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)

Friday, Mar. 16, 2018

Friday, Mar. 16, 2018

Ida B. Wells was an investigative reporter who exposed the systematic lynching of black men in the South. Her work made her the most famous black woman in the country. But when she died in 1931, at th...

16 Maalis 201822min

Thursday, Mar. 15, 2018

Thursday, Mar. 15, 2018

Florida is a great state to be a gun owner. For years, it has been a laboratory of sorts for the National Rifle Association — it’s the state that invented the concealed-carry permit. Gun control propo...

15 Maalis 201824min

Wednesday, Mar. 14, 2018

Wednesday, Mar. 14, 2018

Rex Tillerson’s relationship with President Trump was rocky from the start. But no one was more surprised than Mr. Tillerson when he was fired as secretary of state on Tuesday. Mr. Tillerson was the m...

14 Maalis 201822min

Tuesday, Mar. 13, 2018

Tuesday, Mar. 13, 2018

With the prominent opposition leader Leopoldo López under house arrest, Venezuela thought its loudest political prisoner had finally been silenced. But he refused to buckle, even facing the prospect o...

13 Maalis 201826min

Monday, Mar. 12, 2018

Monday, Mar. 12, 2018

With Venezuela in crisis, its most vocal opposition leader, Leopoldo López, is under house arrest, unable to act. What happens if he does? Guest: Wil S. Hylton, a contributing writer for the New York ...

12 Maalis 201828min

Friday, Mar. 9, 2018

Friday, Mar. 9, 2018

Hush money. Catch-and-kill deals. The threat of blackmail. An elaborate system has developed to silence women who level accusations against powerful men. One of those women is Stephanie Clifford, a po...

9 Maalis 201822min

Thursday, Mar. 8, 2018

Thursday, Mar. 8, 2018

In announcing new protections on steel and aluminum imports, President Trump said he was acting in the interest of national security. But could the real threat be the tariffs themselves? Guest: Peter...

8 Maalis 201826min

Wednesday, Mar. 7, 2018

Wednesday, Mar. 7, 2018

South Korea says that the North is willing to talk about giving up its atomic arsenal. What happened to the threat of nuclear war? Guest: Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Tim...

7 Maalis 201820min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

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