This is the Voice, John Colapinto
This is the Voice, John Colapinto
2 Rating(s)
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This is the Voice

Author: John Colapinto, John Colapinto

Narrator: Robert Petkoff

Unabridged: 10 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/26/2021


Synopsis

A New York Times bestselling writer explores what our unique sonic signature reveals about our species, our culture, and each one of us. Finally, a vital topic that has never had its own book gets its due.

There’s no shortage of books about public speaking or language or song. But until now, there has been no book about the miracle that underlies them all—the human voice itself. And there are few writers who could take on this surprisingly vast topic with more artistry and expertise than John Colapinto. Beginning with the novel—and compelling—argument that our ability to speak is what made us the planet’s dominant species, he guides us from the voice’s beginnings in lungfish millions of years ago to its culmination in the talent of Pavoratti, Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyoncé—and each of us, every day.

Along the way, he shows us why the voice is the most efficient, effective means of communication ever devised: it works in all directions, in all weathers, even in the dark, and it can be calibrated to reach one other person or thousands. He reveals why speech is the single most complex and intricate activity humans can perform. He travels up the Amazon to meet the Piraha, a reclusive tribe whose singular language, more musical than any other, can help us hear how melodic principles underpin every word we utter. He heads up to Harvard to see how professional voices are helped and healed, and he ventures out on the campaign trail to see how demagogues wield their voices as weapons.

As far-reaching as this book is, much of the delight of reading it lies in how intimate it feels. Everything Colapinto tells us can be tested by our own lungs and mouths and ears and brains. He shows us that, for those who pay attention, the voice is an eloquent means of communicating not only what the speaker means, but also their mood, sexual preference, age, income, even psychological and physical illness.

It overstates the case only slightly to say that anyone who talks, or sings, or listens will find a rich trove of thrills in This Is the Voice.

About John Colapinto

John Colapinto is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller As Nature Made Him. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ilya

Satisfying and unsatisfying in almost equal measure. I make my living with my voice, think about the voice more than most (I like to think). What's more, I am a big fan of one earlier piece by Colapinto: his lengthy New Yorker story on the Piraha of the Amazon, who (maybe) cannot count past two in th......more

I enjoyed this account of John Colapinto's learning and thinking about the fascinating subject of the human voice. But science journalism is hard, and Colapinto is not a science journalist, so I did quibble with those areas where I had some previous knowledge. Colapinto says that Chomsky is wrong tha......more

Goodreads review by Martha

“For now, anyway, we remain the only entities, animal or machine, capable of blending emotion and language in a single vocal sound wave.” Colapinto, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, writes a compelling analysis of the functions of our voice. From a discussion of his own trouble with a vo......more

Goodreads review by Phil

Last summer, I received an injection of Prolaryn-plus in my vocal cords. It was supposed to compensate for atrophy of my vocal fold muscles, but the effect seemed catastrophic. Suddenly I could only speak in a squeaky falsetto. So, in October, I got a second injection of the same stuff by way of a l......more