Fugues

Author: Gabriel Berezin

***New episodes coming soon!*** What is Fugues? The quick answer - its The Moth with neuroscience and music (and a bit of sci-fi...) A fugue, conventionally, is: (1) a piece of music with multiple melodies played at the same time and... (2) a trance state where a person experiences amnesia, and loses their sense of self. Both uses of the word have a beginning, middle and end. Taking a bit of license, each story we tell in this podcast will be called a fugue. And each fugue will illustrate a handful of mental ingredients. A fugue will also refer to any temporary mental state one is in. For example, you are currently in a podcast description-reading fugue. Hosted by Gabriel Berezin, some fugues will be autobiographical, others are contributions from special guests. ***Episodes 1, 2, and 5 are great places to start!***
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Language: en

Genres: Natural Sciences, Personal Journals, Science, Society & Culture

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Truth Is a Lie
Episode 18
Wednesday, 29 October, 2025

Ever had a little mouse in the house? They can be cute! Some folks I know have actually named them. But rats are not quite so endearing, especially when they’re cat-sized. My college roommates and I faced a full-blown rat infestation in our first NYC apartment in 1999.Twenty-five years later, I was catching up with fellow rat-trauma survivor and old friend Ned Rauch when we started swapping war fugues. But before we went any further, I had an idea: what if we each recorded our versions separately? My memory seemed crystal clear and I assumed his did too.So I listened back and stitched our stories together to see where they aligned and where they diverged. The result is a fun experiment in the Rashomon effect - how two people can experience the same event differently. Seeing the variation made me wonder if we can ever truly see the world as it actually is. All this over some (slightly) oversized rats on West 109th Street.--Written, hosted, and produced by Gabriel Berezin with special guest Ned Rauch.Music and sound design by Grant Zubritsky.Follow Fugues: Substack | Instagram | TikTok--Learn MoreThe Rashomon effect is actually derived from a Japanese movie called Roshomon. Learn about it in this 8-min pod episode.Learn about confabulation (and the Mandela Effect).