[MUSIC] Okay, so welcome to our unit on hearing and communication. The way that we perceive sound is, is very important, but it's very important for one reason. It's, it's because it allows us to communicate with each other, and we are very social animals. We are very social mammals, and communication is key to a rich, and healthy life. So, when hearing is impaired, there are some non-perceptual results, such er, consequences, such as not being able to be startled, and not being aware of, of, for instance, traffic coming. You can't hear traffic if you, if you can't hear. And, and that, that is a valuable ability, but the real impact of hearing impairment is in our ability to communicate with each other. And the World Health Organization estimates that about 5% of the world's population, human population, has a disabling hearing impairment all the way through deafness. And that compares to less than a tenth of a percent of the entire world's population having a disabling, non-correctable visual impairment. So, hearing loss and hear and deafness are very common problems relatively speaking. I was just in the airport the other day and was behind somebody who clearly, had, had a, hearing impairment. She had two cochlear implants. I saw that. I also saw that the people talking to her didn't realize that she really still needed to, see their lips. So, she was just continually saying, what, to the, to the TSA agents. That, that are the screening agents, as she went through, because they weren't looking at her as she was, as they were talking. So, this is extremely common. You can walk around and find people that, that have cochlear implants. And, in fact, I'm, I would be surprised if you don't know somebody, maybe in your family or extended family who has some degree of hearing loss associated with increasing age. So, the, hearing loss is really important, it's really important because it is our, most of for most of us it's our primary way of engaging and communicating with others. Okay, so in the next segment, I'm just going to tell you the diversity of experiences that people have with hearing loss and deafness. [MUSIC]