Episode 35: Can a Sound Look Like Something?
Listen now
Description
Synesthesia! A weird thing experienced only by unusual people, or by ordinary people on unusual drugs, or – is it something everybody has all the time? Are very low musical notes literally “dark”? Can food sound like something, like hot peppers going “ping” on your tongue? Why does it make sense to call a fork a “zrickrick” and a pillow a “baobwab”? Or does it? In 1688 William Molyneux asked John Locke whether a blind person who regained her vision would be able to distinguish a square from a circle by sight. Locke said no. Leibniz said yes. Who was right? This week Eric and Taylor puzzle over Molyneux’s question and a variety of other related and unrelated matters to do with musical temperament, linear perspective, and octopuses. 
More Episodes
Eric and his temporary co-host, Tao Ruspoli (filmmaker, co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale) delve deep into what it is to teach and to learn... and they ask, "Can you learn anything really important from somebody else?"
Published 03/08/24
Published 03/08/24
Tao and Eric are joined by author Geoff Dyer to question whether certain individuals are worthy of worship. Dyer’s many books include But Beautiful (about jazz),  the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and, most recently, The Last Days of Roger Federer.  A  member of the American Academy of...
Published 02/29/24