Radio is the theater of the mind, where drama is performed on the stage of your imagination. Voices become characters and sound effects props. Like bats flying blind, with radio, we create set designs in our own minds through such simple means as reverb and echo. A gasp or a held breath can thrill or tickle us as much as the special effects Hollywood now spends millions on. In Session 1, Associate Professor Daniel H. Foster, who chairs the Liberal Arts Department at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, investigates how the radio classic “War of the Worlds” used mere sound and even more meager silence to spread panic.

Listen to "War of the Worlds": https://soundcloud.com/dhfoster67/war-of-the-worlds