Roman Mars

The tone, not what she thought it was.

Deep inside your inner ear are these special hair cells, cilia, that float in fluid like a field of seaweed.

They're tuned to different frequencies.

Dr. Jim Henry is a pioneer of research in tinnitus.

Tinnitus is the sound of the brain's refusal to let go of what it once had.

She knows now it's a symptom.

But still, these days when she's reading or concentrating on something beautiful... When words turn into images in your mind, the tones come back.

For her, the tones are still a sign that she's attained some mental quiet.

She's paying attention to what is here, even if the sound that she's actually listening to is just the brain's song of grief for what is gone.

So that was The Sound of Silence by Gregory Warner.

It's a beautiful piece.

And what I love about it in particular is I know Gregory Warner's work from NPR.

He was a longtime foreign journalist, did Rough Translation, the NPR podcast.

And this allows you to get a different side of what he can create.

Yeah.

So let's play another piece.

This is from Circuit No.

2, and the theme is Listening With.

Anne, can you describe this theme and how you came to it?

And so what's this piece that we're going to listen to from this circuit?