The Audio Illusion That Proves We Don’t Experience Reality
The Rest Is Science
Jun 28, 2026 21:00
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Your ears are lying to you right now. In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) dive into the bizarre world of audio illusions where your brain hears sounds that don't exist, fills in frequencies that were never there, and constructs a version of reality that simply isn't real.
From the impossible endless ascending tone to the battle between your eyes and ears, explore how auditory illusions reveal the cracks in human perception. Along the way, we uncover how hearing works at a neurological level, why your brain edits sounds before you consciously register them, and what sensory perception research tells us about whether any of us truly experience reality as it is.
Could the gap between what's real and what you perceive be wider than you think? The answer might change how you listen to the world.
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Video Editor: Oli Oakley + Teo Ayodeji-Ansell
Animator: Sam Benson
Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell
Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe
Producer: Simona Rata
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