meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Curious Cases

The Stressful Scone

Curious Cases

BBC

Science

4.84.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2018

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"How do accents start and where did they come from?” asks Sachin Bahal from Toronto in Canada.

Hannah is schooled in speaking Geordie by top accent coach Marina Tyndall. And Adam talks to author and acoustics expert Trevor Cox about how accents evolved and why they persist.

We meet Debie who has Foreign Accent Syndrome - an extremely rare condition in which your accent can change overnight. After a severe bout of flu, which got progressively worse, Debie's Brummie accent suddenly transformed into something distinctively more European.

If you have any more Curious Cases for the team to solve, please send them in for consideration: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry

Producer: Michelle Martin

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:04.6

MUSIC

0:10.6

I'm Dr Adam Rutherford.

0:12.0

And I'm Dr Hannah Fry.

0:13.4

And you are going to send us your everyday mysteries.

0:16.3

And we are going to investigate them.

0:18.3

Using the power of...

0:19.6

Science!

0:20.4

Science!

0:21.1

Science!

0:22.0

I like it.

0:26.0

I do like it.

0:26.8

We were going to get rid of that, weren't we?

0:28.1

Yeah.

0:28.6

We told the curios that we were going to get rid of that.

0:30.5

I know, but you know what the real truth is.

0:32.3

That we actually sat down and we couldn't think of anything better.

0:34.7

No.

0:35.3

It's true.

0:35.8

So I think we'll start with that, unless someone comes up with a better idea.

0:38.7

So send us your better idea and we'll put it in the file marked ideas from curios

0:44.7

and we leave it to Michelle to decide whether she's going to...

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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

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

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.