Over the Speakers

Why I just bought a turntable, and what it means to my family and me.

• By Nathan Deuel

Healing the brain with the Grateful Dead.

• By Scott Beauchamp

Rock stardom isn’t compatible with satisfaction; it is, in essence, satisfaction’s very antithesis. To be a rock star is to revel in need, because it is the ongoing and relentless need of the audience that calls them into being.

• By Bryan VanDyke

An interview with Wayne Coyne about the Flaming Lips' With a Little Help From My Fwends—and his band’s obsession with Miley Cyrus.

• By Ted Scheinman

That argument denies her agency, her feminism, her fandom—and the fact that females can gaze too.

• By Noah Berlatsky

With painted Volkswagen buses, talk of “free love,” and other reminders of the Woodstock era replaced by advertising and corporate sponsorships, hippie culture may be dying, but a new subculture—a sort of purgatory between hipster and hippie—is on the rise.

• By Cody C. Delistraty

We need not only to attend events but also to take the time to attend to what happens and reflect on those events in the moment.

• By Steve Swayne

Ambient noise machines meant to prolong uninterrupted sleep may be doing long-term damage to the ears of infants, kick-starting a cycle of hearing loss that's almost impossible to break.

• By Steve Swayne

Second-hand sound can profoundly affect our social interactions and our interior lives.

• By Steve Swayne

While it might be the most-sung song in the world, "Happy Birthday" was created for children and is currently mired in an ugly copyright dispute. It's time to put an end to the awkward tradition.

• By Scott Keyes

Overheated Beltway cranks and the blood on their hands.

• By Ted Scheinman