Join us as Elizabeth Margulis discusses her new book with Tania Lombrozo.  Transported explores the phenomenon of musical daydreams—the vivid, spontaneous, emotionally charged images, stories, and memories we lapse into while listening to music—and argues that these everyday reveries offer a powerful and underappreciated window into how we think, feel, and connect.

A song comes on and suddenly you’re somewhere else: Reliving past heartbreak. Picturing a serene future. Imagining a fantastical scene. Across genres, music has an uncanny ability to carry us into distinct inner worlds.

In Transported, acclaimed music cognition researcher Elizabeth Margulis explores the phenomenon of musical daydreams—the vivid, spontaneous, emotionally charged images, stories, and memories we lapse into while listening to music—and argues that these everyday reveries offer a powerful and underappreciated window into how we think, feel, and connect.

Combining cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, ethnography, and revelations from her own teaching and pathbreaking research, Margulis shows not only that musical imaginings are widespread and meaningful—but also that daydreams which seem deeply personal are often widely shared. Music can alleviate anxiety, ignite creativity, and foster connection in our increasingly fragmented era.

At a time when attention is perpetually under siege, Transported makes a powerful case for music as one of the last spaces where the mind is still free to wander—and reminds us that these wanderings are more meaningful and more important to our individual and collective well-being than we’ve ever realized.

Elizabeth Margulis is a researcher in music cognition and a trained classical pianist. She is Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where she directs the Music Cognition Lab. Transported is her first book for general audiences.

Tania Lombrozo is the Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, where she directs the Program in Cognitive Science. Her research aims to address foundational questions about cognition using the empirical tools of cognitive psychology and the conceptual tools of analytic philosophy. Her book, Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and The Human Drive to Understand, will be released in October.

This event is co-sponsored by Princeton University's Department of Music.