A Breath of Fresh Air With Brian Eno

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brian Eno’s music opens up worlds I love to step into during trying times. And this conversation with Eno did the same thing. Eno is a trailblazing musician and producer who’s worked on seminal records by U2, David Bowie, the Talking Heads and Coldplay, among others. But Eno isn’t just a great collaborator with other artists; he’s also a great collaborator with machines. He’s been experimenting with music technology for decades. Long before we started worrying about ChatGPT replacing human creativity, Eno was tinkering with generative systems to pioneer ambient music – a genre that has deeply influenced how we listen to music today. Eno’s use (and playful misuse) of technology has expanded the possibilities of what music and sound can be. Many of you emailed in asking for a break from the news. Here it is. This episode contains strong language. Mentioned: What Art Does by Brian Eno and Bette Adriaanse East West Street by Philippe Sands Silence by John Cage Book Recommendations: Printing and the Mind of Man edited by John Carter and Percy H. Muir A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander Naples ’44 by Norman Lewis Music Recommendations: The Rural Blues “The Velvet Underground” by the Velvet Underground The Consolers Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker, Kate Sinclair and Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Aman Sahota and Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. Transcript editing by Sarah Murphy. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Alyssa Jane Moxley, Sophie Abramowitz, Geeta Dayal, Jack Hamilton and Victor Szabo.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The I've got an email from a lot of you lately saying, can we do a show just off the news?
0:35.9	Can one show not be in the grim march of events?
0:40.5	So here it is.
0:42.5	How do you intro Brian Eno?
0:45.6	Eno has a claim, as much as anyone does,
0:48.8	to have invented the genre of ambient music.
0:52.6	So there's no narrative quality to the music.
0:55.5	It just sort of starts, stays pretty much in one place, and then ends.
1:00.6	He certainly coined the term, built out the philosophy,
1:04.6	sort of has eaten a lot of the music we now listen to.
1:07.6	But also, he's just done so many other things.
1:13.7	He's produced seminal albums by you two.
1:20.7	David Bowie. I'm so glad, but we're strangers when he meets.
1:26.4	The talking heads.
1:28.3	Laurie Anderson.
1:37.3	In our sleep as we speak.
1:42.3	Listen to the drum seatbeat in our sleep.
1:46.8	Cold play.
1:47.5	I know St. Pino won't call my name.
1:53.8	Never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world.
2:07.5	Hell, Eno composed the sound that you know composed the sound that plays when you boot up Windows 95.
	...

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