John does a deep dive into why every podcast has fake wood panels in the background now — a setup popularized by @hubermanlab — and shares a behind-the-scenes look at TBPN’s soundproofing in the Ultradome: "When you’re recording a podcast, you want good audio quality. You don’t want reverberation, you don’t want flat walls bouncing sound back, creating echo, distortion, and hollowness." "For a long time, people would put up that egg-crate style." "The problem is, it makes it look like you’re in a sound booth. Not very aesthetic." "So companies said, 'Let’s get the best of both worlds, something aesthetic but still sound-treating.'" "They launched wood slat walls, the spaces between the panels capture sound, act as a little deadening, and you can hide acoustic material behind them." "Andrew Huberman did it, it went mega viral, and everyone copied it." "He wound up painting his black." "Now, if you’re in the black paint industry, that’s where the money is, because everyone with fake wood panels is painting it black." From an April episode of the show.