Chris Hoff
Lecturer
Website
Chris Hoff is the co-founder of The World According to Sound, a 90-second podcast all about sound. Before that he was the senior audio engineer with KALW News’ Crosscurrents. The road to radio and audio was a circuitous one: Hoff’s undergraduate classics career left him aimless, professionally speaking. His zeal for Pindar, Homer, Thucydides, and Virgil could not earn him a living, so in 2002 he floated around, first to Weimar, Germany, then to Berlin. It was in Berlin that Chris uncovered his enthusiasm for the then-burgeoning internet radio phenomenon known as podcasting. In 2015, he launched the World According to Sound with fellow audiophile Sam Harnett. It’s a podcast and touring live show with a radical approach to audio that’s been featured on WBEZ, and in The Washington Post and The New York Times. The podcast segments have been played on NPR, and they have toured their live show at more than 50 venues, including Cornell, UVA, and WNYC’s Greene Space. They recently received a grant to create a new live event that captures the world from the perspective of the blind. Sam and Chris were recently artists-in-residence at Cornell University, exploring the intersection of sound, journalism, and aesthetics.
EDUCATION
Cornell University, BA in ClassicsEMPLOYERS
KALW, Senior Sound EngineerKQED, Operations Technician
Self-Employed, Podcast Sound Designer
Co-Founder, The World According to Sound
AWARDS & HONORS
National Edward R. Murrow Award, 2021Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, 2020
California Humanities Documentary Project Production Grant, 2019
“Unsung Hero,” Society of Professional Journalists, Northern CA, 2009