Deep Listening: Transform Your Relationships with Family, Friends, and Foes

“If you’ve ever felt like two ears aren’t enough, this book is for you. Deep Listening reveals how we can improve at hearing others—and helping them hear us too.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential, and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

Why do so many conversations leave us feeling unheard and disconnected? In Deep Listening, acclaimed BBC journalist, accredited executive coach, and mediator Emily Kasriel argues that it’s because we've forgotten how to truly listen.

Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. In this exploration of transformational listening, Kasriel shows how shifting from surface-level exchanges to Deep Listening can enrich our relationships as friends, parents, and partners, enhance our effectiveness as leaders, and strengthen the fabric of our communities. At a time when divisions within communities, organizations, and families are often a source of profound pain, this book offers inspiration and practical guidance on how we can better listen to each other, even when we fiercely disagree.

Drawing on scientific studies, new research, and powerful stories from legendary listeners in politics, business, and the arts, Kasriel unveils her simple yet transformative eight-step approach. With Deep Listening as your guide, you’ll learn to become a better family member, friend, co-worker and citizen.

At once a practical guide and a heartfelt manifesto, this groundbreaking book challenges us to rethink our approach to listening and in doing so, transform our lives from the inside out. Whether readers seek to strengthen their empathy, boost their performance at work, or foster genuine understanding across cultural, political, and generational divides, Deep Listening provides the tools and inspiration to unlock the power of lasting, meaningful connections.

Emily Kasriel’s distinguished career at the BBC for over two decades included roles as an award-winning journalist, editor and media executive. She developed the Deep Listening approach as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College Policy Institute in London, drawing on her experience as an accredited executive coach and workplace mediator. Previously, she’s been a Visiting Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University, and a Senior Advisor to the Skoll Foundation. An MA graduate of the University of Oxford and Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of International Relations (as a Rotary International Fellow), she lives in London.