Listen up, people! In Monster Baby #34, Ted and Lisa dig in to the nitty gritty of the world of listening. They start by defining the word itself and noticing how listening is like receiving (2:09) and then brainstorm ways to increase listening bandwidth (6:30). Lisa wonders if attention is a finite resource (9:32) and together they wonder what good listeners actually do (11:03). Ted introduces the notion of open, honest questions (14:12) and raises the idea of cultural and topical variations in listening style (19:12). The pair revels in the ambient sounds offered when recording outside (21:06) and how noticing the quality of those sounds links us to the truth that all things change (24:59). They add to the list of qualities for a good conversationalist (25:47) and explore how good listening helps us know ourselves (39:35). They close with some wisdom from colleague Ben Johnson and with a riff on Auto-Fill when listening (43:39). It’s a shorter episode than usual so make sure to put your listening caps on tight and buckle in. It’ll be over before you know it!

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