VOICE: You Are What You Speak

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2021

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sure, opposable thumbs are handy. But in his brilliant new book, “This Is the Voice,” John Colapinto says the voice is our species’ greatest attribute. We rely on it to communicate and collaborate, woo our mates and protect our children, make art and win wars. John would know. A rock ‘n’ roll vocal injury changed his relationship with his instrument and set him on a path to better understand what his voice means to him — and what the voice means to humanity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rufus Griskem and this is the next big idea.
0:14.8	Today, how speech made us human and why your voice makes you, you.
0:32.2	One night, back in the late 90s, John Calapinto took the stage at a dance club in downtown New
0:37.7	York.
0:38.7	He was working at Rolling Stone at the time and his boss, John Winner, had asked him to
0:42.9	sing a few covers of the magazine's holiday party.
0:46.0	That may not sound like a big deal, but this is Rolling Stone we're talking about.
0:50.4	The party had 2,000 guests.
0:52.6	As John got ready to sing, he spotted Bout Kilmer, Paul Schaefer, and there was Yoko
0:58.0	Ohno in the front row.
1:05.8	Not bad for a bunch of journalists, they'd been practicing for weeks.
1:09.9	But as the big night drew closer, John's voice got weak.
1:13.5	He started to rasp and he couldn't reliably hit the high notes.
1:38.0	John got through the concert, but afterward his rasp got worse.
1:42.7	I had total laranjitis completely couldn't make sound for about three or four days.
1:48.0	Came back as a whisper, eventually sort of was raspy and then it was gravelly and it
1:52.5	stayed that way.
1:54.3	A few months later, John was riding the elevator in his apartment building when a smiling
1:59.3	new neighbor got on.
2:01.2	What floor, yes, sir?
2:03.4	All it took was those two words for her to stop smiling, look at him and say, you've
2:08.4	got a serious vocal injury.
	...

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