One Last Conversation, With the Help of A.I.

Modern Love

The New York Times

Nytimes, Redemption, Society & Culture, New York Times, Love, Essay, Storytelling, Loss, Nyt

4.4 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Madeline de Figueiredo lost her husband, Eli, just a year after they married. After his death, she tried everything she could to reconnect with him: cooking from his recipe book, dancing to playlists he made, watching videos of him and listening to voice mail messages he left her. But her grief persisted. Then, on what was supposed to be Eli’s 27th birthday, Madeline realized she could use A.I. to recreate his voice and try to talk to him again. On this episode of the “Modern Love” podcast, Madeline tells us what it felt like to hear that recreation of Eli’s voice, and how it changed the way she reconnects with him. This episode is adapted from Madeline’s Modern Love essay from 2024, “Our Last, Impossible Conversation.” We want to hear from you! We’re looking for stories, thoughts and feelings about egg freezing. Are you planning to freeze your eggs? What are you considering? Have you frozen your eggs? What happened, and how do you feel about it now? Leave us a voice mail message on the Modern Love hotline at (212) 589-8962‬. Please include your name, hometown and a callback number. Want to submit your own Modern Love essay to The New York Times? Read how, or consider submitting a Tiny Love Story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now and all.
0:03.0	Do you fall in love last time?
0:05.0	Love was stronger than anything.
0:08.0	I feel love.
0:09.0	And I love you more than anything.
0:11.0	You're still love.
0:12.0	Love. than anything. You're still love.
0:13.0	Love.
0:17.0	When someone you love dies, they leave behind little fragments of themselves.
0:22.0	There are the physical things, the half-used tube of
0:24.8	toothpaste, the shoes still sitting there by the door, but there are also these
0:29.4	digital things, all the texts, the photos and videos and voicemails right there on your phone.
0:35.0	I've listened to all the voice recordings now.
0:38.0	I want to say dozens, if not hundreds of times.
0:42.0	When Madeline Defiguardo lost her husband Eli,
0:45.0	she used those recordings as a way to feel close to him.
0:48.0	Voicemel as he had left me.
0:50.0	Hi, Maddie, I'm just driving which you are not texting me back.
0:53.2	Cooking with his family and friend.
0:55.1	Sticky.
0:56.1	Yeah, scrape it, scrape it, scrape it, good work.
0:58.1	Scraper, scraper, scrapers,
	...

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