Welcome back to our office hours! Here in Juan and Frank open the proverbial mailbag with the intent of getting through loads of listener questions. We get through only 2 this time, but it was a good start to an exciting new segment for the show.

In this episode, we selected a common listener question which dovetailed with Cyrille Aimee's episode which we recently released. Additionally, we tackled the perennial question, "why did you name that thing that name?"

If you have questions for Talking Ears, please send them to us by email or voice memo - your voice could be featured in a future episode! Please indicate if you would like us to answer them publicly or privately. We will continue to try our absolutely busy best to answer every question we receive.

Music in this episode is from Frank's 2015 album "Cafe Ensemble". If you like what you hear and want to support the show, we invite you to purchase the album at the low low price of name-your-price. All proceeds will go to coffee and our ongoing work to develop a viable stasis chamber so we have more hours in the day to devote to producing and editing your favorite podcast.

Cyrille Aimée has become a household name for jazz lovers, and for good reason. She is a vocalist who captivates listeners with her original compositions, reinterpretations of standards (including Move On, a whole album of invigorating versions of Stephen Sondheim songbook's), and refreshingly playful approach to improvisation.

In this episode, we talk about and listen to music from her two most recent albums - Grammy-nominated à Fleur de Peau and the energetic 4.24 which was recorded live at Birdland in New York - as well as performances of musicians and animals at La Tucanera, her self-designed jungle house/studio/retreat in Costa Rica. Much of the conversation revolves around nature, both the sounds and the lessons it give us as long as we are open and listening.

Welcome to our first Talking Ears Office Hours. In these bonus episodes, hosts Frank and Juan will dive into waters deemed too clinical, technical, or otherwise ear-geeky to be featured in the main episodes. We will be opening listener questions, speaking with other clinicians, discussing the nuance of management techniques and hearing wellness gear, and/or - as in the case of this episode - adding technical context to a recent guest interview. If you haven't listened to Vincent Karamanov's episode, we encourage you to do so, as his story will be referenced throughout.

Brendan Fitzgerald, AuD (University of Rochester, Wooden Cities) joins the show (again and again) to discuss Decreased Sound Tolerance (DST) conditions. First we set about clarifying the related but distinct presentations of hyperacusis, phonophobia, and misophonia, before unraveling the current management recommendations. [consult the chapter markers if you would like to skip ahead to the topic that interests you]

Music in this episode is by Brendan Fitzgerald, Juan Vasquez, and Frank Wartinger, and was recorded during a snow 'storm' in Albuquerque, NM at the National Hearing Conservation Association's 2023 annual conference. You can listen to more of the Original Talking Ears music on Bandcamp.

Thanks for joining our office hours, and thanks for listening!

Vincent Karamanov is a freelance bassoonist playing with such prestigious ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, and Joffrey Ballet. In this episode, Vincent reflects on how the onset of dysacusis (auditory distortions) and hyperacusis (decreased sound tolerance) forced him to make significant life changes in his employment, outlook, and relationships. The conversation follows the rollercoaster of his last several years, and brings us full circle in a story which somehow repaints Shostakovich's epic symphonic depiction of war as a message of a peace and recovery.

Music heard in this episode features Vincent Karamanov (sometimes credited as Vince Halley) on bassoon, bass, guitar, and voice. You can hear more of the music featured through the following links:

Ryan Martinez's album "Ensemble"

Murder City Players

The Sallys album "Dog Days Demos"

Vince and The Sallys cover of Green Days "Nice Guys Finish Last"

The recording of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 (‘1905’) is from the public domain archive 1958 recording of the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski [Seraphim (S-60228)]

In this episode, we discuss mental health and significant distress from audiologic conditions. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

Welcome to the last episode of Season 3 of Talking Ears! This also happens to be the final installment of the eight part NHCA 2025 Conference spotlight series. What a ride we've had this year and we are excited to share what we've been working on for Season 4!

This episode features a round table conversation captured at the NHCA 2025 Conference with two audiology graduate Student Scholarship Award recipients: Hannah Miller (Idaho State University) and Blake Voss (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point). They each presented remarkable research posters surveying contrasting intersections between the worlds of music and hearing. Juan and Frank were happy to find time during the busy conference schedule to delve into the personal and academic factors that led them to focused on each of their specific target populations for their research.

Music heard in this episode was written and recorded by Juan Vasquez and produced by Frank Wartinger. To hear the full tracks, visit the new Original Music Of Talking Ears album. If you like the show (or the music) and want to support us, you may choose to donate through bandcamp. It would probably go towards funding some coffee so we can keep awake so we can make more of this show and music.

As we enter Season 4, we would love to hear more of your feedback on the show. If you've listened (and read) this far, YOU are our target audience of dedicated listeners, and you can help shape the future sound of Talking Ears. We invite you to share your questions, your requests, your responses, or your praise/critics. We'll take it all! After all - we are all ears, so to speak.

This is the sixth and final installment of the 2025 NHCA Updates in Music Audiology Workshop recap. In this episode, we'll listen to Benj Kanters' lecture "Tools For Teaching Awareness From the Intersection of Music, Audio and Audiology". Whether you call it the caboose, anchor, closer, wrap-up, coda, or ultimate, Benj's talk was the last of a long day of lectures and panel discussions circling the larger topic of Music Audiology, and we could not have imagined a better way to close out the workshop.

Note that the content has been edited slightly for the audio-only format, and these lecture recordings are not eligible for CEUs. If you want the full educational experience, we invite you to seek out the National Hearing Conservation Association and our annual conferences.

Benj Kanters (BS/MM Northwestern University) is associate professor emeritus of audio, Columbia College Chicago, where he was on the faculty of the Audio Arts and Acoustics department from 1993 to 2022. He directed the Audio Design and Production major, teaching audio physics and recording/production at all levels of the curriculum. After studying hearing physiology as part of his master’s degree at Northwestern, he developed the course Studies in Hearing in 2002, teaching physiology, disorders and conservation as a department core Requirement. Prior to Columbia, Benj spent twenty years in the Chicago music scene. He was partner and sound engineer at the concert-club Amazingrace, and later partner and chief managing engineer of Studiomedia Recording in Evanston. In 2007, he founded Heartomorrow and The Hearing Conservation Workshop, visiting universities and professional organizations to teach his unique flavor of hearing awareness to students and professionals in audio, music and the hearing sciences. To date, he has presented over 100 workshops in the US, Mexico and Europe and in recognition of his work received the Safe in Sound award in 2014.

We assembled the largest gathering of Teleaudiology experts on the planet (world record eligible?) as part of the NHCA 2025 conference "Updates in Music Audiology" workshop. This episode is that panel discussion, lightly edited for the audio-only format.

Of course, Teleaudiology is not a new topic for Talking Ears listeners, as we have had all the panelists as guests in the past, and discussed Tuned and MusiCares in various episodes including a panel video. This episode serves as an update to the rapidly changing landscape of the field of virtual care for musicians, as well as a deep dive into the online hearing screener development and accessibility benefits of the delivery model.

The panelists were Heather Malyuk (Tuned, Soundcheck Audiology), Laura Sinnott (Sound Culture), Sharron Switzer (Sensaphonics), and Juan Vasquez (Talking Ears, Earmark). Frank Wartinger moderated the panel discussion.

Note: these conference lecture recordings are not eligible for CEUs. If you want the full educational experience, we invite you to seek out the National Hearing Conservation Association and our annual conferences.