© 2026
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scam Advisory: We have been made aware that an online entity is posing as Joe Donahue to invite authors and other creatives onto our radio shows. The scammers then attempt to charge guests an appearance fee for exposure/publicity.
Please note: WAMC does not charge guests to appear on the station and any email about appearing on a WAMC program will come from a wamc.org email address.
The Best of Our Knowledge

Magical musical daydreams

By Lucas Willard
Published May 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM EDT
Ways To Subscribe
Liveright
TRANSPORTED: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams by Elizabeth Margulis

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.

On this episode, we’ll the explore the phenomenon of musical daydreams.
Our guest is Elizabeth Margulis, Director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University. She writes about the ability of music to bring the listener to another time and place in her book, ‘TRANSPORTED: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams.’

Tags
The Best of Our Knowledge sciencemusicdreamsbookdaydreaming
Lucas Willard
Lucas Willard is a news reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011. He produces and hosts The Best of Our Knowledge and WAMC Listening Party.
See stories by Lucas Willard
Related Content
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    Searching for life and a mimicking spider
    Lucas Willard
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll learn about scientists testing a new theory of how to look for life on other planets.And a newly-discovered species of spider in the Amazon mimics an infamous zombie fungus.
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    Nurses, tarantulas, and curious chimpanzees
    Lucas Willard
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research. On this episode, we’ll learn what’s keeping more student nurses from graduating in New York.A newly identified species of tarantula is setting a record among large, furry spiders.And humans are not the only ones with an affinity for beautiful crystals.
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    The enormous challenges facing small colleges
    Lucas Willard
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.According to a recent analysis, hundreds of private colleges and universities across the United States are at risk of closing in the next 10 years.On this episode, we speak with Jon Marcus, a journalist with the Hechinger Report, who recently reported on the impending closure of Sterling College, a tiny school in rural Vermont.
  • A surprising sponge fossil and dispelling a centuries-old rumor
    Lucas Willard
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll learn how an unusual fossil offered scientists a new glimpse into the evolutionary history of some of Earth’s earliest animals.And we’ll learn how pirate gold helped dispel a centuries-old rumor among seafaring European traders.