Soundscapes, a grounding, and a year in isolation

Thanks for all the great feedback on the format of this newsletter! Keep it coming; it's really helpful. I promised myself I'd only make a website for this site if we could reach certain number of readers in the first two weeks. Thanks to you we've passed that mark, so now this list has a name ("Podcasts for Nerds") and a (placeholder) website: podcastsfornerds.com.

3 great podcast episodes I've listened to this week:

Pew Pew, Twenty Thousand Hertz (38mins, 2020-05-13)

This sound-design podcast is full of gems, and we'll no doubt be returning to it in future editions of Podcasts for Nerds. The most recent episode looks at the work of legnedary sound designer Ben Burtt, who created the soundscapes for Star Wars. A real highlight is when the 20kHtz team deconstruct and recreate some sounds that will be familiar to all of us. Who knew that elphant growls were so terrifying?! Find it here

Danger: rocks ahead!, Cautionary Tales (36mins, 2019-11-15)

Plan Continuation Bias (also known by pilots as "get-there-itis") can have catastrophic effects. Economist Tim Harford takes a look at what we can learn from disasters, starting with the sorry tale of the Torrey Canyon. Find it here

This is the way up, The Habitat (25mins, 2018-04-18)

There's a lot of stuff that needs to be thoroughly tested before we can go to Mars, but the biggest unknown is not what equipment we'll take or what propulsion system we'll use. The most important thing to test is, well, us! The Habitat documentsone of NASA's year-long HI-SEAS experiments to see how a team of humans cope with being isolated for a full year. For science! Find it here

Not a podcast, but...

If useful maths is something that appeals, then 3Blue1Brown is a YouTube channel for you. With the help of some elegant animation, the recent "Simulating an epidemic" video digs into the theories behind different lockdown strategies. Eye-opening and informative, but still remains fact-based and theoretical. Find it here

Thanks again for being on this list. Some of you are already recommending episodes to me (thanks, Mike!), and that is strongly encouraged! What episode do you think should appear in a future edition of Podcasts for Nerds? Cheers, Tom.