Ep. 85 | Maximum Volume

MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After a successful overseas tour, an American rock guitarist comes home with a troubling affliction. All of a sudden, his hearing is extremely sensitive – like everything is turned up to 11. When it doesn’t go away, he’s forced to give up everything he loves, including music. Trapped in his own personal hell, he desperately tries to find an answer before it becomes too much to bear.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Mr. Bollins Medical Mysteries early and ad-free right now.
0:06.0	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:13.7	On a February night in 2002, the guitarist for a Philadelphia rock band was getting ready for his show.
0:24.6	He felt the usual pre-show buzz of nerves and excitement as he peeked out from backstage into the venue.
0:29.6	The place was absolutely packed.
0:31.6	When the house lights dimmed, he took his place on stage alongside his bandmates and strapped on his guitar. Then he flipped on his
0:38.3	amplifier and watched as the drummer counted off the first song. From the first roar of his electric
0:43.7	guitar, the crowd danced and shouted. The music was heavy but poppy with lots of thick guitars and
0:49.5	crashing drums. Playing so intensely made the guitarist wildly excited. For their final song of the set,
0:55.8	the guitarist stepped on his distortion FX pedal to make his guitar sound gritty and distorted.
1:00.6	As the song built to a climax, he leaned close to his amplifier to lose himself in the
1:05.1	swirling wall of noise. But as he did this, he felt something deep inside of his ear twitch,
1:12.7	followed by a stab of pain.
1:17.2	He strummed through the rest of the song trying not to grimace, but as soon as it was over,
1:21.7	he rushed offstage to the backstage green room, and there it was empty and quiet.
1:25.8	However, he could still barely hear the faint sound of the crowd applauding.
1:28.5	Every clap he could hear, even though it was faint, hit his eardrum like a nail being driven into his skull.
1:35.7	Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondry's American Scandal. In our latest series,
1:40.3	a social worker in Tennessee becomes rich and powerful by selling babies on the black market.
1:45.4	By the time her crimes are exposed, she's made a fortune and destroyed hundreds of families
1:50.3	along the way. Follow American scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:55.2	When Luigi Mangione was arrested for allegedly shooting the CEO of United Healthcare,
	...

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