Talking Ears

Here we are presenting the most recent episode of the "Hear Us Out" podcast featuring Talking Ears co-host, Frank Wartinger. Enjoy! And go listen to their show! ====================================== Is hearing loss simply the price musicians have to pay for a lifetime of making music? Not necessarily. In this episode of Hear Us Out, Dr. Eric Sandler and Dr. Michelle Schechter welcome music audiologist Dr. Frank Wartinger for a conversation about hearing health, music, and why protecting your ears doesn't have to mean sacrificing the sound you love. From rehearsals and recording studios to live performances, musicians face unique listening challenges. But hearing loss isn't necessarily an inevitable consequence of a career in music. Frank shares his perspective on the importance of hearing conservation, the misconceptions surrounding noise exposure, and how musicians can make informed decisions to protect their hearing without compromising their artistry. We explore the relationship between sound exposure and hearing health, the role of hearing protection, and why audiologists need to understand the musical experiences of the people they serve. Whether you're a professional musician, an aspiring artist, or someone who simply loves live music, this conversation offers an important reminder: You shouldn't have to choose between the music you love and the ability to hear it. Every Sound Has a Story.

Every year, the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) hosts two conferences, the most recent of which was the 2026 NHCA Fall Virtual Educational Summit held in early September. Talking Ears co-host, Frank Wartinger, was invited to present on the topic of Music Audiology in a live podcast format. With both eminent guest panelists, Jos Mulder, PhD, music technology educator and researcher at the National Australian University School of Music, and Laura Sinnott, AuD, Music Audiologist and owner of Sound Culture. having worked on the international HELA (Healthy Ears Limited Annoyance) program, we quickly settled on the topic: Setting the Global Stage: Updates in Hearing Loss Prevention for Live Music Settings. This presentation was edited for length for the conference, but is presented here in the unabridged form. If you would like to view the video presentation with accompanying slides and visuals, please visit: https://youtu.be/apeRnMbxez8  

How many ways can we say that Music Audiology is a small, niche, subspeciality comprised of a handful of dedicated and passionate independent providers? We are a small but tight bunch, and we would like to take a moment to introduce you to one of our ranks: Jason Baker. Dr. Baker hails from none other than Music City itself, Nashville! Naturally, his practice is called Music City Audiology - a name so apropos it makes Talking Ears co-host Frank quite audibly jealous. Lets say you were a musician traveling around the US in need of hearing services, or an audiologist looking to consult with or refer to a music specialist, or an artist management firm aiming to care for your performer's greatest irreplaceable asset (their hearing, naturally)... how would you find a provider? Glad you asked! Simply consult D'MAP - the Directory of Music Audiology Providers at www.musicaud.org

We are continuing our deep dive into a deeply technical topic. This episode has a companion article available through this link. Stage monitoring is complicated and difficult even in the best circumstances, but when the performer has hearing loss the barriers can compound and confound the situation. We pick up where we left off with Part 1 to practical guidance for performers with hearing loss, as well as supporting knowledgeable audio engineers who are mixing monitors for an artist with hearing loss. In this second installment, we discuss: How spatial processing can be used to add separation and clarity Steps to audiogram-informed processing Purpose-built systems designed to streamline this process and support the performer Please continue to send in your questions, comments, and suggestions for guests and topics. You're the reason we make this show, so thanks for listening!

To kick off Season 5 of Talking Ears, we are taking a deep dive into a technical topic. This episode has a companion article available through this link. Stage monitoring is complicated and difficult even in the best circumstances, but when the performer has hearing loss the barriers can compound and confound the situation. Herein, Juan and Frank will provide practical guidance for performers with hearing loss, as well as supporting knowledgeable audio engineers who are mixing monitors for an artist with hearing loss. In this first installment, we discuss: Sensorineural hearing loss How the audiogram can be interpreted and used to inform monitor mixing Using traditional mix management techniques to focus and simplify the mix for the musician with hearing loss Please continue to send in your questions, comments, and suggestions for guests and topics. You're the reason we make this show, so thanks for listening!

Talking Ears Season 5 is just around the corner, and we are excited! Please continue to send in your questions and suggestions for topics, and as always, thanks for listening!

Darin Atwater is a composer, conductor, and pianist best known as the founder and leader of Baltimore's groundbreaking ensemble Soulful Symphony. As an educator, he now serves as Distinguished Visiting Faculty at The Peabody Conservatory. In this conversation, we'll discuss how a severe hand injury he experienced last year which forced him to reassess the relationship with his music, audiences, and students. We explore how personal and artistic identify are affected by one's ability to perform and engage with their instrument and creativity, and how recovery has informed his work moving forward. He gave a moving talk at the Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA) conference in 2025, putting a human face on the topic of work-limiting injuries and medical care for performing artists. Needless to say, his invitation to Talking Ears was sent within minutes after this address, and we are confident you'll hear why in this episode. For your listening pleasure, we’ll be hearing selections from the Soulful Symphony’s 2009 release, Song in a Strange Land. We cannot stress this enough: stop everything and go listen to Soulful Symphony's incredible body of work.

Welcome back to the office hours with Juan and Frank! We just put on a fresh pot of coffee, so come on in, pour yourself a cup, and grab a seat. In this brief episode we'll discuss a workshop we co-hosted at the American Academy of Audiology 2025 conference in New Orleans. We focused on the value of continuing education for audiologists on the topic of music audiology, and how musicians and audiologists can collaborate to meet their mutual goals, but mostly this episode is an excuse to bring you the music of our in-session house band. They absolutely ruled and that is an evidence-based fact. The band was Ari Teitel (guitar), TJ Norris (bass), and Trenton O'Neal (drums) of the 2x Grammy nominated band The Rumble. They played for about an hour and brought a party atmosphere to what would otherwise be a dry but informative hands-on hearing protection and SPL meter activity.  And we're not done with support audiologists who want to care for musician patients in the best possible manner. If you're attending the National Hearing Conservation Association, come join our 3 hour hands-on workshop Thursday February 5th, 2026 (just make sure you watch the 3 hour on-demand didactic portion so you're fully prepared). We cooked up something truly unique for this conference and I can't to see if it actually works!

After a brief fall hiatus, we return with Tom May of the Philadelphia-based punk rock institution The Menzingers! They've been touring and putting out critically-acclaimed records since 2006, so the obvious first question is how four high school friends from Scranton can keep the same line up and energy going strong for almost 20 years. Retrospectively, it seems obvious that the answer was "democracy". (Editor's note: this interview was recorded in early 2024) Besides a deep dive into guitar tone, we stay on topic and focus our conversation on in-ear monitors - including the active-ambient system Tom uses on stage, the Sensaphonics 3DMEs - and live event safety. Music heard in this episode is from The Menzinger's 8th and most recent studio album "Some of It Was True". Content Warning: this episode contains profanity. We challenge the sensitive listener to try talking about punk rock without the use of George Carlin's famous list of 7 words.

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.