20 episodes
Speaking Of... Conversations on Voice, Speech, and Identity with Ryan O'Shea Ryan O'Shea
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5.0 • 16 Ratings
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Speaking Of... is a show about how we use our voices both in performance and in everyday life. Through conversations with performers, teachers, and anyone who has a voice, voice and speech coach Ryan O'Shea explores questions about how our voices and the ways we speak help shape and express our identity. Can someone's voice tell you whether or not they're a good person? Is there any way to change how you sound without feeling inauthentic? We'll examine these questions and many more in the course of the show by combining practical exercises and conceptual discussions about what it means to utilize your voice.
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“Why was James Corden’s performance in Netflix’s THE PROM offensive to gay people?” with Tim Murray
In this episode I’m joined by my talented & deeply funny friend Tim Murray. Tim is an actor, comedian, podcast host and all-around wonderful performer. Tim and I both watched the Netflix film based on the Broadway musical, The Prom, at the same time, and his response to the film inspired a very specific question from me: “Why was James Corden’s performance in Netflix’s The Prom offensive to gay people?”
This question opened up several other interesting pathways for our conversation, including the question of whether actors should play characters they don’t represent in real life, whether there is a “gay accent,” and how media depictions of certain groups of people can affect how they are treated in real life.
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast. -
“Is there such a thing as a ‘natural’ accent?” with Kevin Clayette
In this episode, I’m joined by my longtime client and friend, Kevin Clayette. Kevin is an actor originally from the French-speaking island of New Caledonia. He’s also lived in Australia, England, and now the US and he asked the question, “Is there such a thing as a natural accent?” Like many people who have moved around the world, Kevin’s accent has changed over the years and while he can consciously change his accent to be “American” or “Australian” or “French,” he’s not quite sure how to describe his “natural” accent…that is, his accent when he’s not conscious of being *in* an accent.
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast. -
“How do I manipulate the volume of my voice?” with Dominick Bailey
In this episode, I’m joined my friend, Dominick Bailey. Dominick is an actor, dancer, writer, and clinical pharmacist who asked the question, “How do I manipulate the volume of my voice?” Most of the time that I talk to clients about volume, it’s because they’re wondering how to have more volume, but Dominick asked the question because he’s sometimes gotten the feedback that he’s too loud. We talked about the ways in which our volume might be involuntarily affected by various circumstances, and I offered Dominick some tools to give him a better sense of how to consciously adjust his volume.
You can find complete show notes and links to everything we’ve mentioned in the episode on https://www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com/podcast. -
“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. -
“Why do we make assumptions about individual’s race based on how they sound?” with Brandon Piper
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. -
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.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Ryan is such a fantastic host and her wealth of knowledge about the human voice is so fascinating to listen to!
Very interesting for anyone who communicates!
As a voice coach, I find this podcast incredibly useful and relevant to anyone who has questions or curiosities about the way they communicate. It's approachable, practical and very interesting to listen to.
Completely Eye Opening!
Who hasn't listened to their own voice on a video or a tape and thought: "Is that what I really sound like? This podcast opened my eyes to the idea that so much of our self-identity is contained in our voice--both how we hear it "in our heads" and how we hear it from a recording device. Getting into both the physiology of how we support our voice with our breath, diaphragm and musculature (but in a way that is so interesting and interactive) AND the psychology of what we do to our voice and what our voice does to us...listenting to this podcast is like coming across that documentary that you didn't know you needed but after you watched it made you say: "Whoa, that is so cool! I had no idea how all of that works!" As a guy, I was particularly moved and educated by one of the episodes where the host and her guest talked about how women have been silenced by male leaders for generations and how girls are often signaled to literally silence themselves--and how that societal pressure can actually manifest itself by causing women to use their muscles and lungs as they speak in different ways than guys do. Fascinating and heartbreaking. Similarly, the discussion with a gay man about what a "masculine" or "feminine" voice really is and what value judgments we place on ourselves when we sound to ourselves differently than what we want to portray was also touching and revealing. Just a great exploration of an underappreciated topic that will be enjoyed by anyone with an intellectual curiousity about how we crazy humans work. Loved it!