Microphone
1st Edition
Published on 2. April 2026
152 pages
979-8-7651-2602-8 (ISBN)
Description
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Since its invention more than 150 years ago, the microphone transformed the world in an instant. Yet its evolution and integration into our daily lives has been comparatively gradual - so gradual, crucially, that it is easy to forget just how much we take it for granted. Every phone has a microphone. Every laptop has a microphone. We are surrounded by microphones.
The microphone wields enormous power. But when we're 'on mic' we aren't just powerful, we're vulnerable. Microphones can destroy careers as quickly as make them. The microphone is inextricable from our need to be heard. This book takes a curious, always humorous look at this object as a metaphor for power and how the fulfillment of our desire to be heard has created a multi-headed beast we are still learning how to tame.
Since its invention more than 150 years ago, the microphone transformed the world in an instant. Yet its evolution and integration into our daily lives has been comparatively gradual - so gradual, crucially, that it is easy to forget just how much we take it for granted. Every phone has a microphone. Every laptop has a microphone. We are surrounded by microphones.
The microphone wields enormous power. But when we're 'on mic' we aren't just powerful, we're vulnerable. Microphones can destroy careers as quickly as make them. The microphone is inextricable from our need to be heard. This book takes a curious, always humorous look at this object as a metaphor for power and how the fulfillment of our desire to be heard has created a multi-headed beast we are still learning how to tame.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Illustrations
7 bw illus
ISBN-13
979-8-7651-2602-8 (9798765126028)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Ralph Jones is a journalist and comedy writer based in the UK who has written for publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Wired, Sunday Times Magazine, Vice, Esquire, and GQ.
Content
1. Is This Thing On?
2. Testing, Testing
3. Hear Some Evil
4. You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet
5. Politics and War
6. So, This Isn't Really a Question...
7. Everyone Has a Podcast
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
2. Testing, Testing
3. Hear Some Evil
4. You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet
5. Politics and War
6. So, This Isn't Really a Question...
7. Everyone Has a Podcast
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
