Ways of Hearing

Damon Krukowski is a writer and musician. Author of The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World, he has taught writing and sound (and writing about sound) at Harvard University. He was in the indie rock band Galaxie 500 and is currently one half of the folk-rock duo Damon & Naomi. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Emily Thompson is a Professor of History at Princeton University.

Strange as this adaptation may seem in theory, it works perfectly in practice. The way Krukowski approaches his subject makes for engrossing and enlightening reading. Seattle Times


Because the book reads like an illustrated script, complete with sound-effect and scene-setting embeds, the narrative played out vividly in my mind. The AV Club


Damon Krukowski's Ways of Hearing is an ear-opener. Based on the podcast of the same name from Radiotopia, the book is a multimodal experience, one that opens the ears through the eyes. Columbia Journal


This has echoes of Berger and Marshall McLuhan in its approach. I think it will be seen as an important book one day, in terms of distilling how the change from analogue to digital has changed our way of experiencing the world. Financial Times


Ways of Hearing poses a compelling counternarrative to typical tech criticism: instead of glibly lamenting how digital life destroys intimacy, Krukowski asks listeners to pay attention to both the sonic as well as the political qualities of sound. Krukowski makes us consider sound what we hear, what we don't, how, and why as a means of listening but also, perhaps, of resisting. The Baffler


Krukowski's book ultimately succeeds as a worthy successor to Berger's in the ways that it differs from its predecessor. Listening isn't seeing; why should a book about one unnecessarily echo a book about the other? Krukowski gets more right by charting his own territory than he would by more closely following Berger's blueprint. Electric Literature


Krukowski's book ultimately succeeds as a worthy successor to Berger's in the ways that it differs from its predecessor. Listening isn't seeing; why should a book about one unnecessarily echo a book about the other? Krukowski gets more right by charting his own territory than he would by more closely following Berger's blueprint. Metapsychology


Ways of Hearing elevates attentive,