Sonic Café, broadcasting from the edge of the world—right here on the rugged Pacific Coast. That was Bruce Springsteen, Living on the Edge- of his world, and hey, welcome to the show. I’m your host Scott Clark, and this is episode 491.
This time, the Sonic Café stirs up a tasty blend of fresh tracks along with timeless classics—just like we always do. Our musical journey spans 57 years and features new sounds from David Byrne, The Black Keys, Ezra Furman, and Lord Huron, all from 2025. We’ll mix those in with favorites from the past, including Wolfmother from 2005 and Jethro Tull’s thunderous Locomotive Breath from 1970.
Plus, we’ll zip back to 1967 in the Sonic Café time machine to groove with Freddie Scott—we’ll spin that up around the bottom of the hour.
On the comedy side, Don McMillan asks the big question: will Chat GPT replace us? Anthony Jeselnik shares a story about his buddy in the FBI, Brian Regan wonders why we’re obsessed with finding water on Mars, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson predicts how it all might end. Uplifting, huh?
So yeah, a lot to squeeze into an hour, so let’s dive in. From his 2025 Saving Grace album, here’s Robert Plant with Everybody’s Song—and we’re the Sonic Café.
The understanding of how we humans experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives is this topic of two interviews with Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession,” recorded from his home in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in late October 2006.
Professor Levitin runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He asserts that our brains are hardwired for music and therefore we are all more musically equipped than we think. He says that music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, perhaps even more fundamental to our species than language. Professor Levitin believes that the music we end up liking meets our expectations of what we anticipate hearing just enough of the time that we feel rewarded, and the music that we like violates those expectations just enough of the time that we’re intrigued.
In the first interview Dr. Levitin begins by describing how the human brain learns to distinguish between music and language.
The second interview begins with a discussion of what happens when people listen to music they like.
Professor Daniel Levitin’s website is www.yourbrainonmusic.com
The books Dr. Daniel J. Levitin recommends are, “Another Day in the Frontal Lobe,” by Katrina Firlik, and, “The Human Stain,” by Philip Roth.
Originally Broadcast: November 1, 2006 November 8, 2006
Join us for some fresh greens this week from The Cloverhearts, The Ollam, Edmonton family band The McDades and Scots bard Cabbie Drennan with a drink along, sing along. Check out Celt In A Twist with Patricia Fraser at a new time, new day and new station; FM96.1, Tuesdays at 9pm.
No borders, no boundaries, it's free-range radio from World Beat Canada. Join us this hour for a grab bag of great stuff including new Tinariwen, just what Doctor Nativo ordered, Gogol Bordello to go and our debut from Quebec's gift-wrapped math rock duo Angine de Poitrine!
A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. France, Japan, and Cuba.
A look at a positive children's album from the 1980s, music for bowling that will have you swinging and a celebrity slip up you might actually find useful advice. Go Figure!
Corporate Democrats Freak Out (Lash Out) Over Democratic Socialists Primary Wins; Opponents Challenge Trump Regime’s Scheme to Politicize Federal Grants; Nationwide Revolt Against Flock Camera Mass Surveillance Surges.
Seth Stern is the chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). Seth’s articles about press freedom have been published by outlets like The Guardian, The Intercept, Rolling Stone, and Columbia Journalism Review. Seth and FPF’s advocacy teamwork in collaboration with independent bloggers, incarcerated journalists, major national news outlets and civil liberties organizations to promote laws and policies that allow public-interest journalism to thrive. Before joining FPF, Seth practiced media and First Amendment law for 13 years. He has an article in The Intercept now entitled "30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech."
In the first half of the show, we discuss the incident that led to Daniel ‘Dez’ Sanchez’s 30-year prison sentence and the implications of this precedent.
In the second half of the show, we discuss how this case can have a ripple effect on free speech and journalism and press protections in this country moving forward.
We celebrate the history and continuing activism of Dyke Marches across the U.S. with Professor Sara Angevine and voices from the streets of Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. In the news, the U.S. Supreme Court rules against transgender student athletes, a Russian court convicts the staff of an "extremist" drag club, Republicans erase Pride Month from military recognition, and Turkish authorities arrest Pride demonstrators while blocking a cruise ship's drag performance. And the Rainbow Rewind honors gay military pioneer Lt. Leonard Matlovich
A small bookstore in Point Reyes Station, a coastal town in West Marin, California, was the first to invite Suzanne Simard for a conversation. Three days earlier, on May 4, her book had been published. Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, has already become a best-seller.
Suzanne Simard was born in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia and grew up in an old growth forest. She was educated at the University of British Columbia and Oregon State University; and is now Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry.
Over 1,000 people participated on the Zoom book release hosted by David Haskell. He is professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of the South and author of The Forest Unseen and essays, op-eds, and poetry.
Point Reyes Books called Suzanne Simard a pioneer of plant communication and intelligence; much like Rachel Carson. Simard, they say, writes in inspiring, and accessible ways, how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved; how they perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past; how they have agency about the future; elicit warnings and mount defenses, cooperate and compete with one another with sophistication. All characteristics ascribed only to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies. And at the center of it all stand the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.
The one hour film of the conversation is posted on Youtube The link can be found on the website of Point Reyes Books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yRiN876lZw
DATE: 2021/05/07
