WEBVTT - You’ve Got a Tone with Lake Bell 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:09.000 Hi Katherine, Hello Chelsea. Excuse me. I took some chocolate 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.719 mushrooms last night and they were very strong. I actually 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.040 I took them the other night to my friend gave 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.040 it to We were going to someone's birthday party and 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.680 we walk into the party. We get out of the car. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.599 I was with Billy, my driver. We get out of 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.400 the car, walk into the party. I was like four 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.760 people and somehow I got separated from them, and then 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.080 the mushrooms completely hit me so hard, and I was like, 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.720 where am i? And who am I with? I was like, who, who? 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.720 Who did I come here with? And I'm looking around, going, 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.199 oh god. And I was like, you're with someone. Just 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.280 look around for a familiar face. You did not come alone. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.360 You are definitely with other people. And then I saw 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.720 my friend Alison. I'm like, say, isn't you And she's 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.479 like yeah. I go, oh my god, I just lost you. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.080 She goes, we just walked in. How could you lose me? 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:57.600 I go, I don't know, but I don't know. I'm 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.880 fucked up. Let's go sit down. Were you also the 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.440 only one on mushrooms? Who knows? But somebody? Somebody's mother 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.120 the birthday boys mother cornered me for about twenty minutes, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.080 and she had three heads while she was talking to me, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.399 and I was just like, these are because she gave 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.399 me a little chocolate square, my friend, which are the 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.320 best mushrooms ever. I'll give them to you if you want, 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.399 but you have to take half of that. Last night 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.280 I took half and I had a good time too. 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.280 So wow, and you can still just like relate to 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.600 people and you're fine. Yeah. You know what I love 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.479 about mushrooms. They just make you laugh. You know, they're 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.560 up and they make you laugh. And yeah, we went 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.880 last night, we said, we hung out for like four hours, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:38.120 just sitting around, laughing talking. Yeah. I love the dreams 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.360 the dream Oh you guys, I'm performing this weekend. Tickets 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.160 are still available for both shows, So bye some okay 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.960 by our guest Today, she wrote and directed In a World, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.440 which is all about voice acting. Her fascination with voice 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.480 goes way back, and so now she has an audiobook 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.360 out called Inside Voice, which dissects your voice, how you 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.800 come across, how people change their voices, and the title 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.320 of the book is called Inside Voice. It's published by 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:13.320 Malcolm Godwell's company which is called Pushkin and then she 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.520 has a lot of famous people on it, Drew Barrymore, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.200 Susie Yesman, Pam Career, Jeff Goldbloom, and Malcolm Gladwell. So 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:24.000 please welcome Lake Bell Hi, Lake, Hi, Chelsea. How are you? 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.240 I'm great. I'm better now now that I'm here with 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.720 you a long time. No see are you in New York? 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.040 I know I am. You look beautiful, Chelsea? Oh thanks, 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.480 I just had Wendy's. Maybe that's it. I'm glowing. I 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.440 think it's the Wendy's grease glow. I came. I was like, 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.400 you know what I need today? Once I found out 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.480 we were recording at this studio, I'm like, I need 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.360 some chicken nuggets from Wendy's. Did you really? I did? 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.280 I did. I allowed myself to do that about once 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.040 every three or four months. Okay, so it's Wendy's okay 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.680 for me. My my guilty one is Subway. I want 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.720 a Subway sandwich in a pinch. Yeah, I do. I 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.720 like get I like the combo meal. I like to 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.720 get a drink and you get a chip. I like 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.639 anything with like a combo. You know. I'm into combos 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.040 as well. I like a combo platter. I like to 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:11.760 think that. I don't like I want to opt out 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.720 of the fries because that's just like putting gasoline inside 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:16.520 your body. But then I'm like, you know what funkin, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.639 I'm here, and I'm I'm going to enjoy myself and 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:25.720 your privilege, my white privilege. Actually, Okay, and there we started. Okay, 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:27.960 like I was listening to your book. Lake has a 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.120 new book out, an audio book in fact, called Inside Voice, 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.720 which is a great examination of all the different voices 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.840 that we use in different situations. Talk to us a 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.240 little bit about you. You've been fascinated by the subject 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.600 for quite some time, right, Yeah, I'm pretty openly vocally obsessed. 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:52.120 I love voices because I think they imbue so many 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.240 different characteristics, but also kind of it's a roadmap of 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.640 everything we've ever endured. So it's it's like your voice 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.280 is in headibly recognizable, and it is. I'd be so 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.480 curious to hear you at like fourteen or sixteen, you know, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.920 because you as you are right now. Chelsea's voice. I 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.960 love where it's come because it has this intremendous evolution 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.520 and all these tapestry markers of like, Okay, you fucking 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.880 any traumas or delights or whatever. It's really kind of 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.159 this thing we don't pay attention to. Sure, we look 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.680 in the mirror, We're like, what kind of fucking crew 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.599 neck am I gonna wear? What? You know it? Where's 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:34.800 my part? Do I have a good lip? Is it mad? 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.880 Is it glossy? Okay? But the point is our voice 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:43.000 is the thing that connects to humans in some kind 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.800 of communication. So the second you open your mouth and 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.960 you're learning about somebody, sure you're gonna look at what 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.520 they're wearing and how they're You're gonna make some snap 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.840 judgments perhaps, But when they open their voice, that's when 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.120 you really start to get to know someone, and you 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.760 are going to profile, whether you want to or not, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.640 You're gonna have some preconc you notions just based off 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.680 their pitch, their regional dialect perhaps, you know, do they 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:08.960 come from a certain burrow? Are they putting on an 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.480 affectation that feels inauthentic. There's a multitude of different things 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.000 and cocktails that we add on, whether we're aware of 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.080 it or not. Some people are so vocally self aware, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.120 like myself, that they are obsessing over it, and then 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.039 other ones are like, don't play that back for me. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.680 I can't. I can't, I can't. Is that me? You 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.400 know there's this real self loathing and I love this disconnect. 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.360 It's so interesting to me from a sociological point of view. Yeah, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.880 I think people get really freaked out by their own voices, 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.359 especially because everybody has a variety of different voices that 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.240 they use, like you know, your phone voice versus your 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.840 angry voice versus your when you're trying to be for me, 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.960 when I'm trying to be soft, I always have to 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.320 modulate my voice like okay, because I know I can 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.960 come up across as much harsher than I mean to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:58.120 just by just by my you know, physicality, just because 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.160 people know that I'm a bit so I But when 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.600 I was a little girl, I remember doing stand up 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.760 and watching hearing my voice made me cringe because it 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.960 was so high and it was so unmodulated. I guess 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.880 would be the the term that comes to mind quickly, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.520 and I remember always going, no, don't talk in that 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.240 high voice, like you don't sound serious, you know, lower 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.279 your register, lower it. And it is. It is an 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.400 evolution and a lot of people aren't even aware of 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.960 the sound of their voice or think about it, because 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:30.599 I can think of a couple of people when you 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.280 were just talking offhand, whose voices just made me disqualify 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.920 them as people like I can't listen. There's somebody in 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.840 my life that I can't listen to talk because I 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.840 can't take her seriously because she talks like this and 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.840 this kind of voice. Okay, so this is what this 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.760 is the next step, which is like our own vocal profiling. 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:50.320 I mean, you hit the nail on the head there, 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:55.200 because I also have, you know, really conflicted feelings about 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.480 some female voices, which it sounds you know, we talked 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.880 about the sex baby voice, which is you know, like 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.640 why do we have to go so high and like 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.920 so much fry and up talk and it's like Jesus Christ. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:11.760 And yes, I have had things where I'm like, I 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.800 can't hire you, you know, and that can like I 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.200 can't hang out. I don't even know if I can 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:17.600 be in the same room with you, you know what 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.800 I mean. And that for me is that's where I 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.160 am in conflict because as a woman who you know 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.119 loves women. I love women, I mean fucking love women. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.240 I have sisters, I have daughter, you know, I just 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.240 I'm a girlfriend kind of gal and I don't want 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.840 to I don't want to isolate anyone. I don't want 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.320 to be that person. However, it is problematic for me 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.480 because it is it is harkening back that sexy baby 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.840 sand is harkening back to a time when we are 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.560 little girls and it's a submissive voice. It's taking that 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:56.280 little girls submissiveness and marrying it with bedroom talk. I'm like, 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.240 say what you know? And that for me is like 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.440 woes or you know what I'm saying. So yeah, I mean, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.760 I'm with you. It sucks that we do profile, but 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.760 we do. I mean, even with regionalism, Okay, we're all 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.800 guilty of. You know, if someone talks like this and 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.480 the coming from you know, you're gonna have what you 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.600 might think, Okay what some people I've talked to, they're like, yeah, 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.480 well that person is from deep South, right, Like if 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:24.080 you have a really beautiful deep South farmland accent, Okay, 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:28.840 that accent is unforcable? Is it depends where you're sitting. 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.800 But no, I mean you might say that's unfussable and 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.400 then you know, it's it's interesting. It's like do you 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.080 do you not want to hire that person. Are you 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.720 making assumptions about that person socioeconomic or education status? You know, basically, 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.360 I'm just making the assumption that I don't want to 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.680 suck them, but I wouldn't. But I I hear what 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.840 you're saying, and I think that it's interesting as you 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.720 go through life. I mean, I don't know, does everybody 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.400 have enough introspection to actually think about how they're coming 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.480 across It's almost like a rarefied topic that you would 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.320 you need the luxury to even discuss. But here's the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.840 deal is, like it goes across the board. So we 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.880 all enjoy. We have a couple of drinks. Everyone wants 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:07.720 to do an impression right there, like, oh, I have 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.800 a great Just last night there was someone who was 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.080 like I got a great Christopher walking. You know, you're 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.640 just like, okay, drunk person, like go for it. And 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.440 people have these like oh I've got a good Drew Barrymore, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.600 I've got it, like a great Jeff Goldblum, who are 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.280 both in the book. You know, these are iconic voices. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.600 We enjoy voices, we we relish in them, we we 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.000 enjoy playing with them. You know, people are they enjoy 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.560 doing accents. Even if you are not a professional, you 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.120 are using your voice to find love, to find connection, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.000 to work, to interact with the person down at the 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.040 fucking gas station. You're always using your vocal tool, like 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.199 you right now revealing that your voice is going through 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.079 evolution from the younger girl who is perhaps just getting 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.439 up on stage and finding her voice as a comedian. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.360 And then you made a conscious decision to try to 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.240 lower it. And I bet you've now arrived at a 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.560 place where this is your voice. I mean, it sounds 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.760 so deeply authentic to you. It doesn't sound like you're 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.240 pushing it down though we could. You know you can 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.319 do vocal warm ups to kind of find it, because 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.079 I used to push it down also, I did like, hey, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.000 I want you to take me seriously and take me 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.160 as an authority. And now I find this is me, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.199 this is just who I am off the truck. I 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.360 have a lower register than I did, and in the 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.240 book I reveal where I was vocally. But I really 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.520 love that pliability. I love that that has the ability 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.960 to kind of like we we vocally change. You know, 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.840 you you move to a certain burrow, you move out 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.240 of a certain burrow, you have a partner that speaks 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.360 a certain way. You smoke, you start smoking in your twenties, 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:43.920 and you do it throughout and then all of a 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:45.520 sudden you've got you know some I mean, you have 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.640 a beautiful kind of text or to your voice do, 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.000 but that's your history. It's also interesting to dissect how 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.960 one person how we say things right, because something can 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.000 come across as argumentative in a certain tone, and the 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:03.080 same exact sentence can come cross as inviting. Or you know, 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.000 if you take a sentence and you experiment with five 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.240 to ten different ways of saying something, they all have 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.280 a kind of different out impact and outcome. I have 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.280 a very specific issue with that in my own life, 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.680 where like some people have resting bitch face, I and 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:19.600 my sister has the same problem. We have what we 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.000 call resting bitch voice, where especially with like the people 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.600 we love the most, like my husband or whatever, I 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.200 can be just telling him a piece of information like 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.640 what time is it, and my voice will go it's 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.800 ten thirty, And I'm not pissed, but I sound so rude, 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.120 and sometimes I have to be like, I didn't mean 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.920 it like that. I just meant it's ten thirty. Yeah, 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.400 I mean that's intonation, right, So that's I mean, it 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.360 is interesting when we start to think about performance versus voice, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.920 right so style because in the book it's very kinetic. 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.199 It's not it's active, you know. It's like I want 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.920 your participation as well as just like sitting on your butts. 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.280 It's it's it's an active participatory experience. And trust or 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.000 bust is this game we play. And I have anonymous 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:09.760 readers of all different socio economics and from different continents 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.480 read with all of their accents because even I have 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.360 an accent, right, we all have accents. We have strong 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.400 American accents, generalized or what have you. And then I 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:22.280 have anonymous judges be brutally honest about whether they trust 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:28.160 that voice or bust it. And that's not based on performance, right, tonality, 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.120 curtness or whatnot. It's it's about just voice. Do you 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.520 trust that voice or not? You know, it was really 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:38.280 extraordinary because people, boy, I mean, it's all over the 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:43.600 place and people have such strong, profiled opinions about you know, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:45.680 if you hear a deep South accent, or if you 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.120 see if you hear a British you know, kind of 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.600 like an estuary British accent, you know, and it for me, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.440 it was just like, God, this just goes on. It's 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.360 like we're we're walking through life and you're going, Okay, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.920 I'm gonna go get a fucking Starbucks or whatever like macciato, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.400 and and the person who hands it to you, if 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.280 they're like you want milk with that, you know, it's 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.120 like you're immediately like, okay, where they're from. I know 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.120 that they have a big family. You know, you're just 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.160 making some assumptions. You could be totally wrong, but you 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.880 are gaining a lot from just the voice alone. And 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:19.680 so how do you apply this to your work because 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.240 you were talking about directing specifically, right, giving people notes 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.959 versus Yeah, I think I think in work, like you said, 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.040 I do lower my register a bit to just wield 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.960 kind of pure attention and respect. Right, I'm not trying to. 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.640 It's like instead of being bitchy or whatever, you know, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.160 it's like I'm just like I'm gonna wield a very 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:44.440 direct authority. Sound right, and that sound you know if 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.400 I was up here even without doing Sexy Baby, but 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.559 I just was a bit higher, you know, if I'm 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.520 up here that really, you know, would be a harder sound, 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.680 I think to wield power. And so if I said, okay, 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.040 everyone back to one, thank you so much, you know, 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.440 versus okay, thank you, everyone back to one. Let's let's 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.160 go one more time. Very different experience. And so how 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.920 do you apply that with your parenting and your little 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.080 girl especially? I mean both my kids. No Van Nazi, 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.200 no when I'm using directing voice when I'm missed, you know. 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:20.760 And so sometimes you know, with my kids, when I 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:22.520 read them a book and when I talk about, hey, 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.640 how was your day? That really that must have really hard. Okay, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:28.920 so let's go back to sleep, and let's just really 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.960 take some deep breaths. And then it's like, you know, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.880 we do not bite in this house, you know. You know, 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.320 so it's like there's a there's a big flip. My 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.880 voice is utilized. And then my kids they don't like 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.200 it when I put on like accents and stuff. They 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:45.920 you know, because I love doing that and I thought 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.680 they would think that's so fun, but they're very they're 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.960 very specific about it, and they don't like it because 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.520 it sounds like someone else. And I realized the beauty 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.000 of you know, our voices as as family members and 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.840 dear loved ones is we really count on those sounds. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.560 Those sounds are more important than we realize, you know, 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.000 like the voice of my my mom. Even I'm forty three, 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.680 I still ah the voice of my mom. She's alive. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.480 I could cry right now. I love it so much, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.960 you know. And she's soft spoken and she you know, 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.960 it's like there's just something about it. And when I 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.280 asked my daughter in the book, I say, trying to 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.840 get a good sound bite, I was like, nova, honey, 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.480 what is my voice sound like? And you know, She's like, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.880 I don't know. It just sounds like you mom, you know. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.080 And I was like, oh God, that's sweet. I'm gonna 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.440 cry now. But it's true. It's it's like the voice 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.520 of my brother. It's terrific. It's just him, and it's 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:43.120 indelible more so than sometimes these senses, you know, like 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.240 a smell or something. You walk by a Wendy's and 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.320 you and you smell whatever you smell, something you go 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.080 that reminds me of an exact time. And I think 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:57.600 voices for me have that same that same powerful poll. Yeah. 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.480 It's like when you think about people who have passed on, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.680 you know, my mom, I always can remember her voice, 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.920 and it was quiet. She was German, but she was 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.240 not your stereotypical German women woman. She was very demure 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.560 and shy and quiet, and so when I came on 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.680 the scene, I remember her always going, where did you 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.360 get this voice from? Where did you get this voice from? 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.520 But she meant it literally and metaphorically, like where did 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.480 you get your attitude? Where did you get all of it? 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:22.920 Because it feels like a package. And when you remember 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.280 people who have passed on my mom, you know, I 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.400 don't remember my brother's voice, really, but I do remember 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.800 my mom's voice. And when you remember, that's one of 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.720 the things that never goes away in terms of your memory, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.040 your senses of smell. The other day, I was talking 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:37.720 to somebody like and we were talking about the smell 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.360 of smurfs, right, like I remember the way the smurf smelled, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.360 and I remember the way Cabbage Patch kids smelled, and 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.640 I remember the way the school bus smelled and the 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.040 first you know, like going to school and all those smells. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.800 And it's like voices are similar to that. You hear 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.040 a voice and you're like taken. And sometimes when people 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.840 sound like each other, you're like, whoa I already know 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.880 this person. Yes, it does. That's a really beautiful thing 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.760 you brought up, because, yeah, you you feel all of 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.240 a sudden like, wow, I feel kindred with you. I 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.040 just met you. But you sound just like my sister. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:09.399 I mean, I don't know what to tell you or 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.160 whatever it is. Do you have any recordings of your mother? 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.159 Do you have any of her voice? Yeah? We have 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.119 some videos from Yeah, but she was you know, whenever 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.040 there was a camera on or anything, is when she 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.240 just kind of disappeared. So it was very hard too. Yeah, 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.640 I have to ask my sisters about that, actually talk 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.399 to me about, Like so, Drew Barrymore, Susie Aspen, some 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.000 of the people that you talk about in the book. 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.560 Malcolm Gladwell, who actually published the book right with Pushkin Industries. Right, 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.919 are you guys friends? You and Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah. Malcolm 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:38.760 and I have known each other for many, many years, 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.520 and he is acutely aware of my obsession, and so 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.720 I would kind of talk to him a lot about 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.000 you know, from coming at it from a sociological point 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.040 of view, and I think that that I come at 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.120 it as an academic, you know, It's like I want 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.280 to learn you know. So it's like I ostensibly created 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.439 a post grad course in linguistics, you know, and the 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.640 sociology behind it is even a cultural conversation, like let's 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.600 talk about it, Let's talk about all the like pop 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.720 kind of fun stuff, and then also delve deeper into 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.040 things that I don't know as much about. And with Pushkin, 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.199 obviously I had access to just a tremendous amount of 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.760 professors and linguists and doctors to kind of even just 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.879 peel back the kind of architecture of how sounds are made, 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.000 you know, and then roll into kind of people's case 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.160 study stories, you know, stories that that are just moving. 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.440 For instance, Pam Greers in the book, and she talks 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:36.000 about losing her voice, actually physically losing her voice, going 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.600 ostensibly mute. It's called psychogenetic dysphonia in response to trauma 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.000 in her body, and that she's very moving and revealing. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.639 I'm very close with Pam, and she was very giving 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.040 to kind of go there and talk about it. But 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.639 it's extraordinary that the voice can imbued with so much 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.640 emotion and also history, you know, yeah, and becoming self 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:00.680 aware of it, Like Drew has had the same voice 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.400 since the beginning of time, Like, she's not trying to 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.800 develop any sort of differentiation. And even though she gets 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.720 so many people do so many impersonations of her, she's 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.280 kind of stuck with her real voice and never put 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.800 on an affectation. And that's not an affectation either, that 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.439 is her real voice in real life. Yeah, it was 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.440 really fun to talk to her because Drew she has 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.199 a sense of she's quildly unaware of self aware of 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.360 her voice. She she sort of is a little shocked 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.159 that people are so interested in in mimicking it, and 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.919 now she's in on the joke and so generous with 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.159 her Her spirit is so fucking great. And she was 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.840 talking about even the kind of architecture of her face 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.160 and mouth and how it's framed. She speaks from one 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.360 side of the mouth and that affects the sound and 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.439 she said that. Actually Adam Sandler called her out on 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.240 that one time, like as an improvised line in a movie. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.440 He's a I love it with that, you talk on 0:19:58.440 --> 0:19:59.879 one side of your mouth or something. She was like, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.399 I do you know? And like and it was one 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:04.840 of those things where in the book she goes on 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:06.800 a ride with me and we kind of like dissect 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.919 and talk about all the delights that are in her 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.120 very very specific, iconic sound at this point, and why 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.000 people who are related sounds so much like each other. 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.120 You know, sisters always sound alike, like I always can. 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:21.919 People always fay like, oh my god, you and your 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.359 sisters sound exactly alike. And you're like, well, how's that happen? Well, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.720 my mom and her best friend. Frankly, my mom's best 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:29.400 friend can call me on the phone and I'm like, 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.160