Cosmic microwave background
Subject in Astronomy
Cosmic microwave background has come up in 2 episodes across 2 podcasts in TMT, including TED Radio Hour, The Joe Rogan Experience. 1 person has made recorded remarks about it.
What people said
Mark WhittleProfessor of astronomy at the University of Virginia who sonifies the early universe
Whittle says wave analysis of the microwave background revealed a fundamental and harmonics, the signature of a musical instrument or human voice.
“not only were these waves basically acoustic waves, but also there was a fundamental of harmonics. And that is exactly the signature of something like a musical instrument or a human voice”
TED Radio Hour: Big mysteries explained through your senses (Sep 18, 2026) · Listen from 10:54
Whittle explains that light leaving the young universe at micron wavelengths was stretched by expansion into millimeter-scale microwaves.
“they started out as light, leaving the young universe with wavelengths of about a millionth of a metre. That's a micron. And they arrived a thousand times longer”
TED Radio Hour: Big mysteries explained through your senses (Sep 18, 2026) · Listen from 8:23
Coverage over time
Podcasts
- TED Radio Hour · 1 episode
- The Joe Rogan Experience · 1 episode
Episodes
Big mysteries explained through your sensesTED Radio Hour · Sep 18, 2026 · 50 min
Manoush Zomorodi talks with astronomer Mark Whittle, smell researcher Paule Joseph and artist Yiyun Kang about perceiving hidden realities through the senses.
#2506 - Michelle ThallerThe Joe Rogan Experience · May 28, 2026 · 2 h 44 min
Joe Rogan and astrophysicist Michelle Thaller discuss black holes, relativity, quantum entanglement, the Big Bang, NASA missions, AI, consciousness and psychedelics.