The Beauty in Finding ‘Other People’s Words’ in Your Own

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

About ten years ago, two of journalist Lissa Soep’s closest friends died around the same time. In her grieving, she found consolation in the philosophy of a 20th century Russian literary theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his theory of “double voicing” – the idea that our speech is “filled to overflowing with other people’s words”. Her friends had not disappeared, instead, they’d slipped into her own language, and that of the people around her. We talk to Soep about great friendships, the mysterious power of language to sustain conversations even with those who have died and her book, “Other People’s Words.” Guests: Lissa Soep, author, "Other People's Words: Friendship, Loss and the Conversations that Never End." She is also senior editor for audio at Vox Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego.
0:07.6	Three, four, and seven-night summer packages include fitness classes, hiking, live music, mindfulness, and culinary adventures, featuring fruits and veggies straight off the vine.
0:18.9	Special rates and offers are available for summer stays and first-time guests.
0:23.8	Saver summer at Rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:28.3	Greetings, boomtown.
0:29.7	The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming!
0:32.0	Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile.
0:35.2	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go.
0:38.8	Learn more at Xfinity.com.
0:40.6	Restrictions apply.
0:41.3	Xfinity internet required.
0:42.4	Actual speeds vary.
0:44.6	From KQED.
1:00.4	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:04.7	When we lose the people we love, do our conversations with them really end?
1:09.5	Two of journalists Lisa Soap's friends died within the span of a couple years.
1:12.6	And yet she found that her people had not simply disappeared, but found their way into her language and the language of their mutual friends.
1:17.6	Her new book, Other People's Words, is a profound meditation on the first-order experiences of life.
1:23.6	Friendship, love, death, carrying on in the face of great tragedy.
1:30.1	This is a book to help you remember what is meaningful in this life, and we'll talk with
1:34.6	soap about this exceptional new work right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. I'm not entirely sure how best to describe Lissa Soap's new book, Other People's Words. It's a remarkable piece of writing. It deals with themes of grief, friendship, the role of language
2:03.3	and shaping our inner lives. And in some ways, it's completely out of step with the nonfiction
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.