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Men’s Hearing Health is often overlooked, but it should not be.

In this episode of Starkey Sound Bites, host Dr. Dave Fabry sits down with athlete, coach, and hearing health advocate Tyson Gillies to talk about living with hearing loss, overcoming stigma, and why so many men delay getting help.

Tyson shares his personal journey from childhood hearing loss and adversity to competing at elite levels, coaching Team USA Deaf Baseball, and preparing for international competition. This conversation dives into confidence, identity, and how hearing health directly impacts communication, performance, and overall well-being.

You’ll also hear how today’s technology, including Starkey’s Omega AI hearing aids, is helping people stay connected, perform at their best, and protect long-term brain health.

What you’ll learn:

- Why men often ignore hearing loss symptoms
- The link between hearing health and brain health
- How hearing loss affects confidence and performance
- The role of technology like Omega AI in daily life
- Why hearing protection matters in loud environments like sports and concerts

If you’re experiencing hearing challenges or know someone who is, this episode is for you.

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A hearing clinic can buy the same equipment as everyone else, but it cannot copy trust. That is the thread running through our conversation with Dr. Zack Miller, a private practice owner who now leads Midwest Hearing Aids across 31 locations in Kansas, many of them in small towns where your reputation travels faster than your advertising.

We talk about the real work behind practice ownership: building a team you can count on, staying “coachable,” and keeping a culture where you still learn from patients and staff. Zack shares what he believes cannot be commoditized in audiology and hearing healthcare, even with over-the-counter hearing aids and price pressure in the market: patient service, time, and relationships. We also get practical about what happens when someone tests and walks out, how follow-up works without a high-pressure sales feel, and why inviting a spouse or family member into the appointment often changes everything.

On the technology side, we dig into modern hearing aids and fitting strategy, including Omega AI, Edge Mode+, DNN 360, and why many patients succeed with a simpler approach that starts with hearing better before getting lost in app features. We also address AI fatigue and privacy concerns, then explain how data logging helps clinicians personalize care by checking wear time and real-world listening environments.

If you care about better hearing outcomes, better counseling, and building a practice that lasts, you will get a lot from this one. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find better hearing care.

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The biggest risk in hearing aid innovation is not dreaming too small, it’s shipping a promise that doesn’t survive real life. Starkey Sound Bites host, Dave Fabry, PhD, sits down with Dr. Maddie Olson, Starkey’s Manager of Clinical Product Research, to unpack how clinical research, verification, and product validation protect patients and providers when new hearing aid technology moves from the lab to the field. If you’ve ever wondered who makes sure a feature works on Tuesday afternoon in a noisy café, not just in a polished demo, this conversation is for you.

We talk about what “validation” actually means: user requirements, regulatory expectations, safety and effectiveness, and proving meaningful benefit compared with what’s already on the market. Dr. Olson explains how Starkey recruits from a large participant database to find the right listeners for the right tests, and why trust and honest feedback are as critical as any instrument. We also explore how modern hearing aids have become full systems, including Bluetooth connectivity, smartphone app performance, and the growing need to consider the provider workflow, not just the signal processing.

The conversation expands into hearing health and whole health, including balance, falls, and wellness research, plus how questionnaires can help connect hearing loss with outcomes like social isolation and depression. For clinicians, we dig into practical measures you can use now: APHAB, DOSO, Hearing Handicap Inventory, and QuickSIN for speech in noise. Dr. Olson also breaks down ecological momentary assessment and hearing aid data logging as tools to reduce recall bias and fine-tune fittings based on what patients actually experience, moment by moment.

If this helped you think differently about audiology, clinical research, or hearing aid outcomes, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so more hearing care pros can find it.