Hearing aids have come a long way from the days of holding seashells up to the ear. In this episode, we follow the ever-improving quality of the latest in hearing aid technology and look at some of the ways that this humble device might continue to evolve.

In this podcast of Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson, I discuss how the development of vacuum tubes enabled hearing aids to shift from being portable devices to wearable ones, and the implications this design shift had for deaf people in the twentieth century.

This episode also features Dr. Mara Mills (New York University), Dr. Harry Levitt (Advanced Hearing Concepts Inc.), Dr. Michael Merzenich (University of California, San Francisco), Brandon Sawalich (Starkey Hearing Aids), and Tendekayi Katsiga (Deaftronics).

Note: a transcript is provided for this audio podcast