Why you may hate the sound of your voice

Why breathing helium, sulfur hexafluoride, and other gases changes your voice

The speed of sound varies depending on the properties of the material it travels through, including its density. Because helium is less dense than air, sound travels faster, altering the timbre of one's voice to be squeakier by enhancing its higher frequencies. In molecules that are heavier than air, low-frequency sounds are enhanced, producing a deeper voice.

When common sounds become disturbing

Misophonia causes certain sounds to feel violating, triggering a "very visceral kind of experience" filled with extremely unpleasant emotions, including annoyance, anger, and disgust. A 2017 study found that people with misophonia have elevated activity in the brain's anterior insula—a region associated with interoception, emotional processing, and behavioral responses—when exposed to trigger sounds. Ongoing research suggests trigger sound context affects the severity and manifestation of the condition.

The features that make our voices unique

Human voices are about as unique as fingerprints: similar instruments but with endless variations. We each produce sound in the same physiological way, but when we talk we’re dropping clues about who we are, what we do, and where we’re from.

Professional vocalists explain the mechanics of singing

Ever wonder how your favorite singer hits those high notes? Have you been amazed at someone bringing down the house at karaoke? The secret behind singing is that it's more technical than most realize. In this video, a handful of professional vocalists break down the basics to demonstrate how you can develop a more musical voice.

9 billion voice notes are sent every day

The recorded voice note has come to replace a regular phone call conversation for some. Observers suggest the monological nature of the voice note corrodes the benefits of real-life interactions.

Hear examples of what tinnitus can sound like to those suffering from it

This video, from a Scottish branch of the UK National Health Service, features different types of ringing, crackling, and other sounds that tinnitus sufferers experience. Individual responses to such phantom sounds may vary widely.

A closer look at why people snore

Snoring is simply noise caused by improper airflow during sleep—and while it’s something that most people will do at some point in their lives, it can also be indicative of larger health problems. Generally speaking, snoring occurs when soft...

The science of fear

The Hidden Brain podcast team explores the science of fear by traveling to a haunted house curated by a scientist to investigate what scares us, and why some people enjoy this sensation more than others.

The science behind why some noises have color names

Different noise colors (white, brown, pink, blue) have been proven to affect mood and focus. An audiologist explains that these sounds are named after specific light wave frequencies. While individual preferences vary, certain noises consistently impact sleep, stress reduction, cognitive performance, and problem-solving. The article highlights how these sounds can enhance productivity, relaxation, and even gaming experiences.

How grudges mostly hurt ourselves

Grudges feel like revenge against those who have done us some wrong and are very common. In this "Hidden Brain" podcast, psychologists explain how grudges end up only hurting us rather than those we hold them against. By using historical examples, the researchers show the counterintuitive danger of grudges and how people can learn how to avoid them.

The journalist who let AI speak with his voice

Journalist Evan Ratliff became the object of his own story: He opted to clone his voice, feed it into an AI chatbot, and have it do the talking. What could seem like a fun experiment ended up revealing just how far the capacity of artificial intelligence can go in imitating our identities. Hear the ins and outs of how Ratliff achieved this in this fun and thought-provoking episode.

Hearing loss is linked with brain volume reductions

The brain looks different as a result of hearing loss, with reductions in brain volume overall and in specific areas, and these changes are hypothesized to impact cognition. Exactly why hearing loss alters cognition is an active area of research, but theories include that the elevated cognitive load of straining to hear affects brain power available for thinking and memory and that hearing loss leads to social isolation which boosts dementia risk.

Modern sound mixing has contributed to audiences needing subtitles

Hidden, high-tech microphones allow actors to speak more softly, rather than yelling to be picked up by a distant boom mic, but this sacrifices clarity. The problem is exacerbated by mixing often prioritizing booming sound effects and soundtracks and audiences listening with small speakers on mobile devices.

Emotional crying is an important and cathartic process

Though babies don't initially produce tears when they cry, this podcast discusses how humans are hardwired to cry throughout life. Most crying research relies on self-reporting of crying and emotions. This podcast notes that there aren't neuroimaging studies of crying—they're quite expensive to complete. As a result, the brain precursors and processes during a bout of crying remain understudied.

Unlike the roars in movies, dinosaurs likely cooed, rumbled, and boomed

Fossil evidence and CT scans suggest that many dinosaurs produced low-frequency sounds using resonating crests, closed-mouth vocalizations, or organs similar to those of birds and crocodiles. Larger sounds would not have been helpful for sneakily hunting prey.

To get that song out of your head, try distracting yourself or playing a new song

Around 90% of people experience getting a snippet of a song stuck in their head, also known as an earworm. Researchers think they are linked to memory, repetition, and inner rehearsal. Before written language, music was used alongside rhyming in many cultures to help people preserve oral histories.

Listen to the pair of colliding black holes detected by LIGO

As ripples in spacetime, gravitational waves do not produce sound, which is the perception of specific vibrations in matter (e.g., vocal cords vibrating air molecules). The "chirp" of gravitational waves comes instead from converting the spacetime ripples into sound waves that the human ear can hear.

Listen to why extensive ear rinsing can create problems

The clinician who hosts this podcast discusses how his patient developed swimmer's ear after he flooded his ears with water during his daily showers, ostensibly to clean them. The resulting itchy, painful ears were the result of removing protective earwax in the ear and also altering the typical pH of the ear.

Reports of a recording of Whitman's voice are said to be a hoax

A recording of Whitman reading a portion of his poem "America" has been mass-produced and broadcast, but the Library of Congress and other scholars say the recording is a hoax.

What it's like to do your own taxes for the first time

Most Americans across the country have one thing in common: They hate doing their taxes. Many use an accountant or an online service like TurboTax to avoid doing taxes themselves. In this video, two journalists decide to do their taxes on their own for the first time.

Why your wine smells unpleasant

Ever had the experience of receiving a bottle of wine with a janky, less-than-favorable odor? This Esquire article ventures to answer this question and offers the explanation that the culprit is likely corked wine. Read to understand why corks can create a moldy or musty scent, and feel emboldened to send a corked bottle back for something with improved quality.

At its root, cringe comedy is about empathy

Cringe comedy has never been more popular, even if it's too uncomfortable for some people to bear. Sören Krach, a professor of psychiatry at Germany’s Lübeck University who coauthored a paper on cringe comedy, notes that, although it may seem cruel, at the core of watching cringe comedy is empathy.

The emotional regression that happens when we visit home

Despite how mature we might like to think we are, returning home for the holidays often results in reverting to our moodier, angstier childhood selves. This story in the conversation dives into the root of this phenomenon, which can largely be explained by attachment theory. Read along to understand how your past experiences and attachment style can influence your current behaviors and for advice on how to cope with regression.

Why do you shiver when cold?

Humans are warm-blooded creatures, so our bodies like to maintain internal temperatures separate from and typically above those in their environment. This is made possible by a process known as thermoregulation. When the brain's hypothalamus senses a drop in the body's core temperature, skeletal muscles may be ordered to shiver, sending out waves of muscle contractions and exothermic biochemical reactions whose byproduct includes heat and energy.

A fun analysis of Radiohead's depressive song 'Creep'

Radiohead is a highly acclaimed English rock band founded in 1985. The band has sold more than 30 million albums, and their nine full-length albums are critically appreciated. This episode of One Song goes deep into the band's very first single and by far most-listened-to hit: "Creep," a slacker anthem filled with self-loathing and anxiety. Learn the details of the hit indie song here.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Poison ivy's rash-causing compound is found in the plant's roots, stem, and leaves—so coming into contact with any part of the plant can lead to rashes for the 85% of people who are allergic to it.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.