We take for granted our present-day ability to make ourselves as obnoxiously loud as we want to be. Yet being able to pump up the volume of an individual voice—to make it so deafening that it can easily reach all 140,000 ears of a stadium full of 70,000 people—is a brand-new development in the big picture of the human past.

Vibe with your favorite professional historian on this sonic journey through thousands of years. This amped-up episode brings you around the world, from the cities of ancient Greece and the Yucatán peninsula, through the expansive countryside of North America. Experience how Europe’s Scientific Revolution ultimately changed humans’ relations with sound itself. And discover some of the different, creative, occasionally bizarre ways through which people tried to raise their voices for the thousands of years prior to electronic amplification.

Learn more about this rogue, underdog, Hail Mary pass of a project at findyourselfinhistory.com !

Support the show

Thanks for listening! To learn more about this history project, check out findyourselfinhistory.com.