Nearly everyone has strong emotional connections to music. Music can remind us of our past and affect our mood. Dan Cohen of Music and Memory realized that our relationship to music might improve the quality of life for the elderly in health care facilities. Music and Memory has provided personalized listening that has benefitted patients, families, and health care providers. Learn more about their efforts and some examples of the results in this week’s episode. If you have an old iPod that you would like to donate or want to find out more,  visit the Music and Memory website.

“Alive Inside” is a production by Michael Rossato Bennett  Ximotion Media and you can watch a clip below:

Suggested Reading:

• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
• This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin
• How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds by John Powell

If you want to automatically download future episodes, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

You can find this episode’s transcript by clicking this link.

Rube Goldberg machines are unnecessarily complex contraptions that are assembled to perform simple tasks. Rube Goldberg machines were part of the inspiration for a video art piece by Stephen Meierding titled “Bicycle Sounds.” Find out how Stephen went from pursuing chemical engineering to assembling the video in his Brooklyn basement.

If you want to automatically download future episodes, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

Bicycle Sounds from Stephen Meierding on Vimeo.

Find this episode’s transcript by clicking this link.

Photo from Stephen Meierding’s “Bicycle Sounds”

Dominic WIlcox is an established artist in London, England. His work ranges from sculpture, clothing design, drawings and more recently a vinyl record. The ‘Sounds of Making in East London’ is a commissioned work by Dominic after he was asked to create a ‘souvenir of East London.’ Instead of taking a traditional route, he went around to the ‘makers’ of the East end and recorded them on the job. The resulting work is a tribute to the overlooked and forgotten jobs of England.

This episode uses these sound effects from freesound.org:
‘air-raid’ by blaukreuz, ‘Marines in Firefight Gunbattle (Raw audio)’ by qubodup, ‘BellChurch’ by mich3d, ‘morning_birds’ by morgantj, ‘20120715_ourense.bell.01’ by dobroide, ‘thsha1_binaural_church_bell_20060528_1’ by thsha1, ‘01112 church bells 3’ by Robinhood76, ‘Sirmione – Kirchenläuten’ by aarom

If you want to automatically download future episodes, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

Photo by Dominic Wilcox