Voice

In this episode of Radiolab, Lulu Miller, along with producers Matt Kielty and Annie McEwen, explore the multifaceted nature of the human voice. The episode is structured into three segments: the origin of the voice, tracing its evolution from fish to humans with insights from John Colapinto, author of "This Is The Voice"; the power the voice holds over us, discussing a study by Daniel Abrams on how a mother's voice activates reward centers in a child's brain, and how this dynamic shifts during adolescence; and finally, the power the voice can give, featuring the story of Alice Wong, a disability rights activist who lost her speaking voice and grapples with the concept of "dignity through speech," interwoven with the story of David Muir, the inventor of the Passy Muir Valve, which enabled many tracheostomy patients to speak. The episode concludes with a reflection on the value of both speaking and non-speaking forms of communication.