Review: ‘Third-Ear Listening’ Is the Secret to Perceiving the World

Review: The Science of Listening Goes Far Beyond the Ears

By Dana Dunham

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In Brief

Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening
by Elizabeth Rosner.
Counterpoint, 2024 ($27)

As a child of Holocaust survivors growing up in a multilingual immigrant house­hold, author Elizabeth Rosner became a careful listener of both the spoken and the unspoken. Her expansive, fluid meditation on so-called third-ear listening—a deeply attuned, intuitive way of perceiving the world that transcends the physically audible—is rooted in personal experience, but the contemplative vignettes explore our sonic universe. Drawing together topics ranging from the rise of podcasting to the vibration-detection sensitivity of an elephant’s foot, this poignant exploration of the hidden depths of the soundscapes around us reveals the importance of listening with more than just our ears.