Review: Disorderly Voices podcast

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Members of the STAMMA review team tell us what they think of the new podcast Disorderly Voices, by Stuttering Commons.

Disorderly Voices is a new podcast exploring writing, scholarship and art that challenges and transforms how we understand stammering. Over seven episodes, hosts Patrick Campbell and Maria Stuart, from the Stuttering Commons collective, have conversations with stammering academics, therapists, artists and activists, asking them to reflect on their work and its impact. Read more about the podcast, with words from the hosts.

We asked the STAMMA review team to have a listen and tell us their thoughts on episode 2, featuring Joshua St Pierre, a stammering academic. Here's what Kat and Jack said...

Kat

Kat Brown told us, "Each episode critically considers a subject, which the team unpick and delve into, drawing conclusions and suggesting learnings. The presenters are unapologetically dysfluent, and Patrick Campbell hosts with composure and a gorgeously calming voice, which all together creates a safe, inclusive and educative space for people who stammer and people who don't — what a gem of a resource!"

Jack

Jack Nicholas said...

"Hosts Patrick and Maria say that in the first series of podcasts they intend to revisit pieces of work that have meant much to them. For me, and I guess for many listeners, it is in fact a chance to learn about these pieces for the first time. In this case, Joshua St Pierre's 2012 paper The Construction of the Disabled Speaker. I had read Joshua's invigorating cold-shower of a book Cheap Talk but had never come across this paper which was a seedbed for many of his later ideas. 

'Some of the ideas explored include:

• The importance and limitations of models to frame your thinking about a subject.
• The value of anger.
• Do people who stammer want 'acceptance' or should we be demanding a more fundamental change in society?
• Is it true that stammering is the only disability that is still mocked? (No!)
• The strange way that people who stammer are seen both as disabled and abled — we live in a strange betwixt and between the 'liminal' world.
• The strange way we are blamed for our stammering — and blamed for holding others back by stammering.
• The importance of finding your tribe, but also the importance of embracing and connecting to other tribes.

'I am not sure whether to thank Stuttering Commons or curse them. On the one hand, with Disorderly Voices they have helped me think and explore my feelings about stammering; on the other, they have added to my already insurmountable reading list! I am not usually a fan of podcasts, but it was great to listen to these three knowledgeable and passionate stammering voices. I look forward to the next episode."

Episode 3 of the Disorderly Voices podcast dropped today. You can get it from all major podcast providers or you can stream it on PodBean.