Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening (9/2/24)

With so much at stake in our world, people of my generation often ask themselves, and each other, “What can I do?” How can I help, aside from making donations, writing postcards or making calls to try and persuade someone to change their mind about political leaders? How can we help our society transform into a more caring, connected, and empathetic place to live? 

Some spiritual teachers and psychologists suggest that we have to start with our own way of being in the world. We have to start with ourselves. That makes sense to me.  If I can increase my compassion towards others and myself, perhaps my attitude will have a ripple effect.

I hadn’t thought about “Third Ear Listening” until I learned from Elizabeth Rosner about her new book…Third Ear…Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening. This book is about many things, including our well being…as individuals, family members, and humans living in a world that needs us to pay deep attention.

LISTEN NOW

https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20240902-Mon1400.mp3

Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist. Her works include Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, and the novels Electric City, and Speed of Light. Her newest book is Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening. This book tells personal stories of a multilingual upbringing as well as research of the latest scientific breakthroughs in interspecies communication. Having taught writing for over 30 years, Elizabeth travels widely to lead intensive writing workshops, to lecture on contemporary literature, and to visit with book groups. She is a long time resident of Berkeley, California.

Inherited Trauma and Resilience

Listen now *https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=404968*

KPFA Radio, 94.1FM,  7/31/23 

Joining me was author Elizabeth Rosner, discussing her book, Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, where she looks at how descendants of atrocities cope with inherited trauma.

Guest

Elizabeth Rosner is an author, teacher, and lecturer whose work focuses on the redemptive power of storytelling and deep listening. Her books have been translated into ten languages and have received several literary prizes in the US and abroad. Her most recent book of creative nonfiction, Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, explores the intergenerational aftermath of atrocities while offering hard-won hope for individual as well as collective resilience. Raised in upstate New York as the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Elizabeth’s writing interweaves personal reflection with scholarly research, revealing the profoundly resonant impacts of the past upon the present. She leads writing workshops locally in Berkeley as well as internationally; her teaching carries forward a message of perseverance and tenacious optimism.

More about all of her work can be found on her website: www.elizabethrosner.com.