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Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial information about who we are–and we rely on them to push ourselves up and out into the physical world. This week, we’re on a journey to understand how we got our unique sonic fingerprint, the power it affords us, and what happens when it’s taken away. Special thanks to Alice Wong, Wren Farrell, Hector Espinal and his parents, Crisaly and Hector Espinal, Mary Croke, Nancy Kielty, Beth McEwen, Robin Feuer Miller, Roomful of Teeth, Amanda Crider, Caroline Shaw, Judd Greenstein, Leilihua Lanzilotti, Rebekka Karijord, and Michael Harrison.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by -Annie McEwen and Matt KieltyProduced by - Annie McEwen and Matt KieltyOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom and Matt Kieltywith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Anna Pujol-Mazziniand Edited by - Alex Neason EPISODE CITATIONS: Books - Disability Intimacy by Alice Wong Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong This is the Voice by John Colapinto Websites - DisabilityVisibilityProject.com Audio/Artists - Roomful of Teeth (https://www.roomfulofteeth.org/) Partita for 8 Voices written by Caroline Shaw AEIOU composed by Judd Greenstein On Stochastic Wave behavior by Leilehua Lanzilotti Fugue by Rebekka Karijord, taken from the record “The Bell Tower", featuring Roomful of Teeth. Just Constellations, composed by Michael Harrison Sign up for our newsletter! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Duration
1h 11m
Broadcast on
26 Sep 2025
Audio Format
other

Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial information about who we are–and we rely on them to push ourselves up and out into the physical world.

This week, we’re on a journey to understand how we got our unique sonic fingerprint, the power it affords us, and what happens when it’s taken away.

Special thanks to Alice Wong, Wren Farrell, Hector Espinal and his parents, Crisaly and Hector Espinal, Mary Croke, Nancy Kielty, Beth McEwen, Robin Feuer Miller, Roomful of Teeth, Amanda Crider, Caroline Shaw, Judd Greenstein, Leilihua Lanzilotti, Rebekka Karijord, and Michael Harrison.

EPISODE CREDITS: 

Reported by -Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty
Produced by - Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty
Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom and Matt Kielty
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Anna Pujol-Mazzini
and Edited by  - Alex Neason

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Books - 

Websites -

Audio/Artists -

Roomful of Teeth (https://www.roomfulofteeth.org/)

Sign up for our newsletter! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.


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RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, an eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. I'm Lula Miller, I'm here with Valiant Producers, Matt Keelty, and Annie McEwen. Hello. Hi. All right. Okay. What are we here? What are we doing? Okay. So, today what we're doing is this. This thing right here. That's right. This. Here. What? Well, this thing right under our noses, where our mouths are, that emits this signal that is layered like lasagna that is carrying information that is making us judge people's wealth and income at education level, but it's also conveying all this emotional information, hostility, love, lust, anger, jealousy, all these physical operations, this respiratory, articulatory feat of symphonic timed movements that we use to make the air vibrate in interesting ways. It's the voice. That's right. That is a thing we use a fair amount here in the audio art. Sure. And so, I'm just going to stick with the layer of the phonology, but today we are bringing you three different layers of this thing, this important thing, the voice, one, where it comes from, two, the power it holds over you, and three, the power it can give you. So. Where it comes from. Oh, I should put these on. This is actually a story that came to us from this guy. Oh, that's turned down. Let's see. Let me turn the headphones up. John. Wait, wait, wait. You need to introduce yourself. Oh, yeah. My name is John Callopinto. I was a long time contributing editor at Rolling Stone, long time staff writer at The New Yorker.

Transcription truncated.

Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial information about who we are–and we rely on them to push ourselves up and out into the physical world. This week, we’re on a journey to understand how we got our unique sonic fingerprint, the power it affords us, and what happens when it’s taken away. Special thanks to Alice Wong, Wren Farrell, Hector Espinal and his parents, Crisaly and Hector Espinal, Mary Croke, Nancy Kielty, Beth McEwen, Robin Feuer Miller, Roomful of Teeth, Amanda Crider, Caroline Shaw, Judd Greenstein, Leilihua Lanzilotti, Rebekka Karijord, and Michael Harrison.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by -Annie McEwen and Matt KieltyProduced by - Annie McEwen and Matt KieltyOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom and Matt Kieltywith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Anna Pujol-Mazziniand Edited by - Alex Neason EPISODE CITATIONS: Books - Disability Intimacy by Alice Wong Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong This is the Voice by John Colapinto Websites - DisabilityVisibilityProject.com Audio/Artists - Roomful of Teeth (https://www.roomfulofteeth.org/) Partita for 8 Voices written by Caroline Shaw AEIOU composed by Judd Greenstein On Stochastic Wave behavior by Leilehua Lanzilotti Fugue by Rebekka Karijord, taken from the record “The Bell Tower", featuring Roomful of Teeth. Just Constellations, composed by Michael Harrison Sign up for our newsletter! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.