The Quietest Room on Earth
with Sven Aaltonen, anechoic chamber engineer
Sven builds rooms that swallow 99.99% of sound. We spend twenty minutes inside one, then ask him what silence actually does to a person.
0:0057:56
An interview podcast · Since 2023
4.9 from 2,140 ratings
Talk about how things get made.
Long, unhurried conversations with designers, scientists, engineers and makers about the work behind the things we use every day. Hosted by Nadia Ferreira and Eli Brandt.
Listen on
New here?
Start with these four.
The episodes we’d play a friend first. Each one stands on its own, so start anywhere.
Building a Violin from a Fallen Tree
Adaeze Nwosu
Why Microphones Sound Different
Oskar Lindahl
Why Bridges Hum
Dr. Amara Celik
The Weight of a Kilogram
Dr. Mei Lin
Topics
Five things we can’t stop asking about.
Every guest makes something. Pick the kind of making you’re curious about and we’ll show you every episode on it.
Your hosts
A designer and a journalist walk into a piano shop.
Nadia spent twelve years designing kitchen appliances. Eli spent ten producing science radio. In 2022 they rented the back room of a piano repair shop in Philadelphia and started asking people how they make things.
She asks about the object. He asks about the person. Somewhere in the middle, the guest usually tells us something they’ve never said into a microphone before.
Meet Nadia and EliListener reviews
“My commute is too short now.”
4.9
Average of 2,140 ratings
★★★★★
The bell foundry episode made me cry in a parking lot.
I did not expect to care about tuning bells. Ruth’s voice when she talks about her grandfather’s ledger. I sat in my car for ten minutes after it ended.
★★★★★
The rare show where the hosts actually listen.
They let guests finish their thoughts. No forced banter, no ad every eight minutes.
★★★★★
I’m an engineer and I learn something every episode.
The elevator one is now required listening for our whole controls team. Eli asks the dumb questions so I don’t have to.
★★★★★
Beautifully produced.
You can hear the room. The microphone episode explained why, and now I can’t unhear it.
★★★★★
Please never stop. Also, more episodes about food?
The bread on Mars episode was a delight. I want a whole season on fermentation.
★★★★★
My design students listen to it in class.
The chair that took nine years is the best lesson on iteration I’ve found. The transcripts make it easy to quote.
The Overtone Letter
The bit we cut, in your inbox.
One email per episode: the links from the show notes, a photo from the studio and the best story that didn’t make the edit. 21,000 listeners read it.