Co-host Brooklyn gets ready to tape an episode of Brains On!
Brooklyn's parents
A listener asked how making Brains On is different during the pandemic. So with this episode we're giving you a peek into how we're making the show while staying safe. Spoiler alert: we're doing it all from our homes!
What's the best way to record crystal clear sound at home? (Hint: Lots of soft surfaces!) How do we make sound effects? How do we get all the animals, humans and machines in our homes to keep it down while we tape? Plus: We asked our co-hosts to share what it was like for them to record and episode from home. All that, plus a brand new mystery sound and a Moment of Um that answers the question: how do rocks form?
Audio Transcript
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BROOKLYN: You're listening.
TOBIAS: You're listening.
LINCOLN: You're listening.
VIOLET: You're listening.
TOBIAS: You're listening to Brains On where we're serious about being curious.
MATTIA: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
MARC SANCHEZ: Sanden, are you ready to start this behind the scenes episode?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. Let me just mute for one second. Sanden, you're going to kick butt today. You're going to be charming, you're going to be funny, and the best. Ready to do your vocal warm ups? [BABBLING]
Red leather, yellow leather. Red leather, yellow leather. You know you need, you need New York. You know you need, you need New York. [BABBLING] Perfect. You are ready, Sanden. I can hear the fans now. Sanden. Sanden. Sanden, we love you. You're the best word. You are favorite.
MENAKA WILHELM: Sanden, you didn't actually mute yourself.
MOLLY BLOOM: We can all hear you.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hitting mute for real this time. Sanden, that was embarrassing. They totally heard you. At least they can't see you because you're wearing your favorite unicorn onesie and performing all your stuffed animals.
MENAKA WILHELM: Sanden, you actually didn't mute yourself. You turned on your video instead.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, dang. I need a distraction. Quick, play the theme.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today our producers Menaka Wilhelm, Sanden Totten and Marc Sanchez.
MENAKA WILHELM: Hello.
MARC SANCHEZ: Hello.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for joining me today. We are all together to help answer this question.
ZARA: Hi, my name is Zara from San Ramon, California. And my question is, how do you record episodes now? I ask this question because since COVID-19 is happening right now, the way you make episodes should be different because of COVID-19 safety.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for thinking of us, Zara. I hope you're staying safe to. And yes, you are totally right. We are indeed making the show differently than we used to before the pandemic. And we wanted to acknowledge how living in the world right now is way different than a year ago.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah, the world is different in so many ways, including here at Brains On. Just like many of you who might be going to school virtually. For nearly six months, we've been recording the show at home.
MARC SANCHEZ: We're doing our best to make it sound like the Brains On you know and love.
MENAKA WILHELM: And to do that, we've tackled some interesting challenges.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Today, we're going behind the scenes and letting you in on how we've been making the show. We've learned a lot.
MENAKA WILHELM: Had some colossal failures.
MOLLY BLOOM: And Major League laughs.
MARC SANCHEZ: Actually, maybe not much has changed.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Even though we're recording from home, we still want to sound like we normally do. We used to record in fancy recording studios that are soundproof. We had help from recording engineers, and they would help connect our studio to other studios all over the world. So we could talk to scientists and co-hosts in different places.
MOLLY BLOOM: Being at home means we've got to make our homes a little more like those soundproof studios.
MARC SANCHEZ: We've got to make sure our furry friends are occupied. Here you go, Penelope. Something for you to chew on while I do the show. That way they won't bark during recordings.
MENAKA WILHELM: We've got to turn off fans and air conditioners.
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell our families, hey guys, I'm recording now. Thank you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Silence our phones and close the windows and doors.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Once things are quiet, we'll move to a room without too much echo.
MOLLY BLOOM: Marc is our team's sound expert. So early on, he coached all of us on how to find a good place to record.
MARC SANCHEZ: Right. To find a good potential home studio space, try walking into different rooms in your house and clap a couple of times.
[CLAPPING]
Some rooms will naturally have more echo than others, and echo is basically sound waves bouncing off the walls and back to your ears. Each time you clap, you create sound waves that travel out from your hands. If you were in a big open space like outdoors, those sound waves would keep moving away from the sound source, your hands. But since you're in a room, the sound wave travels out then hits a wall and bounces back.
The harder the surface like tile in the kitchen or wood floors or a wall, the louder your original sound will be when it bounces back and echoes. And these sound waves don't just bounce once they might hit one wall then bounce over to another and another and another, and all of these bounces add up to more echo. Echo. Echo.
An ideal room is one without many hard surfaces. You want to look for rooms with things like curtains, carpet, beds, and pillows to help absorb those sound waves. And those will all help the sound waves not to bounce back as much. This room sounds pretty good. It has carpet and a couch with cushions, but it still has a few exposed walls and a window. I just heard the air conditioning kick on so I'm going to have to go turn that off.
[DOOR OPENS]
Hi, Ella. All right. Let me see this.
[FOOTSTEPS]
To cut down on the echo even more, we can create a space using soft materials. A few pillows and blankets in this coat closet should do the trick. Now, I just need to turn on the light, and voila. Home studio.
MOLLY BLOOM: Marc, Menaka, Sanden and I have all been recording at home. And our co-hosts have too. We've been using Zoom and other internet connections to connect with scientists and kids all over the world. It's not the same as a studio, but we can still talk to them. We asked some of our co-hosts to share how they set up their space. And what surprised them about being a Brains On co-host.
BROOKLYN: You're listening to Brains On. I'm Brooklyn.
TOBIAS: I'm Tobias.
MATTIA: And I'm Mattia.
DUMINKA: And I'm Duminka.
LINCOLN: I'm Lincoln.
VIOLET: And I'm Violet.
MOLLY BLOOM: Brooklyn, a few months ago you recorded an episode of Brains On. Where did you record it?
BROOKLYN: I recorded it in the closet. Come on. Let me show you. It's perfect because it has a lot of space and it was just so helpful.
TOBIAS: I recorded Brains On in my bedroom. I had to plug-in a big microphone into my computer, and then I had to build a pillow for around my computer to muffle any unwanted sound.
LINCOLN: My name is Lincoln from Miller, Missouri. Well, we did go through a whole bunch of places, but we actually ended up at a friend's house.
MATTIA: I recorded in my bunk bed. I surrounded it so much with blankets. There wasn't any hard space around.
DUMINKA: Hello, my name is Duminka. I co-hosted the episode Why kids have more energy than adults? I recorded Brains On while sitting on my bed so that I could have my computer, my microphone, and my script sitting around me. In order to make my bedroom amazing for recording, I put a sign that said "Don't come in, Brains On recording in progress" on my door. I also show some blankets under the door so no sounds from around my house would leak in.
MENAKA WILHELM: What surprised you most about taping an episode? How conversational it was? It wasn't just me singing lines; it was us talking.
BROOKLYN: The microphone was much more sensitive than I thought it would be. So I had to turn off the air conditioning and that got stuffy, and basically anything that made any noise. I had to put a bunch of blankets and pillows around my computer to muffle the whirring sound in it.
MATTIA: Well, I thought they just talked. I didn't know that I had a script or anything. When I did it, I saw a script. It's so organized and it just blew my mind.
LINCOLN: I also thought that Molly, Marc and Sanden would be there. I really had to wish that we could go to the studio so then I could see them.
TOBIAS: Also, it's super funny having to say "Um, Sanden, those breakfast tacos smell delicious" when you have no breakfast tacos and you can't even see Sanden.
VIOLET: There was this one thing it was called "we're serious about being curious" and I always wanted to do that part. And when I did the podcast, I was just so happy because I finally got to do it.
MENAKA WILHELM: How did you feel when you learned that you were going to be on Brains On?
MATTIA: I went immediately to Mama's phone, interrogated her, and look the message up and down to know that it was actually true.
BROOKLYN: Well, I was like "Yeah right, joke's over" until I found out it was no joke and there was actually a letter from Molly Bloom and then I party.
MOLLY BLOOM: A big, huge thank you to all of our delightful co-hosts and their grown ups. Without your help and troubleshooting and pillow for building, we wouldn't have been able to keep making episodes. So thank you, thank you, thank you. All right. Sanden, Marc and Menaka, are you ready for today's mystery sound?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, yeah.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yep.
MATTIA: Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[CLICKING SOUND]
MARC SANCHEZ: I was dancing at first.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I totally thought it was nail clipping, but then I'm like nobody clips their nails that rhythmically.
MENAKA WILHELM: Maybe you don't.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm noticing a robot clipping their nails and they're just super precise clip, clip, clip, clip, and then they're all done.
MENAKA WILHELM: It really sounds like the lighter on a stove when you're trying to light the stove and it's trying but it's not lighting.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good guess.
MARC SANCHEZ: I thought it sounded like that as well, but it sounded too slow. Usually, those are like a click, click, click, click, click. And it was very rhythmic and then it died at the end.
SANDEN TOTTEN: It got slower. This is a puzzling one.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Well, we're going to listen to it again and give you another chance to guess a little bit later in the show. We've got an episode about siblings coming up.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We want to know how you feel about your sibling situation.
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell us about it at brainson.org/contact.
MENAKA WILHELM: Your answer could be on the show.
MARC SANCHEZ: What's the best thing about your sibling status, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, I'm in the middle and I think that means I fly under the radar. I'm not the oldest, I'm not the youngest. I can watch, learn from the mistakes of others. And also I don't have to have all the focus to be in the young one who's constantly everyone's cooing and fawning over. It's like being invisible which I think is good.
MARC SANCHEZ: Well, being invisible was never part of the equation for me because I'm an only child. But that's pretty cool too because it really taught me how to make my own fun. I didn't have brothers and sisters to go outside and play with or be inside and play with. It gave me a chance to get really creative. So much so that I had a pretend friend named Poncho for many years.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Can we have Poncho on the show?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, he's here now. He's here now. My friend. Say Hello.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hi, Poncho.
MENAKA WILHELM: I didn't hear him.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I did.
MARC SANCHEZ: Menaka, where do you fall in the sibling line?
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm the oldest and I have one younger sister. I think this is so corny but the best thing about being the oldest is just that I like my younger sister so much. We get along. She's really funny. She's really tall. Everyone thinks she's older than me because she's 5 inches taller than I am, and she has been since I was 9. It's almost like I'm like secretly the oldest.
MARC SANCHEZ: It's like you get the best of both.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Send us your answer at brainson.org/contact. That's also where you can send questions, ideas, mystery sounds or drawings.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We read every single thing you send in. And we love it all.
MENAKA WILHELM: Here's one great question from a listener.
ELLEN: Hi, Brains On. My name is Ellen Kent. My question is, how do rocks form?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll be back with an answer to that during our Moment of Um at the end of the show. We'll read the most recent list of names to be added to the Brains Honor Roll.
MATTIA: So keep listening.
DUMINKA: So keep listening.
BROOKLYN: So keep listening.
TOBIAS: So keep listening.
VIOLET: Keep listening.
MOLLY BLOOM: Also, our book is out and we are so excited to share it with you. It's called Brains On! Presents-- It's Alive-- From Neurons and Narwhals to the Fungus Among Us. As part of our book launch, we've had a couple of virtual events and they've been so much fun. There's one more coming up on September 26th.
You can find the details about that at brainson.org/events. We've also loved seeing pictures of our amazing listeners with the book and hearing your reviews. If you have the book, we'd love to see you too. So take a picture and send it to us or post to social media and tag it hashtag Brains On Book.
This is Brains On. I'm Molly.
MARC SANCHEZ: I'm Marc.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm Menaka.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm Sanden.
MOLLY BLOOM: And here is the mystery sound one more time.
[CLICKING SOUND]
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, is it a pendulum of those steel balls and a row?
MARC SANCHEZ: That's what I'm thinking. It sounded like marbles. Does it have a specific name or is it a pendulum?
MENAKA WILHELM: It's called something's cradle. Isn't it?
MARC SANCHEZ: Sounds familiar.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Newton's cradle.
MENAKA WILHELM: Maybe it's called Newton's cradle.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good guesses. Seems like there's a consensus. Let's hear the answer.
ALICE: My name's Alice. I'm 10 years old and I'm from Toronto, Ontario that was the sound of my Newton's cradle.
MENAKA WILHELM: Nice.
ALICE: It has five balls. You put one up in the air let go of it, they're attached to strings. It clashes against the others and it makes that ticking sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Nice work, everybody.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Wow.
MOLLY BLOOM: Is that a great sound at least sent to us?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Love it.
MENAKA WILHELM: Really nice clicks.
MARC SANCHEZ: And it took three people to get the answer right.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you guys know why it's called a Newton's cradle?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Is it because the famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton came up with rules of momentum?
MOLLY BLOOM: Absolutely.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And this is like a demonstration of that where for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. So when the ball clicks at one spot, there's a ball that bounces in another spot?
MOLLY BLOOM: I don't know if it's the equal and opposite reaction one. I think it's the conservation of momentum and energy.
MENAKA WILHELM: When you lift up one of the balls and it strikes the ball next to it, that force is transmitted through the other balls and it comes out the other end. Each ball passes it to the ball next to it and that's conservation of momentum.
MARC SANCHEZ: Right. So the energy passes from ball to ball to ball to the last one and it swings up, comes back down, and then sends them all back the other way.
MOLLY BLOOM: Exactly.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks for the sound.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: To make a nice crystal clear recording that can sound as good as it possibly can, we try to block out as many sounds from our house as possible. But to make cool sound effects, we actually go hunting for sounds.
MENAKA WILHELM: Like when Marc made a sandwich at the beginning of one of our episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hey, Marc, making a little pre-show sandwich.
MARC SANCHEZ: First, you take a slice of bread.
MENAKA WILHELM: Those sounds are recordings of my silverware drawer, mayonnaise from my own fridge, and an actual bag of bread.
MARC SANCHEZ: In a different episode, maybe you remember when Sanden dumped a bunch of dirt on the floor so he could feel what it was like to be a plant.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hold your feet still while I pour some fresh dirt on them. Nice. And a sprinkle of water. There. I actually recorded myself dumping soil on the ground in my house. Then I cleaned it up, of course.
MENAKA WILHELM: And other times, we have to come up with a sound for something we can't record. Like for our episode on tiny robots, I needed the sound of a cockroach scuttling. And for a lot of things like this, we use sound effects from CDs or the internet. So usually, I look there first. And when I was working on this, I actually did find a sound of real cockroaches. Are you guys ready?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
[SCUTTLING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: It sounds like rain. I'm soothed by it.
MENAKA WILHELM: It's hard to tell what it is. So it's just not the right sound. What I needed was a close up sound of just one imaginary cockroach walking, and that's pretty different from what we just heard. Naturally, I headed to my pantry to record the sound of sprinkling things. I figured there must be something there that would make a good scuttle. And I tried dried Chili Peppers first.
[THUDS]
That was kind of close but too swishy. So next, I tried actually just my fingers. Pattering my fingers in front of a microphone.
[TAPPING]
And that was really close, but I wanted something a little more click clack too. So next up was trail mix
[ROCKS ROLLING]
and that sounded pretty scully to me. I liked both the patterning and the trail mix. When I edited the sounds on my computer, I actually layered the sound of the trail mix on top of the sound of pattering my fingers to make the scuttle sound that you heard on the show.
[SCUTTLING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Our computers also make lots of sounds on this show possible, especially when we're making voices for characters. And here's a secret. Sometimes we record character parts ourselves and change the way our voice is sound using software. If I wanted to sound like a molecule, I might pitch up my voice so it sounds wee and tiny. Software can help make my voice sound low too so I sound like a giant. Has anyone seen the giant taco I brought for lunch? I think it's in this room. Oh, here it is. We even make voices sound like robots.
[RINGING]
Or like we're calling from an old telephone. Or even like we're giving a very important speech in front of a big group of people. Thank you. You're too kind.
[CHEERING]
So those are some of the tricks we use to make the show sound better.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll admit this is not how we imagined we'd be making Brains On.
SANDEN TOTTEN: For starters, I never thought I'd be working in a closet that smells like mothballs.
MENAKA WILHELM: Mine's more like old hiking boots.
MOLLY BLOOM: But making the show is still the highlight of our week. We love getting your questions and we love when you send us ideas or drawings.
MARC SANCHEZ: Honestly, you all have made these strange times so much easier to deal with.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for sticking with us. We are super grateful to have you along for the ride.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Until next-- Bobby. No, no. I can't play right now. We're in the middle of--
[DOG BARKING]
[ENGINE SOUND]
- Oh, another car without a muffler? Let me go close the window. Hold on one second.
- Mommy, can I have my own shoes?
- Lulu, hold on one second. I'm almost done.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh. BRB. I have to go let the repair person in.
MOLLY BLOOM: This is falling apart very quickly.
MARC SANCHEZ: Down. Down.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hang on.
- Mommy, you didn't walk in yet?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Let yourself in.
- Hang on.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We need a distraction. Quick. Play the theme.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Even though we're at home, we're busy making stuff.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We're working a little differently.
MENAKA WILHELM: But adapting is totally worth it.
MARC SANCHEZ: Because making stuff is fun.
MOLLY BLOOM: And maybe you can do some of these things at home too.
MARC SANCHEZ: Recording around soft surfaces will cut down on echoes for super real sounds.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But it's also fun to record wacky sounds for imaginary situations.
MENAKA WILHELM: Just remember to clean up if your imaginary sounds involve sprinkling things all over the table.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On. Brains On is produced by us. I'm Molly Bloom.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm Sanden Totten.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm Menaka Wilhelm.
MARC SANCHEZ: And I'm Poncho's friend, Marc Sanchez.
[LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Special thanks to Eric Brigham, John Miller and all the humans, animals, and houseplants that share our home studios with us. We had production help from Christina Lopez and engineering help from Johnny Vince Evans. And now before we go.
MARC SANCHEZ: It's time for our Moment of Um.
SUBJECT: My question is, how do rocks form?
MARY LEACH: I love that question. That means you're interested in rocks. My name is Mary Leach and I study rocks for a living. Rocks are forming all the time. We just can't see that happening because it's taking place deep beneath our feet.
There are three rock types: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Igneous rocks come from melted rock. That's where they begin as molten rock deep in Earth's crust. And they can either be erupted as lavas out of a volcano or they might cool and crystallize deep in Earth's crust and become plutonic rocks.
Metamorphic rocks are rocks that gets buried very deeply. They get squeezed together, deformed, and changed and transformed from their original rock type into a new kind of rock. A metamorphic rock is very different from the rock that it started out to be.
Sedimentary rocks are made from different kinds of sediment like sand, mud, other rocks and plants and animal remains. All of those get together, they're buried by more sands. They start to bond together. The temperature increases as it gets buried more. Fluids it might be the river water or groundwater come through and help to cement it together.
Rocks take millions of years to form because it takes a long time to bury those sediments deeply enough. The other rocks like igneous rocks starts deep in Earth's crust and they take a long time to get to Earth's surface. So those processes take millions of years. It's way beyond our lifetimes.
MOLLY BLOOM: I am ready to rock and read this list of names. It's the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible listeners who share their ideas, questions, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives with us.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks for listening.
TOBIAS: You're listening.
LINCOLN: You're listening.
VIOLET: You're listening.
TOBIAS: You're listening to Brains On where we're serious about being curious.
MATTIA: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
MARC SANCHEZ: Sanden, are you ready to start this behind the scenes episode?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. Let me just mute for one second. Sanden, you're going to kick butt today. You're going to be charming, you're going to be funny, and the best. Ready to do your vocal warm ups? [BABBLING]
Red leather, yellow leather. Red leather, yellow leather. You know you need, you need New York. You know you need, you need New York. [BABBLING] Perfect. You are ready, Sanden. I can hear the fans now. Sanden. Sanden. Sanden, we love you. You're the best word. You are favorite.
MENAKA WILHELM: Sanden, you didn't actually mute yourself.
MOLLY BLOOM: We can all hear you.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hitting mute for real this time. Sanden, that was embarrassing. They totally heard you. At least they can't see you because you're wearing your favorite unicorn onesie and performing all your stuffed animals.
MENAKA WILHELM: Sanden, you actually didn't mute yourself. You turned on your video instead.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, dang. I need a distraction. Quick, play the theme.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today our producers Menaka Wilhelm, Sanden Totten and Marc Sanchez.
MENAKA WILHELM: Hello.
MARC SANCHEZ: Hello.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for joining me today. We are all together to help answer this question.
ZARA: Hi, my name is Zara from San Ramon, California. And my question is, how do you record episodes now? I ask this question because since COVID-19 is happening right now, the way you make episodes should be different because of COVID-19 safety.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for thinking of us, Zara. I hope you're staying safe to. And yes, you are totally right. We are indeed making the show differently than we used to before the pandemic. And we wanted to acknowledge how living in the world right now is way different than a year ago.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah, the world is different in so many ways, including here at Brains On. Just like many of you who might be going to school virtually. For nearly six months, we've been recording the show at home.
MARC SANCHEZ: We're doing our best to make it sound like the Brains On you know and love.
MENAKA WILHELM: And to do that, we've tackled some interesting challenges.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Today, we're going behind the scenes and letting you in on how we've been making the show. We've learned a lot.
MENAKA WILHELM: Had some colossal failures.
MOLLY BLOOM: And Major League laughs.
MARC SANCHEZ: Actually, maybe not much has changed.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Even though we're recording from home, we still want to sound like we normally do. We used to record in fancy recording studios that are soundproof. We had help from recording engineers, and they would help connect our studio to other studios all over the world. So we could talk to scientists and co-hosts in different places.
MOLLY BLOOM: Being at home means we've got to make our homes a little more like those soundproof studios.
MARC SANCHEZ: We've got to make sure our furry friends are occupied. Here you go, Penelope. Something for you to chew on while I do the show. That way they won't bark during recordings.
MENAKA WILHELM: We've got to turn off fans and air conditioners.
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell our families, hey guys, I'm recording now. Thank you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Silence our phones and close the windows and doors.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Once things are quiet, we'll move to a room without too much echo.
MOLLY BLOOM: Marc is our team's sound expert. So early on, he coached all of us on how to find a good place to record.
MARC SANCHEZ: Right. To find a good potential home studio space, try walking into different rooms in your house and clap a couple of times.
[CLAPPING]
Some rooms will naturally have more echo than others, and echo is basically sound waves bouncing off the walls and back to your ears. Each time you clap, you create sound waves that travel out from your hands. If you were in a big open space like outdoors, those sound waves would keep moving away from the sound source, your hands. But since you're in a room, the sound wave travels out then hits a wall and bounces back.
The harder the surface like tile in the kitchen or wood floors or a wall, the louder your original sound will be when it bounces back and echoes. And these sound waves don't just bounce once they might hit one wall then bounce over to another and another and another, and all of these bounces add up to more echo. Echo. Echo.
An ideal room is one without many hard surfaces. You want to look for rooms with things like curtains, carpet, beds, and pillows to help absorb those sound waves. And those will all help the sound waves not to bounce back as much. This room sounds pretty good. It has carpet and a couch with cushions, but it still has a few exposed walls and a window. I just heard the air conditioning kick on so I'm going to have to go turn that off.
[DOOR OPENS]
Hi, Ella. All right. Let me see this.
[FOOTSTEPS]
To cut down on the echo even more, we can create a space using soft materials. A few pillows and blankets in this coat closet should do the trick. Now, I just need to turn on the light, and voila. Home studio.
MOLLY BLOOM: Marc, Menaka, Sanden and I have all been recording at home. And our co-hosts have too. We've been using Zoom and other internet connections to connect with scientists and kids all over the world. It's not the same as a studio, but we can still talk to them. We asked some of our co-hosts to share how they set up their space. And what surprised them about being a Brains On co-host.
BROOKLYN: You're listening to Brains On. I'm Brooklyn.
TOBIAS: I'm Tobias.
MATTIA: And I'm Mattia.
DUMINKA: And I'm Duminka.
LINCOLN: I'm Lincoln.
VIOLET: And I'm Violet.
MOLLY BLOOM: Brooklyn, a few months ago you recorded an episode of Brains On. Where did you record it?
BROOKLYN: I recorded it in the closet. Come on. Let me show you. It's perfect because it has a lot of space and it was just so helpful.
TOBIAS: I recorded Brains On in my bedroom. I had to plug-in a big microphone into my computer, and then I had to build a pillow for around my computer to muffle any unwanted sound.
LINCOLN: My name is Lincoln from Miller, Missouri. Well, we did go through a whole bunch of places, but we actually ended up at a friend's house.
MATTIA: I recorded in my bunk bed. I surrounded it so much with blankets. There wasn't any hard space around.
DUMINKA: Hello, my name is Duminka. I co-hosted the episode Why kids have more energy than adults? I recorded Brains On while sitting on my bed so that I could have my computer, my microphone, and my script sitting around me. In order to make my bedroom amazing for recording, I put a sign that said "Don't come in, Brains On recording in progress" on my door. I also show some blankets under the door so no sounds from around my house would leak in.
MENAKA WILHELM: What surprised you most about taping an episode? How conversational it was? It wasn't just me singing lines; it was us talking.
BROOKLYN: The microphone was much more sensitive than I thought it would be. So I had to turn off the air conditioning and that got stuffy, and basically anything that made any noise. I had to put a bunch of blankets and pillows around my computer to muffle the whirring sound in it.
MATTIA: Well, I thought they just talked. I didn't know that I had a script or anything. When I did it, I saw a script. It's so organized and it just blew my mind.
LINCOLN: I also thought that Molly, Marc and Sanden would be there. I really had to wish that we could go to the studio so then I could see them.
TOBIAS: Also, it's super funny having to say "Um, Sanden, those breakfast tacos smell delicious" when you have no breakfast tacos and you can't even see Sanden.
VIOLET: There was this one thing it was called "we're serious about being curious" and I always wanted to do that part. And when I did the podcast, I was just so happy because I finally got to do it.
MENAKA WILHELM: How did you feel when you learned that you were going to be on Brains On?
MATTIA: I went immediately to Mama's phone, interrogated her, and look the message up and down to know that it was actually true.
BROOKLYN: Well, I was like "Yeah right, joke's over" until I found out it was no joke and there was actually a letter from Molly Bloom and then I party.
MOLLY BLOOM: A big, huge thank you to all of our delightful co-hosts and their grown ups. Without your help and troubleshooting and pillow for building, we wouldn't have been able to keep making episodes. So thank you, thank you, thank you. All right. Sanden, Marc and Menaka, are you ready for today's mystery sound?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, yeah.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yep.
MATTIA: Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[CLICKING SOUND]
MARC SANCHEZ: I was dancing at first.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I totally thought it was nail clipping, but then I'm like nobody clips their nails that rhythmically.
MENAKA WILHELM: Maybe you don't.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm noticing a robot clipping their nails and they're just super precise clip, clip, clip, clip, and then they're all done.
MENAKA WILHELM: It really sounds like the lighter on a stove when you're trying to light the stove and it's trying but it's not lighting.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good guess.
MARC SANCHEZ: I thought it sounded like that as well, but it sounded too slow. Usually, those are like a click, click, click, click, click. And it was very rhythmic and then it died at the end.
SANDEN TOTTEN: It got slower. This is a puzzling one.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Well, we're going to listen to it again and give you another chance to guess a little bit later in the show. We've got an episode about siblings coming up.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We want to know how you feel about your sibling situation.
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell us about it at brainson.org/contact.
MENAKA WILHELM: Your answer could be on the show.
MARC SANCHEZ: What's the best thing about your sibling status, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, I'm in the middle and I think that means I fly under the radar. I'm not the oldest, I'm not the youngest. I can watch, learn from the mistakes of others. And also I don't have to have all the focus to be in the young one who's constantly everyone's cooing and fawning over. It's like being invisible which I think is good.
MARC SANCHEZ: Well, being invisible was never part of the equation for me because I'm an only child. But that's pretty cool too because it really taught me how to make my own fun. I didn't have brothers and sisters to go outside and play with or be inside and play with. It gave me a chance to get really creative. So much so that I had a pretend friend named Poncho for many years.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Can we have Poncho on the show?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, he's here now. He's here now. My friend. Say Hello.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hi, Poncho.
MENAKA WILHELM: I didn't hear him.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I did.
MARC SANCHEZ: Menaka, where do you fall in the sibling line?
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm the oldest and I have one younger sister. I think this is so corny but the best thing about being the oldest is just that I like my younger sister so much. We get along. She's really funny. She's really tall. Everyone thinks she's older than me because she's 5 inches taller than I am, and she has been since I was 9. It's almost like I'm like secretly the oldest.
MARC SANCHEZ: It's like you get the best of both.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Send us your answer at brainson.org/contact. That's also where you can send questions, ideas, mystery sounds or drawings.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We read every single thing you send in. And we love it all.
MENAKA WILHELM: Here's one great question from a listener.
ELLEN: Hi, Brains On. My name is Ellen Kent. My question is, how do rocks form?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll be back with an answer to that during our Moment of Um at the end of the show. We'll read the most recent list of names to be added to the Brains Honor Roll.
MATTIA: So keep listening.
DUMINKA: So keep listening.
BROOKLYN: So keep listening.
TOBIAS: So keep listening.
VIOLET: Keep listening.
MOLLY BLOOM: Also, our book is out and we are so excited to share it with you. It's called Brains On! Presents-- It's Alive-- From Neurons and Narwhals to the Fungus Among Us. As part of our book launch, we've had a couple of virtual events and they've been so much fun. There's one more coming up on September 26th.
You can find the details about that at brainson.org/events. We've also loved seeing pictures of our amazing listeners with the book and hearing your reviews. If you have the book, we'd love to see you too. So take a picture and send it to us or post to social media and tag it hashtag Brains On Book.
This is Brains On. I'm Molly.
MARC SANCHEZ: I'm Marc.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm Menaka.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm Sanden.
MOLLY BLOOM: And here is the mystery sound one more time.
[CLICKING SOUND]
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, is it a pendulum of those steel balls and a row?
MARC SANCHEZ: That's what I'm thinking. It sounded like marbles. Does it have a specific name or is it a pendulum?
MENAKA WILHELM: It's called something's cradle. Isn't it?
MARC SANCHEZ: Sounds familiar.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Newton's cradle.
MENAKA WILHELM: Maybe it's called Newton's cradle.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good guesses. Seems like there's a consensus. Let's hear the answer.
ALICE: My name's Alice. I'm 10 years old and I'm from Toronto, Ontario that was the sound of my Newton's cradle.
MENAKA WILHELM: Nice.
ALICE: It has five balls. You put one up in the air let go of it, they're attached to strings. It clashes against the others and it makes that ticking sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Nice work, everybody.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Wow.
MOLLY BLOOM: Is that a great sound at least sent to us?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Love it.
MENAKA WILHELM: Really nice clicks.
MARC SANCHEZ: And it took three people to get the answer right.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you guys know why it's called a Newton's cradle?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Is it because the famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton came up with rules of momentum?
MOLLY BLOOM: Absolutely.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And this is like a demonstration of that where for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. So when the ball clicks at one spot, there's a ball that bounces in another spot?
MOLLY BLOOM: I don't know if it's the equal and opposite reaction one. I think it's the conservation of momentum and energy.
MENAKA WILHELM: When you lift up one of the balls and it strikes the ball next to it, that force is transmitted through the other balls and it comes out the other end. Each ball passes it to the ball next to it and that's conservation of momentum.
MARC SANCHEZ: Right. So the energy passes from ball to ball to ball to the last one and it swings up, comes back down, and then sends them all back the other way.
MOLLY BLOOM: Exactly.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks for the sound.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: To make a nice crystal clear recording that can sound as good as it possibly can, we try to block out as many sounds from our house as possible. But to make cool sound effects, we actually go hunting for sounds.
MENAKA WILHELM: Like when Marc made a sandwich at the beginning of one of our episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hey, Marc, making a little pre-show sandwich.
MARC SANCHEZ: First, you take a slice of bread.
MENAKA WILHELM: Those sounds are recordings of my silverware drawer, mayonnaise from my own fridge, and an actual bag of bread.
MARC SANCHEZ: In a different episode, maybe you remember when Sanden dumped a bunch of dirt on the floor so he could feel what it was like to be a plant.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hold your feet still while I pour some fresh dirt on them. Nice. And a sprinkle of water. There. I actually recorded myself dumping soil on the ground in my house. Then I cleaned it up, of course.
MENAKA WILHELM: And other times, we have to come up with a sound for something we can't record. Like for our episode on tiny robots, I needed the sound of a cockroach scuttling. And for a lot of things like this, we use sound effects from CDs or the internet. So usually, I look there first. And when I was working on this, I actually did find a sound of real cockroaches. Are you guys ready?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
[SCUTTLING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: It sounds like rain. I'm soothed by it.
MENAKA WILHELM: It's hard to tell what it is. So it's just not the right sound. What I needed was a close up sound of just one imaginary cockroach walking, and that's pretty different from what we just heard. Naturally, I headed to my pantry to record the sound of sprinkling things. I figured there must be something there that would make a good scuttle. And I tried dried Chili Peppers first.
[THUDS]
That was kind of close but too swishy. So next, I tried actually just my fingers. Pattering my fingers in front of a microphone.
[TAPPING]
And that was really close, but I wanted something a little more click clack too. So next up was trail mix
[ROCKS ROLLING]
and that sounded pretty scully to me. I liked both the patterning and the trail mix. When I edited the sounds on my computer, I actually layered the sound of the trail mix on top of the sound of pattering my fingers to make the scuttle sound that you heard on the show.
[SCUTTLING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Our computers also make lots of sounds on this show possible, especially when we're making voices for characters. And here's a secret. Sometimes we record character parts ourselves and change the way our voice is sound using software. If I wanted to sound like a molecule, I might pitch up my voice so it sounds wee and tiny. Software can help make my voice sound low too so I sound like a giant. Has anyone seen the giant taco I brought for lunch? I think it's in this room. Oh, here it is. We even make voices sound like robots.
[RINGING]
Or like we're calling from an old telephone. Or even like we're giving a very important speech in front of a big group of people. Thank you. You're too kind.
[CHEERING]
So those are some of the tricks we use to make the show sound better.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll admit this is not how we imagined we'd be making Brains On.
SANDEN TOTTEN: For starters, I never thought I'd be working in a closet that smells like mothballs.
MENAKA WILHELM: Mine's more like old hiking boots.
MOLLY BLOOM: But making the show is still the highlight of our week. We love getting your questions and we love when you send us ideas or drawings.
MARC SANCHEZ: Honestly, you all have made these strange times so much easier to deal with.
MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for sticking with us. We are super grateful to have you along for the ride.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Until next-- Bobby. No, no. I can't play right now. We're in the middle of--
[DOG BARKING]
[ENGINE SOUND]
- Oh, another car without a muffler? Let me go close the window. Hold on one second.
- Mommy, can I have my own shoes?
- Lulu, hold on one second. I'm almost done.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh. BRB. I have to go let the repair person in.
MOLLY BLOOM: This is falling apart very quickly.
MARC SANCHEZ: Down. Down.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hang on.
- Mommy, you didn't walk in yet?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Let yourself in.
- Hang on.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We need a distraction. Quick. Play the theme.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Even though we're at home, we're busy making stuff.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We're working a little differently.
MENAKA WILHELM: But adapting is totally worth it.
MARC SANCHEZ: Because making stuff is fun.
MOLLY BLOOM: And maybe you can do some of these things at home too.
MARC SANCHEZ: Recording around soft surfaces will cut down on echoes for super real sounds.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But it's also fun to record wacky sounds for imaginary situations.
MENAKA WILHELM: Just remember to clean up if your imaginary sounds involve sprinkling things all over the table.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On. Brains On is produced by us. I'm Molly Bloom.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I'm Sanden Totten.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm Menaka Wilhelm.
MARC SANCHEZ: And I'm Poncho's friend, Marc Sanchez.
[LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Special thanks to Eric Brigham, John Miller and all the humans, animals, and houseplants that share our home studios with us. We had production help from Christina Lopez and engineering help from Johnny Vince Evans. And now before we go.
MARC SANCHEZ: It's time for our Moment of Um.
SUBJECT: My question is, how do rocks form?
MARY LEACH: I love that question. That means you're interested in rocks. My name is Mary Leach and I study rocks for a living. Rocks are forming all the time. We just can't see that happening because it's taking place deep beneath our feet.
There are three rock types: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Igneous rocks come from melted rock. That's where they begin as molten rock deep in Earth's crust. And they can either be erupted as lavas out of a volcano or they might cool and crystallize deep in Earth's crust and become plutonic rocks.
Metamorphic rocks are rocks that gets buried very deeply. They get squeezed together, deformed, and changed and transformed from their original rock type into a new kind of rock. A metamorphic rock is very different from the rock that it started out to be.
Sedimentary rocks are made from different kinds of sediment like sand, mud, other rocks and plants and animal remains. All of those get together, they're buried by more sands. They start to bond together. The temperature increases as it gets buried more. Fluids it might be the river water or groundwater come through and help to cement it together.
Rocks take millions of years to form because it takes a long time to bury those sediments deeply enough. The other rocks like igneous rocks starts deep in Earth's crust and they take a long time to get to Earth's surface. So those processes take millions of years. It's way beyond our lifetimes.
MOLLY BLOOM: I am ready to rock and read this list of names. It's the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible listeners who share their ideas, questions, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives with us.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks for listening.
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
