WPRB News and Culture

Today, we’re talking Dissonance – but no, we won’t be sharing tips on how to navigate political conversations with difficult people. Instead, we’re talking about dissonance in music and in our inner worlds, to help us all remember how dissonance can sometimes be a great thing. First, Brianna Dai asks composers about how dissonant sounds can add emotion to compositions. Next, Lucy McWeeny talks Oedipus Rex and how we all struggle to reconcile the two halves of ourselves. Finally, to end with another musical story, Navani Rachumallu and I dissect what dissonance in music actually is–and, in fact, what music itself is.

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Brianna Dai, Lucy McWeeny, Navani Rachumallu, and Natalia Maidique.

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat. Audio clips in “Music Philosophy” from What Makes Music Sound Good by Dmitri Tymoczko and Sound Examples for Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale by Bill Sethares.

(00:00) Introduction

(01:39) Conducting with Dissonance

(11:50) Oedipus Rex

(27:07) Music Philosophy

On 11/11, The Pidgin has stories about superstitions, wishes and symmetry. Something about the date being a palindrome, the same read forwards or backwards (or upside down), makes it feel like anything can happen. Lucy McWeeny and Cynthia Torres revisit middle school crushes and angel numbers. Then, Izzy Jacobson looks at how random alignments can lead to the closest friendships.

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Lucy McWeeny, Cynthia Torres, and Izzy Jacobson. 

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat. Music used in Friendship and Chance story: “Calm Indie Rock Atmosphere” by Universfield, “NFLD” by Mr Smith, “Stone Crow” by Mr Smith, and “Grace” by Mr Smith.

(00:00) Introduction

(02:01) Angel Numbers

(06:57) Friendship and Chance

WPRB News and Culture: The Pidgin sends out sound waves about sound waves this week. Sena Chang and Brianna Dai learn how wind ensembles are created, and listen in on one. Next, Sophie Leheny discusses the benefits of talking to herself. And finally, Teo Grosu hears about asteroseismology, the study of the sounds stars make in outer space.

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Sena Chang, Brianna Dai, Sophie Leheny, Teo Grosu, and Natalia Maidique.

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat. Music used in “Self Talk”: “Summer Walk” by folk_acoustic. Star sounds used in “The Sounds of Stars”: “Flare Star” from the Astronify sonification examples folder through the Space Telescope Science Institute.

(00:00) Introduction

(01:42) Wind Ensemble

(8:47) Self Talk

(16:25) The Sounds of Stars

WPRB News and Culture: The Pidgin dives into a local building controversy this week. Natalia Maidique goes on a tour of Princeton's historic Jugtown neighborhood and learns about the affordable housing development proposal at 344 Nassau Street.

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Natalia Maidique.

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat. Music used in piece: "Glacier," by SalmonLikeTheFish.

WPRB News and Culture: The Pidgin grapples with rejection this week. Lucy McWeeny and Annie Wang some local canvassers about the many, many, many times a day they are ignored and sent away. Next, Sena Chang and Brianna Dai learn how artists handle rejection, when their work is both an extension of themselves and how they make a living. And finally, Cynthia Torres asks a psychic about reading rejection in someone’s cards.

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Lucy McWeeny, Annie Wang, Sena Chang, Brianna Dai, and Cynthia Torres.

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat.

(00:00) Introduction

(01:25) Canvassers

(16:48) Artists

(31:18) Psychic

WPRB News and Culture has been patiently waiting for this season's first episode. Navani Rachumallu talks to ecological researchers, whose work depends on observing an animal that may or may not show up, and hears how they deal with that time in between. Natalia Maidique finds out about the hidden guild of people making lace all around us, and how they’ve learned patience from their craft.

(00:00) Introduction

(01:29) Marmot Research

(14:22) Lacemaking

Hosted and produced by Natalia Maidique. Reported, recorded, and produced by Navani Rachamallu and Natalia Maidique.

All music used under Creative Commons license. Theme music: "Montanita," by Ratatat.

WPRB News and Culture brings you an update from the scene at Princeton University, where protesters have occupied McCosh Courtyard for multiple days.

WPRB News and Culture continues its coverage of the ongoing sit-in protest actions at Princeton University, with a short segment focusing on the educational efforts at the sit-in. This is a developing story, and WPRB News and Culture will be covering these events as they continue.

WPRB News and Culture takes you inside the first day of the pro-Palestinian sit-in protest at Princeton University, where more than a hundred students have occupied McCosh Courtyard desiring the university's divestment from Israel and its war in Gaza.

We speak to Professor Max Weiss, who led a walkout of his lecture course "History of Palestine/Israel" into the sit-in, and with journalist Chris Hedges who was escorted away from the sit-in by university Public Safety officers for use of a megaphone.

News and Culture meets with the counter-protestors angry and fearful that these protests diminish the suffering of Israelis on October 7th or could lead to the destruction of Israel and greater antisemitism. And as the day fades into evening, we watch as the protestors set up for their first night.

Hosted by Navani Rachumallu and Adam Sanders. Reporting by Laura Robertson, Navani Rachumallu, Frankie Solinsky Duryea, Adam Sanders, Cailyn Tetteh, Julia Stern, and Harry Gorman.

Theme music: "Cases to Rest" By Blue Dot Sessions. This music is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED license from Creative Commons.

WPRB News and Culture reports on the ground from the emerging protest and counter-protest actions on the Princeton University campus, in response to the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and to the developing protest situations at universities across the United States.

Reported, recorded and produced by Laura Robertson, Navani Rachumallu, Frankie Solinsky Duryea, and Adam Sanders,