NEW PODCAST EPISODE #61 — 'Singing for me is sweet relief', Meg Washington's TEDx talk, 2014
My guest on the podcast is singer-songwriter-screenwriter Meg Washington, whose TED talk on stuttering and the power of singing has had three million views across YouTube and the TED site.
You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms
Meg Washington’s is such a multi-talented artist. She’s been blowing us away with the quality of her voice since she made Alan Brough cry on Spicks and Specks back in 2009.
She was in her early twenties then, she’s in her late thirties now, and it’s already an amazing career that has encompassed three ARIAS, five albums, an AACTA award for Best Original Song (‘Fine’, I’ve sneaked a chorus into the episode) a voice acting part as Calypso on Bluey, and a screenwriting role on the AACTA nominated film ‘How to Make Gravy’, which came out last year.
This Speakola episode is about her TEDx Talk in 2014, and twelve years later it still stands up as a beautifully warm, informative, funny and uplifting speech about speech impediment. At various points she discusses:
Being unsure on arrival at the TEDx event whether she was supposed to speak, or just sing;
Being coached by a friend in the UK, who told Meg to be less 'expert on stuttering’ and more ‘expert on herself stuttering’. In other words make it more personal;
Techniques stutterers use, like ‘smooth speech’ and surprising the brain by changing a potentially problematic word at the last minute;
Early life in Port Moresby, and first memorable singing performance (as a flea!)
How her professional career got started, and the assistance of Paul Grabowski and Spicks and Specks;
The feeling of delivering the speech in the Opera House, and walking to a party afterwards. with your name trending on Twitter (audio snippet below)
There are so many good bits in this episode! Subscribe to the podcast, and if you felt like it, give us a rating or review on the podcast apps! At the moment we’re going at 4.9⭐ from 159 ratings and reviews. It would be a big boost to get some feedback. The podcast has been a labour of love these last six years. Sixty one episodes, all sourced, recorded, edited and promoted by just me.
Meg Washington’s is one of the best yet.
Megan Washington: ‘The thing is, I stutter’, TEDx Sydney - 2014
26 April 2014, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
I didn’t know when I agreed to do this whether I was expected to talk or to sing.
But when I was told that the topic was language, I felt that I had to speak about something for a moment.
I have a problem. It’s not the worst thing in the world. I’m fine. I’m not on fire. I know that other people in the world have far worse things to deal with, but for me, language and music are inextricably linked through this one thing.
And the thing is that I have a stutter.
It might seem curious given that I spend a lot of my life on the stage. One would assume that I’m comfortable in the public sphere and comfortable here, speaking to you guys.
But the truth is that I’ve spent my life up until this point and including this point, living in mortal dread of public speaking. Public singing, whole different thing. (Laughter) But we’ll get to that in a moment.
I’ve never really talked about it before so explicitly. I think that that’s because I’ve always lived in hope that when I was a grown-up, I wouldn’t have one.
I sort of lived with this idea that when I’m grown, I’ll have learned to speak French, and when I’m grown, I’ll learn how to manage my money, and when I’m grown, I won’t have a stutter, and then I’ll be able to public speak and maybe be the prime minister and anything’s possible and, you know.
(Laughter)
So I can talk about it now because I’ve reached this point, where — I mean, I’m 28.I’m pretty sure that I’m grown now.
(Laughter)
And I’m an adult woman who spends her life as a performer, with a speech impediment. So, I might as well come clean about it.
There are some interesting angles to having a stutter. For me, the worst thing that can happen is meeting another stutterer.
(Laughter)
This happened to me in Hamburg, when this guy, we met and he said,”Hello, m-m-m-my name is Joe,” and I said, “Oh, hello, m-m-m-my name is Meg.” Imagine my horror when I realised he thought I was making fun of him.
(Laughter)
