TED Talks Daily The language you're fluent in — but forgot how to hear | Louis VI
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Jan 31, 2026 
Louis VI, a London-born musical ecologist and rapper who records nature soundscapes, explores how humans are innately fluent in nature’s sonic language but have tuned it out. He leads listening exercises, links birdsong to safety and ancestral skills, and blends rainforest recordings into music. The conversation invites a lasting shift in how you hear the world.
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Evolutionary Link Between Sound And Calm
- Humans are evolutionarily hardwired to nature's sonic language which triggers relaxation via the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Birdsongs and biodiverse choruses signal safety and directly affect our nervous system, explaining why they calm us.
Silence Can Signal Danger To Our Brains
- Silence or strange absence of expected nature sounds triggers fear because it signals danger evolutionarily.
- Urban soundscapes may subject people to chronic evolutionary stress, raising anxiety levels.
Ancestral Fluency In Nature Sounds
- Ancestral peoples were fluent listeners who read ecological signals from sound to survive.
- That fluency remains latent in us but has been switched off by modern life.