Welcome! Thanks for joining me on this journey….I’ve been grappling with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss for more than two decades. I put this site together to explore hearing, hearing loss, and hearing-related services and technologies.

I’m a musician and, for the first 25 years of my career, my hearing was how I made a living. As an inhouse sound engineer and freelance record producer, I primarily worked with singer-songwriters and a lot of what got dubbed “folk music.” Reviews of my work turned up in places like Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly. There is a joke about how to make a million in folk music: Start with 2 million.

In 2000, with the Internet gaining momentum, I joined the Massachusetts arm of PBS and NPR, developing content for WGBH Radio and eventually becoming director of WGBH Online. After nearly a decade in public media, I left to work with a start-up and co-authored a patent for an Electronic Communication Clarification System.

Along the way, I returned to my music-making roots, performing and recording with Birdsong At Morning.

Throughout all this, sound—its power and the multifaceted dimensions of its absence—began to preoccupy me. Convinced that there have to be better solutions than the hearing technologies generally available, I undertook a Masters in Human Factors to deepen my perspective on product design.

Upon completion of the program, I established a consultancy to evaluate the usability of hearing-related devices, and probe the effectiveness of audiology practices. I served three years on the Audiology Leadership Advisory Council for Mass Eye and Ear (a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School), and continue to be a passionate advocate for hearing healthcare.

In 2017, I spoke at an FDA forum on the prospects of over-the-counter hearing aids. Though it’s taken years to come to fruition, I am gratified that crucial option is now a reality. It’s a start!