Ways of Knowing

The Sonic University Tour

We’re visiting college campuses to celebrate academic research and inquiry with an immersive audio experience

The Show: For one hour you are going to sit in total darkness, surrounded by loudspeakers, and take a sonic trip with fellow members of the academic community. 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, up to the ionosphere, under a sand dune, and into the middle of a choir singing in a church built in the 6th century. 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.

Who we are: Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett are co-creators of The World According to Sound, an audio project about the power of attentive listening. They co-produce Ways of Knowing, a podcast series made in partnership with academic institutions like Johns Hopkins, UChicago, and The University of Washington. They’ve published academic papers; spent a semester at Cornell as Practitioners-in-Residence; and performed, guest lectured, and done workshops at more than 25 universities. They previously worked in public radio, where their reporting won two Edward R. Murrow Awards and was featured regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Science Friday, and other nationally-syndicated programs.

TOUR DATES 2026

San Francisco Bay Area - January 25 - 31

  • UC Berkeley

  • Santa Clara University

  • San José State University (TBD)

Midwest - February 13 - 25

  • Carleton College

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Lawrence University (TBD)

  • Purdue University (TBD)

  • University of Cincinnati

  • Indiana University Bloomington

  • University of Missouri

  • Southern Illinois University Carbondale

  • University of Alabama Huntsville

New England - March 1 - March 12

  • Middlebury College

  • Boston University (TBD)

  • Clark College

  • University of Rhode Island

  • RISD (TBD)

  • The New School

  • Pratt Institute (TBD)

  • Amherst College

New York and Pennsylvania - March 18 - April 1

  • Cornell University

  • SUNY Binghamton

  • Lehigh University

  • Bucknell University

  • Penn State University

  • University of Pennsylvania

  • George Mason University (TBD)

  • New Jersey Institute of Technology (TBD)

  • SUNY Purchase

Mid-Atlantic South - April 15 - 22

  • Wake Forest University

  • UNC Chapel Hill

  • UNC Greensboro (TBD)

  • Duke University

  • Virginia Tech

West Coast - Fall 2026

  • UCLA

  • Claremont-McKenna College

  • The ArtCenter

  • University of Arizona

  • UC Santa Cruz

  • University of Washington

Upper Midwest - Fall 2026

  • DePaul University

  • Northwestern University (TBD)

  • The University of Michigan

  • The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  • Miami University

Additional events, guest lectures, services: While on campus, Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett are available to guest lecture, facilitate public talks, do media training for faculty, and hold workshops for students about podcasting, audio production, and sonic storytelling.

Photo Credit: Gundi Vigfussen

Photo Credit: Alyssa Samuel