The international mystery of the 'Hum'
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia has invaded Ukraine. We begin this episode with a visit from FT Weekend editor Alec Russell, a week after he joined us to discuss his years covering the fall of communism in eastern Europe. How can we make sense of this? Then, 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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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We are 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 key coverage on the war in Ukraine is free to read: http://ft.com/freetoread
– Here’s the piece Alec mentioned, ‘The road to war: how Putin wrote the requiem for peace’, by Mary Sarotte: https://on.ft.com/3HqSO8F
– Alec’s lunch with Lea Ypi: https://on.ft.com/3GHmi1J
–Alec is on Twitter at @AlecuRussell, and Imogen is on Twitter @ImogenWK
–Rob Armstrong’s profile of Larry Gagosian: https://on.ft.com/3ImMiBr
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing, sound design and sleuthing by Breen Turner.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, this is Lila, host of F.T. Weekend podcast. I'm jumping on to say that we made a whole show for you this week, and then terrible newsbrook, that Russia invaded Ukraine. We wanted to acknowledge it and also speak to someone who could help us make sense of it. As it happens, the best person we could think of was actually just on the show last week. |
| 0:21.7 | Alec Russell, editor of All of F.T. Weekend, and someone who covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. |
| 0:28.1 | So we'll speak to Alec first, and then, as promised, we'll have the international mystery of the hum. |
| 0:36.1 | Alec, thank you so much for coming back on the show. |
| 0:38.7 | I know this is a crazy day for you. |
| 0:40.7 | Well, thank you for having me back. |
| 0:42.4 | When we spoke last week about Eastern Europe, |
| 0:45.1 | I really didn't think I'd be coming back again just a week later |
| 0:48.1 | after such terrible news. |
| 0:50.4 | Yeah. |
| 0:50.9 | So, I mean, I'd love to start by just asking you, you know, |
| 1:04.5 | Russia has invaded Ukraine. What does that mean? You know, you reported on the collapse of communism and on Eastern Europe. And I would love to hear your visceral reaction right now. |
| 1:13.7 | When I woke up this morning to hear the news, I was all but literally stunned. I mean, it wasn't a surprise, but still the shock of this and the shock of this across Europe and Eastern Europe in particular just is extraordinary. |
| 1:20.8 | I mean, what has happened is 30 years of post-Soviet peace has abruptly come to an end. |
| 1:28.2 | Yeah. |
| 1:28.6 | And a 30-year dream for Ukraine has abruptly come to an end. |
| 1:33.5 | I mean, this is unbelievably awful. |
| 1:36.1 | I was in Ukraine in the very last weeks of the Soviet Union in the late autumn of 1991 in Odessa and the Soviet Union still |
| 1:49.8 | existed but it was patently it was ending it was coming to a close there'd been this hardline |
| 1:56.1 | putch attempt that had failed Yeltsin was in the ascendancy. The New World Order was looming, |
| 2:04.1 | and there was this stunning sense of hope and optimism. And now that has been crushed in Ukraine. |
| 2:10.9 | And people are feeling really frightened across Eastern Europe. Can you tell me what you mean |
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