“Listening is expansive — and like curiosity — an open-ended thing. So it’s being able to grapple with and cope with uncertainty and ambiguity…and just sit with it.” ~ Haru Yamada

Listening comes up a lot in these curiosity conversations, and when I came across Haru Yamada’s new book Kiku: The Japanese Art of Good Listening, I hoped I was on to something.

I was not disappointed.

This happens to be my 300^th episode and – especially given the world we’re in right now – spending a little time focused on how we might listen to one another better seemed like a mighty fine way to mark the milestone.

“Kiku” is a Japanese word for listen. It is comprised of smaller characters that together, as Haru puts it, “generate the secret alchemy of listening: an ear 耳 on the left and fourteen 十四 hearts 心 on the right …conjuring a person listening with the energy of fourteen hearts.”

Think for a moment what it means to listen with the energy of fourteen hearts…

Imagine what that makes possible!

Listening can take oh-so-many forms. We explore the implications of listening for things, attention to both content and context, listening as a relationship skill, insights from music’s predictability and surprise, fear and allowing ourselves to be changed by listening, demonstrated listening, deciding to enter and stay in the listening space — and the extents to which we will go to hear and be heard.

I think our conversations go awry and there’s misunderstanding because we haven’t taken into consideration the larger context.

LISTEN TO EP. #300: CURIOSITY & LISTENING WITH THE ENERGY OF FOURTEEN HEARTS, WITH HARU YAMADA

Haru Yamada, PhD. is a self-described global nomad and sociolinguist who loves thinking and writing about how people talk and listen across cultures. Her book, 聴くKIKU The Japanese Art of Good Listening was released in the UK in March 2025, and in the US in October 2025. You can find her Sounds Good writing on Substack at @haruyamada.

Haru gave us a mini Japanese lesson: お疲れ様です (Otsukaresama desu) means “you must be tired” …an expression of appreciation and so much more. What’s your way to demonstrate listening?

A shout out to Jeff Wetzler, of The Ask Approach, for putting Haru on my radar. Listen to my lovely conversation with Jeff.

Intrigued by Haru’s discussion of music and listening? You might enjoy this C2BC Classic: On Open-Earedness, with Tim McKenry.

Theme music by Sean Balick. ”Wahre” by Cloud Harbor via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.