At first glance, humans, whales, and ele­phants do not seem to have too much in com­mon, except that they are all mam­mals. But Eliz­a­beth Ros­ner has iden­ti­fied a behav­ior these three share: deep lis­ten­ing. In Third Ear, her sec­ond work of non­fic­tion, Ros­ner explores how humans, ani­mals, trees, and the envi­ron­ment at large (can) lis­ten to one anoth­er. Her book is also a mem­oir, full of reflec­tion on her life as a writer, a woman, and the daugh­ter of Holo­caust survivors. 

Third-ear lis­ten­ing, Ros­ner explains, is an approach devel­oped by Theodor Reik, a close stu­dent of Sig­mund Freud. It is more than just hear­ing, or even active lis­ten­ing. Rather, third-ear lis­ten­ing involves per­ceiv­ing the world in a deeply attuned, intu­itive way, beyond what is phys­i­cal­ly audi­ble. It is lis­ten­ing to the silence; it is tun­ing into each oth­er. It is a kind of lis­ten­ing that com­pels reflec­tion, one observed not only in humans (when they want to), but also in ele­phants, whales, and nature at large.

What drew Eliz­a­beth Ros­ner to third-ear lis­ten­ing? Grow­ing up as a sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion sur­vivor, she was shaped by the silences and the voic­es of her fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. Because she was raised in a mul­ti­lin­gual home in Amer­i­ca and faced with spo­ken and unspo­ken mem­o­ries of the Europe that her par­ents had escaped, Ros­ner was high­ly attuned to the words, sounds, and tunes of humans, ani­mals, and the envi­ron­ment. All of this made her want to learn more about listening. 

Through­out the book, Ros­ner inter­twines per­son­al mem­o­ries — such as her dis­il­lu­sion­ment with Ortho­doxy as a result of not being lis­tened to as a Jew­ish girl and woman — with an inter- and cross-dis­ci­pli­nary explo­ration of lis­ten­ing. She moves ele­gant­ly from child­hood rec­ol­lec­tions to insights gained from con­ver­sa­tions with researchers, authors, artists, and ther­a­pists. Ros­ner also dis­cuss­es research about lis­ten­ing as it relates to psy­chol­o­gy and psy­cho­analy­sis, vet­eri­nary stud­ies, lit­er­a­ture, and lin­guis­tics. By engag­ing with stud­ies and mem­o­ries, she high­lights the pow­er and impact of human and non­hu­man listening. 

Rosner’s book presents lis­ten­ing as a way to under­stand our­selves, each oth­er, and the world around us. Page by page, it is often a sur­prise to see what Ros­ner will write about next: it might be the ecosys­tem of trees, the impact of COVID on the glob­al and local sound­scape, or her par­ents’ sur­vival dur­ing the Holo­caust. Rosner’s writ­ing is asso­cia­tive, and her voice, reflec­tive and hope­ful. Third Ear is a book that is need­ed now more than ever. It urges us to live in (and lis­ten to) this very moment.