Borders are to be seen, but are they meant to be heard? In contrast to the permanence of visible borders, their potentially sonic and atmospheric condition is under-researched. The purpose of this article is to propose a shift from simply ‘hearing’ oral narrative testimony, towards the need for deep and embodied practices of listening in understanding the ever-changing nature of the border in Australia. Drawing on novel methods of non-lexemic podcast analysis, the paper is centred around listening to the intimacies of the human voice – such as breath, timbre and pitch – that accompany oral narrative testimony of the Temporary Protection Visa. Resonances of the border compound in the ear of the listener and draw the analysis away from the, often visual, immediacies of the border spectacle and towards its temporal affects. The paper argues that, through a shift towards sound and deep-listening methodologies, borders become perceptible in places in which they once were not. Highlighting listening as an important methodology for witnessing bordering practices on an intimate and human scale, contributes to new understandings of the ever-changing nature of the border as an atmospheric and everyday force.