DISCUSSION: Run the Song

Even against the background of other music critics, Ben Ratliff stands out for the special attention he pays to the act of listening itself. In his 2017 book “Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty,” he encourages the experience of music through the lens of categories such as slowness or repetition instead of traditional genre divisions. In his National Book Award-nominated 2025 book, Run the Song, he looks at how listening connects to running, reaching for concepts such as intention, discipline and chance. Music critic Jeremy Larson will talk to Ratliff about being a listener and a writer, and what really active listening can teach us.