Radiolab Voice
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Sep 26, 2025 John Colapinto, a journalist and author of "This Is The Voice," explores the fascinating evolution of the human voice. He delves into how vocal anatomy dates back to ancient fish and evolved through millions of years, leading to complex speech. The discussion also touches on the emotional power of a mother’s voice and the challenges faced by individuals like Alice Wong, who lost her voice due to medical reasons. They discuss the inventions aimed at restoring speech, like the Passy-Muir valve, and the emotional complexities of using AI to recreate lost voices.
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Evolution Created Your Sonic Fingerprint
- Human voice evolved over 400 million years from a throat valve in fish to a complex respiratory-articulatory system.
- That system encodes identity and emotion, making each voice a unique sonic fingerprint.
Mother's Voice Is Biologically Rewarding
- A mother's voice activates reward circuits in children's brains from before birth.
- Those voices become conditioned signals tied to care, comfort, and survival.
Adolescence Rewires Social Reward
- During adolescence the brain's reward mapping shifts toward peers and unfamiliar voices.
- Mom still registers as rewarding but is comparatively quieter in teen neural responses.
