Audism is institutionalized discrimination against deaf people

Cochlear implants are raising questions about deaf identity and culture

The rise of cochlear implants, which are usually covered by insurance and can enable hearing for many patients, raises questions about what it means to be deaf, the effects on deaf individuals learning American Sign Language, and about deaf culture. Watch this video that discusses the controversies and spotlights a little girl who hears for the first time with her cochlear implant.

More than 90% of American deaf children are born to hearing parents

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders have collated top statistics about hearing loss in the US including differences by age, racial groups, and other factors.

How the National Science Foundation helped cement the use of American Sign Language

Before the 1960s, deaf students were taught to read lips and pronounce words without signing, which was not considered a true language. After noticing that students nonetheless signed when communicating, American linguist William Stokoe conducted NSF-funded research that showed that signing met the definition of oral languages, thus establishing ASL.

More than 5% of the world's population has disabling hearing loss

Disabling hearing loss is defined as hearing loss greater than 35 decibels in the better hearing ear. (For context, that means the sound of leaves rustling, at roughly 30 decibels, would be inaudible even to your better-hearing ear.) The World Health Organization's data suggests that more than 5% of the world's population has this level of loss requiring rehabilitation, which amounts to 430 million people—including 34 million children.

An ear doctor with hearing loss seeks to help those with hearing loss enjoy music

Alex Chern, an ear doctor who has hearing loss himself, dreams of restoring the ability to experience "all the richness and the beauty of the sound of music" for patients—not just functional hearing. Hearing aids amplify sound waves and aren't designed to work well with music that may have varied pitch and volume. Chern is studying how hearing loss and engaging with music may affect cognitive decline.

Kansas has been home to the Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture since 2001

The Museum of Deaf History, Arts and Culture—a small, independent museum—documents discrimination against the deaf and the unique culture and history of people with hearing loss in the US.

Big Ocean is breaking barriers as the world's first deaf K-pop boy band

The three-person boy band—whose members have different levels of hearing loss—use light systems, vibrations, and a mix of Korean and American Sign Languages, as well as International Sign (which isn't a whole language), to communicate and keep their dance routines in sync. In this interview, a band member with partial hearing describes their challenges.

Steps for buying your first hearing aids

Hearing aids have advanced in aesthetics, simplicity, and cost in recent years, but acquiring them can be daunting for first-timers. Experts suggest finding a high-quality audiologist and knowing your rights with medical services. They also recommend buying them sooner rather than later, as hearing issues can compound and grow more costly over time.

Modern sound mixing has contributed to audiences needing subtitles

Hidden, high-tech microphones allow actors to speak more softly, rather than yelling to be picked up by a distant boom mic, but this sacrifices clarity. The problem is exacerbated by mixing often prioritizing booming sound effects and soundtracks and audiences listening with small speakers on mobile devices.

Scientists are reevaluating the causes of Alzheimer's beyond the amyloid hypothesis

The cause of Alzheimer's disease has been debated for decades. The amyloid cascade hypothesis—where plaques build up in the brain, triggering neurodegeneration—has long been the leading theory. But after a number of failed drug trials, researchers are beginning to reevaluate various culprits. [Untreated hearing loss is linked with dementia risk](https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext) Hearing loss does not cause dementia, but it does increase the risk of developing dementia and research suggests that people who wear hearing aids for age-related hearing loss also maintain better brain function than those who don't.

The anechoic chamber at Bell Labs absorbs 99.999% of created sound

The space nearly eliminates sound wave reflection, allowing visitors to become aware of noises created by their own bodies, including their heartbeat and skeletal conduction. Experiments inside have contributed to the development of digital audio and phone touch tones.

Some UK doctors pushed for broad 'do not resuscitate' orders for autistic adults during COVID

The controversial push was to create such orders without individuals' or their families' consent, underscoring modern-day prejudice against people on the spectrum.

Eleven deaf men played a pivotal role in America's human spaceflight program

In the mid-20th century, 11 deaf men volunteered for a series of experiments that offered unprecedented insights into the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Most of the men had become deaf in early childhood as a result of spinal meningitis, a condition known to damage the vestibular system and make them less susceptible to motion sickness. For a decade, these men participated in extreme motion sickness situations, including living in a slowly spinning room, spending time in centrifuge pods designed to simulate hypergravity, and flying in parabolic flights sometimes referred to as the "Vomit Comet." (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems provide motor sounds in electric vehicles

Since 2019, various global standards have set requirements for these systems, which seek to mimic combustion-engine sounds by meeting specific sonic criteria, including sound pressure, frequency, and pitch. Sound engineers design these systems to meet these requirements, ensuring that passers-by, particularly the blind and visually impaired, can detect the presence of a vehicle.

Usher Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, causes progressive hearing and vision loss

People with one of the subtypes of this condition have a genetic mutation that starves cells in the inner ear and the retina of proteins required for detecting sound and light. Gene therapy in animals has seemed like a promising treatment for the condition.

When common sounds become disturbing

Misophonia causes certain sounds to feel violating, triggering a "very visceral kind of experience" filled with extremely unpleasant emotions, including annoyance, anger, and disgust. A 2017 study found that people with misophonia have elevated activity in the brain's anterior insula—a region associated with interoception, emotional processing, and behavioral responses—when exposed to trigger sounds. Ongoing research suggests trigger sound context affects the severity and manifestation of the condition.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act improved the lives of many children with disabilities

Before the IDEA, many individuals lived in state institutions and received little education—only one in five attended public schools. Today, US public schools now educate over two-thirds of children with disabilities in general education classrooms.

Understanding the causes, effects, and prevalence of algorithmic bias

Found in search engines, hiring and college admissions tools, facial recognition systems, and other software, algorithms act on the rules they are programmed with, which may be authored by individuals unaware of their own biases. Algorithms based on limited, incomplete, or inaccurate data are more likely to inherit and propagate existing biases.

How dentistry evolved from carnival sideshow to respected medicine

The field, which has remained siloed from other medical care, also has a separate insurance system. This podcast walks through how and why dental insurance often remains capped at $1,500 primarily to cover cleanings, and it wouldn't cover catastrophes—unlike many other medical or housing insurance models.

Deinstitutionalization in the 20th century unintentionally led to the incarceration of schizophrenia patients

Activism to shut down problematic asylums in the mid-20th century led to the community release of many patients with severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, but without adequate support, this deinstitutionalization in the 1960s and 1970s led to a significant increase in patients with schizophrenia ending up in prisons and homeless shelters.

Explore how free speech and justice coexist and sometimes clash

From the abolition of slavery to South African apartheid, this podcast explores how censorship has historically been used to suppress racial justice movements—and to promote them—and asks whether free speech is a foundation for, or a threat to, equality.

Private education offered an alternative for Black Americans

The early public school system was ostensibly designed for all Americans, but it was also racially segregated, offering substandard schools for Black Americans. Some private schools were founded to combat that problem, including St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, the United States' oldest predominantly Black Catholic high school.

The history of brainwashing in America

"Brainwashing" refers to a coerced shift in worldview, often associated with cults or oppressive totalitarian governments. Though such processes are not well understood on a neurological level, they hold an outsized role in public imagination, particularly in science fiction and dystopias. This article reviews the history of the term, first popularized by Edward Hunter in 1950, and the subsequent use of the approach in pop psychology, the CIA, and more.

The inventor of the Dewey decimal system has a complicated legacy due to allegations of sexual harassment

Melvil Dewey—who created the system used to organize library books in nearly 150 countries and founded the American Library Association—was banned from the organization for 20 years after making unwanted advances on four librarians. He later paid to settle a harassment suit.

Exactly who coined the term 'swimmer's ear' remains unknown

There is no record of anyone being the first person to call otitis externa by its most commonly known name, swimmer's ear. The earliest known use of the term was in a 1917 news article, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The article in Connecticut's The Day stated that the illness was appearing among swimmers and bathers that summer.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.