Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection

by Christian Van Nieuwerburgh, Robert Biswas-Diener

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Audiobook, Self Help

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[Daria Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book is going straight onto my "re-read regularly" list. It's easy to read and full of practical examples, tips, and techniques to enhance our listening.

I think it's best summed up by this sentence: "The purpose of Radical Listening is to have better conversations--allowing people to feel valued, be understood, and believe that they matter". We could definitely do with plenty more of that in the world!

[Mary Attridge-Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radical Listening: The art of true connection: a review from a student of radical listening.

Within this book there is a framework for hope. In the disconnected environments that exist all around us, how we connect matters. Radical listening (RL) is more than active listening. Listening for and Listening to are presented as a decision in a cycle of acknowledgement. RL seeks to hold an intention to engage and to grow fertile ground for connection. Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Robert Biswas-Diener ask for our help to implement Radical Listening for a better world.

I received my copy on Mother’s day. This is a book for everyone. The examples used are real time and mirror lived experience. The book is laid out in user friendly language, connecting with what is known about communication to what can be discovered by understanding the how ( art) of radically listening. Each section has reflective questions to prompt us to practice what we can do, to become radical listeners.

I am inspired to practice Interjection as a strategy using humour, asides, minimal encouragement and alerts, makes for more engagement, in my conversions.

These guys are rebels with a cause. One could say that The Acorn on a Motorcycle has set a course.
Mary. (Human being).

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is not perfect. There are other books that cover portions of the topics better. that being said, this book covers gaps in other imperfect books well.

I find that this book's use of examples, bulleted lists, and homework kind of questions are rare techniques that make it much easier to understand the topics. it also covers content that other books have not like Gottman's work.

From what I've seen, you have to read several books on listening to get a good handle of the topic and in my opinion this should be one of them

[Tom Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, much of what they write feels kind of self-evident but that is actually good: they share a lot of good advice that is worth pondering. No lofty ideals but rather good thoughts that do work in real life - if you remember them. And it is easy to remember them because a lot of what they mention are situations that probably everyone has experienced! You will most likely not entirely change how you go about conversations but you will likely notice a few more things while you are having one.

[Anne Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, it's happened again. Robert Biswas-Diener and colleague Christian van Nieuwerburgh have taught me how much I have to learn about a topic I thought I knew a lot about - all through their book, Radical Listening. From more deeply reflecting on the ways listening is proactive and intentional, to reflecting on my own listening obstacles, to understanding listening skills as both internal and external, Radical Listening is helping me be a better coach... a better human.

[Peter P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read on the importance of - as the authors say - radical listening. Who knew there was such complexity and nuance? As it happens, Van Nieuwerburgh and Biswas-Diener did...and they've done an awfully good job creating a compelling read in Radical Listening.

[Calvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When they were talking about code switching I had to re-read sections because I kept thinking of Quentin Tarantino on the ‘Django Unchained’ press tour

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I read this, but I can't say it was engaging. I feel hypocritical about the main thing I disliked about it; on the one hand I hate the typical popular psychology/pseudo-psychology nonfiction trope of like, the intro starts with a "life-changing personal experience" talking about why the author is writing this book, because this thing MEANS something to them (Atomic Habits and the Brain at Rest which I both read this year are excellent examples of this) and then go on to use a shorter anecdote to start off every chapter, which might have a cute, funny title like "The Man Who Wasn't There" ... I find that such an annoying formula tactic being overused by non-writers writing self-help books and non-experts trying to find some filler for the rest of their claims, and personalize it to emotionally hook you... But THIS book - THIS book does not do that. It's incredibly factual and straightforward. So much so, that it kind of reads like an HR trainer created a slide deck using some AI help and we're watching a mandatory PowerPoint about "better communication in the workplace" or something. Or like, this book is the end result of a graduate group project. That being said, it's perhaps an unfair criticism, since I dislike the opposite approach so much. I got a decent amount of good information from this book. Some of the principles, although it's not stated or cited directly at all, reminded me strongly of the book I read last year, the one about communication.... Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenburg. I'm glad I read both, because I think a lot of the real takeaways when you're trying to learn a topic or improve on an area of your life are better distilled from a few sources, so, the things that echoed in this book that I remember from Nonviolent Communication are things I'm going to review, and compare, and try to keep as the most salient points to remember and work on.