Sometimes you just click. No one knows that better than childhood friends Olu and WowGr8 of the experimental hip hop duo EarthGang. That’s why they were the perfect choice to read Claudia Geib’s story “Clicking with Your Kin” about the special sounds sperm whales use to identify their clans.

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It’s not often that rap artists collaborate with scientists, but Houston-based rapper Fat Tony and music cognition researcher Henkjan Honing just dropped a track together. Honing, who studies what makes humans a musical species, revealed in a story for MIT Press and excerpted by Nautilus that we’re wired for beats at birth. Naturally, we turned to another expert on beats to read his story. Here’s what Honing told us about his collab with Fat Tony:

 "The groove is central to many musics. Let’s celebrate our sensitivity to the beat. Music is not a just a luxury, it’s essential to most of us. And Fat Tony's narration adds the proper groove to the story. Thanks Tony!"

Check out Fat Tony on tour: https://fattonyrap.net/tour

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Who better to read about undersea mountains than the lead singer of an underground rock band? Join Tina Hallady of the Philly-based punk group Sheer Mag as she takes you on a voyage to the bottom of the ocean, through the eyes of an artist. You can also check out Sheer Mag’s latest album Playing Favorites from Jack White’s Third Man Records and catch them on tour throughout May.

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“Somewhere across the plain of imminence, shouting into the void…”

That’s singer Nate Hardy from the 2nd track of Microwave’s latest album Let’s Start Degeneracy. Voids—of the emotional sort—are a recurring theme across the album from the cheekily self-described “adult mid-tempo psychedelic contemporary rock band from Atlanta, GA.”

It’s fitting then, that Nate has chosen to read a Nautilus classic from one of our most prolific contributors, theoretical cosmologist Paul M. Sutter.

Paul tells us, “This story about voids is deeply personal to me, as voids have always struck a chord with me and been the focus of my scientific research. But there's so much more to the concept of nothingness than just their physical manifestation, and it's beautiful to hear echoes of that search in Nate's narration.”