59 pages • 1 hour read
The History of Sound: Stories
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Story 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness.
Story 8 Summary: “Radiolab: ‘Singularities’”
On an episode of the podcast Radiolab, hosts Jad and Robert interview “writer Anna Mott” about the great auk, a species of flightless bird (188). Anna explains that she was living in Halifax with her family when she encountered a photo of Will Hunt with an auk in Mule Harbor, Newfoundland in 1991. The picture shocked her because great auks had been extinct since 1844.
Evolutionary biology professor Bob Bonter joins the conversation. He examines the photo, confirming the pictured bird is a great auk and continuing on to explain why they went extinct. They were hunted for years and used for food and fuel as they were easy to catch because they showed no fear of humans.
Bob and Anna continue discussing the great auk and Will Hunt’s photo. It appeared in National Geographic in the early 1990s, setting off a global search for more great auks. Scientists speculated that there could be a hidden nest where the great auks had been able to continue procreating and surviving. However, no one found any trace of them.
When Anna encountered the great auk photo, she traveled to Newfoundland for answers. She was feeling trapped and depressed at home and the possibility of a new story excited her.
