b"Today we're taking a short break and re-releasing one of our favorite episodes from 2022, a conversation with the novelist and Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki. We'll be back with new episodes next week!\\n\\nThe world has gotten louder, even when we\\u2019re alone. A day spent in isolation can still mean a day buffeted by the voices on social media and the news, on podcasts, in emails and text messages. Objects have also gotten louder: through the advertisements that follow us around the web, the endless scroll of merchandise available on internet shopping sites and in the plentiful aisles of superstores. What happens when you really start listening to all these voices? What happens when you can\\u2019t stop hearing them?\\n\\nRuth Ozeki is a Zen Buddhist priest and the author of novels including \\u201cA Tale for the Time Being,\\u201d which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and \\u201cThe Book of Form and Emptiness,\\u201d which I read over paternity leave and loved. \\u201cThe Book of Form and Emptiness\\u201d is about Benny, a teenager who starts hearing objects speak to him right after his father\\u2019s death, and it\\u2019s about his mother, Annabelle, who can\\u2019t let go of anything she owns, and can\\u2019t seem to help her son or herself. And then it\\u2019s about so much more than that: mental illnesses and materialism and consumerism and creative inspiration and information overload and the power of stories and the role of libraries and unshared mental experiences and on and on. It\\u2019s a book thick with ideas but written with a deceptively light, gentle pen.\\n\\nOur conversation begins by exploring what it means to hear voices in our minds, and whether it\\u2019s really so rare. We talk about how Ozeki\\u2019s novels begin she hears a character speaking in her mind, how meditation can teach you to detach from own internal monologue, why Marie Kondo\\u2019s almost animist philosophy of tidying became so popular across the globe, whether objects want things, whether practicing Zen has helped her want less and, my personal favorite part, the dilemmas posed by an empty box with the words \\u201cempty box\\u201d written on it.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\nThe Great Shift by James L. Kugel\\n\\nBook recommendations:\\n\\nWhen You Greet Me I Bow by Norman Fischer\\n\\nThe Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges\\n\\nVibrant Matter by Jane Bennett\\n\\nThis episode contains a brief mention of suicidal ideation. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). A list of additional resources is available at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\nThis episode of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d was produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski."