We know one thing for sure: the sun always rises in the East. Right? But what if one day you woke up and the sun was rising in the West? My mom tells the story of the day she woke up to an upside-down world. For more stories on wonder, go here: www.thaliagig.com/on-wonder

Music Credits (All CC):
New England Air - BOPD
Buildings Stays Offshore - Augustus Bro and Gallery Six
Led by the dress colored in red - Augustus Bro and Gallery Six

The Day the Sun Rose in the West

A sound portrait of Pearl, a service-user at the Sam Boyce Centre, a dementia centre in East London.

This portrait is part of a series of portraits of people with dementia for the "Sound Memory Project," an exploration of music, memory and East End knees-up spirit late in life.

http://www.polkadotsonraindrops.com/sound/sound-memory

Pearl


A sound portrait of Doris, a service-user at the Sam Boyce Centre, a dementia centre in East London.

This portrait is part of a series of portraits of people with dementia for the "Sound Memory Project," an exploration of music, memory and East End knees-up spirit late in life.
http://www.polkadotsonraindrops.com/sound/sound-memory



Doris

A sound portrait of Violet, a resident at the Sam Boyce Centre, a center for people with dementia in East London. Originally from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Violet moved to London long ago. In her altered state, she believed she was back on St. Vincent, not the dementia center. 

This piece is part of a series of portraits of people with dementia for the "Sound Memory Project": https://www.thaliagig.com/kneesup-therapy. It's an exploration of music, memory and East End knees-up spirit late in life.

This piece was broadcast on London's Resonance FM in 2013.

Violet

A sound portrait of Iva, a service-user at the Sam Boyce Centre, a dementia centre in East London.

This portrait is part of a series of portraits of people with dementia for the "Sound Memory Project," an exploration of music, memory and East End knees-up spirit late in life. 
http://www.polkadotsonraindrops.com/sound/sound-memory

My mom tries to understand my dad's fascination with a clumsy little brown beetle: the Maikäfer.

Part of the 'On Wonder' series. Exploring the realm of the non-human: a series of audio stories about moments of wonder, relationships with animals and things, and getting away from it all. www.thaliagig.com/on-wonder

Maikäfer

Galax, Virginia is a small town with a long tradition of old-time music. In this town of roughly 7000 people, music is one of the main ways people socialize. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the town's music life suddenly came to a halt. And as the virus swept through the town, this tightly-knit community suddenly found itself politically divided. As neighbors stopped speaking to each other, faith and community leaders came up with creative ways to re-create a sense of community. An experiment in audio ethnography. This project was funded by Princeton University’s Humanities Council and published in Written in Air’s audio magazine. You can listen to the full piece by subscribing to Written in Air.

Produced, Written & Sound Designed by Thalia Gigerenzer
Edited & Sound Designed by Dennis Funk
Musical Performances by Eddie Bond, Stevie Barr & the String Bean Jam
Additional Music by Nest (courtesy of Serein/Huw Roberts) & Joseph Alesci
Mastering by Jeff Emtman

Two Seasons in Galax - Excerpt

A meandering conversation with anthropologist Kit Davis about life and the comfort of the non-human. Part of a series of interviews exploring the realm of the non-human: stories about moments of wonder, the comfort of animals and things, and getting away from it all. For more stories, go here: www.thaliagig.com/on-wonder

Music credits (All CC):
Arenosa - Axial
Sun City Flats - E.R. Goodman
Red Bandana - E.R. Goodman
Stubble - E.R. Goodman
New England Air - BOPD
Trans-siberian - Nest
Flight to Paris - Amitron
Belview - C. Scott

On Wolves, Trains and Trees (Kit Davis Part 2)

Artist Pippa Skotnes is writing a book on giraffe bones. Part of a series of interviews exploring the realm of the non-human: stories about moments of wonder, the comfort of animals and things, and getting away from it all. For more stories, go here: www.thaliagig.com/on-wonder. Here's more information on Pippa's work: http://www.cca.uct.ac.za/people/pippa-skotnes/

Music:
Bone rattles -- Thalia Gigerenzer (ft. giraffe bones)
Free Me -- Lee Maddeford (CC)
Arenoas -- Axial (CC)
Peregum -- Axial (CC)
Sono Bom -- Axial (CC)
New England Air -- BOPD (CC)
For the Birds - E.R. Goodman (CC)

Giraffe Bones

Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi reflects on his own encounters with the uncanny, beginning with his earliest, childhood memory of wonder. Part of a series of interviews on wonder: meandering conversations about moments of enchantment, relationships with animals and things, and getting away from it all. For more stories, go here: cargocollective.com/thaliag/On-Wonder.

Music: 

Arenoas -- Axial (Creative Commons)
Drifting Satellite -- Unheard Music Concepts (CC)
Space Night Drumming -- Frank Dorittke (CC)
Telescope -- The Owl (CC)
Sono Bom -- Axial (CC)
Flux -- Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Axle -- The Snail and the Mistle Thrush
New England Air -- BOPD (CC)

Blue-Black Skies: Abdellah Hammoudi on Wonder

91-year-old Ed Shepard has been running his service station in Welch, West Virginia since 1950. But the once-booming coal town of Welch, nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is now becoming a ghost town. (Welch is in McDowell County, the sixth poorest county in the United States.) Despite having almost no customers (he stopped serving gas in 1995), Ed still goes to work six days a week. He bides his time as the coal trains rumble by his station. A story of a rich interior life. For more pictures of Ed and Welch, go here: https://www.thaliagig.com/welch-west-virginia/

(This interview is from 2014).

Music:
Takoma Park Pool Hall Blues - John Fahey
Stillness - Nest
Sawyer - Grey DeLisle

The Gas Station at the End of the World

Sissel Tolaas perceives the world differently than most people. Part-chemist and part-artist, she's one of the world's leading (and only) experts on smell. She can detect scents that most humans don’t even register, parse them down to the tiniest molecule and compose new ones out of thin air.

She is most well-known for her controversial exhibit at MIT on the smell of fear, collected from male sweat. Recently, she synthesized the smell of World War I trenches for the Dresden Military History Museum. I visited the Norwegian native in her lab, located in her Berlin apartment. Part of a series of interviews on wonder: meandering conversations about moments of enchantment, relationships with animals and things, and getting away from it all. For more stories, go here: www.thaliagig.com/on-wonder

(originally produced for Berlin Stories)

Music:
Munu Munu - Toby Twining Music
Shaman - Toby Twining Music
Hee-Oo-Om-Ha - Toby Twining Music
Flux - Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Transsiberian - Nest

Sissel Tolaas, Smell Artist

Ninety-one-year-old Ed Shepard has been running his service station in Welch, West Virginia since 1950. But the once-booming coal town of Welch, nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is now almost a ghost town. (Welch is in McDowell County, the sixth poorest county in the United States.) These days, Ed has almost no customers. He stopped serving gas in 1995, and he won't service a car made before 1980. But Ed still goes to work six days a week. He bides his time as the coal trains rumble by his station hourly. A story of a rich interior life.

Sparta, Georgia

The Next Ten Minutes

Cherry Tree

Ocean Sounds

Kamal The Crayon Invents A New Color

Wednesday, April 1st, 9.10 am, New Delhi

Sounds Of Quarantine

Morning Coffee

Somewhere on the Way to Somewhere Else

Waterfall

Musical Interlude

Never Too Far

In the early days of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, a relatively obscure virology podcast called “This Week in Virology” suddenly gained thousands of new listeners. Listeners from all walks of life — from mailmen to English teachers — were writing in with all sorts of questions, some of them scientific, some of them highly personal. Many listeners reported that the show’s reasoned tone (and frequent outbursts of laughter) had a calming effect on them. Here’s the story of how a quirky virus podcast went viral during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Virus Podcast Goes Viral

The TWiV team reacts to my podcast. Warning: it gets very meta.

TG

Pinned to spotlight

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