Jad Abumrad loves a butterfly knife and a good springy pillow

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Jad Abumrad loves a butterfly knife and a good springy pillow. The Radiolab creator and host of Dolly Parton’s America answers The Verge’s weekend questionnaire.

Jad Abumrad 热衷于蝴蝶刀和好用的弹力枕头。这位《Radiolab》的创作者兼《Dolly Parton’s America》的主持人回答了《The Verge》的周末问卷。

It’s hard to overstate Jad Abumrad’s impact on the podcasting world. He created and hosted Dolly Parton’s America and Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, two Peabody Award-winning shows that offered unprecedented looks at the lives of two of the most important music icons of the last century.

很难夸大 Jad Abumrad 对播客世界的影响。他创作并主持了《Dolly Parton’s America》和《Fela Kuti: Fear No Man》，这两档荣获皮博迪奖的节目，以前所未有的视角审视了上世纪两位最重要的音乐偶像的生活。

Before that, though, he created Radiolab, an experimental NPR show that leaned heavily on creative sound design and eventually helped redefine what a podcast could be. In the early days of podcasting, shows were often just a couple of people talking at each other at a table (some still are), or lazily repackaged radio broadcasts.

在此之前，他创作了《Radiolab》，这是一档实验性的 NPR 节目，极其依赖创意的声音设计，并最终帮助重新定义了播客的可能性。在播客发展的早期，节目通常只是几个人围坐在桌边交谈（有些现在依然如此），或者是懒散地重新包装广播节目。

Radiolab instead told deeply reported stories in themed episodes with original music and cinematic sound effects that helped enhance the storytelling. And often, the sounds and music were created by Abumrad himself.

相反，《Radiolab》通过主题剧集讲述了深度报道的故事，并配以原创音乐和电影般的音效，从而增强了叙事效果。而且，这些声音和音乐往往是由 Abumrad 本人创作的。

Abumrad retired from Radiolab in 2022, leaving it in the capable hands of Latif Nasser and Lulu Miller. But he’s been plenty busy since then, not only producing Fear No Man, but also composing for film, theater, and dance, and serving as a distinguished research professor at Vanderbilt University.

Abumrad 于 2022 年从《Radiolab》退休，将其交由 Latif Nasser 和 Lulu Miller 负责。但此后他一直非常忙碌，不仅制作了《Fear No Man》，还为电影、戏剧和舞蹈作曲，并担任范德比尔特大学的杰出研究教授。

Despite his intimidating resume, however, he’s a man of simple pleasures who collects an ungodly amount of audio plug-ins and loves the satisfying clack of a butterfly knife.

尽管他的履历令人望而生畏，但他却是一个追求简单快乐的人，他收集了数量惊人的音频插件，并且热爱蝴蝶刀开合时那令人满足的咔哒声。

What is your most indispensable tool? My pillow. I need a flat, springy pillow, and I don’t understand this new hotel / airbnb trend towards giant fluffy pillows that wreck your neck for a week (I’m that age). So, a good travel pillow.

你最不可或缺的工具是什么？ 我的枕头。我需要一个扁平、有弹性的枕头，我不理解现在酒店/爱彼迎那种流行使用巨大蓬松枕头的趋势，那会让我的脖子难受一周（我已经到了这个年纪了）。所以，一个好的旅行枕头是必须的。

In terms of digital tools: it’s rare to say you love a calendar app, but I truly love Fantastical. It takes the most annoying task in the world — scheduling a meeting with many busy people — and makes it actually fun.

在数字工具方面：很少有人会说自己喜欢某款日历应用，但我确实非常喜欢 Fantastical。它把世界上最烦人的任务——与许多忙碌的人安排会议——变得真正有趣起来。

In terms of digital audio tools: I am addicted to audio plugins and have a thousand too many, but the one I come back to over and over is a little granular synthesis app called Granite. It’s 15 years old at this point, but it’s just so musical. I’ve used it to score dozens of OG Radiolab pieces.

在数字音频工具方面：我对音频插件上瘾，拥有的数量多得离谱，但我反复使用的那个是一个名为 Granite 的小型颗粒合成应用。它现在已经有 15 年历史了，但它非常有音乐感。我曾用它为几十部早期的《Radiolab》作品配乐。