Virtual Event: John Colapinto

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome award-winning journalist and longtime staff writer for The New Yorker JOHN COLAPINTO for a discussion of his new book This Is the Voice. He will be joined in conversation by GREG KESTIN, Associate Director of Science Education at Harvard University.

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About This Is the Voice

There’s no shortage of books about public speaking or language or song. But until now, there has been no book about the miracle that underlies them all—the human voice itself. And there are few writers who could take on this surprisingly vast topic with more artistry and expertise than John Colapinto. Beginning with the novel—and compelling—argument that our ability to speak is what made us the planet’s dominant species, he guides us from the voice’s beginnings in lungfish millions of years ago to its culmination in the talent of Pavoratti, Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyoncé—and each of us, every day.

Along the way, he shows us why the voice is the most efficient, effective means of communication ever devised: it works in all directions, in all weathers, even in the dark, and it can be calibrated to reach one other person or thousands. He reveals why speech is the single most complex and intricate activity humans can perform. He travels up the Amazon to meet the Piraha, a reclusive tribe whose singular language, more musical than any other, can help us hear how melodic principles underpin every word we utter. He heads up to Harvard to see how professional voices are helped and healed, and he ventures out on the campaign trail to see how demagogues wield their voices as weapons.

As far-reaching as this book is, much of the delight of reading it lies in how intimate it feels. Everything Colapinto tells us can be tested by our own lungs and mouths and ears and brains. He shows us that, for those who pay attention, the voice is an eloquent means of communicating not only what the speaker means, but also their mood, sexual preference, age, income, even psychological and physical illness.

It overstates the case only slightly to say that anyone who talks, or sings, or listens will find a rich trove of thrills in This Is the Voice.

Praise for This Is the Voice

“This is an amazing work. I didn’t realize until I read it that it’s the book I’ve been wanting to read for thirty years. Everything you might want to know, or have wondered about, or didn’t even consider about how we speak and listen, exchange information, and the musicality behind all of it is here . . . and then some. I couldn’t put it down.” —Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music

“A prime example of quality popular science, striking that ideal balance between informative and entertaining. It embraces the wide-ranging aspects of its subject matter, digging in wherever necessary and capturing the reader’s curiosity. But it’s also an engaging read, thoughtful and funny and finely crafted. Books that accomplish this combination are few and far between, but John Colapinto has definitely written one that does just that." —The Maine Edge

“This astonishing and resonant tour of the vocal cords ends up transporting the reader all over the human body, the brain, and the world beyond. John Colapinto seems to be murmuring in your ear the whole way, cracking jokes, telling stories, sharing fabulous secrets—and singing, too.” —Abigal Tucker, New York Times bestselling author of Lion in the Living Room