kevin hart tour south africa 2023

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Kevin Hart Reality Check Tour

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February 17, 2023 @ 6:00 pm – February 18, 2023 @ 10:00 pm

Kevin Hart , the biggest touring comedian of all time is bringing his hilarious anecdotes to the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria on 17 February 2023 .

What Can I Expect From The Kevin Hart Reality Check Tour?

This is one comedy show you won’t want to miss! Tickets go on sale Friday 2 December at 9:00. Tickets go on sale exclusively from www.ticketmaster.co.za . If you’re with Discovery Bank then you’re in luck! The pre-sale begins on Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 9:00 from Ticketmaster.

He may be short in stature but his jokes pack a punch! The Emmy & Grammy nominated comedian, Kevin Hart, is known for his gold-standard stand-up material and has shattered box office records including on Netflix. Starting off as an amateur comedian, Hart has since moved on to develop, star and produce feature films, television shows and podcasts and has been named a New York Times Best Selling Author twice! So, don’t delay! Get your tickets as soon they are released.

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Kevin Hart Reality Check

Event date & venue.

17 and 18 February 2023

From R910 per person

Please note:

This event will be a phone-free experience. click to read the faqs for more: phone disclaimer.

Big Concerts and Live Nation Comedy confirmed today that due to popular demand, a third Kevin Hart ‘Reality Check’ Tour date has been added to the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria show run.

Emmy & Grammy nominated Kevin Hart is currently touring “Reality Check” globally with his known gold standard stand-up material and has shattered box office records everywhere. Hart launched his career as a comedian during an amateur night at a local comedy club. Over the years Hart has become Hollywood’s box office powerhouse, opening eleven films at number one at the box office and grossing more than in $4.23 billion global revenue. Hart has also become a successful Entrepreneur; he is Chairman of HARTBEAT; a global, multi-platform media company creating entertainment at the intersection of comedy and culture with a mission to keep the world laughing together.

The next generation media company unites Hartbeat Productions’ best-in-class TV & film production capabilities with Laugh Out Loud’s expansive distribution network, along with its marketing, sales, experiential, branded content, digital and social capabilities. Hart is also the Founder of HartBeat Ventures. Together, these companies play an integral role part in building Hart’s eco-system for extraordinary growth and creativity. Hart continues to develop, star, and produce feature films, television, and podcasts via HARTBEAT for his various partners which include Netflix, Peacock, Sirius XM and Audible. In 2020 Hart released his seventh hour long stand-up special, “Zero Fu**ks Given,” which quickly became Netflix's biggest stand-up special of 2020 and earned him a Grammy nomination for “Best Comedy Album”. 

Hart also earned Emmy nominations for “Die Hart,” for “Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series” along with an Emmy nomination for his Docu-series, “Don’t F**k This Up”.  Kevin is a New York Times Best Selling author twice over and his first Audible original, “The Decision,” was nominated for an Audie award for “Best Original Audiobook in 2021.” Kevin is a founding partner in two companies: the premium tequila brand Gran Coramino, and plant based quick serve restaurant Hart House.  Kevin’s brand partnerships include Gran Coramino, Hart House, Fabletics Men, Chase J.P Morgan, Hydrow, NutraBolt, Brüush, Tommy John and Therabody. 

Kevin Hart “REALITY CHECK” Tour

Additional Information:

Event Dates:  17 and 18 February 2023 – SOLD OUT

Venue: SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria

Tickets sales: Only available from Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.co.za

For complete tour and ticket information visit www.bigconcerts.co.za

Tickets purchased from VIAGOGO and other secondary resellers are fraudulent. Unfortunately, patrons holding tickets from the abovementioned sellers will not be permitted entry to the venue and will not get a refund for their purchase.

Kevin Hart brings ‘Reality Check’ tour to SA

American comedian and actor Kevin Hart has announced his return to South Africa in 2023 where he will bring the Reality Check tour to the SunBet Arena, Time Square and Pretoria on the 17th of February 2023.

The comedian pinned down a video on his Instagram where he made his announcement saying:

“South Africa, it’s been too long. Your boy is coming your way on February 17. It’s going down. Do not waste an opportunity to be in the arena for me to do what I do best, which is to provide laughter to you.” he said.

“Years on years on years it’s been but I cannot wait to get to you. Me in your world, let’s do what we do best. Let’s have a good time together,”

The ticket prices goes on sale as of this coming Friday 1st December. 

The American actor also toured the country in 2016, where he performed in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

Big Concerts confirmed Kevin’s South African tour on their official social media page.

“Just announced. Kevin Hart, the biggest touring comedian of all time, is bringing his Reality Check tour to the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria on February 17 2023. This is one you won’t want to miss.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real)

Also see: Kelly Rowland set to returns to South Africa in December

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Comedy legend and media mogul Kevin Hart adds more dates for his South African tour

One of the biggest comedians in the world, Kevin Hart is bringing this “Reality Check” tour to the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria on Friday the 17th, 18th & 19th of February 2023 and Grand Arena GrandWest on the 15th of February 2023.

Comedy legend and media mogul Hart was supposed to perform for one night in Sun Bet Arena, Pretoria South Africa however, due to popular demand the Phily-born comedian decided to add more dates and shows to his South African leg tour. 

Hart added three dates in Pretoria with 2 shows already sold out, he is also scheduled to perform in Mother City at GrandWest Arena. 

Lately, there’s been a growing interest and demand in Durban as Hart fans are asking for the comedian to make a stop in eThekwini to perform before he jets off to Cairo, Egypt. We yet to see if Kev will honour the invitation to perform in Durban, only time will tell.

Emmy & Grammy nominated Kevin Hart is known for his gold-standard stand-up material and has shattered box office records everywhere. Hart launched his career as a comedian during an amateur night at a local comedy club.

Over the years Hart has become Hollywood’s box office powerhouse, opening eleven films at number one at the box office and grossing more than in $4.23 billion global revenue.  Hart has also become a successful Entrepreneur; he is Chairman of HEARTBEAT; a global, multi-platform media company creating entertainment at the intersection of comedy and culture with a mission to keep the world laughing together. 

Tickets are still available at TicketMaster .

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Africa's comedy finally has a home and voice. Here at NoJokesComedy we consider ourselves the Africa's 24 Hours Premium Comedy Website Network. We offer daily updates, interviews, original productions, merchandise, editorials, comedy events and latest stories as it unfold. Get NoJokesComedy Swagger and buy our merchandise at http://nojokescomedy.co.za/store/. To advertise your brand or products send an email to [email protected]. Thank you

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Kevin Hart adds new date to his SA tour, but fans still reeling at the hefty price tag

Hart initially announced his one-night-only performance at the Sun Bet Arena at Time Square Casino on Friday, February 17, 2023.

KEVIN Hart has added a new date to the South African leg of his forthcoming “Reality Check” world tour.

Hart initially announced his return to Mzansi with his one-night-only performance at the Sun Bet Arena at Time Square Casino on Friday, February 17, 2023.

On Thursday, the award-winning comedian and actor announced that he has extended his South African tour with a new additional date, Saturday, February 18.

“Big Concerts and Live Nation Comedy confirmed today that due to popular demand, a second Kevin Hart ‘Reality Check’ Tour date has been added to the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria show run. NEW DATE: Saturday, February 18, 2023,” read the press statement.

When the initial announcement was made earlier this week, South African fans took to different social media platforms, pleading with the organisers to add another show in Cape Town.

While Capetonians are still dismayed at the news of Hart not making his way to the Mother City, tweeps were left shocked at the hefty ticket price tag.

The early bird ticket sale officially opened on Wednesday, November 30. Standard tickets range from R790.00 ( Wheelchair/ Accessibility Seating only) to 4,000, while VIP tickets range from R5,050 to R17,820.

Check out some of the fans’ reactions on Twitter.

@Ta_Fitty wrote: Kevin Hart ticket prices 😭😭.”

@Proph_Budmon said: “These Kevin Hart Tickets gon’ cost an arm and a leg mos 😩😪.

@sammysoluckyy said: “Kevin Hart ticket prices are more than minimum wage 😭.”

@fusiMatetelane commented: “Kevin Hart is coming to SA and his tickets are selling for R17,000. I’m clearly not a target market!😩”.

@uNduMis0 wrote: “What is with kevin hart with his ridiculous tickets price😳.”

@nhlalonhlemaps said: “I was excited with Kevin Hart coming to South Africa then the tickets prices happened. 🦺😭🥺.”

@Skinny_Tank added: “I hope you’re joking about the ticket prices.”

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Kevin Hart adds South Africa to his 'Reality Check' tour

Updated Nov. 28, 2022, 2:55 p.m. | By Tamlyn Canham

Share this:

Kevin 'Mpho' Hart is coming home! Kevin Hart is bringing his 'Reality Check Tour' to Mzansi in 2023. 

Kevin Hart has a date with the Motherland. The stand-up comedian has announced that his 'Reality Check' tour will be making a stop in South Africa.

"South Africa, it has been too long. Your boy is coming your way on the 17th of February. It's going down... Years on years on years it's been but I cannot wait to get to you. Me in your world, let's do what we do best. Let's have a good time together," the 43-year-old said in a video he shared on Instagram. 

The show will be taking place at Time Square's Sun Bet Arena in Pretoria. Tickets go on sale on Friday, December 2, and will be available on Ticketmaster .

Kevin's fans in Mzansi are ecstatic that he will be visiting SA again.

"Mpho Hart is coming back home," one Instagram user commented. Another user added: "FINALLY!!!! I’m not missing this one starting to save right now for a ticket!"

ALSO READ:  WATCH: The Rock and Kevin Hart Tortilla Challenge inspires Vic to challenge Stacey

SOUTH AFRICA!! Ask and you shall receive. I am kicking off the international leg of my #RealityCheckTour February 17, 2023 at the Sun Bet Arena | Time Square | Pretoria. Tix go on sale THIS FRIDAY!!!! at Ticketmaster 🇿🇦 #ComedicRockStarShit pic.twitter.com/UAfbrDrfUI — Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) November 28, 2022

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South Africans begged the actor and comedian to add dates in Cape Town and Durban. He visited the cities during his 2016 tour . 

Kev please add Durban. pic.twitter.com/TBelaEewBj — Spark (@lapak_z) November 28, 2022

Some South Africans had a few jokes of their own for the American comedian. 

"Mpho Kevin Hart, just know that you must bring a Generator because there is no gesi here ndoda," one  Twitter user joked . 

Another tweep added : "Come with your own Electricity."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by BIG Concerts (@bigconcerts)

South African comedian Trevor Noah will also be coming home in 2023 . The 38-year-old's 12-show tour will see him visiting Durban, Cape Town, and Pretoria from 31 August to 15 September. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix Comedy (@netflixisajoke)

Main image credit: Instagram (@ kevinhart4real )

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Home » Entertainment » Celebs And Viral

By Citizen Reporter

3 minute read

Due to popular demand– Kevin Hart’s SA tour gets more dates

Big concerts announced that popular comedian kevin hart's south africa tour is getting an extra date after presale tickets were selling at a high rate..

Kevin Hart’s South Africa tour gets tickets more dates. Picture: Twitter @ticketmasterza

South Africans surprised themselves when they bought comedian Kevin Hart’s presale ticket sales in numbers.

Even though many complained the ticket costs were expensive, starting at R910 to R17 820 for VIP front-row tickets, it has been announced people are more than ready to fork out the money.

Hart announced one date to perform in South Africa, 17 February 2023 at the Sun Bet Arena, Time Square, in Pretoria, on Monday.

Big Concerts adds an extra date

Due to popular demand, Hart will now perform his Reality Check tour on Friday, 17 February 2023, and a new date Saturday, 18 February 2023.

Fans of the comedian and actor have been implored to sign up to Discovery Bank for the presale tickets. 

WATCH: Nomcebo Zikode rubs shoulders with Bella Hadid, Jackson family and more

The early bird tickets were made available on Wednesday morning, for Discover Bank clients. 

The pre-sale access will only be available until 2 December, 8.59am.

NEW ADDED DATE ❗ One Kevin Hart show isn't enough right? Another show is confirmed for 18 Feb at the Sunbet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria! General on sale tomorrow at 9 am at https://t.co/o1pJxPLGiO #KevinHartInSA #TicketmasterZA #ComedyNight #KevinHart pic.twitter.com/bmI68UIknr googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('google-ad-m-og-mpu2'); }); — Ticketmaster South Africa (@TicketmasterZA) December 1, 2022

The starting price is R910 with the wheelchair accessibility priced at R680. However, the ticket prices jump from R1 360 to R2 215. 

The platinum tickets cost between R2 500 to R4 000 and the “Kevin Hart Premium Ticket package” will set you back R5 050. The package comes with exclusive merchandise, unique to this package is a limited-edition tour lithograph, commemorative VIP laminate, red carpet entry, VIP check-in and entry and crowd-free merchandise shopping. 

ALSO READ: W ould you pay R17k to see Kevin Hart front row? Twitter reacts

The general sale of tickets will go live on Friday, 2 December, from 9am. 

Hart’s successful career

Hart movie box office revenue stands at over $4.23 billion global revenue. He is also a successful entrepreneur, with ventures such as being the chairman of HARTBEAT; a global, multi-platform media company, his also the founder of HartBeat Venture which plays a part in building a “Hart’s eco-system for extraordinary growth and creativity in the entertainment industry. 

The last time Hart was in South Africa was in 2016, and he performed in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. The stand-up comedian received a good reception amongst locals. 

Hart also has Netflix stand-up specials such as  Irresponsible  and  Zero F**ks Given. 

Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele

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• February 18, 2023 Setlist

Kevin Hart Setlist at Sun Arena at Time Square Casino, Pretoria, South Africa

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<div style="text-align: center;" class="setlistImage"><a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kevin-hart/2023/sun-arena-at-time-square-casino-pretoria-south-africa-33baa499.html" title="Kevin Hart Setlist Sun Arena at Time Square Casino, Pretoria, South Africa 2023, Reality Check" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.setlist.fm/widgets/setlist-image-v1?id=33baa499" alt="Kevin Hart Setlist Sun Arena at Time Square Casino, Pretoria, South Africa 2023, Reality Check" style="border: 0;" /></a> <div><a href="https://www.setlist.fm/edit?setlist=33baa499&amp;step=song">Edit this setlist</a> | <a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/kevin-hart-73d2b26d.html">More Kevin Hart setlists</a></div></div>

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Kevin Hart reschedules Jackson shows for later this year. See new date here

P opular comedian and actor Kevin Hart has rescheduled his "Acting My Age Tour" tour at Jackson's Thalia Mara Hall that was originally on May 25 and 26.

According to the  Thalia Mara Hall Facebook page, the two shows for the Kevin Hart: Acting My Age Tour have been rescheduled to Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. due to unforeseen circumstances.

ESPN announced that Kevin Hart would be doing his "NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart" show during the NBA conference finals, which do overlap with Hart's scheduled show dates. The show is in the style of the popular "ManningCast" for NFL games.

Forbes has labeled Hart as one of the highest-earning stand-up comedians of 2019. He has had several successful tours, with his “Reality Check” tour being one of the highest-grossing comedy tours of 2022 and 2023, according to Billboard.

More: This Grammy winning, country singer will perform at Trustmark Park on July 26. See who

• When:  Sept. 22
• Where:  Thalia Mara Hall, 255 E. Pascagoula St., Jackson
• Admission:  All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new date. For any further ticket inquiries please reach out to Ticketmaster and Kevinhartnation.com.

More: Looking for something your children can do this summer? 2024 summer camps are here

Know an event coming up or have a good story idea? Reporter Kiara Fleming can be reached via email [email protected]  and  on X @Ki_dajournalist 

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Kevin Hart reschedules Jackson shows for later this year. See new date here

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Whales Have an Alphabet

Until the 1960s, it was uncertain whether whales made any sounds at all..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

Today, ever since the discovery that whales produce songs, scientists have been trying to find a way to decipher their lyrics. After 60 years, they may have finally done it. My colleague, Carl Zimmer, explains.

It’s Friday, May 24.

I have to say, after many years of working with you on everything from the pandemic to —

— CRISPR DNA technology, that it turns out your interests are even more varied than I had thought, and they include whales.

They do indeed.

And why? What is it about the whale that captures your imagination?

I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who is not fascinated by whales. I mean, these are mammals like us, and they’re swimming around in the water. They have brains that are much bigger than ours. They can live maybe 200 years. These are incredible animals, and animals that we still don’t really understand.

Right. Well, it is this majestic creature that brings us together today, Carl, because you have been reporting on a big breakthrough in our understanding of how it is that whales communicate. But I think in order for that breakthrough to make sense, I think we’re going to have to start with what we have known up until now about how whales interact. So tell us about that.

Well, people knew that whales and dolphins traveled together in groups, but up until the 1960s, we didn’t really know that whales actually made any sounds at all. It was actually sort of an accident that we came across it. The American military was developing sophisticated microphones to put underwater. They wanted to listen for Russian submarines.

As one does. But there was an engineer in Bermuda, and he started hearing some weird stuff.

[WHALE SOUNDS]

And he wondered maybe if he was actually listening to whales.

What made him wonder if it was whales, of all things?

Well, this sound did not sound like something geological.

It didn’t sound like some underwater landslide or something like that. This sounded like a living animal making some kind of call. It has these incredible deep tones that rise up into these strange, almost falsetto type notes.

It was incredibly loud. And so it would have to be some really big animal. And so with humpback whales swimming around Bermuda, this engineer thought, well, maybe these are humpback whales.

And so he gets in touch with a husband and wife team of whale biologists, Roger and Katy Payne, and plays these recordings to them. And they’re pretty convinced that they’re hearing whales, too. And then they go on to go out and confirm that by putting microphones in the water, chasing after groups of whales and confirming, yes, indeed, that these sounds are coming from these humpback whales.

So once these scientists confirm in their minds that these are the sounds of a whale, what happens with this discovery?

Well, Roger and Katy Payne and their colleagues are astonished that this species of whale is swimming around singing all the time for hours on end. And it’s so inspirational to them that they actually help to produce a record that they release “The Song of the Humpback Whale” in 1970.

And so this is being sold in record stores, you know, along with Jimi Hendrix and Rolling Stones. And it is a huge hit.

Yeah, it sells like two million copies.

Well, at the time, it was a huge cultural event. This record, this became almost like an anthem of the environmental movement. And it led, for whales in particular, to a lot of protections for them because now people could appreciate that whales were a lot more marvelous and mysterious than they maybe had appreciated before.

And so you have legislation, like the Marine Mammal Act. The United States just agrees just to stop killing whales. It stops its whaling industry. And so you could argue that the discovery of these whale songs in Bermuda led to at least some species of whales escaping extinction.

Well, beyond the cultural impact of this discovery, which is quite meaningful, I wonder whether scientists and marine biologists are figuring out what these whale songs are actually communicating.

So the Paynes create a whole branch of science, the study of whale songs. It turns out that pretty much every species of whale that we know of sings in some way or another. And it turns out that within a species, different groups of whales in different parts of the world may sing with a different dialect. But the big question of what these whales are singing, what do these songs mean, that remains elusive into the 21st century. And things don’t really change until scientists decide to take a new look at the problem in a new way.

And what is that new way?

So in 2020, a group of whale biologists, including Roger Payne, come together with computer scientists from MIT. Instead of humpback whales, which were the whales where whale songs are first discovered, these scientists decide to study sperm whales in the Caribbean. And humpback whales and sperm whales have very, very different songs. So if you’re used to humpback whales with their crazy high and low singing voices —

Right, those best-selling sounds.

— those are rockin’ tunes of the humpback whales, that’s not what sperm whales do. Sperm whales have a totally different way of communicating with each other. And I actually have some recordings that were provided by the scientists who have been doing this research. And so we can take a listen to some of them.

Wow, It’s like a rhythmic clicking.

These are a group of sperm whales swimming together, communicating.

So whale biologists knew already that there was some structure to this sound. Those clicks that you hear, they come in little pulses. And each of those pulses is known as a coda. And whale biologists had given names to these different codas. So, for example, they call one coda, one plus one plus three —

— which is basically click, click, click, click, click, or four plus three, where you have four clicks in a row and a pause and then three clicks in a row.

Right. And the question would seem to be, is this decipherable communication, or is this just whale gibberish?

Well, this is where the computer scientists were able to come in and to help out. The whale biologists who were listening to the codas from the sperm whales in the Caribbean, they had identified about 21 types. And then that would seem to be about it.

But then, an MIT computer science graduate student named Prajusha Sharma was given the job of listening to them again.

And what does she hear?

In a way, it’s not so much what she heard, but what she saw.

Because when scientists record whale songs, you can look at it kind of like if you’re looking at an audio of a recording of your podcast, you will see the little squiggles of your voice.

And so whale biologists would just look at that ticker of whale songs going across the screen and try to compare them. And Sharma said, I don’t like this. I just — this is not how I look at data. And so what she decided to do is she decided to kind of just visualize the data differently. And essentially, she just kind of flipped these images on their side and saw something totally new.

And what she saw was that sperm whales were singing a whole bunch of things that nobody had actually been hearing.

One thing that she discovered was that you could have a whale that was producing a coda over and over and over again, but it was actually playing with it. It was actually stretching out the coda,

[CLICKING] So to get a little bit longer and a little bit longer, a little bit longer.

And then get shorter and shorter and shorter again. They could play with their codas in a way that nobody knew before. And she also started to see that a whale might throw in an extra click at the end of a coda. So it would be repeating a coda over and over again and then boom, add an extra one right at the end. What they would call an ornamentation. So now, you have yet another signal that these whales are using.

And if we just look at what the sperm whales are capable of producing in terms of different codas, we go from just 21 types that they had found in the Caribbean before to 156. So what the scientists are saying is that what we might be looking at is what they call a sperm whale phonetic alphabet.

Yeah, that’s a pretty big deal because the only species that we know of for sure that has a phonetic alphabet —

— is us, exactly. So the reason that we can use language is because we can make a huge range of sounds by just doing little things with our mouths. A little change in our lips can change a bah to a dah. And so we are able to produce a set of phonetic sounds. And we put those sounds together to make words.

So now, we have sperm whales, which have at least 150 of these different versions of sounds that they make just by making little adjustments to the existing way that they make sounds. And so you can make a chart of their phonetic alphabet, just like you make a chart of the human phonetic alphabet.

So then, that raises the question, do they combine their phonetic alphabet into words? Do they combine their words into sentences? In other words, do sperm whales have a language of their own?

Right. Are they talking to each other, really talking to each other?

If we could really show that whales had language on par with humans, that would be like finding intelligent life on another planet.

We’ll be right back.

So, Carl, how should we think about this phonetic alphabet and whether sperm whales are actually using it to talk to each other?

The scientists on this project are really careful to say that these results do not definitively prove what these sperm whale sounds are. There are a handful of possibilities here in terms of what this study could mean. And one of them is that the whales really are using full-blown language.

What they might be talking about, we don’t know. I mean, perhaps they like to talk about their travels over hundreds and thousands of miles. Maybe they’re talking about, you know, the giant squid that they caught last night. Maybe they’re gossiping about each other.

And you have to remember, sperm whales are incredibly social animals. They have relationships that last for decades. And they live in groups that are in clans of thousands of whales. I mean, imagine the opportunities for gossip.

These are all at least imaginable now. But it’s also possible that they are communicating with each other, but in a way that isn’t language as we know it. You know, maybe these sounds that they’re producing don’t add up to sentences. There’s no verb there. There’s no noun. There’s no structure to it in terms of how we think of language.

But maybe they’re still conveying information to each other. Maybe they’re somehow giving out who they are and what group they belong to. But it’s not in the form of language that we think of.

Right. Maybe it’s more kind of caveman like as in whale to whale, look, there, food.

It’s possible. But, you know, other species have evolved in other directions. And so you have to put yourself in the place of a sperm whale. You know, so think about this. They are communicating in the water. And actually, like sending sounds through water is a completely different experience than through the air like we do.

So a sperm whale might be communicating to the whale right next to it a few yards away, but it might be communicating with whales miles away, hundreds of miles away. They’re in the dark a lot of the time, so they don’t even see the whales right next to them. So it’s just this constant sound that they’re making because they’re in this dark water.

So we might want to imagine that such a species would talk the way we do, but there are just so many reasons to expect that whatever they’re communicating might be just profoundly different, so different that it’s actually hard for us to imagine. And so we need to really, you know, let ourselves be open to lots of possibilities.

And one possibility that some scientists have raised is that maybe language is just the wrong model to think about. Maybe we need to think about music. You know, maybe this strange typewriter, clickety clack is actually not like a Morse code message, but is actually a real song. It’s a kind of music that doesn’t necessarily convey information the way conversation does, but it brings the whales together.

In humans, like, when we humans sing together in choruses, it can be a very emotional experience. It’s a socially bonding experience, but it’s not really like the specific words that we’re singing that bring us together when we’re singing. It’s sharing the music together.

But at a certain point, we stop singing in the chorus, and we start asking each other questions like, hey, what are you doing for dinner? How are you going to get home? There’s a lot of traffic on the BQE. So we are really drawn to the possibility that whales are communicating in that same kind of a mode.

We’re exchanging information. We’re seeking out each other’s well-being and emotional state. And we’re building something together.

And I think that happens because, I mean, language is so fundamental to us as human beings. I mean, it’s like every moment of our waking life depends on language. We are talking to ourselves if we’re not talking to other people.

In our sleep, we dream, and there are words in our dreams. And we’re just stewing in language. And so it’s really, really hard for us to understand how other species might have a really complex communication system with hundreds of different little units of sound that they can use and they can deploy. And to think anything other than, well, they must be talking about traffic on the BQE. Like —

— we’re very human-centric. And we have to resist that.

So what we end up having here is a genuine breakthrough in our understanding of how whales interact. And that seems worth celebrating in and of itself. But it really kind of doubles as a lesson in humility for us humans when it comes to appreciating the idea that there are lots of non-human ways in which language can exist.

That’s right. Humility is always a good idea when we’re thinking about other animals.

So what now happens in this realm of research? And how is it that these scientists, these marine biologists and these computer scientists are going to try to figure out what exactly this alphabet amounts to and how it’s being used?

So what’s going to happen now is a real sea change in gathering data from whales.

So to speak.

So these scientists are now deploying a new generation of undersea microphones. They’re using drones to follow these whales. And what they want to do is they want to be recording sounds from the ocean where these whales live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so the hope is that instead of getting, say, a few 100 codas each year on recording, these scientists want to get several hundred million every year, maybe billions of codas every year.

And once you get that much data from whales, then you can start to do some really amazing stuff with artificial intelligence. So these scientists hope that they can use the same kind of artificial intelligence that is behind things like ChatGPT or these artificial intelligence systems that are able to take recordings of people talking and transcribing them into text. They want to use that on the whale communication.

They want to just grind through vast amounts of data, and maybe they will discover more phonetic letters in this alphabet. Who knows? Maybe they will actually find bigger structures, structures that could correspond to language.

If you go really far down this route of possibilities, the hope is that you would understand what sperm whales are saying to each other so well that you could actually create artificial sperm whale communication, and you could play it underwater. You could talk to the sperm whales. And they would talk back. They would react somehow in a way that you had predicted. If that happens, then maybe, indeed, sperm whales have something like language as we understand it.

And the only way we’re going to figure that out is if we figure out not just how they talk to themselves, but how we can perhaps talk to them, which, given everything we’ve been talking about here, Carl, is a little bit ironic because it’s pretty human-centric.

That’s right. This experiment could fail. It’s possible that sperm whales don’t do anything like language as we know it. Maybe they’re doing something that we can’t even imagine yet. But if sperm whales really are using codas in something like language, we are going to have to enter the conversation to really understand it.

Well, Carl, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Sorry. Can I say that again? My voice got really high all of a sudden.

A little bit like a whale’s. Ooh.

Yeah, exactly. Woot. Woot.

Thank yoooo. No. Thank you.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

We allege that Live Nation has illegally monopolized markets across the live concert industry in the United States for far too long. It is time to break it up.

On Thursday, the Justice Department sued the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, for violating federal antitrust laws and sought to break up the $23 billion conglomerate. During a news conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Live Nation’s monopolistic tactics had hurt the entire industry of live events.

The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices.

In a statement, Live Nation called the lawsuit baseless and vowed to fight it in court.

A reminder — tomorrow, we’ll be sharing the latest episode of our colleagues’ new show, “The Interview.” This week on “The Interview,” Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, about his plans to make the world’s largest streaming service even bigger.

I don’t agree with the premise that quantity and quality are somehow in conflict with each other. I think our content and our movie programming has been great, but it’s just not all for you.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern, Stella Tan, Sydney Harper, and Nina Feldman. It was edited by MJ Davis, contains original music by Pat McCusker, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, and Sophia Lanman, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

Special thanks to Project SETI for sharing their whale recordings.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Tuesday after the holiday.

• May 29, 2024   •   29:46 The Closing Arguments in the Trump Trial
• May 28, 2024   •   25:56 The Alitos and Their Flags
• May 24, 2024   •   25:18 Whales Have an Alphabet
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• May 22, 2024   •   23:20 Biden’s Open War on Hidden Fees
• May 21, 2024   •   24:14 The Crypto Comeback
• May 20, 2024   •   31:51 Was the 401(k) a Mistake?
• May 19, 2024   •   33:23 The Sunday Read: ‘Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify?’
• May 17, 2024   •   51:10 The Campus Protesters Explain Themselves
• May 16, 2024   •   30:47 The Make-or-Break Testimony of Michael Cohen
• May 15, 2024   •   27:03 The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System
• May 14, 2024   •   35:20 Voters Want Change. In Our Poll, They See It in Trump.

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Carl Zimmer

Produced by Alex Stern ,  Stella Tan ,  Sydney Harper and Nina Feldman

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

Original music by Elisheba Ittoop ,  Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano ,  Sophia Lanman and Pat McCusker

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher the lyrics.

But sperm whales don’t produce the eerie melodies sung by humpback whales, sounds that became a sensation in the 1960s. Instead, sperm whales rattle off clicks that sound like a cross between Morse code and a creaking door. Carl Zimmer, a science reporter, explains why it’s possible that the whales are communicating in a complex language.

On today’s episode

Carl Zimmer , a science reporter for The New York Times who also writes the Origins column .

Background reading

Scientists find an “alphabet” in whale songs.

These whales still use their vocal cords. But how?

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The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column . More about Carl Zimmer

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