"The Phantom Hum"

Also: My 40 Mile Walk To Walden Pond And Home Again ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( July 18, 2021 Dear Cog reader, When Julie Wittes Schlack first developed tinnitus, a buzzing or ringing in one or both ears, she thought it was the hum of the powerlines outside her bedroom window. But as time went on, the ringing (in her a case, a high-pitched hum) didn’t go away, and she was formally diagnosed. It’s a condition that afflicts some 20% of Americans, many of them older people. It’s also a common symptom of long-haul COVID-19. I got to work on this [essay]( with Julie — the digital version and the radio piece — and when Frannie read it for the first time, she sent me a note that got it just right: “It’s so quintessentially Julie to find the analytical, poignant interpretation of this affliction.” Is it ever. To produce the radio piece, I listened to dozens of sounds — I wanted to mimic the hum in Julie’s right ear, but also the noises she uses to mask it: Pounding Surf, Rain on Tent, Crackling Campfire. The effect of those sounds is transporting. They take Julie (and her readers and listeners) to [specific places and moments in time](. I don’t have tinnitus, but as an occasional insomniac – especially in these last treacherous 16 months – I’ve often turned to Heavy Rain Pouring in the depths of night. I’m not sure I’ll ever hear it the same way again. Also this week: an essay by new-to-Cog author Aube (rhymes with “globe”) Rey Lescure. Last month, Aube [walked from Somerville to Walden Pond]( and back again — in one day. I love stories about pushing perceived limits (40 miles in one day!), but this piece is about even more than that. It’s a love song to our immigrant roots and finding home in your own body. Until next week, — Cloe Axelson and Frannie Carr Toth Cognoscenti editors newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url['The Phantom Hum': My Tinnitus Is Real. It's Also A Metaphor For Our Time]( What keeps me up at night isn’t an externally generated noise, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. It’s hyper-vigilance, a condition generated by Twitter and Trump and made worse by the pandemic. [Read more](.   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [I Walked 40 Miles — To Walden Pond And Back — In One Day. Here's Why]( Immigration is about leaving home and daring to hope, writes Aube Rey Lescure. I walk because I can. I walk for those who don't have a choice. [Read more](. [Just Before The Pandemic Began, My Father Died Of Cancer. Then, The World Disappeared]( My father’s death was just one more strange, ungraspable thing among thousands of others, writes Jane Roper. [Read more.](  Support the news [Want To Tackle Inequality? Start Local]( Hyper-local zoning decisions have drawn the attention of the highest official in the land, writes Rich Barlow. [Read more](. What We're Reading "...[S]outhwest Missouri is now a cautionary tale of what Delta can do to a largely unvaccinated community that has lowered its guard. None of Missouri’s 114 counties has vaccinated more than 50% of its population, and 75 haven’t yet managed more than 30%. Many such communities exist around the U.S" – "‘[How Did We End Up Back Here Again]( The Atlantic. "Child abduction is a longstanding problem in China. There are no official statistics on the number of children kidnapped each year, but officials at the Ministry of Public Security said this month that they had located 2,609 missing or abducted children so far this year. Various reports estimate the number of children abducted annually in China may be as high as 70,000." – "[Parents Who Never Stopped Searching Reunite With Son Abducted 24 Years Ago]( The New York Times. "Prestigious management consultancies, in the private and public sectors, are much more about the imprimatur their advice provides than the quality of the advice itself. Armed with these 82 pages, the Baker administration can justify their policy decisions by invoking the most prestigious name in management consulting. This is part of a terrible trend in politics — framing fundamentally political choices as technocratic common sense." – "[Future Of Work Report Part Of Terrible Trend]( CommonWealth Magazine. “ [I]mmigration is about leaving home, about daring to hope against the odds. That, most of all, it is about surviving the ache of distances. — Aube Rey Lescure, "[I Walked 40 Miles — To Walden Pond And Back — In One Day. Here's Why]( ICYMI [I Am A Black Woman In Academia. Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Tenure Saga Isn't Unique]( The fiasco that ensnared Hannah-Jones is "old and ongoing," writes Kellie Carter Jackson. The number of Black women in tenured positions remains disproportionately low.      If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( [WBUR]( [WBUR]  [WBUR]( [95289b97-66e8-43d4-a174-3bc3520a79a9.png]( [Instagram](  [Twitter]( [Facebook]( Want to change how you receive these emails? [Stop getting this newsletter by updating your preferences.]( I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters.]( Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2021 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved. You signed up for this newsletter at wbur.org. 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