Imagine that you’re at a busy cafe with a friend. It’s loud — there is a lot of people there and the baristas are busy brewing coffee. Yet, despite the background noise, you can still isolate your friend’s voice and understand what they’re saying. On top of that, by listening to the noise, you can estimate the number of people there and who they may be. This is what gravitational wave scientists do — they listen for black holes, neutron stars, and echoes from the Big Bang. In this talk, I’ll give an overview of how gravitational wave data analysts count black holes from our noisy data and describe how this work helps us to understand the evolution of the cosmos. I’ll also talk about my experience as a writer for Astrobites.org and how you can get involved in the future.