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(2792)

Monday, Oct. 16, 2017

Monday, Oct. 16, 2017

President Trump has disavowed the Iran nuclear deal, and he has threatened to leave it altogether if Congress does not amend it to permanently block Tehran from building nuclear weapons. Today, a top ...

16 Loka 201718min

Friday, Oct. 13, 2017

Friday, Oct. 13, 2017

“I’m not quitting today. I don’t believe — and I just talked to the president — I don’t think I’m being fired today,” John F. Kelly, President Trump’s chief of staff, said at a surprise news conferenc...

13 Loka 201724min

Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017

The United States sees North Korea as an existential threat: a hostile nation that is dangerously deluded and ready for war. But how does North Korea see the United States? We took a rare look inside ...

12 Loka 201720min

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017

More women are coming forward with their accounts of sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, accusing the film producer Harvey Weinstein. Today, we hear one of those stories. Guests: Jodi Kantor, ...

11 Loka 201727min

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017

The Trump administration has rolled back two of President Barack Obama’s signature achievements. The repeal of the Clean Power Plan was billed as the end of a “war on coal.” And the end of a federal r...

10 Loka 201723min

Monday, Oct. 9, 2017

Monday, Oct. 9, 2017

Two months after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned violent, 200 employees of the American Civil Liberties Union have signed a letter saying that the organization’s “rigid stanc...

9 Loka 201723min

Friday, Oct. 6, 2017

Friday, Oct. 6, 2017

A New York Times investigation has found three decades of sexual harassment allegations against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. In response to that reporting, Mr. Weinstein released the follo...

6 Loka 201723min

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017

At least 12 of the weapons found in the hotel suite used by the gunman who killed 58 people in Las Vegas on Sunday had been modified. He used a device called a bump stock, which enables a semiautomati...

5 Loka 201721min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

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