We are based out of the Archie’s Cochlear Implant Lab at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. The goal of this podcast is to explore, discuss and learn about new ideas that may help people use devices like cochlear implants to hear.
Dr. Ruth Litovsky, Chair and Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is our guest for the first ever episode of the Hear Here Podcast. She shares her thoughts on binaural hearing, bilateral cochlear implantation, and the importance of mentorship and sharing ideas.
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Dr. Ruth Litovsky – Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab
Dr. Deniz Başkent, Professor at Groningen University tells us why she has the perfect name for hearing research, why communication is intriguing to study, and how robots became part of her team.
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Dr. Deniz Baskent – dB SPL Lab
Dr. René Gifford, Audiologist and Professor at Vanderbilt University speaks about how she was drawn into becoming an audiologist and scientist and the benefits of using acoustic hearing with electrical input from a cochlear implant.
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S1E3 Transcript
Dr. Lina Reiss, Associate Professor at the Oregon Health and Science University, explains that pitch judgments can change with cochlear implant use and gives her first-hand account of learning to listen through a cochlear implant.
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Dr. Viji Easwar, a hearing scientist and pediatric audiologist at the National Acoustics Laboratories, outlines her global search to understand and monitor hearing in infants who receive hearing aids and cochlear implants.
Dr. Monita Chatterjee, Senior Scientist and Director of the Auditory Prostheses and Perception Lab, Boys Town National Research Hospital, talks about her journey from electrical engineering to neuroscience;, how cochlear implants work; why it’s important to hear emotion in speech; and leadership through the hearing community for Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) network.
Dr. Monita Chatterjee’s Profile
Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory
Sofia Olaizola and Maria Khan, the students behind Hear Here talk about how they got involved in cochlear implant research, why audiology is important to them and what it’s like to run the Hear Here Podcast.
Dr. Hannah Stewart is a pediatric, cognitive auditory neuroscientist at Lancaster University and Dr. Carly Anderson is a Sir Henry Welcome Postdoctoral Research fellow at the University College London. The pair talk about life as early career researchers; research communication and their own podcast, Unscientific; as well as the importance of peer support in academia.
We are focusing on the lives and experiences of women who have professional roles related to the care of people with hearing loss. What’s a typical day in their lives? What motivates their work? What impacts are they making?
In the first episode of season 3, May Wang joins Dr. Renee Michelle Banakis Hartl, an otolaryngologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Banakis Hartl sheds light on the pivotal moments that influenced her unique career journey, starting with her earlier experiences that inspired her to study speech-language pathology in university and become an audiologist, followed by her decision to pursue a career in medicine as an otolaryngologist. Dr. Banakis Hartl shares some of the highlights and challenges she encountered during the career transition, and also provides insightful advice to aspiring audiology and medical students.
In the second episode, we are exploring the what is it like to study Audiology. Maria Khan is joined by Danielle DiFabio, a Combined MClSc-PhD student in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorder at Western University. Danielle discusses her PhD thesis, developing a clinical framework to enhance caregiver participation in family-centered virtual care, looking at the methodology, results so far, and future goals. She also shares how she finds the clinical portion of the program so far and what she does to balance a Masters and PhD.
In this episode, we dive into the inspiring journey of a paediatric audiologist who was once a patient herself. Sofia Olaizola sits down with Dana Song, audiologist, who offers a unique perspective on how her personal experiences shaped her career, discusses common concerns about wearing hearing devices, and reflects on how her shared experiences with families foster deep connections and trust. She shares what a day in the life of an audiologist looks like in a paediatric hospital and how each day varies with the diverse range of cases seen in children with hearing loss.
In this episode, Annika Gasee interviews Angela Bottley, a clinical sales manager related to electroneurophysiology from Vivosonic. Angela discusses the technical aspect of the program that is used to diagnose hearing loss, which consists of an infant screening program and the recording responses from babies. Additionally, we learn about the work she does with Audiologists and customers worldwide to provide support for the products that she sells to them from Vivosonic. She shares her unique career path along with how she anticipates her career and products will change overtime with AI.
In this final but heartwarming episode of season 3 of the Hear Here Podvcast, Nimrat Chani connects with her former Speech Language Pathologist from India, Dr. Gurinder Kaur. She explores and explains the unique challenges and triumphs in the field of speech therapy across cultural backgrounds. Dr.Kaur shares her journey from early career inspiration about 30 years ago to creating memorable moments working with young patients, including working with Nimrat Chani. Together they discuss the differences in healthcare systems and resources between India and Canada, how it evolves on technology, community support and economic factors shapes the practice of speech therapy. This episode dives in heartfelt conversation about power of speech therapy and resilience required to innovate in low resources settings, and the impact on early childhood interventions.
