What silence can teach you about sound | Dallas Taylor (re-release)
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What can you hear in silence? In this exploration of sound, host of the podcast "Twenty Thousand Hertz" Dallas Taylor tells the story of arguably the most debated musical composition in recent history -- composer John Cage's iconic piece 4'33" -- and invites you to take notice of the soundscape around you. Watch to the end to experience a performance of 4'33".
This episode originally aired on August 12, 2020.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:12.9 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. |
| 0:14.8 | What can you hear when you take a moment to be silent? |
| 0:18.6 | In this archive talk, host of the podcast 20,000 Hertz, Dallas Taylor, |
| 0:22.6 | takes us on an exploration of sound, telling the story of arguably the most debated musical |
| 0:28.6 | composition in recent history. Composer John Cage's iconic piece 433. Through this story, Dallas |
| 0:36.0 | invites us all to take notice of what's around us when we truly |
| 0:38.8 | stop to listen and asks, what is silence anyway? Please note there is an intentional long period |
| 0:45.8 | of no talking, four minutes and 33 seconds to be exact, at the end of this talk. We welcome |
| 0:53.1 | you to stick around and just witness what you hear around you. |
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