Gavin Steingo is a professor in the department of music at Princeton University. He is the author of two books, Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa, and Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity. He also co-edited the seminal volume Remapping Sound Studies, and he co-directs the Animal Song Collective.

Jacob Smith is a professor in the department of radio/television/film at Northwestern University, where he co-founded the MA program in Sound Arts and Industries. He is the author of many books, including Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media; Spoken Word: Postwar American Phonograph Cultures; and Eco-Sonic Media. He is also the author of two experimental audiobooks: ESC: Sonic Adventure in the Anthropocene, and Lightning Birds: An Aeroecology of the Airwaves.