little radio café, where we blend a weekly mix of eclectic music, comedy, and pop culture. I’m your host, Scott Clark, and this is episode 490. This time, the Sonic Café explores what happens when your doctor hits you with a diagnosis no one wants to hear—yep, you’re ugly. Comedian Bengt Washburn shares that awkward medical moment with us. Our music mix spans 38 years and really cooks! Listen for Butch Walker, Katie Herzig, Tom Wolfe, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, U2, and more. We’ll also serve up comedy shorts from Andy Huggins and Don McMillan, plus a surprising backstory on the California Raisins, in another installment of Crazy Music Facts from our friends at Origins of Songs. Oh—and ever wonder why Germans always get cast as the bad guys? We’ve got answer. So let’s get started. From 2014, here’s Bryan Ferry—and as always, 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

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. Germany and Cuba.

Free-form music

Free-form music

Free-form music program

Plenty of fresh Celtic to go around this hour, from Haggis X-1, Boiled In Lead, Alexandre Vilaboa from Galicia. along with the defenders of the realm, The Real McKenzies and their new album, On Yer Bike. Saddle up! You've got yer Celt In A Twist!

Flex your fingers and countdown the very best of the past month. It's the Top 10 of our Top 30 with a new tribute to Beruit from Galactic Caravan, and say hello to Doctor Nativo! Plus, brand new spins from Tokyo Ska Paradise, Jamaican veterans Inner Circle and more wonderful weirdness from Angine de Poitrine. Keeping time with the beat of the world!

Nora Barrows-Friedman brings us a recap of Palestinian news from June 25th to July 2nd, 2026

We'll hang out with Allan Sherman and play cheezy parody songs so get ready to swing your liver, Klaus actually does an entire song insteas of medleys and a monkee goes crazy on a record....yep more of the same you can hang out at the water cooler and tell everyone about...or is it a zoom call these days?

Gillen Tener Martin is a journalist and the Features Editor at the Washington Monthly, which recently published her article entitled "Gavin Newsom’s Tragic Mistake on Homelessness" We speak with Gillen via Zoom for the first half of the show. Bobby Nichols is Tempe, Arizona's first Democratic Socialist City Councilmember and one of a slate of candidates endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Bobby is the former Phoenix Democratic Socialist of America's chapter chair and current member. He is the founder of Arizona Works Together, a pro-union political action committee operating at the state level. Additionally, Bobby Nichols works for the Office of the Arizona Attorney General as a state attorney representing Arizona's Departments of Child Safety and Economic Security in Superior and Administrative Court cases involving the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of minor children and vulnerable adults. We speak with Bobby Nichols for the second half of the show.

Islamic Republic remains strong in face of US fake cease fires, threats and attacks.

San Francisco’s affordability crisis is pushing families to the brink, with housing consuming half their income and poverty rates nearing 23%. Community solutions are fighting back. Join us to discover with experts how outdated federal poverty lines hide the hidden true financial struggles, as families compromise on healthcare and basic nutrition. Learn how grassroots innovations like zero-interest lending circles (which help build credit) and shared childcare are empowering their communities to survive and thrive.

Guerline Josef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance; Xavier de Janon, an attorney representing one of the defendants facing state charges; John Tarleton, Editor-in-chief of The Indypendent, New York City's free progressive monthly newspaper.

Tribute to Howard Jones. Featuring all of his hits from the 80s and 90s.

Interview with journalist, former Buddhist monk, activist, and artist Alan Clements on his new book, "Politics of the Heart."

Sunsara Taylor, the anniversary of Female Enslavement Day, when the Christian Fascists on the US Supreme Court ruled that women living in the US were second-class citizens, no longer in control of their own bodies. The Tulsa Massacre, which began May 31, 1921. Juneteenth by Rafael Kadaris of the RNL Show. “Bob Avakian For the Liberation of Black People and the Emancipation of All Humanity.” Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July?” read by actor Keith David.

UN Security Council must not turn over detainees to Kagame's regime.

Denise and Johnny discuss relapse

The Stuph File Program is an eclectic, hour-long Canadian radio show hosted by veteran broadcaster Peter Anthony Holder. It features a mix of conversational interviews, odd news stories, author discussions, and pop culture.