In this episode of Working Class Audio, Matt welcomes a panel of four guests united by a common cause: Tinnitus Quest, a patient-driven nonprofit pushing to fund and accelerate tinnitus research. Tchad Blake — 7-time Grammy Award-winning producer, mixer, and engineer with credits including Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, and Pearl Jam — opens up about living with tinnitus since age eight or nine, the result of childhood exposure to rifle fire, and how he has mixed some of the most acclaimed records of the past four decades with significant hearing loss in one ear. Neuroscientist and consultant neurologist Dr. Will Sedley of Newcastle University breaks down what the brain is actually doing when tinnitus occurs, from central gain theory to predictive coding, gating mechanisms, and why the brain's compensation strategies can misfire. Hazel Goedhart, co-founder and Executive Board Member at Tinnitus Quest, shares her own tinnitus journey and how it led her to leave a career in financial services and fundraise her own salary to work for the cause full-time. And Jack Rubinacci, musician, songwriter, and Head of PR at Tinnitus Quest, explains how the organization is working to change the narrative around tinnitus the same way the mental health conversation shifted over the past generation — because that narrative shift is what unlocks funding, and funding is what drives research.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
What Tinnitus Quest Is and Why It Was Founded
The Scale of the Problem: 750 Million People, Almost No Research Funding
Tchad's Tinnitus Since Age Eight or Nine: Childhood Rifle Fire
Mixing Iconic Records With Significant Hearing Loss
Tinnitus as a Potential Creative Superpower
How the Brain Compensates for Hearing Loss and Generates Phantom Sound
Central Gain Theory and Neural Noise Amplification
Synchrony: How Neurons Fire Together and Make Tinnitus Louder
Gating Mechanisms and Why Some People's Brains Filter Tinnitus Out
The Predictive Coding Model: Why Tinnitus Embeds Itself in the Brain
Hair Cell Damage vs. Synaptopathy: Two Different Types of Noise Trauma
Recruitment: A Frequency-Specific Amplification Phenomenon
Why Tinnitus and Hearing Loss Don't Always Correlate
Why Some People With Hearing Loss Never Get Tinnitus
Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Medical Emergency
Tinnitus Spikes: What Causes Them and What the Evidence Says About Steroids
Tinnitus as a Canary in the Coal Mine for Stress and Overexposure
Fleeting Tinnitus: The Brief Episodes Most People Experience
Low-Frequency Tinnitus and "The Hum"
Musical Tinnitus and Musical Hallucinations
Who to See: ENT vs. Audiologist vs. Neurologist
CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Mindfulness for Tinnitus
Tchad's Personal Coping Strategies, Including Exposure Therapy and Harmonizing With the Ringing
The Role of Psilocybin and Psychedelics in Potential Tinnitus Treatment
Neural Plasticity, Synaptogenesis, and Why Psychedelics May Help
Stem Cell and Cochlear Regeneration Research
Is Tinnitus a Modern Problem? Pre- vs. Post-Industrial Noise Exposure
The Stigma Around Tinnitus in the Music Industry
How Bella Bathurst Connected Jack and Tchad
TQ's First Oxford Research Grant: Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation
Why Patient-Driven Funding Moves Faster Than Institutional Funding
The Catch-22 of "Learn to Live With It" and How It Suppresses Research
Matt's RANT!: Hearing Protection
Links and Show Notes:
Tinnitus Quest
WCA #334 with Jack Rubinacci
WCA #200 with Tchad Blake
Bella Bathurst – Sound: Stories of Hearing Lost and Found
Newcastle University – Translational and Clinical Research Institute
Credits:
Guests: Tchad Blake, Dr. Will Sedley, Jack Rubinacci, Hazel Goedhart
Host/Engineer/Producer: Matt Boudreau
WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell
The Voice: Chuck Smith
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