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Trace!

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I am only a few minutes in, and I must say.... the boy has tamed his vocal fry brilliantly. It's still there, loud and proud, don't get it twisted. But it's got a more professional quality about it now, something more in line with Sean Connery vocal fry. It's like any other kind of speaking pattern than upsets the olds; it not that the olds are *right* so much as they're not entirely wrong that listening to you is literally painful. More accurately, they haven't been properly acclimated to it. So I am to Jack's vocal fry like my father was to the people in my cohort who talked up. It's all a matter of degree.

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I take it back, he reverts as he gets into it. Whatever. This is BARpod mode I guess.

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In my own case I think the fry emerges when I am nervous. Whether that's true for Trace I can't say, but it's definitely a bit irksome and distracting.

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In a team meeting, I once, um... made a comment about how it, um... took me years to learn how to, um... you know, um... not use "um" as a way to like... slow down my sentences?

Just like that. And I realized in about halfway through, still couldn't stop, and ended it by talking up.

I feel ya.

As for Jack, he really seemed to have it under control in the first five minutes or so. I'm guessing that most law firms aren't as tolerant as we enlightened few to generational speech drift.

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I couldnтАЩt understand at times haha. But heтАЩs great.

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I rewind quite a bit, but yes, he's worth the struggle.

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This seems to be prevalent among English speakers. Not so much of it were I live, probably because of the natural pitch of the language. I find TraceтАЩs (or anyoneтАЩs) intense vocal fry distracting and oftentimes annoying, but thatтАЩs part of the whole package I guess. And heтАЩs a very smart and thoughtful guy, so I generally manage to focus on the content rather than the form. Still, I tend not to like English vocal fry haha

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It's a visceral reaction. You almost can't help it, though you can help not making too big a deal out if... ahem... like I'm... not doing? right? I did a deep dive on this about 10-12 years ago and still have some links to interesting articles about the way young people (and young women especially) have led the evolution of patterns of English speech.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html

https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/12/uptalk-is-ok-young-women-shouldn-t-have-to-talk-like-men-to-be-taken-seriously.html

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Interesting, thank you for these links! I saw this video on the subject a while ago:

https://youtu.be/Q0yL2GezneU?si=bnjIYtsgMLWk_9P9

Apparently the first studies on VF focused on this speech pattern among British posh men.

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Wild. If you look below, you'll see I replied to KC with that selfsame link, also focusing on vocal fry among British men.

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Oh indeed, sorry for the double link.

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Don't be sorry! Brilliant minds and all that.

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I had to stop listening when the vocal fry got too hard. It's a shame. Trace is a thoughtful writer but the on air delivery is so bad. Need a little media training. Also, barpod needs an audio editor to cut the ums.

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I had the same thing - still *much* less irritating than before though.

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Really? I had to slow the audio speed down to x0.75 and he was still barely understandable. IтАЩm not uncultured, IтАЩm Australian/British and have grown up listening to lots of different voices and accents but dear God, he needs a vocal coach.

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His voice is nothing like Sean ConneryтАЩs. Blasphemy! I listened to the episode and it was better than the ATC one, but his voice is still hard to listen to.

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So it would seem! But as this portion of this video demonstrates, Sean Connery was but one of *many* mid-20th-century British men who rocked the vocal fry (creaky voice) as a matter of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0yL2GezneU&t=736s

Time indexed link, should start at 12:16. Relevant content runs through ~ 15:40. Sean Connery opens and closes this span.

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I see what youтАЩre saying about Sean Connery having a *touch* of vocal fry on the end of some words, but TraceтАЩs is continuous and nasal and makes my skin crawl while SeanтАЩs makes me want to cuddle up with him while he purrs in my ear. God he was sexy!!!

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I am with you, KC! I was making an *aspirational* comparison for Jack-Trace when I thought he had dialed it down a bit (alas, it was fleeting).

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I don't know about that since I haven't listened. But, he's smart, incisive, and is good fun being self effacing and having taken all the shit he has from our hosts over the years.

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That is not the opposite of what I posted _at all_. It seems that you passed on reading what I typed out and assumed that I attacked him in some way which I absolutely did not.

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No, I read your post and was just being honest that I didn't listen yet and happy for an appearance.

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Concur! VF kills me. Well done trace!

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I had the opposite reactionтАФ like, ЁЯН│ЁЯН│ЁЯН│ !

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I'm petty certain Jesse brought in Trace to overcome previous comments that Katie always brings in better guest hosts. Trace is great

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