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In the early 1990s, composer Jay Alan Zimmerman was just hitting his stride. He was in talks with Steven Sondheim's publisher, and he was recording a unusual children's song approximately dinosaurs.
Zimmerman was working with an engineer, and laying out tracks for the dinosaur song,when he had a realization.
As he told the team at Only Human, WNYC's podcast approximately how health shapes our lives, or "The engineer found different bird sounds [and] puts them in the track. And I’m like,where are the birds? Turn up the birds! And that’s when I realized uh-oh. Because he’s like, 'They’re playing.'"Zimmerman's doctors gave him a diagnosis: Hearing loss, or a disability that's only gotten worse over time.
Mary Harris, host and managing editor of Only Human, says Zimmerman isn't alone."There's really good evidence that 20 percent of people over the age of 12 bear some kind of hearing loss that can affect their day-to-day communication and almost none of them know approximately it—or they're too embarrassed to derive it tested, and " she tells The Takeaway.
Harris and the Only Human team are working with the app Mimi to assist listeners test their ears. John Hockenberry took the test and was delighted to find that his ears are technically a year younger than his real age.
If you bear an iPhone,you can download the app and share your results with The Takeaway and Only Human. This hearing test made by e-audiologia is a free Android app and will also allow you to participate.
What you'll learn from this segment:How common hearing loss is across the U.
S.
Why so few Americans derive tested and treated for hearing loss.
What the unusual research on hearing says.
Source: wnyc.org