Most people aren't thinking about just how many sounds they encounter on an average day. But Professor Matt Malsky, the Tina Sweeney, M.A. '49, Endowed Chair in Music, director of the Alice Coonley Higgins Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and director of the interdisciplinary Media, Culture, and the Arts program, part of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, is immersed in it.

"Our vision is something that we have some control over. We have eyelids, we can close our eyes, and we can stop seeing things," he notes. "But we don't have earlids. Hearing is always on, and there's no way to stop the sensations that come with sounds."

As Malsky teaches his students about soundscapes and acoustic ecology — including walking tours around Worcester to partake in all the noises of nature and traffic — he's also thinking about the intersection of sound and our changing climate.

"Lots of sea creatures depend on sounds to communicate with other creatures and to get feedback about their environment. As the climate changes, as the temperatures rise on the planet and the temperature of the ocean increases, it changes the way that sound is transmitted through water — it speeds it up, it increases the distance that it travels," Malsky says. "Combined with all the ways in which humankind is adding sounds to the ocean with increased traffic of tankers, underwater mining operations, and offshore wind turbines, we're adding an enormous amount of sound to the ocean, and it's changing the way that sea creatures are able to operate — to their deficit."

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Professor Christina Gerhardt, Clark's Henry J. Leir Endowed Chair in Foreign Languages and Cultures, Language, Literature & Culture, is an open water swimmer who typically lives near oceans and grew up with a front-row seat to her aunt's political work as one of the co-founders of the Green Party in what was then West Germany.

It created a clear path to Gerhardt's current work as a scholar of the environmental humanities with a focus on sea level rise. Her book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, provides a history of sea rise while telling the stories of frontline communities, with poems and art made by Islanders woven into the volume's pages. The reality of sea change is urgent and daunting, and Gerhardt prioritizes solutions and hope in her book — and in her classroom.

"I'm trying to equip people with all the tools to go into the world and make it a better place," she says, "with the optimism and feeling that they have the tools in their toolbox to accomplish that work."

In this episode of Challenge. Change., Gerhardt discusses why the environmental humanities is at its best when it is interdisciplinary, and explains some of the soft and hard engineering options to address sea level rise.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out "Sea Turtles and the Role Charismatic Creatures Play in Environmental Humanities with Professor Stephen Levin."

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Is online influencing just for entertainment? Or does it have a place in the business world? LinkedIn has been a networking platform since 2002, but lately, it has evolved into something more.

So-called LinkedInfluencers are using the platform in the same vein as other social media sites, injecting inspiration into their posts to boost their personal brands and shape conversations about their industries.

On this episode of Challenge. Change., Professors Lawrence Norman and Tim Hally, who teach marketing at Clark’s School of Business, weigh in on whether this kind of content is beneficial and share how one can develop their personal brand messaging to cut through the online clutter to form genuine connections.

“LinkedIn has evolved from a work and internship job hub to a place to post entertainment that's linked to work,” Norman says. “It's become a powerful space where you're able to promote your brand in a way that you couldn't years ago.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University with the help of Brenna Moore. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.