Sound Affects, Julian Treasure
Sound Affects, Julian Treasure
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

Sound Affects
How Sound Shapes Our Lives, Our Wellbeing and Our Planet

Author: Julian Treasure

Narrator: Julian Treasure

Unabridged: 11 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2025


Synopsis

A "fascinating" narrative that takes readers on an epic journey spanning disciplines, continents, and centuries that spotlights sound's incredible impact on our bodies, feelings, thinking, and behavior (Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet).

Hearing is the first sense we develop—a primary warning instinct hardwired into our brains. And yet, in an increasingly noisy and distracted world, most people pay very little attention to sound. In school, we teach reading and writing, but not listening. Conscious listening is rare, and, with over half the world's population now living in cities, billions of people never experience the rich and health‑enhancing sounds of the natural world. Every day, the sounds around us affect our experience and fundamentally alter our quality of life, for better or worse.

In four sections—geophony, the sounds of the planet; biophony, the "great animal orchestra"; anthropophony, the sounds of humanity; and silence, a sound in its own right—this book will help readers rediscover the wonder of sound and understand how powerfully it affects us, whether we're paying attention or not. It will also offer readers a manual for taking back responsibility for the sounds we consume and the sounds we make, so we can enhance our own happiness.

About Julian Treasure

Julian Treasure is a sound and communication expert, and five-time TED speaker. His vision is for a world that that listens consciously and expresses itself beautifully.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alanna-Jane on June 10, 2025

3 stars This audiobook describes, in great length, the mechanisms/affects/effects of our Earthly soundscape and how it affects both humans and other living beings. If this is something that interests you, you will learn everything you have ever wanted to know and more by reading this book. I was perso......more

Goodreads review by Dan on April 13, 2025

My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this new book that looks at something we take for granted, or mostly complain about, the sounds of the world around us, from humans, nature, gadgets, music and more, how this influenced our development, and how by not listening we miss much aro......more

Goodreads review by Lark on May 30, 2025

I can't remember the last time a science book so perfectly (harmoniously?) balanced science and philosophy and aesthetics and spirituality as "Sound Affects" does. Like the best poetry, it filled me with delight for all of the ordinary, extraordinary things I experience each day. I have been tuned i......more

Goodreads review by Debbie on June 11, 2025

"Sound Affects" is about sounds and how they affect us and animals. This is a book of numbers, most of them in metric (kph, cm, m). It got mentally exhausting trying to relate the information to how I experience the world: "so, let's see, that would be....well, really fast, probably. Really loud. So......more

Goodreads review by Reading on May 30, 2025

Sound Affects, written and narrated by Julian Treasure, was an interesting book about how the nuances of noises can impact our lives. It’s a thought-provoking book that makes you want to stop and single out noises around you and think about how they affect you. This book was well written and the audi......more


Quotes

"A fascinating insight into the power of sound."—Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet

"Transformative and a fascinating read; this book will open your ears to the world of sound and change your life."—Steven Bartlett, best-selling author of The Diary of a CEO

“The best manifesto I can gift to those who don’t know why I keep saying sound is so important.”
 —Derek Sivers, author of How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want and Useful Not True

"Sound is one of our most powerful and consequential senses. Yet we abuse it all the time. Sounds Affects is a necessary antidote to a world of blasting headsets, noisy workplaces, deafening environments and disintegrating listening abilities. Read it with your noise-cancelling headphones on, then take them off and apply what you will have learned: you will experience the world anew."
 —Bruno Giussani, former TED Global Curator

“Julian Treasure doesn’t just explore sound—he makes you hear the world differently. Sound Affects will open your ears, sharpen your mind, and transform the way you experience life.”

Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics