lena.molby.app/podcast/the-sound-of-a-room
Signalswith Lena Ortiz
The first 1:22 of the episode. The full 41:12 is in your podcast app.
Transcript · opening
LenaBefore we start, I want you to do something. Wherever you are, stop for three seconds, and just listen to the room you're in.
LenaNot the sounds in it. The room itself. The way it holds them.
LenaI'm Lena Ortiz, this is Slow Signals, and my guest today has spent twenty years measuring the voices of rooms.
InêsWhich sounds much more romantic than it is. Mostly it's me, alone in a building at two in the morning, with a balloon and a microphone.
LenaA balloon?
InêsYou pop it. It's the cheapest perfect noise there is. Then you listen to how long the room takes to forget it.
LenaThat's a lovely way to put it. How long the room takes to forget.
InêsWe call it reverberation time. A small bedroom forgets in less than half a second. A cathedral can take eight.
LenaSo when people say a church feels holy, part of that is just... memory?
InêsPart of it is literally that, yes. Your voice comes back to you, slower and softer. It makes you speak less.
That’s the opening. The rest of the conversation follows the chapters on the right.
