Radio Expeditions Surround Sound Journey

Radio Expeditions has assembled a montage of some of our favorite sonic moments from 10 years in the field: plunge beneath the surface of the Pacific near Maui to catch the songs of humpback whales; blast off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral; journey to the site of ancient African forest rituals; discover some of the rudest sounding creatures anywhere along the California coast; and linger in a Tibetan temple where monks seek enlightenment and peace.

Listen in surround sound.

(To hear surround sound audio, you need a broadband connection, a computer and audio card with 5.1 capability, five speakers and a subwoofer, and the Windows Media 9 Series player. Download the player.)

Featured Recordings:

• The BaAka Rainforest Dwellers of Central Africa

• Indri Lemurs of Madagascar

• Space Shuttle Launch, Florida

• Whales off the Coast of Maui

• Elephant Seals on the Beaches of Ano Nuevo, California

• Tibetan Monks in the Dhondupling Monastery, Yunnan Province China

• Cicadas and Bees in the Rain Forest of Malaysia

• Forest Elephants of the Central African Rain Forest

The Elephant Bai

Continue the surround sound experience with the Radio Expeditions feature, The Elephant Bai. In March of this year, the Radio Expeditions team traveled to the forests of the Central African Republic to report on the elephant conservation efforts of a dedicated American scientist and wild elephant advocate. We also joined a team of field scientists from Cornell University investigating elephant infra-sound communication. These field recordings represent our first effort in natural surround sound recordings.

Listen to the elephants and learn more about the elephant bai.

Browse through the archives for more Radio Expeditions features.

About Radio Expeditions

Radio Expeditions is a collaboration between NPR News and the National Geographic Society. It uses some of the best talent at these two institutions, along with state-of-the-art digital recording equipment, to produce and broadcast feature stories for NPR’s Morning Edition with Bob Edwards. The general themes for stories are the natural world and threatened environments, diverse cultures, adventure, and exploration and discovery.

The winner of numerous awards for journalistic and audio excellence, Radio Expeditions provides a rare opportunity to follow some of the world’s leading scientists on expeditions to remote and biologically spectacular areas. For 10 years, Radio Expeditions has captured these stories and turned them into aurally rich journalistic experiences, each program a veritable magic carpet woven from sound and words crafted by NPR’s leading producers, reporters and recording engineers.

The NPR/Radio Expeditions production team includes: Carolyn Jensen, NPR Executive Producer; Alex Chadwick, Chief Correspondent; and Bill McQuay, Technical Director.