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Study 027 - The Sound Machine (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-20 03:30:05
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Roald Dahl is listening to YOU in this week's episode on The Sound Machine!

Special thanks to reader Ryan Fahey - check him out on Librivox!

Here's Roald Dahl in his writing studio.

Comments

Akeel1701

I remember seeing this, it was one of the "Tales of the Unexpected" Season 4 episode 7

Briar Ripley Page

I had to pause the episode to laugh over Chad's "true crime bat" impression

Scott H

Man from the South just gave me a flashback. I watched that episode late one night on public television. The next day I went camping with my buddy, we were chopping wood. I decided to create my own segue to bring up the story by chopping close to where he was holding the log. Unfortunately a little too close, and that camping trip was over. It was just the tip- no serious damage. I never told anyone what the real cause of that incident was. Now I’m going to have to read the book!

Hayden Orr

Love these episodes where Chad ends up playing a cheeky devils advocate for something that’s probably objectively ridiculous or unprovable but still kind of makes a good point. Chris will come in with a rational and clear statement based on a general understanding of science and reason, and then Chad comes back with a “Yeah the crust is made of rock but how do we know the inside of the moon isn’t made of cheese, huh? Can’t prove it isn’t, therefore moon cheese.” Great episode fellas!

Fred Bednarski

Curiously (as I have learned just couple hours after listening to the episode because it was randomly mentioned on QI) plants actually emit ultrasonic "screams" when in "pain"! A bit more info here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-record-stressed-out-plants-emitting-ultrasonic-squeals-180973716/ Between learning about this, the Mycorrhizal networks and Cordyceps I can't help but agree with Chad - plants and fungi are just strange lovecraftian creatures with "intelligence" we can't comprehend. They are just hanging all around us, but we never noticed how weird they truly are until some Tillinghasts started poking around with their science machines!

Clint Page

For years I've been expecting Tom Waits' "What's He Building in There?" to come up on this podcast. It's always felt like a Lovecraft story elegantly compressed into five minutes of spoken word and sound effects. This was the perfect story for it to finally appear in the conversation. The other thing this story reminded me of was Mr. Burns insisting that Smithers fly away with him in a tiny model plane.

KateSherrod

Now all I want is a true crime series with earwitness accounts by bats. You know, they get around. They know more than they let on. And I'm sure they're ready to dish on, say, JFK.

KateSherrod

Also, in addition to What's He Building In There (I agree with Clint, it's virtually an HPL story) this made me think of Seagulls Screaming (Kiss Her Kiss Her) by XTC. I bet Andy Partridge likes him some weird fiction.

David Thomas

I was disappointed there was no reference to "I can head the grass grow" by The Move and covered by The Fall

Jim Cannon

Aw yeah, a thoughful discussion about the possibility of plant intelligence is one of the reasons I love this show. And I totally forgot that, when I talk to other people about it, the example I use of plants moving comes from Chad! I'll remember to cite you in the future, promise.

Alex Beal

I was surprised to hear you guys say you weren't covering Royal Jelly, because I thought you already had! I'm familiar with the story, and I couldn't think of where else I would have possibly heard about it. Worried that I had slipped into some kind of alternate reality, I started digging around through my podcasts and finally realized that the podcast "Stuff to Blow Your Mind" talked about a filmed adaptation of the story in their Halloween 2022 Anthology of Horror episode. Crisis averted, reality is stable.

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

In regards to the “Did he really hear plants reacting to being damaged or did he go mad?” question, I don’t see why it couldn’t be both. Many plants do make a high-frequency sound when parts of them are cut. This has been documented scientifically. The fact that this is an actual phenomenon doesn’t mean the protagonist isn’t having mental health issues. Being from the past, the protagonist didn’t have the internet to look up how to build something to detect and convert high-frequency sounds, but they did have Libraries with books and issues of Popular Mechanics and other magazines, as well as stores for hobbies like HAM Radio that stocked DIY electronics components. The real turning point in the story, I think, is when he imagines taking the device to a wheat field. The description of 500 shafts of wheat, and then 500 more, and on and on, was very like his description to the Doctor about how there are frequencies above what we can hear, and frequencies above that, and on and on. I don’t know how long ago the phenomenon of “screaming plants” was discovered, or if it was around the time this story was written, but plants reacting to stimulus has been known since well before . (Venus Flytraps closing, plants turning to follow the sun, pine cones opening in the presence of fire, etc.) so, in my mind, the issue is not whether or not he actually heard something. The story illustrates a issue which harkens back to something that struck me when you were covering stories that centered around kids. Because the protagonist clearly having some issues, the reality of the experience that triggered his mania, or whatever, is now in doubt. Nobody believes him, and everybody is a little bit condescending, even if he does have mental health issues… Actually, especially if he does, people reacting, as if what he heard wasn’t real probably isn’t going to help those mental health issues. Like being a little kid and finding out something terrible, and nobody believing you because you’re a little kid.

Steve

How does he know it's a scream of pain, not a groan of ecstasy? He's only lowering the frequency to the top end of audibility and so is making it sound like a scream to him. He just needs to lower the sound a bit more.

Nic Wassell

You know you're listening to a good weird fiction podcast when a story about a family turning into bees 'isn't strange enough'

Mark Brett

This story reminded me of one of my favorite Jack Handey Deep Thoughts: If trees could scream, would we be so quick to cut them down? Well, maybe. If they screamed all the time, for no apparent reason.

The Last Human in Innsmouth

I just want to say that after listening to this episode I had a strep throat fever dream that a crew of men had to travel on a plane/space ship on a very important mission but for some reason one of them HAD to bring his wife. And she tried to help out by completely rearranging everything on the ship because no one paid any attention to her and she was bored. And then something goes wrong and they can’t find anything and they proceed to not ask her and she just keeps making comments but they ignore them, and I feel like she’s the screaming trees and flowers in this dream 😂

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

There is, I suppose, an evolutionary advantage in never evolving (or devolving) the ability to hear plants screaming. Tree limbs dropping notwithstanding, plants don't fight back much. But we might hesitate to munch on them if the sounds of their terror and agony were audible. Of course, there would also be an evolutionary advantage in plants evolving a lower frequency scream...

Nils Henriksson

The narrative of mycorrhizal fungi acting like conduits for nutrient transfer between trees and seedlings is everywhere! Sure, it makes a great story - but... The evidence is inconclusive at best. Some scientists have been very successful at popularizing their hypotheses, making life difficult for the rest of us (I also work in this field). So, if you don't mind being "that person", the next time you hear somebody mentioning " Mother trees" or "nursing trees", you can tell them that forests are just as full of wonder without benevolent human qualities. That kind of reasoning is scary to me as it seems to imply that human qualities are required in order for something to have value. If you would like more information about this, then I am happy to send it. Thank you for a great show!