# Could headphones be damaging our ears? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-that-rash-512468/could-headphones-be-damaging-our-ears Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-that-rash-512468/could-headphones-be-damaging-our-ears.md Podcast: [What's That Rash?](https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-that-rash-512468) Published: 2026-03-10T14:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/whats-that-rash/headphones-hearing-ear-damage/106436828 Audio file: https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/if/Z/p1.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-that-rash-512468/episodes/could-headphones-be-damaging-our-ears Duration seconds: 1320 ## Resource Walking down the street, most people you pass will be wearing headphones or ear buds. Chances are you are too! But is this trend of noise-cancelling harming your ears or the way your brain processes sound? Norman and Tegan sound out the evidence on headphone use and hearing damage, and what you can do to protect your ears. References: Know Your Noise - National Acoustic Laboratories Pumping loud music is putting more than 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss - University of Melbourne A Partial History of Headphones - Smithsonian Prevalence and global estimates of unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis Hearing thresholds, tinnitus, and headphone listening habits in nine-year-old children Do Noise-Cancelling Headphones Help or Hurt Hearing? - University of Colorado Tips for safe listening using headphones and earbuds – Hearing Australia If you enjoyed this episode, check these out! Is there such thing as TOO much sun protection? Is there a cure for jet lag? Don’t Die: Is Bryan Johnson going to live forever? ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-that-rash-512468/episodes/could-headphones-be-damaging-our-ears/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-that-rash-512468/could-headphones-be-damaging-our-ears.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.