The screech of the BART train, the din of restaurant conversations, the rumble pop of rock concerts: We take all this noise for granted -- it's just the soundtrack to modern life after all -- but whether we notice them or not, all these sounds add up, eventually taking a toll on our hearing and our health. 

In this edition of KCBS In Depth we take a look at what the latest emerging science has to tell us about the risks of our ever-loudening world, and also what can be done to help protect the hearing we still have. 

Guest: New Yorker staff writer David Owen. His new book is “Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World.”

Host: KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi