[Christina Florkowski]

This past week, another friend suggested I listen to Ezra Klein’s interview with D. Graham Burnett – a name I remembered from the New Yorker article. (In fact, it was the New Yorker article that led Klein to interview Burnett.) Burnett was one of the original ‘Friends of Attention’ some of whom then developed the ‘Strothers School of Radical Attention’. Toward the end of the Klein interview, they share one of the exercises done at the attention labs at the Strothers School in which they listen to a short piece of music four times. For each the four, a mood of listening is suggested. For the first, ‘Just listen.’ For the second, ‘Recall’ (What do you remember?) For the third, ‘Discover’ (What are you hearing for the first time?) And for the last, ‘Don’t listen.’

It is impossible for me to listen to this interview and not wonder if there has even been an intersection with Iain’s work. (Though it may be that a tangible worldly connection is not necessary for an influence to have taken place.)

https://youtu.be/ihGEL8ICXVM?si=ugRZgewxr-EMVOZ0