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What silence can teach you about sound | Dallas Taylor

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. 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…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

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”.

Listen to “Twenty Thousand Hertz” with Dallas Taylor:

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25 Comments

25 Comments

  1. Asiri Madusanka

    September 1, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    How hard i try to stay silence my mind doesn’t let me. It is so noisy.

  2. sunday

    September 1, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    Silence ? Does that even exist ??

  3. Nadia Hristova

    September 1, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    Soo… are we talking about some sort of meditation?

  4. आदित्य Aditya मेहेंदळे Mehendale

    September 1, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    I guess I misinterpreted the moral of “The emperor’s new clothes” 😉

  5. I May Have Miscalculated -

    September 1, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    I get it, but it’s kind of cheesy, maybe pretentious. Like an artist that sells a blank canvas and tries to give some spiel about deep meaning in nothingness, or somesuch.

  6. I May Have Miscalculated -

    September 1, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    And then there’s me, listening to this on active noise cancellation headphones.

  7. Bernardo Fitzpatrick

    September 1, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    Novelist George Eliot wrote ““That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.”

  8. mockingbird0901

    September 1, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    Haven’t been actively listening to the sound of the world in a little while. Felt really good to me reminded of that. Thanks.

  9. Osiris Heart

    September 1, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    I suggest doing this exercise, not at home. Do it somewhere in an unfamiliar place.
    At home, most of the sounds are familiar and dull.
    In an unfamiliar place, you will able to hear more sounds than tinnitus and enjoy hearing them.
    Just make sure you have good wi-fi coverage to watch this video on YouTube.
    Yes, your brain is unique. It can ignore the sound of tinnitus or at least seriously reduce it.
    Also, try to hear the sound of your thoughts without active participation in your thinking, just passively observing your thoughts.
    I hope you will find a new experience for yourself. Enjoy!

  10. Aunty Mammalia

    September 1, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    This was intellectual masturbation as far as I’m concerned. Sooooo deep. Sooooo not worth my thirteen minutes and twenty-two seconds.

  11. Ken Belangel

    September 1, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    Coming from an extrovert who used to be addicted to sound this was really pleasant

  12. Lucas Jorge

    September 1, 2020 at 7:39 pm

    Silence can be just as addicting as sound. I found that out by doing some mountain hikes and just sitting all the way up there, listening to the wind.

  13. J

    September 1, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    Nice vid

  14. Sharp Design

    September 1, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    Heard his own blood circulating… not sure if eww or ooh. Maybe both.

    Also, check out the video by “Sideways” on this subject called The Sequels of Silence

  15. Anthony dunne

    September 1, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    Seth rogan?

  16. Leocram Vinci

    September 1, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    But that’s not a piece… No one should be capable of naming silence as a piece. I bet he is not even the first one to say that.

  17. жvган

    September 1, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    What about Ted on russian?? Knowledge is not for everyone?

  18. sea2side

    September 1, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    Really learning and liking Dallas’ podcast.

  19. Shruti Mittal

    September 1, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    I think sounds are most important to life

  20. J S

    September 1, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    I liked him better when he was in Underoath.

  21. Ida Aida

    September 1, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    I guess that’s one (the only one) piece of music I can play..

  22. Федор Шварцман

    September 1, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    Не закрывайте канал TED на Русском !!! Достигните соглашения с русским каналом TED.

  23. itsatz

    September 2, 2020 at 12:38 am

    I can’t think of a more banal composer than Cage.

  24. Luis Alberto De Paula.

    September 2, 2020 at 12:53 am

    It is really interesting. It allows you to focus as if you were listening to music, but with no sound more than the noise of your surroundings.

  25. Startup Funding Event Global

    September 2, 2020 at 1:22 am

    Anechoic chambers really bring out all the sounds! Amazing!

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