Nautilus Narrations

Musicians are a lot like the moon: they come out at night, they go through phases, and they often have rocky origins. The same is true of indie rocker K.Flay. K.Flay, born Kristine Flaherty, struggled with her father’s death before discovering the joys of creating music in college. She’s now a Grammy-nominated solo artist and sought-after collaborator in the indie scene. She’s also the perfect per...

The punk band Cermony is best known for their constantly evolving sound, making dramatically different choices from album to album. “Just going into a room with the guys in Ceremony, we end up producing sounds in a way that I can never explain,” frontman Ross Farrar told Crack magazine in 2015. That’s why Farrar was the perfect choice to read Jim Davies’ story “Do We Have Free Will? Maybe It Doesn...

“Machine learning, dream merchant” That’s a line from Canadian electronic hip-hop artist Cadence Weapon’s song “My Computer” from his latest album ROLLERCOASTER . Cadence Weapon, also known as Rollie Pemberton, has been experimenting with computers to make music for decades. That’s why Pemberton is the perfect person to read Nick Hilden’s story “Creative AIs Depend on Creative Humans,” about how w...

Deep beneath the sea a host of animals have evolved a most peculiar power—the power of invisibility. In his story, “Nature’s Invisibility Cloak,” Edwin Barkdoll explains why and how so many animals disappear in the depths and hide in plain sight. Who better to tell his story about animals that seem to defy the laws of physics than the vocalist of a band that defies the limits of genre— Alexis Krau...

Anna Mernieks—frontwoman of the folk rock band Beams—put both her hypnotic voice and her Forest Conservation Science degree to good use reading Elena Kazamia’s story “How Much Carbon Can a Tree Really Store?” about the future of forests as carbon sinks. Listen as Anna takes you on a meditative journey through the science of forest ecology, backed by Beams' songs “We Are Blood” and “The Thing I...

Sometimes you just click. No one knows that better than childhood friends Olu and WowGr8 of the experimental hip hop duo EarthGang. That’s why they were the perfect choice to read Claudia Geib’s story “Clicking with Your Kin” about the special sounds sperm whales use to identify their clans. “Music is one of the characteristics that distinguishes different cultural groups amongst us humans, and he...

It’s not often that rap artists collaborate with scientists, but Houston-based rapper Fat Tony and music cognition researcher Henkjan Honing just dropped a track together. Honing, who studies what makes humans a musical species, revealed in a story for MIT Press and excerpted by Nautilus that we’re wired for beats at birth. Naturally, we turned to another expert on beats to read his story. Here’s...

Who better to read about undersea mountains than the lead singer of an underground rock band? Join Tina Hallady of the Philly-based punk group Sheer Mag as she takes you on a voyage to the bottom of the ocean, through the eyes of an artist. You can also check out Sheer Mag’s latest album Playing Favorites from Jack White’s Third Man Records and catch them on tour throughout May. Enjoying Nautilus?...

“Somewhere across the plain of imminence, shouting into the void…” That’s singer Nate Hardy from the 2nd track of Microwave’s latest album Let’s Start Degeneracy. Voids—of the emotional sort—are a recurring theme across the album from the cheekily self-described “adult mid-tempo psychedelic contemporary rock band from Atlanta, GA.” It’s fitting then, that Nate has chosen to read a Nautilus classic...

Musician Katherine “KP” Paul, of Black Belt Eagle Scout, has a deep personal connection to the ocean. Coming from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in western Washington, KP’s most recent album The Land, The Water, The Sky is influenced by the coastal culture of her ancestral home. That’s why she chose to read Alex Riley’s special story about the search for a giant, mysterious, luminous squid–...