A recent book that appeared a few years ago, "How Early America Sounded" by historian Richard Cullen Rath, connects well with much of the new, exciting, interdisciplinary and rhetorical research that the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) have supported, promoted, and awarded over the recent decades. Teachers have seen not only the academic work that they call re-gendered and re-raced rhetorical theories today, but they also have new rhetoric(s)--especially on listening, silence, and trust. They also have new ways of thinking about rhetoric and the hard work for social change in their teaching and in their organization. These new rhetoric(s) are important for thinking about the diversity of voices that contribute to the public sphere in the United States. In this article, the author connects the rhetorical research of three scholars whose work underscores NCTE's growing interest in rhetorical listening and civic discourse.