The Aural Voyeur
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2016
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Drs Rutherford and Fry tackle a vexing case sent in by Daniel Sarano from New Jersey, who asks why people shout on their mobile phones in public.
Our science sleuths find the answer by delving into the inner workings of telephony with a tale of engineering rivalry, Victorian etiquette and early otolaryngology.
Featuring acoustic technologist Nick Zakarov and historian Greg Jenner, author of 'A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Daily Life.'
If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode three of the podcast version of the curious cases of Rutherford and Fry. |
| 0:05.7 | And today's case is the oral voyeur. |
| 0:08.8 | Now we had great difficulty in pronouncing that over several recordings because that phrase oral voyeur. |
| 0:15.3 | It's technically our oral voyeur. I don't think anyone says that though. |
| 0:18.2 | I don't know. No one says it. |
| 0:19.5 | But it needs to be stressed that this was not our doing. |
| 0:22.7 | No, and it definitely begins with an A. |
| 0:24.8 | Our oral voyeur. Yes. |
| 0:30.0 | Hello, this is the voicemail of Dr Adam Rutherford. Please leave your curious case details and I will reply to you presently. |
| 0:50.0 | Please leave your message after the tone. To re-record your message, he has it any time. |
| 0:56.9 | Rutherford, why do you never answer your phone to me? |
| 1:00.5 | I've got a new case and I need your help with it. |
| 1:03.1 | So please come to the studio as quickly as possible. |
| 1:12.3 | Rutherford, we have received details of a crime so terrible that nobody would dare admit to it. |
| 1:18.2 | And yet we all know someone who is as guilty as sin. |
| 1:22.1 | And the matter was brought to us by a Mr Daniel Serrano from New Jersey in the United States of America. |
| 1:28.0 | And he is constantly vexed by strangers with the temerity to talk loudly on their cell phones in public places. |
| 1:34.8 | You mean mobile phones? |
| 1:36.0 | Just take a look at the correspondence because I think it's fair to say that Mr Serrano is not impressed. |
| 1:40.8 | Okay, so he says, I have no interest in hearing about people's private lives. |
| 1:46.0 | I don't enjoy the oral voyeurism. |
| 1:49.2 | Did he just say oral voyeurism? |
... |
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