Mack Hagood is a scholar, writer, and creator who specializes in sound and listening. Best known for his research on the cultural origins and social effects of technologies such as noise-canceling headphones, Hagood's writing, media work, and public lectures vividly animate the world of sound. In 2024, he was awarded a Public Scholar grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Mack has been interviewed by NBC, BBC, CBC, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and many others.
Phantom Power is a monthly newsletter on sound and listening. It features essays and interviews on the culture, politics, physics, and philosophy of sound, as well as reviews of new music, film sound, sound art, and books on sound.
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While Mack takes a summer break, we bring you this treat from the archives: the full-members-only version of his 2024 interview with the influential theorist of noise and affect theory, Dr. Marie Thompson. This episode features 40 minutes of additional content on Thompson’s research on tinnitus and
Today we talk radio, podcasting, and democracy with Jason Loviglio. Jason is an expert on the history of National Public Radio and a key theorist of how audio media have changed the public sphere. He traces the politics of radio down to the smallest details, like the kinds of mics
Today we’re doing one of our occasional episodes where host Mack Hagood talks about a new essay he’s written for our newsletter “Feed Logic and the Failure to Thrive” Mack writes that students and professors are struggling, both academically and spiritually. He tries to diagnose the issue he
Today we talk to modular synth pioneer Suzanne Ciani and MIT Spatial Sound Lab researcher KamranV. Suzanne and Kamran both love quadraphonic sound, and they have a new quad release coming out on June 4th called Ciani/Orkest. They are on a mission to make quadraphonic music accessible to both
Mack speaks internationally at venues ranging from music festivals to Ivy League universities. Hire Mack to speak about sound, listening, and communication at your organization.
Contact for Speaking, or See His Speaking History and ScheduleA cultural study of sound and control. What we cancel. What we keep. What we can’t hear anymore.
These newsletters are Mack's space to reflect on sound, listening, and the culture around us—plus share early thoughts, event news, and audio picks. Want in? Subscribe to stay in the loop.
Sound stirs us all
Its resonance connects us. Its noise divides. It numbs us with bombast and breaks us with the slightest whisper.
We've built instruments to make it, laws to tame it, walls to contain it, and great halls to sustain it. We've mic' it, amped it, converted and compressed it, broadcast it, mastered it, remastered it... and never mastered it at all.
Because sound is transgressive: a phantom power that refuses to be contained, canceled, or even limited to living in our ears. Sound can blur your vision, move your body, and change the taste of the food in your mouth.
But sound has a secret: It only becomes *sound* in the minds and bodies of those it touches.
Sound needs us as much as we need it.
My Story