Blog – The Listening Project

Blog

4 August 2024

Why is it Hard to Listen? Thoughts after Two Years of the Project

I have been thinking, since celebrating the second anniversary of the project in late June, about whether there is anything specific that I can distill from this experience, from having had 600+ people join me, from these tremendously varied interactions…

Blog

9 February 2024

Joshua Lazerson

Listening in a Context of Differences

The poster that I display when I’m listening explains that I’m doing this, in part, to become a better listener. When I started listening roughly a year and a half ago, I believe I was referring particularly to becoming better…

Blog

13 October 2023

Joshua Lazerson

Peeling the Onion (of Purpose and Meaning)

I always appreciate it when someone asks me to explain what led me to initiate the project and to describe the purposes that I hope it will serve. I value these questions because they make me question myself repeatedly, and…

Blog

1 June 2023

Joshua Lazerson

Thoughts on a Year of Listening

June 1, 2023 This month the project will celebrate its first birthday. This feels remarkable to me for two reasons: first, the fact that when the project began I thought it likely I’d sit once or twice, find there was…

Blog

5 March 2023

Joshua Lazerson

‘Strangers’

'Strangers' March 5, 2023 One of the beauties of doing the project in Southern California is the ability to do it outside, year-round. I wasn’t sure what the winter would bring, but I have only been rained out three times,…

Blog

14 December 2022

Joshua Lazerson

Pondering the “Why”

Why Am I Doing This? One of the questions that people often ask me is why I am doing this. It may sound a bit strange to say, but I’ve found that it has become more difficult for me to…

Blog

14 November 2022

Joshua Lazerson

Early Lessons Learned

Listening: Initial Thoughts Hi. I’m starting this blog so that I can share with you some sense of the experience of listening, and perhaps think ‘out loud’ about the questions that this project has raised in and for me, lessons…