What's the Best Sound Ever?

In this episode of the SoundBites podcast, host Dave Fabry compiles answers from various guests to three personal questions about hearing. The first question asks what sound the guests would miss the most if they couldn't hear their best. Answers range from the sound of heels clicking on tile to children's laughter and the music of family. The second question asks for memorable moments or events where sound played a key role, with responses including performing on stage, hearing the bugling of an elk, and the sound of birds in the morning. The final question asks about the guests' least favorite sound, with answers including people brushing their teeth, a child's shriek, and the screeching of subway wheels. The episode also promotes Starkey's Best Sound Ever contest, where people can vote for the best sound in the world.

Link to the episode transcript here. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Hi, this is Dave Fabry, Chief Hearing Health Officer at Starkey and host of the Soundbites Podcast. I've had the privilege of talking to a lot of great guests since we started this podcast in late 2021. People like singer-songwriter Huey Lewis, Starkey founder Bill Austin, Dr. Timothy Shriver of Special Olympics, and our CEO Brandon Sawalitz, as well as many more. Our conversations are always informative and enlightening and entertaining, and each guest brings their specific subject matter expertise to their episode. But while all of our guests are subject matter experts and provide valuable insights that hearing professionals can use to help patients and better their practices, they're also first and foremost people. People who experience life in idiosyncratic ways and are touched and shaped by those experiences, just as we all are. For this episode, we compiled a handful of their answers to three personal questions that didn't make the original podcast episodes. Three questions that are, of course, about hearing, but questions that we can all relate to in our own way, and that lead perfectly into our best sound ever contest. What's our best sound ever contest? I'm glad you asked. This May, all May, we've been pitting 16 of the best sounds in the world against each other to decide which sound wins the best sound ever title. Want to have a say in that decision? It is not too late. You and everyone can. Follow Starkey on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or X, formerly known as Twitter, and cast your votes all better hearing month long. Or now I guess it's called National Speech Language Hearing Month. Anyway, I digress. Let's get back to our regularly scheduled program and see what our guests had to say about hearing, which, in addition to connecting us to other people, also connects us to the emotions and the best sounds of life. With these questions, we really wanted to see what emotions are elicited by different sounds that people experience. The first question I asked, we're in the business of helping people hear better and convincing them why it's worth it to hear their best. We asked them, what's a sound that you'd miss most if you couldn't hear your best?

SPEAKER_08 2:18

Okay, now this may seem crazy, but it would be the sound of my heels clicking on tile.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Why?

SPEAKER_08 2:23

Because it makes me think of great shoes, which makes me think of my mother, and which makes me smile.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

My children's laughter. That might sound, I'm sure everyone would say that, but I mean, you there's nothing there's nothing better than that.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

You know, the sound of my family's voices.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

It would be my dad, the lead singer of the Ivan. That would be hard for me if I couldn't connect with my dad and my uncle, uh, Donnie Marie. I mean, coming from a musical family, that's that was my whole upbringing. And even today, um, just not being able to not just hear the music, but to be able to truly understand and connect with the lyrics and the and the and the sound and uh of the music. So I think that's what it would be. It would be the music uh of my family, uh the I family.

SPEAKER_07 3:16

Well, it's kind of a cute story.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

All right, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_07 3:19

We'll be the I don't know if it really addresses. So um I've even when my children were very young, I would take them, uh, we'd go to sushi restaurants, and um, we'd always go to sushi restaurants. And it was about the time, this must be, oh my gosh, maybe it's 25 years ago. And Andrea Buccelli was just coming out in the world. I think David Foster had released the first record, and we happen to be sitting in a sushi restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, and the owner starts to play Boccelli and loved it immediately, right? This is maybe six months later, I get the CD, and I'm in the car with the kids, and I put it on, and they go, Dad, that's the guy.

SPEAKER_05 4:16

Yep. And you talk about the link between audition and memory. I mean, every olfaction gets all the credit where they say there's only one synapse between the sensory and the and the brain, but auditory can really connect to memories like that, and it's cool that that one connected to your family.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

I think the like the obvious cliche would be music, but um, the sound of like water, right? And rain, I think. Because it reminds me of not being in my room trying to go to sleep with a fan on, drowning out. Like if I if I'm hearing the water of the ocean or raining, it means I'm I'm probably somewhere on vacation, somewhere unplugging, um, somewhere loving life. I think also wind when I'm on a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_06 4:57

I grew up in a family of severe to profound hearing loss. Um, my dad has severe to profound hearing loss. And I seeing the analog to digital transformation into products. And I remember when my dad got his first digital hearing aid, and he put him on, and my mom was in the kitchen uh talking to my sister, and my dad said, Well, that's not true. And my mom just said, You you heard that? And it was a very transformative moment at that time because he was able to get the power that he needed to get the to get that that speech and noise. It was a memorable moment. It stuck with me for the rest of my life because I remember it and where where it it changed the the family dynamics, where you know my my my dad was a little more involved in conversations, you know. That was a long time ago, but still I remember it vividly.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

What sound would you miss if you couldn't hear your best? I know for me, within the last year, that has changed, as I've been blessed with a granddaughter, and uh all of the different sounds that she's made in her first year of life, from crying, laughing, uh learning how to uh walk and navigate the world comes with a cacophony of sounds that I wouldn't want to miss a single one, and I'm fortunate that they live close, so I get to experience them. Now, for question number two, I asked if people could think or remember a memorable moment or event where sound was key, or at least played a very important part in making it memorable.

SPEAKER_08 6:32

You know, I started my career in vocal performance. And so I remember the first musical I was ever in. And doing that song and being on the stage, and if I couldn't have heard that, it would have been devastating. And music such a part of my life that if I couldn't hear that, I would really not have as good of a life.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Growing up, hearing the train go by right near my house, it was right at the end of our block, was such a comforting sound, and I would listen for it every night, and it was like I knew what time it was time to go to sleep because the train had just gone by.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

So I go camping a lot with my my brothers and my family, and and uh we go up in the Rocky Mountains of Utah, and you know, there's there's a sound that my brothers always point out, and I can never hear it. And they always tell me how beautiful it sounds, and it's the bugling of an elk. And, you know, it's a high-pitch, high-frequency sound. But I gotta tell you, uh, recently we we went camping, and we're we're we're we're camping, and we get we get up early in the morning just to go on a nice little razor ride, and and then we overlook the canyon and we just we just do glassing to try to find wildlife and and just to enjoy Mother Nature. But they my brothers say, Hey, do you hear that? You hear that? And I I had to I had to just kind of focus in a little bit more, but I was able to hear it. Oh the beautiful bugle sound of elk. It's elk. I can't say it on here, but um that that'll be a very memorable moment for me to be able to hear something that the wildlife, the sounds of wildlife, oh, and also crickets, you know. Really high-pitched. I've never been able to hear crickets, but I wish I now wish I wish I didn't have to hear the crickets.

SPEAKER_07 8:30

Probably the slot machines in Vegas. Why is that? I'm just kidding. I don't play the slot machines. No, it would have to be music. I do love music.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

But what music? Bocelli or the beach.

SPEAKER_07 8:42

Oh, I love yes, or uh yeah, Bocelli, Sting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:49

Bocelli and Sting. Those don't often, I mean, you you just roll them off as if they're very common, you know, linked, but uh, I don't think of Bocelli and Sting as being linked. But that shows your diversity.

SPEAKER_06 9:01

I gotta tell you, when I'm at home, my morning coffees out in my gazebo, reading my paper is one of the things that I really enjoy the most when I'm at home. And I just love hearing the birds. I love hearing the birds because it's a sign of life, right? It's the it's the sound of mourning, it's the sound of life, it's the sound of things coming alive. And just hearing those birds sing, chirp, boy, missing those would would mean a lot to me.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

I actually love music, and so for the longest I could hear the beat or feel the beat and that kind of thing. And then a friend of mine was actually singing, and I actually understood the words, and so it was a one of those moments where I was sitting there like, that's what that song is about. And it was just like a whole nother revelation on what that song was.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Yeah, I imagine with your Cookie Bite Lost, you probably misheard some songs. You probably have some funny lyrics that you were you were hearing in your head before you heard the crazy songs.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

My daughter said one day, Mama, that's not what that song says. I said, Yes, it is. I've been saying that like that for like three or four years. She said, Mama, it's not. She says, You can pull up the lyrics now. And I pulled up the lyrics and I was like, What the world? I don't want to listen to she was like, Stop playing the song, mama. Don't play that song no more. She's like, I'm not, I am just not. So it's very interesting with songs. Um, I always now check the lyrics of new songs to make sure like I heard what they said and that I want to be singing this out loud.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

I mean, but you know, aside from con concerts where you go to concert, that's that's a that's an obvious one. I mean, I think I I talk about this this one a lot, which is the day I got hearing aids, I was at a dinner party with a dozen people, sitting in the middle of the table, and I could literally hear every individual talking. Like I could hear what they were saying, and I had I don't think I've ever been able to do that. And it was, you know, that was like completely blew my mind. So I think, you know, even though it wasn't an important part of my life, it was from the most memorable sounds, that's that's gotta be it.

SPEAKER_05 11:25

Were you thinking about what your answer would be while you were listening to our guests? I hope so. For me, an event where sound really helped make it memorable was the sound of my heart beating a number of years ago, almost a decade, when I was fortunate enough to interview then president former President Bush at the Starkey Expo. And I was I was sitting on stage meeting him for the first time, I was contemplating that I had to do a one-hour live interview with him, and the sound of my heart was bursting through my chest. Okay, and finally, question number three not all sounds are pleasant or worth hearing. What's your worst nails on a chalkboard sound?

SPEAKER_08 12:07

People brushing their teeth.

SPEAKER_05 12:09

I hate that sound with any kind of toothbrush or the electronic toothbrush?

SPEAKER_08 12:14

Well, it's kind of like this kind of toothbrush, you know. And so David thinks I'm absolutely nuts, but that's one thing. I'm like, do not come in the bathroom and brush your teeth in front of me because I hate the sound.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

That's hilarious. I've never heard anyone uh say that one before. Never.

SPEAKER_08 12:28

Oh, it's just so it is.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Now that I think about it, it's kind of bothering you. And now it's gonna bother me.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

So well, my three-year-old, my sweet, sweet three-year-old has this streak he's been doing recently, just recently, and he thinks it's hilarious, and he does it at the most surprising times, and that has been really hard.

SPEAKER_07 12:49

Yeah, you know the crazy thing is, I'm highly um impervious to to sounds. My wife, on the other hand, I mean, she's got probably a laundry list of sounds she doesn't like. Um, I would say, uh-uh, a high-pitched dog barking. You know, a small dog high pitched. I don't even mind babies crying. Babies crying don't bother me at all. How's your grandbaby?

unknown 13:20

She's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:22

I got I got a show you of mine. I'm I'm teaching her Spanish and Italian.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

My dog Louis bark. It's the worst bark ever. It like and is he a barker? He is. Okay. Yes. Yeah, he invented the bark, actually. Um, yeah, it is the like my other dogs, they don't really bark quite as much. Um, so when they bark, I'm like, oh, well, someone outside, like, what's going on? When he barks, I'm like, oh, leaf blew across the yard. Calm down, Louie.

SPEAKER_06 13:51

When a dish breaks, and it's that sudden high-pitch breaks. It just it it it it always shocks me. I'm like, ah, that that that that's really scratched my ear, you know.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

So you're thinking about it from an acoustic event rather than oh no, I gotta replace that dish.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

The wheel screeching on the subway.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

I'm gonna say it's the toilet flushing in the other room. I didn't hear that before. So I didn't know how much people were coming or going or doing whatever in another room. But now it is just like, it's almost like it sounds like it's amplified. Like a couple of times I've yelled, Do you have the bathroom door closed? And they're like, Yes, yes, we do. So that new hearing ability after being fitted in July of knowing every time someone flushes the toilet in the house.

SPEAKER_05 14:42

I can think of several sounds that drive me crazy, including nails on a blackboard. But one of my least favorite sounds is when I've been in public places and people actually bring out nail clippers and clip their nails. It drives me up a wall when they do. Okay, that's it for this episode of Starkey Soundbites. Thanks for listening. And remember to vote in our best sound ever contest all May long. To vote, just follow any of our social platforms. And to keep track of the voting bracket, visit Starkey.com backslash best sound ever. The winner will be announced on May 31st. I can't wait to hear what it is. And until then, keep listening.