How A became A
4/3/202629 min
The Gray Area is taking a short break this week — but we’ve got something special for you. We’re dropping an episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Unexplainable. In it, host Emily Siner explores deceptively simple questions: What is a musical note? And how did something as fundamental as the note A become standardized across the world? It’s a story about science, history, and the hidden complexity behind the sounds we listen to every day.We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought of this episode, email us at thegrayarea@vox.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show.And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[phone ringing] Oh, hey. [muffled talking] Sorry, love to chat, but I'm busy shopping all the rollbacks some more at Walmart. [muffled talking] Grab a what? Cancel that. I gotta grab these big savings on the Walmart app, online and in store, like right now. [muffled talking] See who? Ugh. Nope, unavailable. The only thing I wanna see are the prices just lowered on tech, home, and all my must-haves. [muffled talking] Wait, you wanna shop Walmart with me?
Jorge Just0:26
Yeah.
Speaker 00:27
All righty, I think I can fit you in.
Stephanie Wu0:29
[upbeat music] If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City, and save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. Download the Eater app at eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users.
Jorge Just1:04
Hi, I'm Jorge Just, editorial director of The Gray Area, and close personal friend of your host, Sean Illing. And Sean sent me here with a mission to introduce you to another show that I work on, Unexplainable. It's a show about all the things we don't yet know, and about the people who are trying to figure it all out. Unexplainable and The Gray Area have a lot in common. They both take open-hearted,