Bringing The World Home To You

© 2026 WUNC News
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862

Donate

Play Live Radio

Next Up:

0:00

0:00 0:00

Available On Air Stations

This NPR College Podcast Challenge finalist might change how you hear your commute

NPR | By Bennett Cook,

Student Podcast Challenge

Published December 8, 2025 at 6:26 PM EST

One recent college graduate recorded ambient sounds during his commute and found something surprising. His resulting podcast — a finalist in NPR's College Podcast Challenge — may change the way you listen to the world around you.

This is an excerpt from "Transit Music" by Bennett Cook. His story was a finalist in the 2021 NPR College Podcast Challenge.

More Stories

U.S. states take steps to guard against any potential threat from Iran

Ryan Lucas

Iran has made prior attempts to launch terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, but all have been thwarted in recent years. States are bracing for a heightened threat after the war.
A new single-pill treatment for HIV shows promising results

Gabrielle Emanuel

A new single-pill treatment for HIV has shown promising results. This is particularly useful for people who have had HIV for decades.
The Trump administration's objectives for the mission in Iran

Tom Bowman, Franco Ordoñez

President Trump said the ongoing strikes on Iran are the best chance to strike at its nuclear weapons program. But that's the same program he said, not long ago, was completely obliterated.
Shia protests erupt over the assassination of Iran's supreme leader

Diaa Hadid

Shia communities in South Asia erupted in anger as news emerged of the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
If you change the colors of a concert hall, you may change how patrons hear music

Henry Larson, Sarah Handel

Does the color of a concert venue change how we hear music? German researchers have an answer.