The Sunday Read: ‘Could I Survive the “Quietest Place on Earth”?’
The Daily22 Tammi 2023

The Sunday Read: ‘Could I Survive the “Quietest Place on Earth”?’

In a room in a modest concrete building in a leafy Minneapolis neighborhood is silence exceeding the bounds of human perception. Technically an “anechoic chamber,” the room is the quietest place on the planet — according to some.

What happens to people inside the windowless steel room is the subject of wild and terrible speculation. Public fascination with it exploded 10 years ago, with an article on The Daily Mail’s website. The article left readers to extrapolate their own conclusions about the room from the short, haunting observations of its proprietor, Steven J. Orfield, of Orfield Laboratories.

“You’ll hear your heart beating,” Orfield was quoted as saying. And, “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”

Much of the lore about the chamber’s propensity for mind-annihilation centers on the concept of blood sounds. Hearing the movement of blood through the body is supposedly something like an absolute taboo, akin to witnessing the fabrication of Chicken McNuggets — an ordeal after which placid existence is irreparably shattered.

Despite this, Caity Weaver, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, wanted to give the chamber a go.

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jaksot(2794)

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

President Trump has chosen John R. Bolton to be his new national security adviser. In 2005, a Republican-controlled Senate committee refused to confirm Mr. Bolton as President George W. Bush’s ambassa...

28 Maalis 201823min

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Eight years ago, the United States and Russia agreed to a spy swap that sent a Russian double agent to safety in Britain. That former spy and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent this month, an...

27 Maalis 201821min

Monday, March 26, 2018

Monday, March 26, 2018

As hundreds of thousand of demonstrators prepared to march in Washington in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., students on the South Side of Chicago felt sympathy, but also frustration...

26 Maalis 201823min

Friday, March 23, 2018

Friday, March 23, 2018

For decades, Americans have believed that the best way to end racial inequality is to end class inequality. But a landmark 30-year study is debunking that logic. Guests: Emily Badger, who writes about...

23 Maalis 201826min

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Five days after details about Cambridge Analytica’s mining of data were made public, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, broke his silence on his company’s role in the data breach. Minut...

22 Maalis 201820min

Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2018

Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2018

A young Canadian data expert came up with a plan to harvest people’s personal data from Facebook, and to use that information to influence their voting. How did the brains behind Cambridge Analytica b...

21 Maalis 201820min

Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2018

Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2018

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, facing no real challenger, has been elected to a fourth term, drawing support from more than three-quarters of voters. How is the most powerful man in Russia sta...

20 Maalis 201821min

Monday, Mar. 19, 2018

Monday, Mar. 19, 2018

President Trump called the firing of Andrew G. McCabe, the deputy F.B.I. director, a “great day for democracy.” Mr. McCabe says it’s further evidence of the president’s efforts to undermine the Russia...

19 Maalis 201820min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
politiikan-puskaradio
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
tervo-halme
viisupodi
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-podme-livebox
rss-asiastudio
rikosmyytit
the-ulkopolitist
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
otetaan-yhdet
io-techin-tekniikkapodcast
linda-maria
radio-antro
rss-sanna-ukkola-show-verkkouutiset
aihe
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset