In Chapter 4 of Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior (Skinner, 1989), titled “The Listener,” Skinner described several effects on the (behavior of the) listener “which shape and maintain the behavior of the speaker” (p. 37). Each of the chapter headings include everyday terms, such as The Listener Is Told, The Listener is Taught, The Listener is Advised, and so on. Of course, Skinner attempted to interpret these everyday terms behaviorally. Skinner wrote this at a time in his career when he was especially concerned with the etymology of traditional, cognitive, terms, and this chapter is a prime example. In my presentation, I take a different tack. I simplify the role of the listener by placing the listener’s behavior squarely and parsimoniously within the four-term contingency. Thus, the listener’s behavior is no different functionally than any other behavior. First, and foremost, the mature listener behaves both as a listener and a speaker. In fact, speaking along with a speaker (i.e., listening) is one type of listener behavior. Second, the listener’s behavior is evoked by EOs and S^Ds some of whose evocative functions were established by a speaker’s instruction (as a verbal function-altering operation); that is, the listener’s behavior is conditioned. Third, stimuli arising from the listener’s behavior have motivative and discriminative (i.e., evocative) and reinforcing (i.e., function-altering) effects on other listeners’ behavior including the listener him- or herself. The presentation will address such issues as listening, rule-governance, and instructing or conditioning the behavior of the listener.