroscientist, wrote a whole book about noise — the noise in your head, to be precise. It’s called Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.

Mercede Erfanian’s research into misophonia and soundscapes is fascinating. You can hear her speak on the subject of different kinds of sounds in a show aired from 1A, or watch her presentation on the effects that soundscapes have on humans...

Humans are noisy. The National Park Service estimates that all of our whirring, grinding, and revving machines are doubling or even tripling global noise pollution every 30 years.

So for this episode, producer Jeongyoon Han takes us on an exploration of three sonic landscapes: noise, silence, and something in between.

Featuring Rachel Buxton, Jim Connell, Stan Ellis, Mercede Erfanian, Nora Ma, and Rob Steadman.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

Behavioral ecologist Miya Warrington and her colleagues found that Savannah sparrows changed the tune of their love songs as a result of noisy oil fields in Alberta, Canada (The New York Times)

Bats have changed their day-to-day habits because of traffic noise, according to research conducted in the U.K.

Natural sounds are proven to improve health, lower stress, and have positive effects on humans. Rachel Buxton and her colleagues wrote about that in their study from 2021.

Are you interested in going to a Quiet Parks International-designated quiet park? The organization has a list of spaces across the world that they’ve certified.

Here’s a radio story from NPR that serves as an homage to John Cage’s 4’33”.

If you were ever curious about why bird songs are good for you... This article from the Washington Post should be on the top of your reading list!

So, you’ve heard lots of sounds in this episode. But do you want to see what sounds look like? Click here — and this is not clickbait!

Previous Episode

Shrimp on the line

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We love shrimp in the United States. As a country, we eat over 2 billion pounds a year, making it the most consumed seafood in the country. So times should be really good for shrimpers, right? In this episode, our friends at the Sea Change podcast from WWNO and WRKF head to the docks and out in the bayous with shrimpers fighting for a livelihood and a culture that has been here for centuries.

This narrative episode goes on a journey from the fishing docks to shrimping in the bayous exploring land loss, climate change, and other issues endangering the future of the Gulf shrimp industry. We also uncover the threats imported shrimp pose to a way of life and human health.

Featuring Justin Kennedy, Thomas Gonzales, Acy Cooper, Gary Mayfield, Eddy Hayes, Donald Dardar, and Steve Morris.

Next Episode

Oppenheimer's omission

With 'Oppenheimer,' director Christopher Nolan has turned the Manhattan Project into a summer blockbuster. The film is set in Los Alamos, one of the primary places where the first atomic bomb was developed. But fewer people know the history of Carrizozo, a rural farming area downwind of the Trinity test — and a community still dealing with the fallout to this day.

Radioactive fallout from the bomb settled on everything: the soil, gardens, and drinking water. Cow’s milk became radioactive. Later, hundreds of people developed radiogenic cancers.

The people of Carrizozo were among the first people in the world exposed to a nuclear blast. More than 75 years later, their families are still fighting for medical compensation from the federal government.

Host Nate Hegyi traveled to New Mexico to visit the Trinity Site, and to hear the stories of so-called ‘downwinders.'

Featuring: Paul Pino, Tina Cordova, Ben Ray Lujan

Editor's note: A previous version of this description incorrectly described Los Alamos as the site of the first atomic bomb test. The actual test took place in the White Sands Missle Range.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

The federal government has produced a few studies on the fallout from Trinity. This one from Los Alamos found that there was still contamination in the area in 1985.

Another, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, produced one of the most in-depth histories of the fallout from Trinity and the government’s reaction.

The National Cancer Institute found that hundreds of people likely developed cancer because of the fallout.

The history of Trinity is full of strange little details, like the desert toads that were croaking all night.

You can find affidavits and first-hand accounts of the fallout from Trinity at the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium website.

This review by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists explains why it’s so hard to determine a definitive death toll for the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Editing help from Rebecca Lavoie, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jeongyoon Han

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio