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Listening In

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Listening In by Toby Heys, David Jackson, and Marsha Courneya, read by Angus King.

In 1945, W. Averell Harriman, US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, was presented with a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States as a 'gesture of friendship' by a delegation from the Soviet’s Young Pioneer Organization.

Unbeknownst to him, one of the first covert listening devices, invented by Leon Theremin was hidden within it and was subsequently used to listen in on the ambassador’s conversations for six years before being discovered. This book uses remarkable tales like this to tell the story of how modern audio surveillance developed and its important role in the evolution of today's artificial intelligence.

Beginning with post-WW2 monitoring devices, Listening In traces an arc through the Cold War era into the present day in which state and commercial spyware can record our calls, copy messages and secretly film us. It subsequently moves into the near future where AI-assisted technologies can listen to things we have not yet said as well as digitally simulate and record our voices after we have died. Exploring how mass audio surveillance is carried out through devices such as smart phones, speakers and baby monitors and used to inform and train AI algorithms, the book provides fresh insights into how we are allowing our personal privacies to be traded for enhanced social connectivity and technological convenience. Ultimately Listening In reveals how the urge to listen and record everything that has ever been uttered is scored deeply into the technological operating systems of cultures from around the world.

Listening In is also available in audiobook format from audiobook retailers.

Critics Review

While this book presents a totalising account of how we came to be surveilled subjects, it retains a political imagination for the ways we can use these technologies to open our ears and listen back.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Director of Earshot.ngo
Listening In isn’t just a historical account — it’s a provocation. A kind of sonic archaeology that traces how the act of listening has evolved from a tool of espionage to a quiet force shaping the architectures of artificial intelligence. What begins with Cold War bugs ends in our bedrooms, in baby monitors, smart assistants, and even the micro-movements of our necks and jaws as we think. Along the way, the book asks something deeper: what happens when the most intimate parts of our lives — our voices, our silences, our grief — become training data? Structured like a mixtape, it doesn’t just explain the mechanics of surveillance; it immerses you in them. It’s haunting, and strangely personal. By the end, you may find yourself asking not what AI is becoming but what we’ve already become by letting it listen.
Lance Weiler, Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Founding Member & Director, Columbia University School of the Arts' Digital Storytelling Lab

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