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Life and Art from FT Weekend

Best Of: The international mystery of 'the Hum'

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6601 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we return to one of our favourite episodes. We go searching for the Hum, a mysterious noise that has plagued the residents of Halifax, West Yorkshire. It’s an uncomfortable, low-frequency sound that has also been heard in towns across the world, from New Mexico to Ontario to Scotland. The FT's Imogen West-Knights tells us that it's mostly heard by middle-aged women. So is it a real noise, an imaginary illness, or both?


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Tell us your cultural prediction for 2022! You can record a voice message here: https://sayhi.chat/jzdg3 

If you prefer, you can email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.

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Links and mentions from the episode:

–Imogen West Knights on the mystery of the hum: https://on.ft.com/3pe43ve

– The FT’s Best Books of the Year series is now available to read across the FT: https://www.ft.com/content/2dd61d03-13ac-4278-8214-678c1d9a33c1 

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Special offers for FT Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial can be found here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast 

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner.


Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, listeners. It is Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., so we are taking a break, and instead, we're bringing you one of our favorite episodes from the archive.

0:09.3

As a reminder, we are still collecting your predictions and wishes for 2023, what you want to happen culturally next year.

0:16.0

We'll be doing an end-of-the-year call-in show featuring your messages, and we've gotten in some amazing,

0:21.6

very funny stuff so far. So tell us what you want from next year. Like what will be our next

0:26.5

social platform of choice? Or how will we party? Or how will fashion change? Or, I don't know,

0:33.2

what kind of movies or TV do you want to see? Let your mind take you wherever it wants and send us your thoughts.

0:39.3

You can leave us a voice note using the link in the show notes from whatever device you're on,

0:43.5

or you can email us at FT Weekend Podcast at FT.com.

0:48.1

Okay, enjoy the show.

0:56.7

When it first started, it wasn't just a noise.

0:59.5

It came with like a wave of energy first.

1:01.5

So I used to feel it before it actually came.

1:02.2

How weird.

1:04.3

So I used to sit in our front room after tea.

1:07.5

And at around 7 o'clock, every night I'd go, it's coming.

1:08.7

And he'd like, how'd you know?

1:12.4

And I'd go, because I've just felt like this wave go through my all head and my ears. And now, within like 10 seconds, a noise. And then you hear it. And it did. That's journalist Image in West Nights, talking with Yvonne Connor, a resident of Halifax, West Yorkshire. Halifax is a small town tucked into a valley in the countryside of Northern England, close to Leeds.

1:31.8

Population 88,000.

1:37.4

Yvonne is talking about a mysterious hum that's been bothering her for the last two years.

1:44.0

She's saying that when she first heard it, she'd feel it come in every night after tea, which is Northern English for dinner.

1:48.0

It would go through her head and her ears before she could hear it.

1:52.8

Imogen recently traveled to Halifax to speak to Yvonne and others like her,

...

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