This is my voice. It can tell you a lot about me and I'm not changing it for anyone.

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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey everybody it's Mariel.

So a couple weeks ago our producer Margaret Serino went to this techno concert with a friend.

They were pumps. So when we got there we like squeezed all the way up to the front like right

next to the loudspeakers and stayed there the whole time and my friend brought her earplugs and I left mine at home. Classic mistake and I was like oh this, this will be fine. It's like one night.

She was only there for a few hours, but whole next day everything sounded muffled.

If you've ever gone to a concert and you come out and maybe your ears are ringing or there's

a muffled feeling.

That is how hearing loss happens.

That's Barbara Kelly, executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America.

There are all these public health messages that we have memorized.

You know buckle your seatbelts, wear sunscreen, but we don't tend to think about hearing the same

way, at least not yet.

Margaret took a personal interest in this topic after the concert. So on this

episode of Life Kit, which she reported, what you need to know about protecting your

ears. She'll cover the common questions, like what to do about earwax, which earplugs work best,

and what volume is actually safe on your phone. And she'll also talk about how you can find

support if you do have hearing loss. A quick disclaimer in this episode we're

specifically focusing on mild to moderate noise-induced hearing loss that's caused

by repeated noise exposure over time.

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