MINDY PETERSON, NCTM

Photo by Colton Jones on Unsplash

Prepare to be astonished by the profound impact of music on the entire food cycle, including plant growth, animal behavior, taste perception, and even food waste management. Pavle Marinkovic’s latest book reveals the captivating research on the intersection of science, sound, and food. We discuss practical strategies for farmers, restaurateurs, and consumers alike that promise to reshape our approach to food and sustainability.

Guest

Pavle Marinkovic was a guest on this show in 2021, discussing his book, How to Hook Your customer with Music. The book explored the strong influence background music has on what we buy and how much we’re willing to pay for it; and on the growing field of audio branding for businesses. Since then, it’s been so fun and enlightening to stay connected with Pavle on LinkedIn, and to benefit from his prolific writing, spreading the word about the power of music. Pavle has worked in multiple capacities in the music and neuroscience consultant, currently working at the market research company. He is also a music teacher, film composer, and award-winning writer on topics related to marketing, music, psychology, science, and future trends in business.

Notes

We discuss:

• Pavle’s new book, “Sounds from Farm to Fork (and Back): How Audio and Music Can Enhance the Food Life Cycle.”
• Four stages of the food life cycle: Food Production & Distribution, Food Selling & Purchasing, Food Preparation & Consumption, and Food Waste & Cycle Renewal.
• Highlights of the research that Pavle found most fascinating for each food cycle stage.
• Practical recommendations on how to apply the research to enhance your life and business, whether you are a farmer, gardener, bar or restaurant owner, chef, marketer, store owner, or just someone who appreciates food.
• Music’s influence on a plant’s height, number of leaves and flowers, flowering time, and germination speed.
• Research has shown that crops that listened to certain musical styles grew taller; produced higher yields and amounts of protein; and had greater resistance to diseases and pests.
• Music’s impact on animals and their production yields.
• Utilization of sound to reduce food waste.
• Music’s application to crop production can reduce excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides; is harmless to the environment and human health; and is scalable for home gardens and large agricultural production.
• Musical attributes that influence how much time we spend in food-related venues; how much we spend during our time; and how much we’re willing to spend per item.
• The first time Pavle realized music affected people’s food habits!
• How sound affects the taste of airplane food.
• A couple of Mindy’s favorite quotes from the book:
  • “I believe that we can optimize the food cycle for greater sustainability but also consumer enjoyment and marketability. These goals are not mutually exclusive. We can redefine and enhance the current state of the food industry and show that there’s another way to do business, care for our well-being, and revitalize our planet. We can unlock a future where sound and music become transformative forces, potentially reshaping the landscape of our health and nutrition in ways we’re really just beginning to fathom. Although it’s a journey into uncharted territory, harmonizing science and sound may well be the key to unlocking a more sustainable planet through more effective and ethically responsible food production practices.”
  • “By expanding our awareness of how sound and food interact, we can harness this connection in powerful ways to transform not only how we grow our food and what we eat, but also how we experience and engage with food.”

Connect/Other Resources

• Pavle’s new book: Sounds from Farm to Fork (and Back): How Audio and Music Can Enhance the Food Life Cycle
• Sound Awareness is Pavle’s award-winning newsletter. Dive into the world of sound and music with an expert’s eye on the effects of music on our psyche, audio branding, and the pulse of the music industry.
• We mention Pavle’s previous book: How to Hook Your customer with Music: A Six-Step Evidence-Based Guide
• Follow Pavle on LinkedIn
• Pavle mentions the Happy Egg company and the Kaicao chocolate factory in Madrid

Other episodes we mentioned or that you may enjoy:

• Ep. 107: How is music changing my purchasing habits without my awareness?! With author Pavle Marinkovic
• Ep. 121: What is sonic branding, and why does it matter? With Jeanna Isham
• Ep. 56: How do artists and songwriters get paid when I stream their song or hear it played in a store? With Songtrust’s Anna Bond
• Ep. 18: Is Background Music Influencing My Purchasing (or my Thanksgiving Guests)?! with Songtradr’s Jody McKinley
• View all episodes related to Science & Health

In-Episode Promo

JAMBAR: In addition to music, I am passionate about health & well-being. For me, a healthy lifestyle includes eating a diet that is mostly whole, unprocessed foods. This is pretty easy when I’m close to home, but living a full life often takes us away from a convenient refrigerator and a predictable schedule. Enter my favorite whole food energy bar. JAMBAR is a Certified Organic whole food bar, non-GMO and gluten-free. Created by a food science and nutrition expert, athlete, and musician, JAMBAR is packed with protein and fiber, and minimally sweetened with only all-natural sweeteners. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and has a one-year shelf life. These bars don’t melt, freeze, or crumble – which means they can go from a day of ice skating in Minneapolis to a trip to the beach when I’m visiting my daughter in Florida. (The only problem with the beach trips is keeping my kids from eating all my bars because they love them, too!)

Fuel your full life and healthy lifestyle with JAMBARs. Available at Amazon, select retailers, and jambar.com. For more info, you can also visit Episode 160. Links are in the show notes.

Coda

Pavle shares the song, “Feast,” and says: It’s a song I composed while playing around during my time at ESMUC where I studied film scoring. It’s one of the songs that inspired me to write this book as it was intended as a song to be played in a medieval banquet, thus linking food with music. It made me think about what would happen if music went beyond just the food-eating experience and could encompass the whole food cycle.

Closing Words

Love the song! Thanks so much to Pavle for joining us today and for all he does to enhance lives with music through his books and other prolific writing. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to get Pavle’s books and follow his Substack newsletter.

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to hit the Follow/+ button on whatever podcast app you use to listen. This is FREE and conveniently delivers each new episode to your device when it releases, so you don’t have to search for it. Following the show also gives you access to the latest addition to the podcast: mini Microhance episodes that are about 5 minutes each. These bite-sized episodes are like quick musical snacks (sticking with the food theme!), offering tips, hacks, resources, and personal anecdotes to inspire you to enhance your life with music.

You can always connect with me on email (mindy@mpetersonmusic.com), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

All Enhance Life with Music episodes are evergreen; so check out the back catalogue for more ways that music can make your life better.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Until next time, may your life be enhanced with music.

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