Phantom Power

19/06/2024

So, I announced this in the last episode of this season, but for those who haven't heard: After producing more than fifty shows, I'm ending Phantom Power. Full details in the link below, but the TLDR is that Phantom Power the production company lives on and we're cooking up a new (and more general public-oriented) show to launch in 2025.

It's been a total privilege to have such amazing guests and listeners since Cris Cheek and I dreamed this thing up in 2018. There's no way I can thank all the people who helped make this happen, but Craig Eley, Jason Meggyesy, Ravi Krishnaswami, Amy Skjerseth, Katelyn Phan, and Nisso Sacha all played outsized roles. Thanks to the Miami Humanities Center (led by Tim Melley) and the Robert H. and Nancy J. Blayney endowment for our startup funding and thanks to our patrons for helping us keep going.

(And PS: the new show is going to be a lot of fun and it will drop in the same feed as Phantom Power did, so stay tuned!) 🎧

26/04/2024

Dr. Michael Heller examines sonic experiences that go “beyond listening.” Moments when sound overpowers us. When sound is sensed more in our bodies than in our ears. When sound engages in crosstalk with our other senses. Or when it affects us by being inaudible.

31/01/2024

30/01/2024

For our next episode, we are interviewing Golden Voice award-winning audiobook narrator Robin Miles! She's a gifted actor and, among many other things, the most recognizable voice in literary Afrofuturism, having interpreted books by Octavia E. Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor.

Any questions you want us to ask?

03/11/2023

Season six is rolling! Today we dropped a new episode with Matt Rubery, a literature scholar who studies audiobooks. It was a fun conversation about narration, neurodiversity, and what he calls "audiobook shame." Link below!

01/11/2022

This week we meet Dallas Taylor of the hit podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz and he breaks down how the show is made.

https://phantompod.org/20k/

On Phantom Power, Mack Hagood explores the world of sound in the arts, music, technology, and culture. Deep but accessible, each episode features the sounds and ideas of a contemporary artist, musician, or sound scholar.

13/10/2022

Transforming the use of percussion in improvisation and expanding the boundaries of machine-based music.

13/10/2022

You're invited to a watch party of the documentary "Sisters with Transistors," celebrating the women who pioneered electronic music.

04/10/2022

The Hollywood playlist of Latino film composers includes Maria Grever, Agustín Lara, Lalo Schifrin, Gustavo Santaolalla, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Germaine Franco.

04/10/2022

Two amazing radio stations!

04/10/2022

If you like this story, our latest podcast episode is on shortwave radio.

On this day 65 years ago, the world heard the steady "beep...beep" of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, the Earth's first artificial satellite, on short wave radio receivers around the globe.

The first known recording of Sputnik was made by RCA audio engineers at Riverhead, Long Island, who immediately began driving their recording to NBC radio studios in Manhattan for broadcast.

However, the RCA engineers broadcasting scoop was thwarted by students at the Columbia University campus radio station, who picked up the signal as Sputnik flew westward and overtook RCA's automobile on its way to Manhattan.

03/10/2022

Learn to make a radio from found materials! This week, Phantom Power meets Shortwave Collective, who use radio making and listening as an experimental feminist art practice.

The Shortwave Collective--an international group of feminist radio artists--teach you how to make your own radio with found materials.

22/09/2022

Looking for a way to procrastinate yet also feel like you did something good today? We've got you covered!

We've just made it super fast + easy to rate + review Phantom Power on Apple and other platforms that accept reviews. Just go to https://ratethispodcast.com/phantom

You'll be wasting time AND helping your favorite podcast about sound! And you might even get a shout-out on the podcast from Moloch, the Dark God of Internet Capitalism! So come on, click ALL THE STARS....

Subscribe and leave a review for this show at your favorite podcast app.

17/09/2022

In this clip from the Phantom Power podcast, ethnomusicologist Jacob Danson Faraday mixes two sonic examples to demonstrate why live musicians use in-ear monitors. Headphones on!

Check out the full episode here and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: phantompod.org/cirque

15/09/2022

Go behind the scenes of Cirque Du Soleil with an ethnomusicologist to study musicians' use of in-ear monitors.

Season 4 of Phantom Power kicks off with Dr. Jacob Danson Faraday, who made us exclusive audio mixes so you can hear what it sounds like to be a performer onstage!

Ethnomusicologist Jacob Danson Faraday takes us behind the scenes at Cirque du Soleil to study musicians' struggles with in-ear monitors.

14/09/2022

Pleased to be featured as Indy Pod of the Week by podcast newsletter Pod Bible! We also got love this week from the go-to industry newsletter Podnews!

New season starts tomorrow. Subscribe at phantompod.org/subscribe or in your pod app of choice.

10/09/2022

He was the go-to session guitarist for some of the biggest music stars of all time yet his incredible highs and tragic lows have often been overlooked

10/09/2022

James Cunningham & Robert Oakes Jordan using parabolic reflectors to make stereo recordings of bird vocalisations with portable battery-operated gear, from Hi-Fi Tape Recording Magazine (US, Dec 1956)

04/09/2022

Season 4 of Phantom Power, the podcast about sound in the arts and culture, starts on September 15. Check out the new trailer on Apple Podcasts!

‎Show Phantom Power, Ep Season Four Trailer - Sep 1, 2022

16/08/2022

We're kicking off our fourth season next month! Today, we wind down the summer with another guest episode. The fantastic podcast Love is the Message breaks down the politics and music of Fela Kuti! https://phantompod.org/fela/

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the revolutionary music and politics of Nigerian innovator Fela Kuti.

13/07/2022

Just shared an episode of Will Robin's great podcast, Sound Expertise, in our feed. It features musicologist Paula Harper, talking about viral music videos on the internet.

http://phantompod.org/paula_harper/

It’s summer and we are busy working on episodes for our fourth season. We’ve also rebuilt our website–check out the the fabulous new phantompod.org. There’s other great stuff in store for the podcast, so stay tuned!

15/02/2022

Phantom Power was profiled on the Miami University website recently.

https://miamioh.edu/news/2022/02/phantom-power-podcast-shares-the-stories-and-work-of-some-of-the-most-innovative-creators-and-scholars-working-in-sound.html

“Today, scholarship needs to be translated to other media because people expect to take in information through video and podcasts,” host and media scholar Mack Hagood said

14/12/2021

New episode! We speak to The World According to Sound, two rogue audionauts who rebelled against the NPR mothership. Learn about their live sonic odysseys in 8-channel surround sound and their new online spatial audio series. They also explain why they grew frustrated with working in public radio and how they now assemble sonic experiences that don't impose a fixed narrative on their listeners.

We even have a promo code for 25% off their next live stream: phantompower25.

http://phantompod.org/2021/12/14/ep-32-the-world-according-to-sound-chris-hoff-and-sam-harnett/

The World According to Sound is the brainchild of two rogue audionauts who rebelled against the NPR mothership: Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett.

29/10/2021

Part 2 of our 2-part series on R. Murray Schafer is almost done!

01/10/2021

On this month's Phantom Power podcast: R. Murray Schafer was a leading Canadian experimental composer. But for many, he was the man who put the word "soundscape" on the map--and changed the way we think about sound forever.

We explore the life and works of the founder of acoustic ecology and Canada's most influential avant-garde composer.

01/10/2021