Conversation between Julian and TJ Walker about the importance of sound and listening. Julian describes his forthcoming book as a paean to listening and contrasts healthful natural sounds (wind, water, birds) with urban noise (traffic, aircraft). They acknowledge that loud sound can be positive in contexts like sports but argue that many people now miss natural sounds due to constant digital engagement. Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation is cited as documenting children’s shift from outdoor play to screen-based lives. Counter-trends noted include Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) and Quiet Parks International. The speakers lament FOMO and note people spend the majority of their lives indoors.
Questions this video answers
TJ Walker (creator/uploader).
August 7, 2024.
The Anxious Generation.
Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing).
Chapters
Nevertheless, we have to watch out for this. And that's really what my next book is about. It's a paean to listening, a plea for everybody to listen and not to miss those beautiful sounds. Because sound is extraordinary, amazing, rich and something that we spend a great deal of our time ignoring now, especially in cities. We get used to suppressing our consciousness of sound because it's mostly noise. It's not nice, it's traffic noise, aircraft noise construct.
It does remind me back in, it's probably 1984, I went and knocked on the door of Tony Schwarz in New York City who was a renowned expert on sound.
Well, some people like that, you know. And there are times when loud sound is euphoric. You know, when a, when your team scores a goal, you don't want everybody just to be going, no, you want that roar, you want the adrenaline. And indeed, I think, you know, I've seen a few baseball, basketball games on tv. The noise is part of the experience, isn't it, in that sport in your country. So, you know, noise can be positive or loud sound can be positive in certain circumstances. But certainly if you're talking about the very health giving sounds of nature, wind, water, birds, then I'd rather be sitting to listening to gentle surf or a bubbling a babbling brook than a mighty waterfall or vast waves crashing. There's a kind of violence about those sounds which is intimidating and not necessarily very pleasant, especially over a long period of time.
So Julian, I'm sure you follow the trends too. There's a new book out by Jonathan Haidt, the Anxious Generation where he documents how children today are essentially going from a play based childhood, outdoors playing unrestricted in nature to an indoor cell phone screen based childhood. Kids are just simply not hearing nature. I try to go for a walk on the beach every day without a cell phone. People think I'm crazy. What do you mean you don't have earplugs in you? What do you mean you're not listening to a podcast every second? What do you see with these trends and how can they be altered?
Well, there is a counter trend, it's got a Japanese name, Shinrin Yoku, which is forest bathing and is becoming enormously popular in the Far East. And I know there are now Shinrin Yoko forest bathing centres across the USA as well. There's another movement which is Quiet Parks International who list the quieter places in the world if you want to go and experience tranquility in nature. And they have a website displaying many of those places. So there are countermeasures here. It's not all about, you know, stuffing yourself full of content at every moment. You know, we have this FOMO in the world now, which I think is very sad. People sitting in bed next to their partner at midnight doing email. People, as you say, walking through a beautiful forest with headphones in, listening to somebody speaking. What a tragic waste of gorgeous sound. So we spend 95% of our lives indoors now. And, you know, whilst I think you're right, many children do spend less time indoors than many adults. They're certainly not sitting in hermetically sealed, air conditioned offices all day.
He made political TV commercials, but he made entire albums just about city sounds. He would go around with recording.
