Music may be magical. But it is also rooted in the material world. As such it can be the subject of empirical inquiry.  How does what we are told of a performer influence our appreciation of the performance? Does sunshine change our listening habits? How do rhythms and melodies change as they are passed along, as in a game of Chinese whispers? Our guest is Manuel Anglada Tort, a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has investigated all those topics. We discuss the fields of Empirical Aesthetics and cultural evolution experiments as applied to music.  * Manuel's website with PDFs and links to papers [https://www.manuelangladatort.com/] * Multiverses.xyz [https://%20multiverses.xyz/] Chapters (00:00) Intro (03:35) Start of conversation: Music Psychology and Empirical Aesthetics (07:54) Genomics and Musical Ability (18:25) Weather's Influence on Music Preferences (31:57) The Repeated Recording Illusion (43:24) Empirical Aesthetics: Does Analysis Boost or Deflate Wonder? (49:59) Music Evolution and Cultural Systems (52:18) Simulating Music Evolution in the Lab (1:01:27) The Role of Memory and Cognitive Biases in Music (1:05:33) Comparing Language and Music Evolution (1:20:37) The Impact of Physical and Cognitive Constraints on Music (1:31:37) Audio Appendix