You can listen all you want without a licence.
If you are interested in getting a licence so you can talk on ham frequencies - here is a sample technician exam. Techs are the lowest on the ham chain, but about half the licences out there are tech licences.
https://hamexam.org/exam/15-Technician
Got the books and electronics background. In case everything goes down I would like to find some news without scanning a million frequencies. Where can I find frequencies of national and world news?