Martina Castro

In this episode of Crosscurrents, we go on a sonic tour of sounds from everyday life, led by bioacoustician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause.

Part I.

Bernie Krause says if we really listen, we’ll hear an animal orchestra out there and we need to protect it.

“Fully 50 percent of the habitats I’ve recorded are now quiet. It tells us about so many things about ourselves and how we’re doing in relationship to the rest of the living world around us,” says Krause.

Sarah Cahill is considered one of the architects and champions of the new music scene in the Bay Area. She founded the annual Garden of Memory concert at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, which is one of the many ways she tries to make contemporary music more accessible to a wider audience. She also does that Sunday nights on her radio show Then and Now on KALW on Sundays at 8pm. Cahill spoke with KALW's Martina Castro and played some songs for her, as she described why she ended up leaving the more formal classical world, for the freedom of the experimental genre.

This story is part of The Audiophiles series, our award-winning series of conversations with the most creative people working with sound around the Bay.

As a new year begins, many of us have made vows to stay healthy and fit. If that’s one of your resolutions, you may want to consider some advice from someone who has a lot of wisdom in that department, and not just because he’s a doctor. Martina Castro spoke with centenarian rheumatologist Ephraim Engleman, on how to live fast and keep going.

Stand on the beach overlooking Half Moon Bay, and the sound you’re most likely to hear is of waves crashing against the rocks. But when Roger Bland climbed up there, he wanted to hear what was underneath those waves.