This is what it sounds like
The horrors persist, but so do we, and here's hoping we're finding our footing. I'm not much for little platitudes these days and I bet you aren't, either. So let's just get on with it, shall we?
This week's things worth sharing
- Do you like rhubarb? Did you know it makes an audible crackling sound as it grows in the dark? Here’s a whole thing about that, courtesy of the fantastic Chef Yotam Ottolenghi, complete with a beautiful short film and some recipes. And if you want a full scientific explanation behind the sound it produces along with some audio samples, dig this.
- Maybe you're looking for more worthwhile ways to spend your screen time, and especially if you're the kind of person who keeps multiples of everything and loves coming in clutch with a backup, now would be an excellent time to put those organizational compulsions to work for posterity. Saving our favorite cultural ephemera and scientific artifacts to the internet archive (aka wayback machine)... think old Smithsonian-esque magazine features, digitized but lesser-known historical and educational documents, etc... well, it's a neat, easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy kind of hobby just perfect for 2025 is all I'm saying, so have fun, go nuts, I sure am! Read the last part of that sentence however you want—it's true whichever way you interpret it!
- Two words: pickle biscuits. You're welcome, and look at the internet archive gently ushering you right through that pesky little paywall too!
- The Guardian—which, incidentally, seems pretty steadfast in its pledge to remain independent, rigorous in its reporting, and altogether unbuyable by sticky-handed man-boys with too much money—ran a piece this week shedding new light on the many, many things we can and should admire about Josephine Baker. A baddie for the ages, that one. Say her name forever.
- Who among us doesn't secretly love some song so cheesy, we'll barely admit it out loud? We all have our share of sonic shame, but who cares. The next time a music snob gets on your case about your lack of sophistication, hit 'em with some neuroscience from Berklee College of Music professor Susan Rogers, who worked as Prince's lead engineer from the Purple Rain era through Sign o' the Times and later earned a Ph.D. in music cognition and psychoacoustics. Her book, This Is What It Sounds Like, breaks down how the human brain absorbs and responds to music and why our reactions differ. If you've hung out with me since I finished reading this book, I've probably brought up her head/heart/hips theory and invited you to think about your favorite music through that lens. Like most sensory and social interests, our preferences are, of course, informed by a complex mosaic of genetic predisposition, cultural influence, exposure and expansion over time, and this music legend's way of explaining it all makes for a fascinating rabbit hole tumble.
- Speaking of songs, if you liked (or were at least amused by) last week's Cosmo Sheldrake recommendation, check out what Imogen Heap has been up to lately: her two-part instrumental album from 2022, Chordata Bytes I and II, is some of the best music I've found to write to in quite some time. Or maybe it's more a series of soundscapes than a double album full of music, really, although Susan Rogers would probably argue that it doesn't matter what you call it. Imogen worked with biologist and wildlife documentarian Dan O'Neill to score a climate change podcast a few years back, and from that effort came this duo of LPs. They're odd and transcendent. Enjoy.
- Last but not least, and maybe most important: a full hour of red pandas having snacks. What a world.
Hydrate, sleep tight, eat your vegetables. Love y'all.
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
08 April 2025
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