The Ways of Knowing Show

We are visiting colleges of arts and sciences to bring students, faculty, and the public together for a communal listening event that celebrates academic research and affirms the value of in-person educational experiences. Our visit is designed to provide a space for students to reclaim their attention in an age of increased distraction. The show and talk are based on work with professors across the country and in line with the mission we lay out in this paper for Cambridge University Press’ Public Humanities journal.

We’ve just completed our spring tour of 25 colleges and universities and are looking to start booking for the fall of 2026!

The Show: For 80 minutes you’re going to sit in darkness, surrounded by loudspeakers, and go on a sonic voyage. You’ll hear the vibrations of the Golden Gate Bridge, footsteps of ants, recordings made a century ago, and silence turned into music. You’ll be transported to 1930s Berlin, inside a waterfall, under a sand dune, and into the middle of a choir singing in the reverberant nave of a 6th-century cathedral. You’ll hear ideas, essays, books, theories, contemporary research, all translated into soundscapes that challenge you to rethink the world through your ears instead of your eyes—and ultimately to reconnect with what makes academic inquiry so meaningful.

The Talk: “Reclaiming Attention in an Age of Distraction”

For the last 20 years, Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett have been trying to figure out how to create socially responsible audio in a media industry that increasingly revolves around capturing and monetizing attention. In conjunction with their live show, the pair will give a talk about producing and consuming media in the contemporary attention economy. They will discuss how their unorthodox approach to sound has allowed them to create intellectually-rigorous and impactful media in an age of distraction; the importance of experiential education; and how students can make the most of the live events offered on campus throughout the year. This talk is based in part on their paper published by the Cambridge University Press.

Who We Are: Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett are co-producers of The World According to Sound, a collection of podcast series and touring sound shows. Their latest podcast project is Ways of Knowing, a series about academic research made in partnership with institutions like Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, and The University of Washington. The pair are former public radio reporters—Chris covered arts and culture in San Francisco, and Sam was the Silicon Valley reporter for KQED, where he covered the intersection of technology and labor. While working in public radio, their reporting won two Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in sound design and was featured regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The World, Science Friday, and other nationally-syndicated radio programs. They have since published academic papers; spent a semester at Cornell as practitioners-in-residence; and performed their octophonic audio compositions at more than 100 universities, theaters, art spaces, and corporate headquarters.

Book us at thewatsound@gmail.com