The addition of hydrogen to an aromatic nucleus represents a widely used strategy for rapidly introducing complexity in synthesis. As such, the impact of the Birch reduction and related dearomatization strategies in organic synthesis cannot be overemphasized. This foundational reaction of organic chemistry, taught at the undergraduate level, is also notorious for its harsh reaction conditions: liquid ammonia, elemental alkali metal (Li, Na, K), and a judicially chosen proton source (Figure ). Owing to the hazardous nature of these conditions, the search for more practical variants is still an active research topic in modern organic synthesis 70+ years following its original disclosure. These efforts can be placed into two categories: (1) conditions that ablate inherent safety hazards (elemental alkali metal and liquid ammonia) and (2) improving the chemoselectivity and scope. Within the former category, various solid-supported reagent systems have been disclosed as well as mineral oil dispersions with crown-ether additives. In 2019 a practical electrochemical Birch variant inspired by Li-ion batteries was developed for ammonia and elemental Li-free arene reduction (Li-ion electroreduction, LER). Photochemical variants have also been described, although the scope and reaction times required for those systems are suboptimal. Recently the Koide group demonstrated that ammonia could be replaced by ethylene diamine (e.g. Benkesser modification ) to further enhance practicality. Although some of these studies enabled practical and scalable Birch reduction, the chemoselectivity was revealed to be analogous to conventional Birch reduction. To improve chemoselectivity, the procedure employing LiDBB reported by Donohoe and co-workers is notable since it is widely used for reduction of electron-deficient heteroarenes with good tolerance of esters, which seldom survives during Birch reduction. This Communication discloses the finding that simply modifying the waveform of electrolysis (rapid alternating polarity, rAP) can lead to a new level of chemoselectivity for arene and heteroarene reduction. This operationally simple protocol proceeds at ambient temperature in protic solvent, does not require sacrificial electrodes, or even any metal source, and tolerates functional groups that are notoriously challenging to accommodate such as ester, nitrile, epoxide and even alkyl chloride.