The Ways of Knowing Tour

We’re visiting universities to celebrate academic inquiry with an immersive audio experience.

The Show: For eighty minutes you are going to sit in total 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.

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, University of Chicago, and University of Washington. In past live shows, they have collaborated with musicians, artists and academics like Matmos, The Kronos Quartet, Chris Watson, Hildegard Westerkamp, Trevor Pinch, and Barry Truax. They’ve published academic papers; spent a semester at Cornell as Practitioners-in-Residence; and performed, guest lectured, and done workshops at more than 50 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 2027

More shows to be added, so check back in!

Upstate New York and Pennsylvania

  • University of Binghamton 4/26

  • Colgate University early April

Upper Midwest

  • Depaul University early April

  • Lawrence University early April

New England

  • Colby College mid March

  • University of Massachusetts mid March

  • Williams College mid March

Western Midwest

  • University of Missouri Kansas City late February

  • Unviersity of Iowa late February

  • University if Nebraska late February

Eastern Midwest

  • University of Michigan 2/8

  • Case Western University 2/9

  • Miami University 2/11

  • Indiana University Bloomington 2/12

North Carolina and Georgia

  • Emory University late January

  • Old Dominion University late January

  • Wake Forest University late January

TOUR DATES 2026

Southwest and Southern California

  • Claremont-McKenna College 11/9

  • University of Arizona 11/10

  • Wetern New Mexico University 11/12

Georgia

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