You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Shortwavers, Emily Quang here.

So a few weeks ago, Russia a Reedy brought us this gorgeous episode about how our brains

can recall bits of songs from our distant past.

And that got us wondering about sound in general and how our brains interpret sound in the

first place.

Our most scientist Nina Kraus and my colleague Ari Shapiro over at All Things Considered had

a fascinating conversation about this very topic.

It's the focus of her new book of Sound Mind.

And we have that conversation for you today on the show.

So headphones on, ears open, enjoy.

This is All Things Considered from NPR News.

I'm Laila Faldon.

And I'm Ari Shapiro.

As the sounds that I'm making right now enter your ear, your brain is effortlessly turning

those air vibrations into a sentence that has meaning.

Now if we start to distort my voice, your brain has a harder time deciphering what I'm

saying.

And if we auto tune my words, turn them into music and put a beat under them, your brain

processes this sentence in still different ways.

So what exactly is going on in your brain to make sense of those sounds?

Well that's the focus of neuroscientist Nina Kraus's new book of Sound Mind, How Our

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