Gordon Hempton — Silence and the Presence of Everything

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton collects sounds from around the world. He’s recorded inside Sitka spruce logs in the Pacific Northwest, thunder in the Kalahari Desert, and dawn breaking across six continents. An attentive listener, he says silence is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. He defines real quiet as presence — not an absence of sound but an absence of noise. We take in the world through his ears.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for on-being with Christa Tippett comes from the Fetzer Institute, helping build
0:05.2	the Spiritual Foundation for a loving world.
0:08.5	Fetzer's new study, what does spirituality mean to us?
0:12.3	Reveals how spirituality informs our understanding of ourselves and each other and inspires us
0:17.2	to take action for the common good.
0:19.9	Explore these findings and more at spiritualitystudy.org.
0:24.9	Gordon Hempton says that silence is an endangered species.
0:29.0	He's an acoustic ecologist, a collector of sound all over the world.
0:39.7	He defines real quiet as presence, not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise.
0:46.8	The earth as Gordon Hempton knows it is a solar-powered jukebox.
0:51.7	Quiet is a think tank of the soul.
0:54.5	We take in the world through his ears.
1:01.2	Not too long ago it was assumed that clean water is not important.
1:07.0	That seeing the stars is not that important, but now it is.
1:11.6	And now I think we're realizing quiet is important.
1:14.8	And we need silence.
1:16.3	That silence is not a luxury, but it's essential.
1:28.3	The last quiet places.
1:30.3	I'm Christa Tiffett and this is on being.
1:37.4	Gordon Hempton lives between Port Townsend and Joyce Washington near Olympic National Park.
1:43.0	A place he calls the Listeners You Summity.
1:45.9	I spoke with him in 2012.
	...

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