Leon Theremin’s Musical Instrument Can Be Played Without Being Touched (Cool Weird Awesome 1074)

Today is, thanks to a long-ago calendar change, one of two birthdays in 1896 of Leon Theremin. He invented a very unusual musical instrument that you play without touching it. 

By |2023-08-28T07:49:09-04:00August 28, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

The Keyboard Made From Plants (Cool Weird Awesome 439)

A Spanish tech startup called Bioo has built an installation in which plants serve as the keys of a kind of "green piano." Plus: for International Mountain Day, a look at some of the peaks with more down-to-earth names.

By |2021-08-17T09:14:04-04:00December 11, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

The Cold Tube Saves Energy By Cooling Us, Not Our Rooms (Cool Weird Awesome 381)

The Cold Tube cools people off, similar to air conditioning, but using half the energy. Which sounds pretty cool. Plus: an experimental musician makes a delicious and funky new keyboard out of watermelon and kiwi. 

By |2020-09-15T08:05:58-04:00September 15, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

A Song That Takes 639 Years To Play Just Had A Chord Change (Cool Weird Awesome 378)

John Cage once wrote a score with the instructions that it be played "As Slow As Possible." So that's what an organ is doing in Germany, for more than 600 years. Plus: a YouTuber trains his cat to put out fires, sort of.

By |2020-09-10T10:00:56-04:00September 10, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

The Oomphalapompatronium Is An Instrument That Lives Up To Its Unusual Name (Cool Weird Awesome 366)

What's In A Name Week continues with a look at the Oomphalapompatronium, a creation of Boston-area musician, composer and inventor Len Solomon. And it definitely fits the name. Speaking of words that fit with what they describe, did you know about the word "aptronym"?

Meet The Fake Beatles (Cool Weird Awesome 286)

This month marks 50 years since the world learned The Beatles were calling it a day. So we're telling the story of the American Beetles - a knockoff band that [...]

By |2020-04-28T07:35:05-04:00April 28, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

When Americans Could Mail Their Children From Place To Place (Cool Weird Awesome 241)

It was on this day in 1914 a family in Grangeville, Idaho sent a four year old through the mail to her grandmother in Lewiston, 73 miles away. And she wasn’t the only kid to travel this way.

By |2024-02-19T09:15:26-05:00February 19, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |
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