Show 967: Technology for Better Hearing
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2014
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More than 30 million Americans have trouble hearing as well as they would like. Some assume there is nothing that can be done to help them, while others imagine that their hearing loss is not so great that it needs to be addressed.
Are they mistaken? Hearing aids are expensive and somewhat mysterious.
Technological Advances to Help Us Hear
But technological advances may soon make it relatively easy for people to adjust their own hearing aids, or in some cases to buy hearing aids over the counter, rather like people buy reading glasses off the rack. Would that work for you?
What Do Audiologists Do?
Learn about the special services an audiologist (a health care professional who specializes in hearing) can offer, and meet an audiologist who herself was diagnosed with hearing loss in the first grade. Several years ago she underwent surgery for a cochlear implant. She tells us what that was like.
This Week’s Guests
Stephanie Sjoblad, AuD, has been the Clinical Coordinator in the Division of Speech and Hearing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill since 2001. Dr. Sjoblad is a licensed audiologist and hearing aid dispenser in the state of North Carolina and has received her Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. She is a member of American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), and a fellow in the American Academy of Audiology (AAA).
Dianne Van Tasell, PhD, was a professor in the audiology program at the University of Minnesota for 20 years and then worked for and with hearing aid companies. Her current employer does not permit interviews, so the podcast has been edited to remove Dr. Van Tasell’s contribution.
Our Podcast
The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:02.0 | And I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.4 | This podcast of the People's Pharmacy is brought to you by Squatty Potty Toilet Stools. |
| 0:08.9 | They create healthy toilet posture for fast, easy elimination. |
| 0:12.8 | Learn more about toilet posture and health at Squattypotty.com. |
| 0:17.0 | That's S-Q-U-A-T-Y-P-O-T-Y dot com. |
| 0:29.0 | Welcome to the People's Pharmacy, Dr. Showblood. |
| 0:31.6 | Thank you very much. |
| 0:33.2 | Dr. Shoblod, can you tell us a little bit about your personal history? |
| 0:36.9 | I mean, not only are you an expert audiologist and a professional in this field, but you have a personal interest. |
| 0:44.7 | Tell us why. |
| 0:45.7 | Yeah, actually, I was identified my hearing loss by accident when I was about five years old. |
| 0:53.0 | Back in those days, they did not automatically test the siblings of a child that has been identified, |
| 0:58.7 | and my older sister already had been identified with hearing loss. |
| 1:01.9 | So I was along to see the audiologist with my younger brother, who was starting to exhibit traits |
| 1:07.1 | that were similar to my sisters, and they discovered that he had hearing loss. |
| 1:11.5 | And the audiologist came out to the waiting room and said to my mother, Mrs. Johnson, we think |
| 1:15.4 | we need to test Stephanie, too. And my mother was actually quite surprised because she didn't think |
| 1:20.2 | that I had a hearing loss. But sure enough, they discovered that I had a hearing loss as well. |
| 1:24.6 | And so I started to wear a hearing aid when I was in first grade. What was that, Mike? |
| 1:29.2 | Not so fun. You know, this was back in the early 70s when mainstreaming was just coming around |
| 1:35.4 | the bend. And so we were the three kids in the Sutton public school systems that were |
... |
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