58: TRAINS & trains

Posted on by

Steam trains have been around for hundreds of years and devoted people with a lot of passion, patience, and strong work ethic are keeping the culture alive at volunteer-run organizations across the world. The Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois, and the Chelmsford Society of Model Engineers in England are two organizations doing their parts to help the culture make it through to the next generation.

Video of the miniature trains at the Chelmsford Society of Model Engineers
(Bill and his Thompson B1 make an appearance at 0:20):

57: Um, Uh, Er

Posted on by

When we stumble, misspeak, or fill our speech with um, er, and uh sounds, we are speaking with disfluencies. Michael Erard wrote a book on the subject called Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean. Learn about what disfluencies are, their cultural perception, and why they may not be such a bad thing from Michael and Katie Gore of Speech IRL.

Music in the episode was contributed by Podington Bear.

The Toastmasters video we mention in the episode can be seen here.

Here’s George’s ‘UMM’ piece we feature in the episode:

Everything Sounds… quiet

Posted on by

Audiophiles:

As you may (or may not) have noticed, Everything Sounds episodes have been released less frequently over the last few months. As much as we’d like to produce episodes on a regular basis, we simply don’t have the time that we used to. Both of us have jobs that take up our weeks, and our schedules don’t often align. It’s made even more difficult as we don’t live in the same city — pulling back the curtain a little, Craig is in New York City and George is in Chicago.

It’s also difficult to maintain a regular production schedule without a consistent source of revenue to back it up. When we were part of the Mule Radio Syndicate, we received some modest ad revenue that helped offset costs of producing the show. However, when Mule dissolved in the Spring of 2014, our sponsors went with it. We approached our previous sponsors and other businesses, but without network support the show, we didn’t fit their marketing needs. We’re still looking for sponsors and have had some inquiries, but so far nothing has materialized.

We want to make this clear: The production of Everything Sounds is NOT coming to an end. This project we started a few years ago has become too important to not continue. Even though we may not be able to maintain the same level of production, we still want to share stories about the ways sound influences our lives when we’re able.

The response to the show’s been overwhelmingly positive and we’re grateful for all of your feedback, attention, and support. Though we may not be releasing episodes as frequently, we hope that you understand that the lack of output is not a lack of enthusiasm or appreciation for our audience or all that Everything Sounds represents. Thanks for allowing us to share this experience with you. We hope you’ll find other sounds and stories to keep your ears, mind, and heart active and engaged, until the next time we have a chance to catch up with you.

All our best,
Craig & George

For now, take a listen back to a mix of our stories from 2014: