What is the relationship between the auditory systems of humans and animals and the natural sounds of the real-world environment? In this episode, we speak to three of the editors of the Special Issue on Ecological Perspectives on Hearing, Laurie M. Heller (Carnegie Mellon University), Christian Lorenzi (Ecole Normale Supérieure and Université Paris Sciences et Lettres), and Frédéric Theunissen (University of California, Berkeley), about the diverse research related to the auditory monitoring and comprehension of natural sounds and scenes.

Read all the articles from the special issue here!

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.

Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay.

The impact of climate change on the field of acoustics is multifold. Researchers not only use acoustics to better understand changes to the environment, they also must consider how climate change impacts standard research practices. In this episode, we talk to three of the guest editors of the recent Special Issue on Climate Change: How the Sound of the Planet Reflects the Health of the Planet-- Megan Ballard (University of Texas at Austin), Edward Walsh (VA Loma Linda Healthcare), and Lauren Freeman (Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport).

Read all the articles from the special issue here!

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.

Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay.

In this episode, find out what the next generation of acousticians is researching! In this episode, we talk to the latest round of POMA Student Paper Competition winners, from the joint 189th meeting of the ASA and the Acoustical Society of Japan, held in Honolulu in December 2025. Their topics include:

- Perception of the PIN/PEN merger in speakers from the US South (Irene Smith, McGill University)

- Using distance to better inform models for multi-channel sources separation (Rajesh Rameshbabu, University of Illinois, Chicago)

- Designing resin reeds for oboes (Fumihiko Kurosawa, University of Tsukuba)

- Modelling cochlear synaptopathy, or "hidden hearing loss" (Kai Burian, Technical University Munich)

Associated papers:

Irene Smith and Meghan Clayards. "Merged perception of PIN and PEN: Interspeaker variation or partial merger in perception?" Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 60, 060013 (2025) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002242

Rajesh Rameshbabu; Rashen Fernando; Ryan Corey. "Learning distance-dependent spatial structure for multichannel source separation." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 60, 055004 (2025) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002298

Fumihiko Kurosawa; Naoto Wakatsuki; Tadashi Ebihara. "Control of characteristics through topological optimization of 3D-printed oboe reeds." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 60, 035003 (2025) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002307

Kai Burian, Ahsan J. Cheema, and Sunil Puria. "Modeling loudness contours to determine human auditory nerve fiber distribution and cochlear nerve degeneration." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 60, 050006 (2025) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002265

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.