Speaking Of... Conversations on Voice, Speech, and Identity with Ryan O'Shea - “Why do we make assumptions about individual’s race based on how they sound?” with Brandon Piper

“Why do we make assumptions about individual’s race based on how they sound?” with Brandon Piper

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05/13/20 • 60 min

Speaking Of... Conversations on Voice, Speech, and Identity with Ryan O'Shea

On this episode of Speaking Of... I’m joined by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Brandon Piper. In this episode, Brandon asked the question, “Why do we make assumptions about people’s race based on how they sound?” We talk about the technicalities of accent including the dialect, African American Vernacular of English, and what linguists have to say about his question, but we also talked about our personal experiences related to the biases and assumptions we experience in our own lives.
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast.

Previous Episode

Mailbag: Listener Questions! —with Speech Therapist/Voice Expert, Joanna Cazden

On this episode of Speaking Of... I’m joined by my colleague, Joanna Cazden. Joanna is a speech pathologist, with a specialty in vocal health. She’s also a singer and a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, so she has a well-rounded approach of marrying health and technique in performance. In this episode, I ask Joanna questions from YOU, our listeners. We cover everything from which type of tea is best for your voice to what vocal nodules are to what tongue tension could be telling us.
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast.

Next Episode

“What are your thoughts on the [So-Called] African-American Vernacular of English?” with Rachel Finley

On this episode of Speaking Of... I’m joined by my friend and colleague, Rachel Finley. Rachel is an actor, director, spoken-word artist, writer, and teacher specializing in acting, voice, and speech. Rachel is currently researching dialects of the African diaspora and I invited her as a follow-up to my last episode. I asked Rachel “What are your thoughts on the “So-Called African American Vernacular of English?” We talked about why AAVE is a useful term for linguists, but less so as a term to describe the accent of an entire race. Rachel shared her thoughts on what might be a better term, and offered perspectives on how she approaches researching and teaching accents of the diaspora (and beyond).
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast.