Talking Ears

Colleen Le Prell is our guest to continue the series spotlighting the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA). Colleen wears a great many hats including: NHCA past president; the Speech, Language, and Hearing Department head at University of Texas at Dallas; and the faculty mentor of the students from her UT Dallas Noise Lab whom we featured in the most recent episode of this show.  In this episode, we cover a lot of ground with topics ranging from the 2024 NHCA conference, hearing protection device fit testing, otoprotective vitamins, the World Health Organization, and new advancements in gene therapy for hearing loss. All the music heard was produced by Brendan Fitzgerald and Frank Wartinger specifically for this episode.

Talking Ears Season 3 begins with a five-part series spotlighting the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA). Brendan Fitzgerald, past guest and friend of the show, joins Juan and Frank to discuss the 2024 conference, but the episode revolves around the voices of five inspiring audiology graduate students: Brynn Stevens (2024 NHCA conference award winner), as well as four students from UT Dallas presented research posters - Conner Jansen, Allison Woodford, Emily Myers, and Azalea Coste. After hearing these students speak passionately about their drive and dedication, it is easy to see that the future of NHCA, hearing loss prevention, and music audiology is bright! Stay tuned for the other episodes in this NHCA Spotlight series, featuring presenters and attendees from the 2024 conference including; researcher and educator Colleen LePrell, speech scientist and hearing loss preventionist Don Finan, university professor and clinical audiologist Cory Portnuff, and musician and music audiologist Caleb Kronen.

Rickie Mazzotta is the drummer and founding member of the Philadelphia-based indie rock band mewithoutYou, who is embarking on their farewell tour. Rickie checked in about the status of his ears, and offered some sage advice to concert goers and young musicians. The music of mewithoutYou is featured in this episode. Content Warning: this episode contains discussion of mental health and suicide.

This special episode of Talking Ears is a spotlight edit of episode 22 which focuses on the work of CAOHC, the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation. Now in its 50th year in the current form, the organization’s history is inspiring and carries a heavy responsibility. With its roots in interdisciplinary education and advocacy reaching back to 1965, CAOHC’s mission is to “advance best practices in occupational hearing conservation worldwide through credentialing, standards, education, and advocacy.” The Council’s vision is, “a world without occupational hearing loss.”  Terry Tyson is an architectural acoustician and guitar player in the southern rock tribute band, High Noon. He also serves on the CAOHC council representing INCE (The Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA) a non-profit professional organization with the mission to “promote engineering solutions to environmental, product, machinery, industrial and other noise problems”. In this episode, Terry describes hearing loss prevention as, “... a subject that is near and dear to my heart”, a sentiment we certainly share as musicians and audiologists. This appreciation of hearing and sound seamlessly sets his role up as a member of the heads up the Noise Committee on the CAOHC council. We discuss his early career in chemical engineering within industrial settings where he experienced first-hand the potential of injury from noise exposure. Terry’s perspective focuses on the health of hearing and well-being of every person, going above and beyond that of regulations.  We invite you to listen to the full episode of Talking Ears featuring Terry Tyson to hear more about his musical life, thoughts on acoustic architectural design, and which guitar from his extensive collection is his favorite (hint, it isn’t one of the ones he regularly plays one stage). As Audiologists, this mission resonates with Talking Ear’s co-hosts, Frank and Juan. Noise-induced hearing loss and associated disorders are considered 100% preventable, however we are inundated with cases and outcomes which could have been avoided with the right combination of education, motivation, and intervention. In an effort to put the horse in front of the cart, so to speak, we both serve as course directors for the namesake Occupational Hearing Conservationist (OHC) credentialing programs - training clinicians on the best practices in this vital field. Additionally, Frank recently joined the council as a representative of the American Academy of Audiology.  As CAOHC course directors, the opportunity to collaborate with others working in various fields of occupational health adds strength to the message of hearing loss prevention worldwide. There is great value in interdisciplinary clinical training to address hearing loss prevention. With such a wide range of occupational settings, each with their own challenges and opportunities, the best defense is a well-informed and motivated OHC. Earmark Hearing Conservation hosts 30 - 40 courses which train ~500 OHCs annually. When we zoom out to consider the hundreds to thousands of workers each OHC is directly serving, the full scope of our impact is both an awe-inspiring privilege and a weighty responsibility. For this reason, creating and delivering a high quality and uncompromising educational experience is our first priority.

Our guest Terry Tyson is a principal acoustician at Acentech and serves on the CAOHC (Council for Accreditation of Occupational Hearing Conservation) council as the representative of INCE (Institute of Noise Control Engineering). We'll unravel all those acronyms, and use those threads to connect his musical life playing guitar in the premier southern rock tribute band, High Noon. Terry is the perfect example of someone who is thinking of sound from multiple perspectives and his insights alone are worth the price of admission. In this episode, we'll be hearing selections from live and studio recordings of High Noon.

Peter Dankelson wears many hats: award-winning author, motivational speaker, social media inspiration, and killer rock guitarist. His attitude is infectious, his perspective is eye-opening, and his playing is world-class. We focused on his music life and barely scratched the surface of his amazing medical journey which set the stage for the conversation. Oh well - I suppose you'll just need to become a fan of Pete's and read his book to get the full story! In this episode, we'll hear music by his band, Pete's Diary as well as live performances featuring Peter Dankelson with the likes of Buckcherry, Jerry James Nichols, and Dirty Honey. Pete's Diary is set to release their first full-length album, so be sure to watch this space!   Today is also the World Health Organization's World Hearing Day! We are choosing to celebrate in the way we know best - presenting more great interviews and stories about our favorite things: sound, music, hearing and ears.

"This week on Gig Gab, dive deep into the world of hearing health with Frank Wartinger, a renowned music audiologist and podcaster! Wartinger emphasizes the importance of protecting your ears, especially for musicians and avid music fans... Wartinger and Hamilton remind listeners that in the world of music, it’s crucial to “Always Be Performing,” but that also means taking care of your health, especially your hearing, to ensure longevity in your career."

If you are in the music industry, you are likely eligible for a no-cost hearing wellness consultation paid for by MusiCares, the non-profit arm of the recording academy. I'm this episode, Juan and Frank explain the details and discuss aspects of the recent video panel of audiologists, but please go to Tunedcare.com to check your eligibility and schedule your visit. Applicants must be able to document employment history in one of the following areas 1) Five years employment in the music industry, or 2) Six commercially released recordings and/or videos.  The benefit includes: 1) Virtual consultation with a specialized music audiologist, 2) A pair of Etymotic ER20XS Universal filtered earplugs, and 3) Access to Hearing Aids (when audiologically indicated). As the panelists put it, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

EmmoLei Sankofa is prolific and busy, but she was kind enough to take the time to chat with Talking Ears! In this episode, the composer of some of your favorite soundtracks (recent credits including Three Ways, Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls, Step Up Season 3, The Other Black Girl, and Project CC) shares her thoughts on storytelling through sound and collaborating with filmmakers. We first met through MusiCares and the tele-audiology platform at tunedcare.com, and this fantastic program is discussed at length in the episode. Also, listen close to catch all the references to morse code and how is informs some of her compositions.  Music heard in this episode is from her soundtrack releases, as well as her critically acclaimed 2019 album, Geometry.  Speaking of being busy, you can hear EmmoLei take on the role of guest host of The Disney Hits Sirus XM show on the date of this release.

While it is true that Brendan Fitzgerald is a fellow audiologist and is on the University of Buffalo clinical faculty, we spend almost our entire hour together discussing his work as the director of the contemporary music ensemble Wooden Cities. We ask Brendan to elaborate on what it means to have intention in live performances, how community and the people involved influence the outcome, and what constitutes musical aesthetics. Maybe next time we'll get into music audiology and hearing loss prevention for performers, but for now, we enjoy his beautiful and oftentimes challenging music. In this episode we'll hear music by Brendan Fitzgerald, Wooden Cities, and improvisational duo FFFFaultyTower.

Danielle DePalma is a world-class mixing engineer, the production manager of the legendary Bowery Ballroom in NYC, and a dear friend. She's toured with, recorded, mixed, and produced concerts for practically everyone you can name so it was tough to pick only a few, but in this episode we focus on the music of past and current collaborators Mercy Bell, Sharon Van Etten, Hailey Wojcik, Field Mouse, Christina Picciano, and Emily King. Danielle also pens eye-opening articles on concert management and production on SoundGirls.org, and we get into the important conversation of representation in the music industry. Her attitude toward prioritizing personal well-being extends beyond herself and benefits the artists she works well and the concert-goers who have the good fortune of experiencing one of her productions. You can read more about Danielle and her time at Purchase College (which we somehow didn't touch on in our brief interview) in Women in Sound, written by Madeleine Campbell.

Wayne Tucker is a trumpet player, singer, songwriter, composer, and soon to be author. He has shared the stage with household names such Taylor Swift, Ne-Yo and David Crosby, and jazz artists like Al Foster, Cyrille Aimee, and Kurt Elling. Since 2016, he's been releasing albums of his own compositions and songs. Wayne is also a founding member of Brass Against, a unique group which reimagines the music of Rage Against the Machine (and other artists) with a huge horn section and energetic stage show. In this interview, we hear music from his most recent EP, "I'll Never Stop", as well as his many records and collaborations.

Dr. Matt Bell is an audiologist who has written and taught extensively on the subject of 'Audiologic Management of Musicians'. He has inspired countless audiology graduate students, and many of his students have gone on to do great work in the field of music audiology... we're looking at you, Juan Vasquez, co-producer of Talking Ears!  Juan takes the host chair for this episode to interview Dr. Bell, his mentor and arguably the reason he is an Audiologist today. Music in this episode features Matt Bell in various bands including Raindriver and The Feel.

Good news! Talking Ears won the 2023 NHCA Media Award. This is an incredibly meaningful award for Frank and Juan as we consider the National Hearing Conservation Association our primary professional organization as hearing conservationists and music audiologists.  The NHCA Media Award was established in 1993 to recognize the efforts of creators who serve to heighten public awareness of the hazards of noise and who take the time and effort to bring hearing conservation related issues into public light. Past winners include John Eichwald (CDC Noise Induced Hearing Loss Workgroup), Kevin O'Connor (Ask This Old House), Gordon Hempton (The Sound Tracker), Cara Buckley (The New York Times), and Brian Fligor, just to name a few. NHCA's mission is to prevent hearing loss and other auditory disorders due to noise and secondary environmental factors in all sectors of society, and we are enthused by the increased awareness and attention being aimed at the hearing healthcare of music and entertainment industry professionals.

Kitten Kuroi has traveled the world as a featured singer with some of the biggest names in music, and we're thrilled that she took the time to sit down to talk with us about her ears! In this episode, we discuss how her career got started and the proactive approach she uses to keep her ears sharp while on the road year after year. She also shares the inspiration behind her upcoming album, American Refugee, which in part reflects on how her experience of traveling abroad has changed over the years. We would also like to thank MusiCares and Tuned for connecting us, and for all the great work the organizations are doing to help music professionals. If you or someone you care about is a music professional in need of hearing care or other health and support services, contact MusiCares: 800.687.4227 or Musicaresrelief@musicares.org All music from this episode is by and/or featuring our guest, Kitten Kuroi.

This is Tinnitus Awareness Week, and our friends over at the How I Got Tinnitus podcast released three episodes, including an interview with our host, Frank Wartinger!   Listeners may recall that the host JD was our guest on episode #10 of Talking Ears. It was a real joy to have the table flipped around for this interview, and we don't shy away from the big questions and faux-frenemy banter. To listen to the full episode, aim your podcast player to How I Got Tinnitus and enjoy the positive and refreshing approach JD brings to the sometimes heavy and hard topic of tinnitus.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been shown time and time again to be one of the most efficacious methods to treat tinnitus distress. In this episode, we go straight to an expert, Bruce Hubbard, PhD, ABPP, to better understand how CBT can be leveraged for the treatment of tinnitus. Dr. Hubbard is a psychologist, Past President of the New York City Cognitive Behavior Therapy Association (2016-2018), and Founder and Director of CBT for Tinnitus, LLC. In this episode, we ask him to explain how CBT differs from other tinnitus management and the practical science of habituation.  Dr. Hubbard is also a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, bringing his own perspective and empathy to the care of musically-minded folks. In this episode, we'll hear original songs by Dr. Hubbard, as well as his performances with various groups including Glove and BlueFuse.

Brandon Beaver stops by to talk about Philadelphia, his past musical families of Buried Beds and mewithoutYou, his experience watching his bandmates wrestle with hearing injury while on the road, and what's next now that mewithoutYou has played their farewell tour. The conversation keeps coming back to one thing... and yes, we talk an awful lot about ears on this show, but in the end, music is all about the people. Music heard in this episode is by or featuring Brandon Beaver with mewithoutYou, Buried Beds, Make a Rising, and the 2011 Buried Beds short film Small Stories. To get into the holiday spirit in a uniquely Philadelphia way, you can also hear Brandon on the Philadelphia Eagle's Christmas album "A Philly Special Christmas", which benefits the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center.

Benj Kanters, audio engineer and educator extraordinaire, illuminates us on the creation and design of his award-winning, one-of-a-kind hearing conservation workshop, Hear Tomorrow. We also get into his history as an acclaimed audio engineer, thoughts about the current state of the industry, and the future of hearing awareness education. For years, Benj has been an inspiring mentor and friend for the entire Talking Ears production team. This episode features music by composer and guitarist Dave Wright and his new album There and Gone. Pro tip: while checking out his album, take a few minutes to enjoy the world-class photography corresponding with each track.

JD is the creator and host of the hit podcast "How I Got Tinnitus," and he's also a prolific music performer and producer. In this episode we try to answer some big questions, like how one can face their tinnitus distress by channeling it into a creative or academic outlet, and how do we even pronounce the word "tinnitus" in the first place? Music heard in this episode was written, performed, and or recorded by JD.