‘Whoaaa!’

The New York Times featured commentary from Shankar, a pediatrician and health services researcher at Yale, in an article about the enduring popularity of the 1994 single “Insomniac” by the rock duo Billy Pilgrim, among a capella groups.

“This song is what made me fall in love with my group,” said Shankar, who sang for the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics from 2008 to 2012. “They open almost every show with this piece. It’s high energy, super upbeat, at least the a cappella version of it is. And it just starts with this wall of sound—that really high belt that’s like, ‘Whoaaa!’, and that just became an iconic line.”