Ear Trumpets are seen as old fashioned and clumsy, mostly deployed in pop culture for comic effect as a snarky shorthand for how old and out-of-touch a person is.

But during the Enlightenment there was a wider embrace of this new technology as a means of increased participation.

This episode we are joined by medical historian Dr Ruben Verwaal to explore how the popularity and stigma of the ear trumpet tracks with attitudes towards deafness, and where our cynicism towards the ear trumpet came from.