December 24, 1906. It’s Christmas Eve, but inventor Reginald Fessenden is working. Tonight, instead of sending a typical radio message in morse code, he broadcasts something new: music. It's the first in a series of breakthroughs in audio reproduction—a story that takes us from World War II home radios to the acoustics lab of another pioneer: Dr. Amar Bose. ... Show More
Nov 2
How Biddy Mason Found Her Freedom in Los Angeles
November 8, 1864. Election Day. Abraham Lincoln watches from a White House window, convinced he might lose. Three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, a Confederate hotbed in a so-called free state, Biddy Mason has more riding on the result than almost anyone in the country.Sixtee ... Show More
31m 35s
Oct 30
Salem’s First Witch Trial
Happy Halloween! Today, we're bringing back a particularly spooky episode from the archives...June 10, 1692. Bridget Bishop is loaded into a two-wheeled cart and brought from her Salem jail cell to a pasture on a hill, where a rope is hanging from freshly-installed gallows. A cro ... Show More
28m 48s
May 2022
Listen Again: Sound And Silence
Original broadcast date: Friday, October 16, 2020. Sound surrounds us, from cacophony even to silence. But depending on how we hear, the world can be a different auditory experience for each of us. This hour, TED speakers explore the science of sound. Guests on the show include N ... Show More
50m 27s
Apr 2024
Atlas Obscura Presents: “Windsor Hum” from Twenty Thousand Hertz
<p>Today’s episode comes from <a href="https://www.20k.org/">Twenty Thousand Hertz</a>, a podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. On their show, they’ve explored topics like the sounds of other planets, the mind blowing ways t ... Show More
14m 30s
Sep 2025
Part One: Public Radio: From the Open Source Origins to the Pacifist Poets
Margaret talks with Bridget Todd about Jagadish Chandra Bose, the inventor of radio, and Kenneth Rexroth, the poet involved in the creation of public radio. Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kenneth-rexroth https://libcom.org/article/rexroth-kenneth-1905-1982 https: ... Show More
40m 52s