Maya Angelou on the trauma that made her mute

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The great American writer Maya Angelou was cast away back in 1987.

She told Michael Parkinson about the disturbing reason she became temporarily mute during her childhood, which in turn led to her love of poetry. Some listeners may find her description of events upsetting.

You can find the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Details of organisations offering information and support with child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.1	Can I just say?
0:07.6	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:10.0	It's such a wonderful listen.
0:11.7	So nice.
0:12.5	There are loads more like it on BBC Sounds.
0:14.8	Different paces, different heights, the roof is buckling.
0:17.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:20.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:21.6	Oh!
0:22.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:27.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:31.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:32.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:35.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:38.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:59.2	Hello, it's Lauren Leu, and this is Desert Island Discs postcards,
1:06.7	a selection of some of our most memorable moments from some of the thousands of people we've cast away to our imaginary desert island.
1:14.3	Today's castaway is the great American writer, Maya Angelou. Back in 1987, Michael Parkinson was the presenter of Desert Island Discs, and he had the honour of hearing Maya Angelou's choice of records.
1:20.4	She told him about the disturbing, shocking reason she became temporarily mute during her childhood,
1:26.6	which in turn led on to her love of poetry.
1:30.2	Some listeners, though, may find this very upsetting.
	...

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