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This is American DeBomat. I'm your host, Dr. Abdul Al-Sahia.

You're that? No? If you're someone who doesn't have to live with the constant din of background noise in your community, consider yourself lucky or privileged.

But chances are, no matter where you are or where you live in this world in 2023, it has a particular soundtrack.

I lived in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in grad school. That soundtrack, the Overground Subway, man-the-fading sound of Dembo, the uniquely fast-paced Dominican music that was so popular in the community.

The suburbs, they sound like moors or leafflowers in the distance.

Alexandria, Egypt, where I spent so many childhood summers, the constant horns of 70s era lottas, street vendors selling watermelon or prickly pear and the colt of prayer.

Today, we're talking about the public health implications of noise. For a long time, we just assumed that noise was simply a nuisance, an annoying thing that occurred in the background of some of our lives.

But here's the thing about it. Hearing is one of our only senses that we can't turn off. And I want you to think through why.

We are, at our most simple, both predators and prey. If you think about it, for folks who have that sense, hearing is one of the only ones you can't turn off.

The other is smell. Both are absolutely critical to bagging that next meal or avoiding becoming some meal for another.

A large part of our brains evolved to pay very particular attention to the sound we hear in the distance.

You know, that rustling in the leaves or that growling in the distance. And we can't turn it off because imagine our ancestors being hunted while they were sleeping.

It turns out it's a good thing that loud sounds wake us up. But Moderny, well, that's the consequence of all that time.

And the ancestors and their progeny invested in controlling our surroundings. Most of the sounds we hear every day are the product of something predictable.

We don't have to say it, but how often does our brain notice a sound and then explain it away? Oh, that's my alarm clock or, oh, that's the train.

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