Portable digital audio players have become as ubiquitous as cell phones. Some people keep whole novels stored digitally on their iPods. Others might listen to epic poems or even stand up comedy — not to mention music.

Students use their iPods all the time—for fun as well as to catch up on lectures they may have missed.  Do Berkeley faculty members have their own relationships to those little ear buds?

We asked faculty in L&S's Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences what they’ve got on their iPods. Here are a few of their responses:

Emilie L. Bergmann, professor of Spanish

“I listen to lots of Brazilian jazz, because I play the guitar in an amateur Brazilian jazz combo. And I listen over and over to Elliott Gould’s reading of Raymond Chandler’s great mystery novel, The Big Sleep, because I want to figure out how Chandler put his sentences and paragraphs together. He was one of the greatest American prose writers and I like having his sentences in my head. That’s it.”

Timothy Hampton, professor of comparative literature and French

“I just listen to music. Latest additions: Bela Fleck, Bela Bartok, and Nina  Simone. I tend to listen more while traveling — not while driving — than when I’m at home or in my office.”

Anne Walsh, associate professor, art practice

“Apart from music, I listen to: BBC news and analysis; This American Life (NPR); downloaded spoken word — poetry, books, drama, experimental sound from UBU.com. Finnegan’s Wake is what I’ve been listening to lately. I also downloaded my own work — experimental spoken word recordings.”

Greg Niemeyer, associate professor for new media art

“I listen to my tomatoes.”