25 Dec 2015
Did I Stutter? (Ep. 562)
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Caryn Herring, Joel Korte and Roisin McManus of the StutterTalk B Team discuss some of the ideas and positions presented on the Did I Stutter website.
While The B Team embrace the overall “wisdom” of the Did I Stutter community, they also push back on the tone and on some of the absolute positions presented on the site. Joel Korte reminds listeners that “stuttering isn’t black and white… [It has] lots of shades of grey.” Caryn Herring shares her concern that some of the positions at Did I Stutter strongly suggest “this is how I should feel” with Joel agreeing and reminding listeners that the stuttering community has a history of people suggesting how we should think and feel about stuttering. Caryn shares that “In some ways I agree with them [the Did I Stutter community] and then at the same time it does feel like we are trying to fight this fight against what everybody else thinks rather than doing something for ourselves. It seems like a lot of thought and work to change how everyone else is rather than just focussing that on us.”
One of the Did I Stutter positions discussed on today’s episode is: “Stuttering is only a problem—in fact is only abnormal—because our culture places so much value on efficiency and self-mastery.” While the B Team accept some aspects of this position, they also challenge it by discussing their experiences and frustrations with feeling unable to get their words out and unable to communicate at times because of stuttering.
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1 Jan 2016
What Causes Stuttering with Nina G (Ep. 563)
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What causes stuttering is a question that professionals and others in the stuttering community are frequently called upon to answer. Today on StutterTalk we ask Nina G how she responds when asked this question. This is the third episode in StutterTalk’s series on what causes stuttering. Nina largely agrees with the first two guests that stuttering “appears to be a problem with neural processing of speech involving genetics.” However, Nina shares her view that we should not be calling stuttering a problem “because a problem indicates that it needs to be changed.”
Nina G is asked to discuss a range of topics including disability rights and stuttering, her term neural diversity, inspirational porn, informed consent, stuttering humor on the Howard Stern show and much more. Nina mentions StutterTalk’s interviews with John Melendez (Stuttering John) and Mel Tillis.
Nina G, is a comedian, speaker, advocate, disability activist, storyteller, counselor and the author of a children’s book, Once Upon An Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities (link). Nina G’s album is Disabled Comedy Only.
Nina G was kind enough to provide a transcript of this episode.
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