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Speaker 2: You're on the bus an hour from home, in bumper
Speaker 2: to bumper traffic, creeping forward a few inches at a time,
Speaker 2: someone's kids are screaming, and suddenly your back is too. Luckily,
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Speaker 2: Always read the label or leaflet.
Speaker 3: Oh hi hi, So it's still that bobby pin under
Speaker 3: the couch cushion. It's Ali Ward. We're back with part
Speaker 3: two of Laryngology. So if you are tuning in without
Speaker 3: part one, I don't know what to tell you, go
Speaker 3: to part one and then we'll see you in like
Speaker 3: an hour for this follow up featuring wall the wall
Speaker 3: questions from folks supporting the show at petrion dot com
Speaker 3: slash ologies. Also, thank you to everyone who rates the
Speaker 3: show and leaves reviews. I do read them all. Here's
Speaker 3: a little fresh proof. Thank you Kate ted Mob who
Speaker 3: left the review. Been listening since twenty nineteen and it's
Speaker 3: still my favorite podcast. You've been with me through college
Speaker 3: pandemic and now through every relocation and long distance flight.
Speaker 3: Honored to be jammed in your ears. Thank you Kate
Speaker 3: ted Mon for that. Okay, let's move on Part two.
Speaker 3: Thank you to everyone also who let me know well
Speaker 3: some docs may say like eh to the HPV vaccine
Speaker 3: after the age of twenty six, you can still request
Speaker 3: it and probably get it by and probably get it
Speaker 3: covered by insurance much later in life than that. If
Speaker 3: you want so, talk to your doctor you totally have
Speaker 3: my blessing. Also, those beats were made by Jason Scartmalia,
Speaker 3: thank you for making those. That was amazing. Okay, so
Speaker 3: get yourself a cup of warm tapwater and let's hear
Speaker 3: your questions as I say them with my mouth. We'll
Speaker 3: cover whistle tones, Mariah, damage to your voice box, the
Speaker 3: lowest voices, throat singing, perfect pitch stress and voice cracks,
Speaker 3: and more with surgeon MD Icon and your new favorite laryngologist,
Speaker 3: doctor Ronda Alexander. Okay, let's start your questions with Gigi
Speaker 3: and first time question asker Chris Lipford's inquiries about, in
Speaker 3: Chris's words, what the heck is going on when people
Speaker 3: sing in the whistle register. I need to know everything,
Speaker 3: please and thanks? Okay, I have these on my phone
Speaker 3: so many. Eric Kaye wants to know. Is it possible
Speaker 3: to make a sound outside of the human hearing range?
Speaker 3: Would we know? I don't know. I don't know. Do
Speaker 3: we need like a bat detector.
Speaker 4: So we could detect that with specialized audio equipment. I
Speaker 4: don't think we've ever tried.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'll look it up. Maybe ultrasonic, who knows?
Speaker 5: Huh?
Speaker 3: Okay, So I checked into this and according to one
Speaker 3: BBC report, we can hear frequencies up to twenty killa hurts,
Speaker 3: but most human beings cannot shriek higher than three killer
Speaker 3: hurts unless you're Mariah Carey singing her nineteen ninety one
Speaker 3: ear splitting single emotions so good. So that was from
Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety one VMA's which experts say was her
Speaker 3: highest recorded note at a G sharp seven I think,
Speaker 3: which would be three point three killer hertz? Is that
Speaker 3: like dolphin range? Almost? I checked in, and those marine
Speaker 3: mammal friends of ours can whistle at three point five
Speaker 3: to ten killer herts. And actually, in looking that range up,
Speaker 3: I stumbled across an absolute VENN diagram of this aside,
Speaker 3: which was a twenty twenty one TikTok of Mariah in
Speaker 3: the ocean singing a whistle tone to a dolphin who
Speaker 3: seems to react with some kind of surprise maybe glee.
Speaker 3: I shouldn't anthropomorphize, but speaking dolphin Mariah and setting world records.
Speaker 3: But then along came Georgia Brown, which is a stage
Speaker 3: name for an Italian Brazilian singer who was able to
Speaker 3: best Mariah and hit a G ten note. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna play it. If you have really sensitive ears, just
Speaker 3: turn down your volume for a second or skip ahead
Speaker 3: fifteen seconds because it is bonkers you've like, So that
Speaker 3: would be around a five point five killhertz, like mid
Speaker 3: dolphin range. So if you're carpooling with dolphins, they loved it.
Speaker 3: But those are the highest of highs. There's got to
Speaker 3: be a low there is, and its name is Tim.
Speaker 3: Tim Storms, an American country crooner, can sing eight octaves
Speaker 3: below the lowest piano key, making a sound that is
Speaker 3: less than a single parts point one eighty nine parts
Speaker 3: to be exact. So we can't even hear it, but
Speaker 3: we can fuel the vibrations. And of course I don't
Speaker 3: have a recording of that because again we can't hear it.
Speaker 3: But here's an example of Tim's just casual, everyday, non
Speaker 3: record breaking singing.
Speaker 6: The low.
Speaker 7: Room.
Speaker 3: One of the top comments on that YouTube video is
Speaker 3: thanks this dislodged my kidney stones. Now, of course, our
Speaker 3: hearing can change over time, but what happens to our
Speaker 3: voices over the whole course of our lives? So many
Speaker 3: of you had this question, including Virginia Bruce, Hannah Lapham,
Speaker 3: Lana Schuster, Celia Bell, Andrea Crane, Marriage Snowlander first time
Speaker 3: question askers Laura Roser and Cocoon Soso and Courtney Kay
Speaker 3: wanted to know are their strategies to prevent our voices
Speaker 3: from aging?
Speaker 4: So to reduce the impact of aging on the voice,
Speaker 4: stay hydrated, take good care of your voice. Again those
Speaker 4: three rules. No cell phone outdoors, no yelling, no whispering,
Speaker 4: And if your voice is in trouble for more than
Speaker 4: about ten days to two weeks, come see somebody who
Speaker 4: can talk to you about options.
Speaker 3: I need a doctor. I really love this question, Delaney,
Speaker 3: jen A, Greg Wallach, Bennett Gerber, Jade Walker wanted to know,
Speaker 3: in Jade's words, voice breaks, what are they? And Bennett
Speaker 3: asked why does my voice still crack? And then also
Speaker 3: jen A and Delaney want to know why does being
Speaker 3: nervous make our voices shake? Like when you watch a
Speaker 3: ted talk and you can tell someone's nervous a little warribly.
Speaker 3: What's happening when our voice cracks?
Speaker 4: Okay, So there's two different kinds of cracks that I'm
Speaker 4: hearing in these questions. One is the crack that happens
Speaker 4: when you haven't made the switch from your chest voice
Speaker 4: to your head voice, or the falsetto So if you're
Speaker 4: trying to sing with full power at a note that's
Speaker 4: outside of what your voicebox is physically able to do.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be like it's gonna say no, gonna sit
Speaker 4: down like an angry dog and say no. And that's
Speaker 4: when you get the haha while you're trying to sing. Now,
Speaker 4: the effect that you see when someone's doing a public
Speaker 4: speaking event, when they're having nerves that's coming from adrenaline
Speaker 4: or epinephrin, that's coursing through the body. Because all of
Speaker 4: our threats are now mental and psychological largely instead of physical,
Speaker 4: our body perceives danger the same way. So there's no
Speaker 4: difference between I'm about to be interviewed by Ali Ward
Speaker 4: and I'm being chased by a tiger. Right, So your
Speaker 4: body's nervous system again, that's sympathetic nervous system is like,
Speaker 4: all right, gang, we're in danger.
Speaker 8: Everybody get pumped.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 8: Kidneys, shut off, blood vessels to the to the outside parts.
Speaker 3: Clamp down.
Speaker 4: We don't want to bleed to death.
Speaker 3: Heart.
Speaker 8: Let's go to the big muscles in the in the
Speaker 8: in the close part of the arm, and in the leg.
Speaker 8: Because we're either gonna run or we're gonna kick a doubles, right,
Speaker 8: And so that adrenaline feeling is going to make your
Speaker 8: voice box just a little bit shakier because your breathing is.
Speaker 3: More erratic, and that's the power.
Speaker 4: There you go the lesson stuck.
Speaker 3: And then is there anything a person can do?
Speaker 4: What I did before you came was I sat still
Speaker 4: and I did some breathing exercises to help myself settle in.
Speaker 4: One of them is box breathing. I love this one
Speaker 4: very much, where you pick the number and you count
Speaker 4: in breath hold out, breath hold for whatever that number is.
Speaker 4: So in the beginning I usually start with like a
Speaker 4: three count, and then as I get more relaxed, I
Speaker 4: can get to a five count because I can hold
Speaker 4: my breath that long, and those breath holdings are going
Speaker 4: to activate the balancing system, the power sympathetic system to
Speaker 4: calm you down.
Speaker 3: So deep breathing does work neurologically, it does. Yeah, It's
Speaker 3: so funny because it's like, if you are freaking out
Speaker 3: a little bit, it seems so difficult to sit down
Speaker 3: and have a deep breath even though you know it's
Speaker 3: going to help. Yeah, same thing as like if you're depressed.
Speaker 3: If you can get up and walk, it's probably gonna
Speaker 3: make you feel better. Yeah, but you're like, it's the hardest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the activation energy to do the thing is the
Speaker 4: hardest part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, activation energy, executive function anyone. So we have a
Speaker 3: three part series on ADHD from February twenty twenty two
Speaker 3: with doctor Russell brand come again. Oh my god, what
Speaker 3: the fuck? Russell brand is not his name. His name
Speaker 3: is Russell Barkley. Russell Brandt is the British guy with
Speaker 3: the hair that looks like it smells like knag Champa
Speaker 3: who was married to Katie Perry. Not an evil version,
Speaker 3: but just you know, Russell Barkley. I had to go
Speaker 3: step out of the audio booth and look that up
Speaker 3: on my phone. I've recently given up caffeine. Let's get
Speaker 3: back to it, Like I was saying, we have a
Speaker 3: three part series on ADHD from February twenty two for you,
Speaker 3: and yes, I will link that in the show notes
Speaker 3: to make it easier because I get it. I see you.
Speaker 3: I'm one of you. Speaking of patron, Jasmine Quassa asked,
Speaker 3: why can I always tell the other person on the
Speaker 3: line is also black like me? I know that race
Speaker 3: is a construct with no biological basis, and that accents
Speaker 3: and dialects are the things that can be reliably associated
Speaker 3: with race. And I know that this is a sticky question,
Speaker 3: they write, but is there something about ancestral origin that
Speaker 3: can affect the quality of the voice, just like the
Speaker 3: eye shape and hair textures and how they vary across
Speaker 3: the planet. So I looked into this and I found
Speaker 3: a few papers such as do African Americans really have
Speaker 3: lower voices? Pitch? Gender and ethnicity in Memphis and another
Speaker 3: one titled variation in global and intonational pitch settings among
Speaker 3: Black and White speakers of Southern American English. Guests who
Speaker 3: wrotem none other than twenty eighteen phonology guest doctor Nicole Holliday,
Speaker 3: who has been on the show and whom we love so.
Speaker 3: One of the points that she makes in her research
Speaker 3: is that aave African American vernacular English sees more pitch variation.
Speaker 3: And I texted doctor Alexander between the Part one of
Speaker 3: the Part two episodes about this question, and she said,
Speaker 3: sometimes we are tricked. These intonations and flavors in the
Speaker 3: voice are learned, and often we put on the affectations
Speaker 3: we think that the audience or other person will connect
Speaker 3: to best. She continued, I've had at least three accents
Speaker 3: throughout my life, but I've been the same person the
Speaker 3: whole time. And she ended that with a heart emoji
Speaker 3: because she's the best. Also, we have a melanology episode
Speaker 3: coming up about race an biology and skin pigment and
Speaker 3: so much good stuff with doctor Tina Lisisi. So that's
Speaker 3: coming out in a few weeks, So hang on tight
Speaker 3: for that because we'll address that very question. And on
Speaker 3: the note of pitch being acquired or biological specs, OWL
Speaker 3: and Tristan de Brunner asked about the sociology between fem
Speaker 3: and mask voices, and Gabe Nuth said, sometimes someone speaks
Speaker 3: and I'm surprised by the way their voice sounds, so
Speaker 3: I often wonder why I even had that expectation in
Speaker 3: the first place. They were not alone.
Speaker 7: R J.
Speaker 3: Deutsch said, ask about gay voice, please and thank you,
Speaker 3: and Alive said, also, mommy voice, is it really an
Speaker 3: evolutionary thing that sparked human language? You know, speaking in
Speaker 3: a register that's higher. Red Cedar also said, I've heard
Speaker 3: rumors that some deep voice guys are totally faking it.
Speaker 3: And that the gay voice might be more natural. Do
Speaker 3: you ever have patients who are trying to modify the
Speaker 3: way they sound for cultural reasons?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And overall the umbrella term for that is affectations, okay.
Speaker 4: And so the quote gay voice is about signaling in
Speaker 4: grouping when you're with your people, right and to find
Speaker 4: your people, and it can be a way of determining
Speaker 4: very quickly who is for or not for you with
Speaker 4: all of the vocal affectations. And so if you are
Speaker 4: a vocal fry kind of a talker, people who are
Speaker 4: irritated are gonna they're gonna gravitate away from you, and
Speaker 4: you're going to keep people around you who are your
Speaker 4: in group if you need the or if you're if
Speaker 4: you're putting on or exaggerating the gay voice as people
Speaker 4: do call it, that also signals this is who I am.
Speaker 4: I'm comfortable with who I am, and if you're not,
Speaker 4: that is your problem, not mine.
Speaker 5: M h.
Speaker 4: And oh, we just had that theahnose where that's an affectation.
Speaker 4: The documentary exposed that wasn't her voice. She was up
Speaker 4: there on the dead stages and such talk at all
Speaker 4: like this. And then when you catch her aside question,
Speaker 4: she would talk in her more natural voice. But there
Speaker 4: are connotations of power vulnerability in group belonging, all of
Speaker 4: which can be signaled with the voice, And so we're
Speaker 4: all doing it. My voice that I'm talking with to
Speaker 4: you now signals in group, to the family I was
Speaker 4: born into, because this is around where my mom talked,
Speaker 4: and so like, this is what I grew up hearing
Speaker 4: as a woman's voice, and so when mine comes out
Speaker 4: this way, that's fine. Now. Sometimes maybe if I'm a
Speaker 4: little excited, or if we're having a very femi time,
Speaker 4: my pitch might go up a little bit and I
Speaker 4: might be talking up here. But this is my relaxed
Speaker 4: register right here. I probably even did it during this
Speaker 4: recordings run.
Speaker 3: You listen back, you're gonna have to hear it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like a range of your own pitch is also
Speaker 4: normal because the voice is an emotional experience also, And
Speaker 4: so yeah, when I'm super excited, when my mets are
Speaker 4: killing it and we make the playoffs, my.
Speaker 3: Pitch goes a higher. I get excited.
Speaker 4: And when things are a little eh, yeah, maybe I'm
Speaker 4: a little bit down here when I'm giving maybe some
Speaker 4: disappointing news or I don't want to talk about the thing.
Speaker 4: I might be down here, but that entire range is
Speaker 4: natural for me. If it's taking a lot of work,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't recommend it, because again, then you're putting too
Speaker 4: much tension on the voice box. If you ever feel
Speaker 4: pain either in the neck or in the throat when
Speaker 4: you're speaking, that's an indication for a medical exam immediately.
Speaker 4: What about baby talk?
Speaker 3: When we see something cute, why does it goes up.
Speaker 4: And is attached with the violence called cute aggression? Yes,
Speaker 4: so that I think is more cultural, it's not physiological.
Speaker 4: But gosh darn it if babies don't respond to those
Speaker 4: high pitches, Gosh darn it if they don't love it,
Speaker 4: and so we do it more.
Speaker 3: And just a side note, we side noted about this
Speaker 3: in the Touthology or Squid episode with doctor Sarah McNaulty.
Speaker 3: But if something adorable makes you want to destroy a
Speaker 3: vase or kick your couch, this is indeed what Yale
Speaker 3: researchers have studied and dubbed cute aggression. And one hypothesis
Speaker 3: is that the brain simply cannot deal with that much
Speaker 3: positive stimulation at once and turn some of it into
Speaker 3: the opposite, like a negative emotion, which for most people
Speaker 3: ends up being aggression or screaming or squealing or slapping
Speaker 3: themselves about the face. But what if you squeal in
Speaker 3: the presence of a baby? Do they like it? I
Speaker 3: don't know, I asked the fourth mentioned called the Internet,
Speaker 3: and it pointed me toward the twenty seventeen Current Biology
Speaker 3: study titled mothers consistently alter their unique vocal fingerprints when
Speaker 3: communicating with infants And yes, parents raise the pitch of
Speaker 3: their voice around babies across so many cultures and languages.
Speaker 3: Even monkeys do it, and scientists think that the exaggerated
Speaker 3: speech patterns can maybe help babies pick up on communication faster.
Speaker 3: But I also think that when we see something cute,
Speaker 3: what happens is there's a variety of ghosts in the
Speaker 3: room who also see the cute thing, and since they
Speaker 3: can get away with a lot of weird shit, the
Speaker 3: ghosts experience that cute aggression and then they try to
Speaker 3: choke us, and then it compresses our resonators and our larynx,
Speaker 3: making us squeal. And that theory isn't proven, but it
Speaker 3: is correct. So patrons, Sedoni s and Maddy East wanted
Speaker 3: to know if you're with child, why your voice might
Speaker 3: sound different to you, And the reason is because it
Speaker 3: is different. Have you ever seen a pregnant person's feet.
Speaker 3: A lot of the body swells up and the vocal
Speaker 3: cords just do not have a get out of swelling
Speaker 3: free pass here, folks. So that's what's going on. Wacky huh, now,
Speaker 3: Earl of gramblecan and Patron David wanted to know. In
Speaker 3: David's words, am I correct that some health issues can
Speaker 3: be diagnosed by speech? If so? Has that work, doctor Alexander?
Speaker 4: That's how so there are signs that we can hear
Speaker 4: in the voice. There is a certain category of neurologic
Speaker 4: voice disorders that are attached to things that go throughout
Speaker 4: the whole body. Among them includes like Parkinson's disease. The
Speaker 4: Parkinson's voice tends to be very low in volume, so
Speaker 4: very quiet and also a little bit garbled or jumbled
Speaker 4: because they're not moving their lips and face as well.
Speaker 4: They're resonators and articulators as well, so sometimes we can
Speaker 4: get an inkling that way. There are some autoimmune diseases
Speaker 4: that show up in the voicebox because they make deposits
Speaker 4: or changes in the shape of the voicebox or even
Speaker 4: narrow part of the breathing passage, so that'll give us
Speaker 4: a hint. And then there are also some nerve diseases
Speaker 4: of the voice box themselves that I can those of
Speaker 4: us who are experienced with it, we can begin to
Speaker 4: diagnose it just on the story and listening to the
Speaker 4: person's voice, which is one of the tensions of having
Speaker 4: a voice practice is the person's coming to me with
Speaker 4: a voice problem or concern and then I ask them
Speaker 4: to talk. And so they often will come with a
Speaker 4: family member who wants to talk for them, and I
Speaker 4: have to tell them. I know this is a loving
Speaker 4: attempt to make this easier for them, but me hearing
Speaker 4: their voice is a part of my diagnostic process. And
Speaker 4: so as much as you can tell me your story,
Speaker 4: and when you cannot anymore, will go to your reliable,
Speaker 4: loving helper. And I always frame them that way as
Speaker 4: a support, like, I know you're not trying to ruin this,
Speaker 4: but when they can't tell their own story, we will
Speaker 4: absolutely come to you. And I will come to you
Speaker 4: for any details you think they missed, because the sick
Speaker 4: person is going to miss things pretty often. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we have to hear the voice to diagnose the voice.
Speaker 3: But let's move on to something more critical, like when
Speaker 3: your roommate goes to Spain for three weeks and comes
Speaker 3: back with an accent. Patrons Amy Vagallen, Savannah Maguire, Afa Schaeffer,
Speaker 3: Jesse Hurlbert, and Jacqueline Pushman asks in Jacqueline's words, do
Speaker 3: accents have an impact on voice boxes or the other
Speaker 3: way around. A lot of people asked about accents and
Speaker 3: what do they have an impact on voice boxes or
Speaker 3: do they play a role or is that completely just
Speaker 3: affectation and that is something our brain is doing.
Speaker 4: So that's going to be articulators. Again, the way that
Speaker 4: we sound, the way that we shape the sound with
Speaker 4: our mouth, throat, lips, tongue, teeth. Accents are particular lips, tongue, teeth.
Speaker 4: And it has to do with the fact that when
Speaker 4: you're young and learning language, your primary language or languages
Speaker 4: that you get when you're a kid, train how your mouth, lips, tongue,
Speaker 4: and teeth move when you're making language. And so if
Speaker 4: there are some sounds that if you never practiced doing them,
Speaker 4: it's hard for you to do it when you're an adult.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, so many folks I will listen to
Speaker 3: Inside Here we Go, Ap Miranda Halsey, Vincent, Meghan Duffy,
Speaker 3: Aril Van san Emmettwald, Shakira Alahi, Julia Cherka, Mark Hewlett,
Speaker 3: mccorndog A Bob's Burgers fan, You, Kylie Peerless, down Tween,
Speaker 3: Rachel Garvey's, Patti Bergman's Beeck's Owl, Meriti Snowlander, Connie Brooks,
Speaker 3: Julie s Bradley and first time askers Ashley Rivers, Wendy
Speaker 3: Sue Grover and Louise Combate want to know what happens
Speaker 3: when you are losing your voice? Where does it go?
Speaker 3: Rachel asked if it's normal to be hoarse after shouting
Speaker 3: or cheering at events. I recently went to Disneyland and
Speaker 3: screamed my face off, and then my episode that came
Speaker 3: out that week, I sounded like I was. I should
Speaker 3: be in the hospital.
Speaker 4: That's right. So that's right, young lady. So when you
Speaker 4: lose your voice, it is because we have lost the
Speaker 4: ability for the vocal folds to do their vibration, and
Speaker 4: that can happen from swelling or from new stiffness, something
Speaker 4: like a blood vessel breaking. So shouting in particular, can
Speaker 4: put blood vessels at risk in the voice box to
Speaker 4: break and when well, let's talk about the structure of
Speaker 4: the vocal cords. So they've got a lining what we
Speaker 4: call epithelium, and then just under that is a special
Speaker 4: jelly layer called the superficial lamin appropria, and that jelly
Speaker 4: layer is what lets the skin, the epithelium, the mucosa,
Speaker 4: the lining vibrate to make the sound. While the rest
Speaker 4: of the vocal fold is changing positions to breathe and speak.
Speaker 4: This very thin vibration is what's really making the sound.
Speaker 4: And so if that gets stiffened by swelling or an
Speaker 4: injury from a blood vessel being broken, or from chronic
Speaker 4: aggressive use, then that is the vibrus. Since the vibration
Speaker 4: is the source of the voice, part of the source
Speaker 4: of the voice. When the vibration stops, then you get
Speaker 4: no sound or reduced sound, or reduce reliability of this
Speaker 4: because they can't do their normal work. So oftentimes I'll
Speaker 4: think about like if you buy a very expensive violin
Speaker 4: and you know how to play it really well, and
Speaker 4: then somebody puts a wet paper towel on the strings,
Speaker 4: it's not going to sound good. And that's what happens
Speaker 4: when we've got a lot of mucus down there, or
Speaker 4: if somebody puts their hand on the strings, that can
Speaker 4: be like what the swelling and stiffness are You're not
Speaker 4: going to get good sound of that violin either.
Speaker 3: Wow. And do you think if a person who is
Speaker 3: screaming on a roller coaster or let's say the Mets win,
Speaker 3: is there a possibility for like broken blood vessels in
Speaker 3: there that just need a minute?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So this is one of the few times that
Speaker 4: I do encourage vocal rests when we have a broken
Speaker 4: blood vessel, which is you have to just let that,
Speaker 4: you have to ride that out, write it out. And
Speaker 4: that's real vocal rest, which is like you talk if
Speaker 4: it's an emergency, like a kid's going to get hit
Speaker 4: by a car, or someone's going to get burned by fire,
Speaker 4: and for almost everything else, you want to be silent.
Speaker 3: Right, what about crying? Patron Delaney asked, when you're about
Speaker 3: to cry, why does talking we're trying to talk open
Speaker 3: the floodgates. And other patrons with this question included our
Speaker 3: emotionally honest friends Jen, a snarky mermaid multi nine eighty
Speaker 3: seven Connie E Karringer, Hirfna and the wonderful Greg Wallach,
Speaker 3: who asked about being for klemped. Does crying mess up
Speaker 3: our vocal cords?
Speaker 4: So crying itself?
Speaker 7: Know?
Speaker 4: The sobbing though, sob because the sobbing is a mode
Speaker 4: of modified cough, and so it's yeah, and so it's
Speaker 4: doing the same trauma to the voice box. So cry quietly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, not that we've cried it all the
Speaker 3: last couple of months, not at all, or even today totally.
Speaker 3: It's been out great three years, great, great couple of years.
Speaker 3: We've been doing great. Yeah. What about did I ask
Speaker 3: you about burping already? No? Patrons said Shiragane wanted to
Speaker 3: know why do burps sound the way they do? It
Speaker 3: would be nicer to have more of a pleasant sound
Speaker 3: for off gassing. That last part of the question was
Speaker 3: more of a comment, but I hear you, is burping
Speaker 3: just coming from a completely different passageway or why are
Speaker 3: burps so guttural?
Speaker 4: So burping is coming from the esophagus and stomach, So
Speaker 4: that's air that you shouldn't have swallowed in the first place,
Speaker 4: making its way out before it becomes a guess Uese
Speaker 4: emission from blue yes, and so it's socially unacceptable, but
Speaker 4: better for you than if it makes its way all
Speaker 4: the way through and you can get lots of discomfort
Speaker 4: in the intestines. And so it's just that air getting
Speaker 4: organized and sending itself back up.
Speaker 3: And it's bypassing the larynx completely because it's a different tube.
Speaker 4: So they are neighbors and they share a foyer.
Speaker 8: The foyer that they.
Speaker 4: Share is the mouth and the upper part of the throat,
Speaker 4: what we call the pharynx, and then they divide into
Speaker 4: the trachea, which is underneath the larynx, and the esophagus,
Speaker 4: which is for food stuffs and liquids.
Speaker 3: How loud can someone burp? It's a good question that
Speaker 3: no one needs to know. But one hundred and twelve
Speaker 3: decibels that's the world record, which is about as loud
Speaker 3: as a rock concert. And I listened to a recording
Speaker 3: of that and it made me involuntarily ritch, So I'm
Speaker 3: not putting it in. But speaking of which, how does
Speaker 3: acid reflux mess up your larynx exactly? Well, your beautiful
Speaker 3: lips are the doorway to the alimentary canal, which is
Speaker 3: a long, fleshy pool noodle tube that's made up of
Speaker 3: your esophagus and your stomach. You're intestines, your colon, and
Speaker 3: finally your beautiful little butthole, which is only one sphincter
Speaker 3: along that whole journey. Did you hear in your mouth
Speaker 3: as a sphincter and you have them all the way
Speaker 3: down like one way doors you have in aesoftgeal sphincter
Speaker 3: that's a polite barrier between your stomach and your throat,
Speaker 3: and sometimes it's just a little lax directionally and your
Speaker 3: stomach acid does kind of like an unannounced backtrack drop
Speaker 3: in to be like hi, and your throat and your
Speaker 3: throat is like no, I don't appreciate the visit, and
Speaker 3: it responds with a sore throat and an irritated voice box.
Speaker 3: So how do you avoid this? Experts say, don't wear
Speaker 3: tight clothing, Maybe consider sleeping in a recliner, which doctor
Speaker 3: Alexander has done, and talk to a doc about some
Speaker 3: lifestyle or maybe dietary changes too, but do not suffer
Speaker 3: with it in silence. Now, what if one of your
Speaker 3: lifestyle changes is taking up throat singing, which is using
Speaker 3: the vocal cords and the resonator of the larynx and
Speaker 3: parts of your lips and jaw to produce a few
Speaker 3: different notes at a time. What a hobby. So many
Speaker 3: cultures do practice this, from parts of Central Asia, like
Speaker 3: the region north of Mongolia called Tuba, which has developed
Speaker 3: this continuous circular breathing to sing different notes. It's an
Speaker 3: aren't known as hume, and they developed it to replicate
Speaker 3: and then pay reverence to nature. But there are also
Speaker 3: groups from Japan and Italy and Peru and Indian and
Speaker 3: South Africa, China all over the practice throat singing. There
Speaker 3: are Alaskan Inuit groups that throat sing to lull their
Speaker 3: babies to sleep, but unshockingly, they were banned from throat
Speaker 3: singing by religious colonist missionaries who thought that the art
Speaker 3: sounded satanic. But a few elders preserve the technique and
Speaker 3: they've been able to pass it along to future generations.
Speaker 3: But many patrons wanted to know what is going on here,
Speaker 3: For example Aaron Gunderson, Chris Curious Bubbery, Michael McLeod Sonia Bird,
Speaker 3: Sarah King, Emilio, Donnellye Raimos and Nicole Peruzzi and first
Speaker 3: time question asker is Sherry Denhy and Crystal Simon's So
Speaker 3: many folks wanted to know about throat singing. Sarah King says,
Speaker 3: throat music. Tell me how they do it? Please? Does
Speaker 3: it hurt like Tibetan monks and stuff? Chris Curious asked,
Speaker 3: what's happening in the voice box? And my brother in
Speaker 3: law does throat singing. Shout out to the lovely and
Speaker 3: talented Kyle Sleeper of Whitefish Montanai and he does not
Speaker 3: sound human when he does it. What's going on?
Speaker 4: So we naturally use our larryings, our true vocal folds
Speaker 4: as vibrator under certain training. And that's what throat singing
Speaker 4: is is very specific training. They're using other vibrators, so
Speaker 4: other parts of the throat are doing more intense vibration
Speaker 4: than you and I are trained to do, and so
Speaker 4: they're able to make multiple sounds at the same time,
Speaker 4: and also a sound that has a totally different shape,
Speaker 4: because if you're vibrating some of your resonators instead of
Speaker 4: just your primary vibrator, then we get a whole different sound.
Speaker 3: So training is key for that.
Speaker 4: M Yeah, and that's another one. I'm impressed with your
Speaker 4: brother in law, because that's another thing where if you
Speaker 4: don't get it early, I don't understand how. I don't
Speaker 4: understand how you learned that at like thirty.
Speaker 3: I asked him for tips and he sent me this
Speaker 3: video the dogs.
Speaker 9: Are going crazy. But I think advice would be, as
Speaker 9: you're relaxing and as you're vibrating your vocal cords down here,
Speaker 9: it shouldn't hurt if you're if it's less cookie.
Speaker 3: Monster, which would be like, hmmm, it's less that.
Speaker 9: It's a little bit lower down and it's a little
Speaker 9: more relaxed.
Speaker 3: Who Also, I was like, Kyle Sleeper, my brother, can
Speaker 3: I tell people that you're cool and happen to be single?
Speaker 3: And he said no, And then I was like, but
Speaker 3: ologize are the best and he was like, I mean,
Speaker 3: so Kyle Sleeper on Instagram just say Dad says, Hi, Okay,
Speaker 3: as long as we are tossing out my recommendations, we're
Speaker 3: going to hear about a few sponsors of ologies coming
Speaker 3: up who make it possible for us to donate to
Speaker 3: a cause of doctor Alexander's choosing. And that's once again
Speaker 3: the Laryngology Education Foundation Health Equity Grant Program, which supports
Speaker 3: endeavors that increase understanding and awareness of how racial disparities
Speaker 3: impact laryngology and speech language pathology care in the US,
Speaker 3: specifically for patients of the black diaspora, and it supports
Speaker 3: initiatives that address the disparities in our communities. So thank
Speaker 3: you doctor Alexander for doing the show and for pointing
Speaker 3: us for the Laryngology Education Foundation Health Equity Grant program.
Speaker 3: Will link them in the show notes, and thank you
Speaker 3: to these sponsors for making the donation possible.
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Speaker 11: Be a antomagt bugger on alu the hearten near the hullah,
Speaker 11: the hymen a heckol ah ersin it where uraslonsela dani
Speaker 11: the tain knew those shoes that would kill nag at
Speaker 11: their hoop la hula, humperodes on udor orlonse is face
Speaker 11: that gones through Tasha, Tapa, Sierra Nashka, august nav Is
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Speaker 11: in the hearn?
Speaker 3: Okay, where were we? We were throat singing. So for
Speaker 3: more throat singing tunes, you can look up performances by
Speaker 3: Tuvin Throat Singing Ensemble Alash. You can seek out throat
Speaker 3: singing groups on whatever your favorite music app is, or
Speaker 3: you can buy music, buy smaller artists on sites like
Speaker 3: band camp, and look for local indigenous performers that you
Speaker 3: can support. So jam it in your brain. Okay. More
Speaker 3: questions Christine Parker, Graham, Jen Logan, Jesse Rose, Jasmine Fassa,
Speaker 3: Tanya Emilio, and LeAnn Murray Lean longtime listener, first time
Speaker 3: question asker, and ask as a singer, I'm curious what's
Speaker 3: actually happening when a vibrato happens? And is their truth
Speaker 3: to what their teacher said about always being really hydrated?
Speaker 3: For singers, always p clear thing is what they heard,
Speaker 3: But all these folks wanted to know what is vibrato.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so vibrato is an additional layer that we put
Speaker 4: on top where we are gently varying the resonator. So
Speaker 4: that would be like if you had maybe a flexible
Speaker 4: piano where you could squeeze it in and out. That
Speaker 4: would change the frequency in a different way than changing
Speaker 4: the actual tone that's being struck. And so vibrato you'll
Speaker 4: see when you watch the voice the neck of someone
Speaker 4: who's singing with vibrato, you'll see the whole voice box
Speaker 4: moving often. And so that is doing some subtle changes
Speaker 4: to the shape of the resonating cavity, and that's what's
Speaker 4: changing it. That's what that's what vibrato comes from.
Speaker 3: Pee and clear.
Speaker 4: It is probably a little bit overachieving, but the more
Speaker 4: hydration that's available in your body, the more your body
Speaker 4: can distribute it to the places that need it. And
Speaker 4: so I would say definitely drink wh you're thirsty, drink
Speaker 4: a little ahead of being thirsty, and don't cross your
Speaker 4: singing teacher.
Speaker 3: Can you learn vibrato or is it just like some
Speaker 3: people can use those muscles, some can't.
Speaker 4: Oh, so it's something that I can be taught, and
Speaker 4: just in my practice, I spend a lot of time
Speaker 4: taking my singers out of it because the way that
Speaker 4: our machine works to do the imaging of the voice box,
Speaker 4: we need you to make a single frequency for the
Speaker 4: machine to work, and so they naturally want to give
Speaker 4: me all of this and really, I want this a
Speaker 4: flat tone, and their brains are so focused on making
Speaker 4: the kind of theatrical sound that lets them be as
Speaker 4: long as possible. My I don't need it to be
Speaker 4: that long, but I needed to make one frequency, please
Speaker 4: for this machine to work. Stay with me, kid, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So a few machines that are an ologist of this
Speaker 3: ILK might employ are videostrobolaryngoscopy or a laryngeal electromiography. And
Speaker 3: what they'll do they'll hook you up to it and
Speaker 3: then they'll maybe make you pronounce those words. And if
Speaker 3: you can't pronounce them, then they're like your normals. Those
Speaker 3: are very big words. That's not true. But what if
Speaker 3: your voice really though, isn't fine. We covered gender affirming
Speaker 3: vocal surgeries and therapies in Part one too, but many
Speaker 3: people asked about just repairing vocal core damage and voice
Speaker 3: box transplants. And just tune ups. So I'm looking at
Speaker 3: you Kelsey Simpson, Patrick W. Shan and Ryan, Emily Okerland,
Speaker 3: Kathleen Daling, Jesse Dragon, Courtney Peterson, don Ewald, Ellen Voss, Nance,
Speaker 3: Kay Clark, Elia Myers, Paulina Nisheva, Katie Munez, and Patti Bergman.
Speaker 3: And first time question askers Adam Silk, emmett Wald and
Speaker 3: Arianna Laro, who asked voice surgeries what sort of black
Speaker 3: magic is that? And in this specific case, I think
Speaker 3: it would technically be be black girl magic, but I'll
Speaker 3: let the voice surgeon speak to the other questions. What
Speaker 3: about damaging or repairing a voice boxe somethin host of
Speaker 3: other people want to know after being damaged, will your
Speaker 3: voice box repair itself or will you just have to
Speaker 3: live with the damage forever? Or are there surgeries to
Speaker 3: repair it?
Speaker 4: So that very much depends on the nature of the injury.
Speaker 4: So if the injury was something like they were in
Speaker 4: a car accident and the voice box the cartilage is
Speaker 4: actually broken, that's going to need medical help. If it
Speaker 4: is a phono trauma from the way that they use
Speaker 4: the voice that can be coached often, but sometimes there
Speaker 4: are parts of that that need surgery is to like
Speaker 4: a cyst or a polyp. We often will end up
Speaker 4: needing surgery. There's a thing called the pseudocyst that we
Speaker 4: will often treat with anti reflux medication and also good
Speaker 4: habits against reflux. Get our recliner, guys. But there also
Speaker 4: can be injuries from medical care that then we have
Speaker 4: to come behind and fix, so breathing tubes in the
Speaker 4: throat intubation. Sometimes if there's an emergency like a car
Speaker 4: accident or you know, Heaven forbid, some kind of medical emergency,
Speaker 4: that's what we call out in the field, not in
Speaker 4: the hospital, not in a doctor's office. The emergency medical
Speaker 4: technicians are doing their best and so they're just trying
Speaker 4: to have you alive when you get to us. And
Speaker 4: so some of the things that they may do with
Speaker 4: a breathing tube or a feeding tube may do some
Speaker 4: bumps and bruises of the voice box, and we're here
Speaker 4: to help rescue that. So contact your local leryngologists for
Speaker 4: some help.
Speaker 3: And with stroke victims, is it the articulators that need
Speaker 3: to be retrained or have lost some of their functional.
Speaker 4: So often with stroke survivors, it is what we call dysarthria,
Speaker 4: so dis means bad or wrong, and arthria is shaping,
Speaker 4: so they're going to have oftentimes problems moving the lips, tongue, cheeks, face,
Speaker 4: and so they're not shaping the sound well. And so
Speaker 4: again the exam is, yes, I'm looking at my patient,
Speaker 4: but I'm listening equally hard. Do they have a strong
Speaker 4: sound but the shape is garbled? Or can I just
Speaker 4: not hear them at all? And so I have to
Speaker 4: disort out is it a problem in the mouth, Is
Speaker 4: it a problem of their ventures because that also not
Speaker 4: having teeth impacts the way your lips lie, and that'll
Speaker 4: change the sound of your speech, but not necessarily the voice.
Speaker 4: But then we also examine to see if there are
Speaker 4: any issues with movement of the voice box itself. So
Speaker 4: one or more vocal cords can be paralyzed, not usually
Speaker 4: not from a stroke where the person has recovered, because
Speaker 4: you have to lose a lot of brain to get
Speaker 4: a vocal fold, not to move after a stroke, But
Speaker 4: we always examined to see what's happening.
Speaker 3: And is there a lot of hope in terms of
Speaker 3: rehabilitation for that or is it a pretty tough road.
Speaker 4: So kind of the trajectory of the rehabilitation and recovery
Speaker 4: goes along with the brain recovery. So getting good physical
Speaker 4: medicine and rehab treatment with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech
Speaker 4: therapy are all going to be important as the rest
Speaker 4: of the body and brain recover. We can additionally get
Speaker 4: better strength and also making sure that the lungs are
Speaker 4: working well and they're well supported and they're breathing is organized.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about tone and range. Some people want to know.
Speaker 3: Patron Natalie Prince and first time question asker Hope Shin asked,
Speaker 3: in Hope's words, why are some people naturally good at
Speaker 3: matching musical pitches i e. Singing while others aren't? And
Speaker 3: a flock of Songbird patrons such as Jade Walker, Iris Hutchings,
Speaker 3: Emily Layfield, Quinn Newman, and Tristandie Brenner wanted to know
Speaker 3: why it's harder for some folks to carry a tune?
Speaker 3: Why do some people just not have, in David Schuster's words,
Speaker 3: the balance between innate ability and talent and formal training
Speaker 3: when it comes to range and understanding and replicating tone.
Speaker 3: There are do some people's resonators just not give them
Speaker 3: a good idea of what sound they're making.
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, we can ask my dad. He's what we
Speaker 4: call wrong and strong when he's singing. It's precious now,
Speaker 4: but oh boy, was it embarrassing for about thirty years.
Speaker 4: So it's outside of the field of laryngology. But there
Speaker 4: is something in the brain where they're not hearing what
Speaker 4: they sound like to the rest of us. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: it's not even a matter of just like that tone
Speaker 4: difference that you know in the temporal bone or around
Speaker 4: the temporal bone. They're just not getting it. And I
Speaker 4: don't know how they would survive in a language setup
Speaker 4: that is tonal. So like, don't be one of these
Speaker 4: people and be born to a Mandarin speaking family, because
Speaker 4: you're not going to be able to communicate.
Speaker 3: Wow. I didn't even think about how different languages rely
Speaker 3: on tone so much more. Oh yeah, wow, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: So now onto a question that was just swelling up
Speaker 3: in the back of the throats of Melanie Lee McKenna, speed,
Speaker 3: Celia Bell, and me. What about tonsils? Ali Paul, first
Speaker 3: time question asker, says how much do tonsils affect the voice?
Speaker 3: Ali's been told I have huge consoles, but no doctor
Speaker 3: ever suggested they'd be removed. I had mine removed at
Speaker 3: twenty six.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Oh god, I was.
Speaker 3: It's terrible. Oh it's the worst, and it's a hate crime.
Speaker 3: It was. Yeah, I got I thought I was getting better,
Speaker 3: and then I ate a piece of chicken which got
Speaker 3: lodged in the hole in my throat.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: It was not a good time.
Speaker 4: No, Yeah, we have pretty high hurdles for adult ton selectomy.
Speaker 4: You really have to earn it because we know it's terrible.
Speaker 3: You earned it, Oh I didn't.
Speaker 4: And so ton selectomy can't affect the voice because it's
Speaker 4: changing the shape of your resonator. Again, like imagine you
Speaker 4: change the shape of the piano, it's gonna sound different.
Speaker 4: So if you have these big lumps in your throat
Speaker 4: and we take them out, you have to reorient yourself
Speaker 4: to how you're shaping your sound. And also it's just
Speaker 4: really a bad surgery. Yeah, we don't have a good
Speaker 4: time doing it. So that's why if your doctor is like,
Speaker 4: I don't think you ton select me, because it's because
Speaker 4: we have seen how bad it is. I like to explain,
Speaker 4: it hurts. It hurts more than you think it hurts.
Speaker 4: In a way that I can't really explain women who
Speaker 4: have given birth without any medicine. Tell me to selected me.
Speaker 3: Hurts really well as a person who has not had
Speaker 3: a baby and isn't going to. That makes me feel
Speaker 3: a little bit more like a badass.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Tom, select me is right up there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I woke up crying, like, like, days and weeks
Speaker 3: into it. I woke up crying because it was just
Speaker 3: it like knives. It was just like I had constant knives.
Speaker 3: A few people want to know even wants to know
Speaker 3: what happened to Julie Andrews's voice. I guess she had
Speaker 3: surgery on her vocal chords. A lot of people want
Speaker 3: to know about Julie Andrews, So Avan asked what happened
Speaker 3: to Julie Andrews's voice? She had such incredible range. What
Speaker 3: went wrong? They want to know? And Bee's knees and
Speaker 3: first time asker Sarah Rowe also wanted to know more
Speaker 3: about the sound of music and Mary Poppin' Star and
Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety seven vocal cord surgery she underwent. So
Speaker 3: she was doing Victor Victoria on Broadway and had some
Speaker 3: hoarseness from just the NonStop shows and had surgery to
Speaker 3: remove nodules she was told she had, although she actually
Speaker 3: didn't have nodules, and the needless surgery apparently destroyed her
Speaker 3: singing voice forever. It resulted in a malpracticed lawsuit to
Speaker 3: the New York City hospital that performed the surgery. And
Speaker 3: she's now eighty seven and she hasn't regained her voice.
Speaker 3: But she spoke to Barbara Walters. A year or so
Speaker 3: into losing it.
Speaker 7: I went in for a routine procedure that I was
Speaker 7: told would not be threatening to my vocal cords. And
Speaker 7: since then, as you know, and as everybody's been talking about,
Speaker 7: I've just been unable to sing.
Speaker 3: That's a big question. Will Julie Andrews be able to
Speaker 3: sing again?
Speaker 11: Well?
Speaker 3: I can only say I hope. So do you have
Speaker 3: any thoughts about her?
Speaker 4: Thoughts about Dame Julie Andrews. Number one, she's a queen,
Speaker 4: absolutely absolutely everything from Maria to Mary Poppins to the
Speaker 4: Queen of Genovia, full support and what happened we believe. Again,
Speaker 4: I'm not a privy to her medical care and we
Speaker 4: respect her privacy, but anytime we operate on the vocal folds,
Speaker 4: remember I describe that superficial lemon appropriate that special jelly layer.
Speaker 4: Every time we open it or operate into it, we
Speaker 4: are increasing the risk that there could be a scar
Speaker 4: that develops. And if you scar or lose that SLP layer,
Speaker 4: you can't make that vibration. And that's why she can't
Speaker 4: sing the way she used to.
Speaker 3: There must be a lot of grief, I imagine.
Speaker 4: First, yes, you know singing, it is her identity. The
Speaker 4: voice for me, like the voice is, that's our that's
Speaker 4: our imprint, that's our real signature. These days, in particular,
Speaker 4: you know who's on the phone without the caller ID
Speaker 4: when you hear them. Infants know our voices. Infants know
Speaker 4: their mum from what they heard inside. So much emotion
Speaker 4: is attached to the voice, and so that's why, even
Speaker 4: though I do lots of voice surgeries, I don't take
Speaker 4: it lightly. Every time we're operating on the voice, we're
Speaker 4: taking a risk that the voice will be different in
Speaker 4: a bad way when we're done. So we have specialized techniques.
Speaker 4: We do things like ad injection of liquid to float
Speaker 4: the lining away from that layer so that we can
Speaker 4: operate on it safely, and just all kinds of things
Speaker 4: to protect that voice because we haven't developed good replacement
Speaker 4: for it yet. Yeah, there's lots of labs that are
Speaker 4: trying to engineer a replacement for super official lamin appropria,
Speaker 4: but it's just not there yet.
Speaker 3: And remember from part one that the superficial lamina appropria
Speaker 3: is that layer right under the moist epithelial tissue, and
Speaker 3: the superficial lamin appropria covers the muscles of the vocal cords.
Speaker 3: And you do not want to fuck that up and
Speaker 3: ruin Julie Andrews's life, No, thank you. And also from
Speaker 3: part one, we covered Adams apples a little in an aside,
Speaker 3: but listener, Gabe Nuth is not a fan of getting
Speaker 3: smacked in theirs. And other folks had questions. Lila mancad
Speaker 3: Ira Gray Deny Dejournet and cass all wanted to know
Speaker 3: essentially like what's the deal with Adams apples? And then last,
Speaker 3: what's your question? I realized we're about to ask what
Speaker 3: about Atom's apples? Some people want to know why does
Speaker 3: it hurt so bad when you get clotheslined on the
Speaker 3: atom's apple like ugh? And then also surgeries for reduction
Speaker 3: of that does that affect the voice or is that
Speaker 3: just all kind of a just bulk of cartilage.
Speaker 4: So getting a closeline injury to that area hurts because
Speaker 4: it's supposed to hurt because you're not supposed to do that. No,
Speaker 4: but it's it's again, it's that flexible, the soft the cartilage,
Speaker 4: it'll flex, but it can also break. So if you're
Speaker 4: having pain, please seek medical attention. That's number one. And
Speaker 4: then when it comes to reducing the prominence of it,
Speaker 4: that is a part of our gender affirming surgery protocols
Speaker 4: that we can do. We make small incisions up under
Speaker 4: the chin, and we use special instruments to shave that
Speaker 4: area down so that it's smoother and easier to either
Speaker 4: camouflage with makeup or just not obvious at all. And
Speaker 4: we kind of set the surgery up so that we
Speaker 4: can watch the voice box at the same time to
Speaker 4: make sure that we're not entering because it shouldn't affect
Speaker 4: the voice. We affect the voice for our fems in
Speaker 4: other ways with voice rehab or with the endoscopic through
Speaker 4: the natural whole surgery to shorten the vocal folds. But
Speaker 4: when we're shaving down the Adams apple, our goal is
Speaker 4: not to change the voice.
Speaker 3: So let's get to a critical question. Patron Jessica Janssen
Speaker 3: asked why can I not sing? While Alexandra Cattoul asked
Speaker 3: why can't I sing? Antonio Clark wanted to know can
Speaker 3: anyone learn to sing? Or are some of us just
Speaker 3: hopeless cases that should keep it to the shower. Likewise,
Speaker 3: Hester Dingle inquired can one learn to sing nicely? Or
Speaker 3: am I forever doomed to sound like a squawking cockatoo.
Speaker 3: Grace Strain, Jolan Bloom, Pepita Lee, t Scott glib Erica
Speaker 3: Perryandre celest Russo and Meredith snow land Or all had
Speaker 3: similar questions. But I'm gonna put it in the first
Speaker 3: person because I'm also ashamed and desperate. Do I have
Speaker 3: hope as a singer? My husband got me vocal lessons
Speaker 3: because we once were in a car on the road
Speaker 3: trip and he was like, what's a class you would
Speaker 3: want to take that scares you? And I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: a singing class. I'm terrified. But I've always wanted to sing,
Speaker 3: and because of COVID, I've put it off now for
Speaker 3: like a year, and also because I'm scared. Do I
Speaker 3: have hope?
Speaker 4: So I would say unequivocally yes, okay, appreciate that. And
Speaker 4: the reason for that is that singing is not always
Speaker 4: about what comes out m hm, but where it's coming from.
Speaker 4: So if the sound that comes out of your mouth
Speaker 4: came from joying in your heart, then you're already a success.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm going to form a band with your dad.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be rough for the rest of us.
Speaker 3: We're just gonna do it. It's do us all the
Speaker 3: time for that other than me and your dad singing.
Speaker 3: Hardest thing about your job, hardest thing about being a
Speaker 3: laryngologist anything.
Speaker 4: I would say the hardest things about being a laryngologist
Speaker 4: include sometimes having to tell people they have cancer fuck yeah,
Speaker 4: and having a surgical non success for getting out one
Speaker 4: of those airway tubes, and just having to tell them
Speaker 4: flat out what we tried didn't work and I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: and not so hard, but occasionally hard is that sometimes,
Speaker 4: like medicine is one of these things where you walk
Speaker 4: into a room with a stranger and they ask you
Speaker 4: a bunch of personal questions, and then some of my
Speaker 4: patients they tell me really really bad truths, like about
Speaker 4: their life or their situation and to be able to
Speaker 4: balance like my human heart and give them encouragement and
Speaker 4: also do the medical diagnostic work I have to do,
Speaker 4: because sometimes I just want to like go down the
Speaker 4: rabbit hole with them, you know, like whether it's oh,
Speaker 4: I'm here because I survived an abusive situation and I
Speaker 4: did have an injury to my voice box, and you know,
Speaker 4: what can we do to make it better? All the
Speaker 4: way to like, oh, I'm back, I'm trying to stop smoking,
Speaker 4: but I'm just out from incarceration. But I've got this
Speaker 4: great job. And for me to be able to be
Speaker 4: present and encouraging and neutral in their lives and be like, well,
Speaker 4: thank you for sharing that. You know that's not something
Speaker 4: you can share with everyone, and I thank you for
Speaker 4: trusting me with your truth. It's a real responsibility to
Speaker 4: be authentically here and present with patients so they can
Speaker 4: tell us the truth and we can get to the
Speaker 4: root of the matter. So it's sometimes hard, but it's
Speaker 4: also a privilege to be just that trusted. It can
Speaker 4: be tough, but we're trying to show up for our
Speaker 4: patients as real people. So sometimes your doc is having
Speaker 4: a bad day. Sometimes you're having a bad day, So
Speaker 4: we want to offer our patients grace, and we hope
Speaker 4: that you can offer us grace as well. And you know,
Speaker 4: I think sometimes people don't always remember that we may
Speaker 4: have just come from a room where we gave super
Speaker 4: super discouraging news to someone and then we're coming to
Speaker 4: something that's either good or mildly frustrating, and we work
Speaker 4: really hard internally to meet you where you are because
Speaker 4: for you, whatever we're talking about is serious and it
Speaker 4: doesn't really matter for that encounter that what I just
Speaker 4: came from. But your doctor is a person, and so
Speaker 4: they have to make that transition. So I hope sometimes
Speaker 4: if we're like five, ten or even forty minutes late,
Speaker 4: that people can understand that sometimes the person with cancers
Speaker 4: twenty minute appointment was not appropriate and I have to
Speaker 4: stay with them until we get through what they need
Speaker 4: to get through so that I can go and then
Speaker 4: tell you, no, you don't need a ton selectomy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Oh, that's such a good perspective to give people,
Speaker 3: especially as you know, people who have recently lost people
Speaker 3: you know what those appointments are like. Oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm so thankful for the other patients who did wait
Speaker 3: while I was in a room with my dad. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm sure you know that too. What about your favorite thing?
Speaker 3: What is it? What is it that just gets you
Speaker 3: out of bed?
Speaker 4: So Top two is taking out someone's tracky asked me
Speaker 4: to and they get to have their natural voice with
Speaker 4: no yucky appliance. Those are their words. And restoring someone's
Speaker 4: ability to communicate. So getting them back their voice, whether
Speaker 4: it's with surgery, medicine, or rehab in collaboration with my
Speaker 4: speech language pathologists, just getting them back their confidence and
Speaker 4: their spark. And I love when I can just be like,
Speaker 4: in the middle of the visit, I'll just go, do
Speaker 4: you know how much brighter you are than when you
Speaker 4: came here their first time? Do you feel different because
Speaker 4: I'm experiencing you differently? And then they go wait, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: and just like helping them identify that insight that the
Speaker 4: work that they invested in rehabilitating their voice is showing
Speaker 4: up in their life and the way that they just
Speaker 4: generally present.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for using your voice. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is a joy. You are an absolute joy. I'm using
Speaker 3: my voice to say I love you. I'm so glad
Speaker 3: that you do what you do well.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad that you do what you do.
Speaker 3: You're the best. Thank you for doing this. Thank you
Speaker 3: Ali for sad word. What a great about. So there
Speaker 3: it is, y'all. Part two asks smart surgeons, unsmart questions
Speaker 3: and follow doctor Rhonda Alexander at the links in the
Speaker 3: show notes on Twitter and Instagram. There's also a link
Speaker 3: to the Laryngology Education Foundation Health Equity Grant program. We
Speaker 3: are at ologies on Instagram and Twitter, and I'm at
Speaker 3: Ali Ward with one L on both and I'm on
Speaker 3: TikTok at Ali underscore ologies if you're into that. Smologies
Speaker 3: are shorter, filth free episodes of the show that are
Speaker 3: classroom safe, so you can find those at aliward dot
Speaker 3: com Smologies. Those are linked in the show notes. Thank
Speaker 3: you see Rodriguez Thomas and Mercedes Maitland for editing those ologies.
Speaker 3: Merch is available at ologiesmarch dot com. There are hats,
Speaker 3: there are shirts, totes, stickers more. Thank you to Aaron
Speaker 3: Talbert for adminting Theologies podcast Facebook group with assists from
Speaker 3: Bonnie Dutch and Shannon feltis. Thank you every person supporting
Speaker 3: at patreon dot com slash Ologies. Emily White of the
Speaker 3: Wordery makes professional transcripts and Caleb Patten bleeps them. Those
Speaker 3: are up at our website at aliward dot com. Slash ologies,
Speaker 3: dash extras linked in the show notes. Noel Dilworth does
Speaker 3: all of our scheduling and so much more. Susan Hale
Speaker 3: handles the merch and a million other things. Kelly R.
Speaker 3: Dwyer works at our website and she can make yours too.
Speaker 3: Nick Thorburn wrote and performed the theme music. Jared Sleeper
Speaker 3: is both handsome and an assistant editor on this episode,
Speaker 3: and huge thanks to Lady of the North Canadian and
Speaker 3: lead editor Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. I wonder and
Speaker 3: a joy she is. And if you stick around until
Speaker 3: the end of the episode, I reward you with a confession.
Speaker 3: And this week it's that it's during snake and time. People.
Speaker 3: It seems like once a year I'd get the rare
Speaker 3: pleasure of sticking a velgrow tipped wire that I got
Speaker 3: for seven dollars down my shower drain and then just
Speaker 3: birthing from the muck something that looks like the child
Speaker 3: of a squirrel, and a sock covered in hair, a
Speaker 3: jellyfish made out of hair. It's disgusting. And I love it.
Speaker 3: I love it. Let me tell you, let me tell
Speaker 3: you some all right. I never ever want you to
Speaker 3: look up reviews for something called a drain snake or
Speaker 3: a drain weasel on say Amazon, because if you click
Speaker 3: on those customer ratings and reviews and you scroll down
Speaker 3: and then you look at the gallery of customer images,
Speaker 3: never do that. I did it. I did it because
Speaker 3: I wanted to see. I wanted to see what clomes
Speaker 3: out of other people's drains.
Speaker 12: I need to see you so gross, a disgusting goblin gene,
Speaker 12: and I just needed to see what else comes out
Speaker 12: of people's dread.
Speaker 3: Oh it's catharsis and it's horror. And it's no longer
Speaker 3: a secret now you know.
Speaker 6: Ooh okay, byebye, Sorry.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna put in a plug to get your gardessan,
Speaker 4: get your HPV boy girler in between, get your hp
Speaker 4: be scene boy girler in between.
Speaker 5: When it comes to a great deal, Virgin Mobile doesn't
Speaker 5: play around, introducing a new symplan price locked at fifteen
Speaker 5: year old month for life with unlimited data, calls and
Speaker 5: text and ninety nine percent coverage. Switch today at Virgin
Speaker 5: Media dot Ie Virgin Media it's playtime.
Speaker 10: Tecency supply fifteen europer month locked in, while a Virgin
Speaker 10: Mobile customer twelve month contract includes unlimited data, standard calls
Speaker 10: and texts. All Irish Networks offer ends February eighteenth, twenty
Speaker 10: twenty six. See Virgin Media dot ie get value.
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