In short
Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know - Selects: How Foreign Accent Syndrome Works
Episode Overview In this episode, hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant explore the rare neurological condition known as Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), which causes individuals to suddenly speak with a different accent, often following a head injury. The discussion is both informative and light-hearted, punctuated with personal anecdotes and historical cases.
Key Concepts
Definition of Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS)
- FAS is not a mimicry of accents but a genuine medical condition.
- It typically occurs after brain trauma or neurological damage.
Code Switching vs. FAS
- Code Switching: The act of switching between different accents or dialects in different social contexts. This is a conscious choice and part of social identity.
- FAS: An involuntary condition where individuals may wake up speaking with a foreign accent without having consciously adopted it.
Notable Cases Discussed
- Lisa Alamia:
- A woman from Texas who developed a British accent after jaw surgery, despite never having visited England.
- For her, the syndrome served as a conversation starter, helping her become more outgoing.
- Astrid:
- A Norwegian woman who developed a German accent after a brain injury during WWII.
- Faced social ostracization because of the accent, as it was perceived negatively during the German occupation.
- Sarah Caldwell:
- An English woman who spoke with a Chinese accent after suffering severe migraines.
- Experienced a deep identity crisis due to her sudden change in the way she spoke.
Diagnosis Criteria The diagnosis of FAS follows specific criteria established by neurologist Harry Whitaker:
- The accent must be perceived as foreign by the patient, their acquaintances, and healthcare providers.
- There must be a noticeable difference from the patient's previous speech.
- It is related to central nervous system damage.
- The individual must not be proficient in a foreign language that resembles the accent.
Types of FAS
- Neurogenic FAS:
- Resulting from brain injuries or strokes.
- Often does not resolve and may require speech therapy to help regain the original accent.
- Psychogenic FAS:
- Linked to psychological conditions, such as anxiety or depression.
- This type may resolve during psychological treatment or as the mental health condition stabilizes.
- Mixed FAS:
- Involves both neurological and psychological factors contributing to the syndrome.
Insights on Language and Identity
- The hosts emphasize how deeply embedded accents are in personal identity.
- Changes in accent due to FAS can lead to an identity crisis, as individuals may feel detached from their original selves.
- The complexity of language production in the brain is highlighted, illustrating how nuances in speech can be linked to specific brain functions.
Conclusion The episode serves as an intriguing exploration of a rare but fascinating condition, blending medical understanding with personal storytelling. It invites listeners to consider the intricate relationship between language, identity, and neurological health.
Key Takeaways
- Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare neurological condition, distinct from social behaviors like code-switching.
- Historical and contemporary cases illustrate the challenges faced by individuals with FAS.
- Understanding FAS involves both medical insight and an appreciation of the human experience surrounding identity and communication.
For further details and exploration of foreign accent syndrome, listeners are encouraged to visit [HowStuffWorks.com](http://howstuffworks.com).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Alright son, time to put out this campfire Dad, we learned about this in school Oh, did you now? Okay What's first? Smokey Bear said to First, drown it with a bucket of water Then stir it with a shovel Wow, you sound just like him Then he said If it's still warm, then do it again Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com With other wildfire prevention tips Because only you can prevent wildfires Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan?
0:37Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:29Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
1:39Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And Jerry's here, as always, so it's Stuff You Should Know. Stuff You Should Know. You should have said that in a British accent. It's Stuff You Should Know, eh? How's that? It was great. You're a regular rich little. Remember the Arrested Development little subplot where Charlize Theron was thought to be a British spy? Oh, yeah. What was... Four British Eyes Only. Yeah, but what was the name of her character? Mr. F. Mr. F. That's right. That's right. I knew I had some... Like they said that every time, right?
2:24Mm-hmm. That was pretty funny. She's great. Yes, she was. Pretty lady. Funny, smart. Yeah. Good actor. What else? That's all I got on her. She can macrame. Oh, really? I don't know. I just assume. Oh, okay. This is off to a great start.
2:47It's unusual, odd even, you could say that you suggested I say the intro in a British accent because we're talking about foreign accents today, Chuck. That's right. It was coy. I see. Now it makes sense. Yes, and we're specifically not talking about... There's a thing sometimes that certain people do when they meet someone with an accent different than their own where they accidentally or sometimes purposely adopt it momentarily. Yes, it's called code switching. My mom's done this before. That I remember it happened when I was a kid. My brother and I thought it was so funny. Yeah? Yeah, and it seems like it's usually a parent of an embarrassed child.
3:41Sure. Is there an explanation behind it? Yeah, yeah. So from what I understand, this is the point, right? So our accents are extremely personal. They're part of us individually, but they also signal our membership in different groups. So a farmer is going to talk differently from a stockbroker, and a farmer from Georgia is going to talk a lot differently than a stockbroker from Portland, Oregon. Because that's the other stock market seat. You thought I was going to say New York? I did. Nope. So when we code switch, when we meet other people and take on their way of talking, it's called code switching.
4:31And I think it's a way of signaling, hey, we have something in common. I don't want you to be distracted. Yeah, it's a welcoming thing. Yeah, my overalls with no shirt on are distracting enough. I don't want you to be distracted by my accent, too. So I think it is a way of saying like, hey, we have something in common. The thing is, accents are such a part of group identity that if you do that in front of some other members of your group, whether it's your family or your friends or whatever. They're going to tease you. They are going to tease you, guaranteed. And one of the reasons why is because what they're doing consciously or otherwise is maintaining the borders of their own group's identity.
5:12Yeah. They're saying, eh, don't put on airs. Don't think you're fancy. Don't think you're just like that guy. You're one of us. And making fun of somebody who adopts someone else's accent is a way of doing that. It's a way of maintaining group divisions and borders. Where really, when you do kind of adopt someone else's accent, I think one of the things that you are doing is trying to make the foreigner, the stranger, feel more comfortable. And having met your mom, I guarantee that's what she was doing. Well, I just remember the only one I remember specifically, and you know, you just have these random childhood moments that sort of stick with you was we were in Florida and we were talking with an Irish woman, I believe.
5:54She may have been from England, but I think she was Irish. And the other thing, too, is, you know, I don't I don't think my mom had probably talked to a lot of Irish people at that point. She's from West Tennessee and moved to Georgia. We didn't have Irish people all over the place. She wasn't super well-traveled back then, although she is much more now. So it was probably a bit novel to her. And I remember very specifically the woman said something about going to Disney instead of Disney World. And my mom said she got kind of proper, and she says, you know, we haven't been to Disney yet. And I remember my brother and I just thought that was so funny instead of saying Disney World.
6:33Did you guys make fun of her in front of the woman? No, I don't think so. So we may have laughed a little under our breath, but I mean, I don't think we even teased her. I'm teasing her now a bit. Sure. But I don't think we made fun of her, really. I think we just kind of, like my brother and I are one to do, very quietly looked at each other in that way that brothers do. Right, and then talk to each other like the kids in Escape from Witch Mountain. Yeah, were they telepathic? Yeah. But it's funny, I was listening to the great Judge John Hodgman podcast with our pal John and Jesse Thorne, Bailiff Jesse, and they had an actual case a few weeks ago that was very funny where this mom does this on purpose.
7:20She's a trained actor and loves to put on accents when she goes to places, and the daughter was just, she took her to the Internet court and was just like, stop doing this. Like, you've got to stop doing this. And the mom's whole thing, she was very just fun and whimsical and having a lot of fun with it. So it was really hard to rule against her. But I think Hodgman ultimately did rule against her. He's tough but fair. Well, I think his whole thing was like, you know, I think he ruled partially in her favor. Like, you got to let them know where you're from, and you can't do it to, like, waiters and service people because their job is to take your dumb jokes and have a stiff upper lip about it.
8:09And it just kind of makes their job harder if they think maybe you're making fun of them. You may not realize the unintended consequence of this is somebody may feel uncomfortable that they have to put up with this. Wow, that took a really serious turn at the end there. No, it did. That's what's great about that show. They're funny cases, but he adjudicates seriously. I think that's why it works. And then Jesse always shoots his gun off at the end. Yeah. Yeah. Beehaw. So anyway, I just thought it was pretty weird that this article came up and then that episode had just aired. But that's different than what we were talking about.
8:47Totally. Like I started saying, this is not that at all. This is a legitimate, super rare, this reminded me of alien hand syndrome and its rarity. Yeah. because I've seen different numbers, but the most I've seen is about 150 described official cases of foreign accent syndrome. Right. That's super rare for sure. Yeah. And what makes it different from somebody taking on the affect or dialect or accent of somebody else? Someone taking the piss. Right. This is where you can't stop. It's involuntary. Yeah. And, you know, it sounds weird. and exotic and you just want to like poke the person who's doing that in the neck to be like what are you doing there but if you really start to dig into the actual cases it's sad in a lot of a lot of cases oh yeah because again your accent what you sound like makes up a part of your personality so if you are if it changes on you involuntarily it can be quite traumatic for some people you could have an identity crisis of sorts yeah so um i guess we should just go ahead and talk about a couple of cases so people know what we're talking about um the first one mentioned in our own article is really interesting for a few reasons uh and it's the most recent case that's documented um oh i'm sorry it's not the most recent but it is fairly recent a woman named lisa alamia um she had jaw surgery because of an overbite and then when she came out of surgery even though she was from texas and had never been to england she spoke with a british accent and And she's like, right, bloody hell.
10:28Wait, wait. I need our British listeners to write in and tell me how good my British accent is, okay? Well, I'm known on the show for doing the bad accent, so I'm glad you're taking up my handle. No, yours are good. No, I don't know. Mine are. They verge on decent at times. Well, they're cartoonish and stereotypical, but they're really, really good cartoonish, stereotypical versions of accents. So she woke up, had that accent, and her husband and three kids thought it was a joke. She had only been outside the country to go to Mexico, and it was a real thing called foreign accent syndrome. Yeah, she'd never been to England.
11:06She apparently probably had seen British people on TV kind of thing. But her case actually is the opposite of what I was saying. She was apparently quite shy before, and now she has something to talk about, a conversation opener, I guess. Oh, okay. And she's a little more chatty than before. Well, that's interesting. Yeah, it is. It's the opposite of some other people who have really experienced a crisis as a result. She's like, well, I sound British now. I guess I should talk more than before. So she sounds like a drunk cockney chimney sweep. Pretty much. And she does sound cockney to me. Oh, really?
11:42I didn't hear I didn't see this one on YouTube. So, yeah, we should say, you know, this is kind of like optical illusions. It's one thing to talk about it. You need to actually go see and hear these people talking. Yeah. If you just look up Lisa Alamia, A-L-A-M-I-A, and you will find plenty of interviews with her. She's, like you said, fairly recent. There's one that's quite a famous case, maybe the most famous, because it was the one that put foreign accent syndrome on the map, even though it was before the term was coined. Yeah, this one had a much darker turn, because it was during World War II, a Norwegian woman named Astrid suffered injury, and the ironies here are really sad.
12:28She suffered a brain injury from shrapnel from a German bomb and a bombing raid. And then when she came to, she had a German accent. Right. Very not fun for her. No, because the Germans were occupying Norway at the time, right? Yeah. So people she didn't really know were like, oh, hey, German spy. Yeah. You want some milk? No milk for you. Yeah, she was shunned. She couldn't even speak German, but she had that accent and was obviously very distraught by this. and she went to a neurologist named Jorg Hermann Monrad Krohn. Nice job. It's a great name. And he coined the first term for this, which is dysprosity, which is, prosody is like the tone and rhythm of your speech.
13:20Yeah. And the prefix dys, obviously, is like abnormal or ill. And that didn't catch on too well. It didn't, but as we'll see, he kind of nailed what the problem was. Because, you know, the non-grammatical parts of speech, the prosody, are what is affected. When you have foreign accent syndrome, you have what appears to be a foreign accent, but usually your vocabulary, your syntax, your grammar remains unchanged. It's all the little nuances that make up your accent or your intonation or the rhythm of your speech that are affected and has changed. So dysprosity is actually like the perfect name for the syndrome.
14:05Yeah, but foreign accent syndrome is way more catchy. Oh, it's sexy. In 1982, a neurologist named Harry Whitaker came up with that. So Whitaker coined it in the 80s. I think 1982 was when he coined that official term. Right. And he was a neurolinguist who did some pretty serious research into foreign accent syndrome. He actually came up with a four point criteria for diagnosing it. And the number one is that the accent has to be considered by the patient, the people the patient knows, and the researcher, the doctor to sound like a foreign accent, right? Yeah, foreign from what they are. Yeah, well, that's number two.
14:50It has to be different from the patient's former prosody. Sure. Noticeably different. Number three, it has to be related to central nervous system damage. And this one has come under fire under the last few years. And then four, it can't be related to a patient's ability to speak a foreign language already. Right. So there's actually a condition. It's astounding to me. It's called bilingual aphasia or there's also polyglot aphasia. And apparently if you suffer a stroke or brain injury or some other trauma or insult to your central nervous system and you know more than one language, you may completely lose the ability to speak one language and completely retain the ability to speak the other.
15:35That's how decentralized our language process is in the brain. Well, yeah, because that's one of the factors in foreign accent syndrome is you could, it's not like in a case where you might have a stroke and lose the ability to speak. Right. You still can speak in perfect dialect, whatever that dialect is, as far as being, you know, articulate and coherent. Oh, right, right. Yeah, yeah. So you're, yeah, exactly. You're not like slurring your speech. You just sound different and like a foreign person saying the same words would, right? Yes. Oh, gotcha. Okay. So there's this four-point diagnosis criteria that's kind of been deconstructed over the years.
16:20The problem with foreign accident syndrome, it's like you said, there's been 100, maybe 150 cases. So it's just totally up in the air as to like how to diagnose it, what qualifies as it. And we'll talk a little bit about how scientists have dug into it thus far after this break.
16:52Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one person billion dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen.
17:27I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Like if we're on the air here and I literally have my contract here and I'm looking at, you know, as soon as I sign this, I'm going to get a seven figure check. I've told them I won't be working here in two weeks.
18:03From the underground clubs that shaped global music to the pastors and creatives who built the cultural empire. The Atlanta Is podcast uncovers the stories behind one of the most influential cities in the world. The thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a city of hustlers, man. Each episode explores a different chapter of Atlanta's rise, featuring conversations with Ludacris, Will Packer, Pastor Jamal Bryant, DJ Drama, and more. The full series is available to listen to now. I really just had never experienced anything like what was going on in the city as far as like, you know, seeing so many young, black, affluent creatives in all walks of life.
18:41The church had dwindled almost to nothing. And God said, this is your assignment. And that's like how you know, like, okay, are you from Atlanta for real? I ain't got to say too much. I'm a Grady baby. Shut up. Listen to Atlanta Is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says... Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... SmokeyBear.com, with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right.
19:18Thanks, honey bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.
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20:08So, Chuck, foreign accent syndrome, it's kind of all over the place right now, right? Yes. You've got Lisa Alamia, who woke up from jaw surgery with it. Apparently, people who have strokes can suffer from foreign accent syndrome. and I actually saw one case where your foreign accent syndrome and one patient who suffered a stroke was cured by a second stroke elsewhere in the brain. Wow. So we have like, it's very tough to predict what's going to happen when foreign accent syndrome does come about. And, you know, there's been people from Japan who developed Korean accents or there have been people from Scotland who developed South African accents.
20:59It's kind of everywhere and all over. Yeah, one of the other causes, it can be from the onset of MS for multiple sclerosis. This one woman that we'll talk about in more detail suffered from chronic migraines but had a migraine attack so severe that it spurred this. And we'll get to her. But all of these in a bucket from some sort of trauma or an event are called neurogenic type. And for a long time, they used to think that was the only way that you could get foreign accident syndrome. Right. Because remember that Harry Whitaker 1982 criteria specifically says it has to be related to central nervous system damage.
21:43Yeah. So there's another kind called psychogenic, also non-organic or functional or psychosomatic. but one of the leading experts said that they prefer psychogenic. He said, because, quote, this term has the advantage of stating positively based on an exploration of its causes that the disorder is a manifestation of psychological disequilibrium, like anxiety, depression, personality disorder, or conversion reaction, end quote. Right. And, you know, we're talking about, it could be bipolar disorder. It could be some other form of mental illness. And this really kind of rocked. I mean, it's not a huge community studying this, but the people that do are obviously super fascinated by it.
22:30And it kind of rocked their world when they found out that someone that had no head injury, no stroke or anything like that could have something like this. Yeah. So they developed first was neurogenic, then they developed psychogenic. And then there's actually a third one now. It's mixed. So apparently it can actually be from a psychological issue that possibly could arise from, say, a brain lesion. So it's both of them together working to create this foreign accent syndrome. And definitely psychogenic, the psychogenic version of foreign accent syndrome differs tremendously from the neurogenic in a lot of ways.
23:06And number one is the psychogenic tends to clear up. It accompanies, say, like a psychotic break or a manic episode or something like that. And as the episode wanes or goes away or clears up, so too does the foreign accent syndrome. That is not the case with neurogenic. With neurogenic, they have no cure whatsoever. And basically the only treatment that they can come up with is through speech therapy, where a speech language pathologist basically retrained you to talk the way you did before. Yeah, it's also, the neurogenic is also much more common. Out of the cases, I think it's about 86 % are from some sort of neurological damage.
23:49Right. So what does that leave, 14 %? Unless, I guess, you're accounting for the new super odd one that could be both. One of the more famous cases that kind of demonstrated that psychogenic FAS was an actual thing happened here in America. There was a woman in her mid-30s who had a history of schizophrenia in her family And she was brought to the ER after attacking her mom's landlady. Yeah, this one's the most recent case actually and she She she believed the landlady was practicing voodoo on her against her and she attacked the woman And throughout all this during this episode she had taken on a British accent and taking a family history they found that, number one, she had schizophrenia in her family.
24:37She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a result of this incident, but that she had had similar instances before, and during these she had spoken with a British accent. Yeah, I wonder, I didn't see anything in there about her if she had a, I mean, is it another personality? Is it multiple personality disorder? I don't believe so. That's not what I took from it. Because that would make sense, you know, If you have just a British personality that came out that's violent maybe or something. Yeah. Well, I mean, remember, I think we've done one on schizophrenia before, haven't we? I don't know. Have we?
25:12We definitely did one on dissociative personality disorder. Yeah. Which is just absolutely fascinating. But I was, like you, I kind of noticed like, hey, what about multiple personalities? It seems like something that would be right up that alley. I'm sure they've looked into that. But apparently that's not part of it. Yeah. Another case that I said we were going to get to, this one is really weird and super sad. This woman named Sarah Caldwell in England. She is the one that had the migraine that set it off. And this one is super odd because she's an English woman who now has a Chinese accent.
25:54I mean, just straight up sounds Chinese. And like broken English Chinese. Right, right. So she sounds like a native, I think Mandarin speaker is probably what we're thinking of, who is speaking English. And if you weren't looking, like you would expect to see, say, maybe like a middle-aged Chinese woman when you looked at the video. Yeah. And no, it's like, I don't know, late to mid-30s Caucasian woman. Yeah. Native-born English speaker who, and she's who I was thinking of when I was saying for some people it's a really big problem. Because it's presented a big crisis for her identity. She said that she can't look in the mirror while she's speaking any longer.
26:46She just doesn't feel like herself anymore. And it's really hit her hard. Yeah. I mean, her case is really sad. It was, I think, 2010 when she was diagnosed after this migraine incident. And in 2015, she couldn't work anymore. And she has a lot more issues going on than just the speech with these migraines that have come on. She's got a whole range of physical problems. She's had to stop work. She's in a wheelchair. Even though her limbs completely work, her brain basically can't tell her limbs to do what they should do. Good Lord. From migraines. Yeah, from I think these really extreme migraines.
27:29I think they even likened it to having a stroke. They were so severe. So she's had to sell her house, and I think her husband is afflicted with something too. It's just a really, really sad case. But there's all kinds of interviews with her, and it's just so strange to hear that accent coming out of this white lady. it is and from what i gather she'd be like yeah well imagine how strange it feels coming out of you oh yeah you know and you know i saw videos where they would sit down and play her uh and before i looked up further that she was having even more uh troubled times it seemed like she was getting a little better throughout the interview through therapy because they were playing her one of the things they do is they play old recordings of herself and she would sit down and listen to them and try and mimic it.
Read the full transcript
28:19And, um, which kind of brought up one of my questions is, can you even mimic an accent? Like, you know, people can fake an accent. Like, can you even do that? Uh, and I didn't get an answer on that, but, um, then you're just mimicking an accent your entire life too, even if you could, you know, so that's problematic on its own. Sure. But, um, it seemed like she was getting a little bit better in that interview, but apparently not. It's really sad. Yeah, it is. I mean, like it's bad enough. You've got migraine and then to have a crisis of identity. Yeah. It's, yeah, not fair. So one of the other things that's really troubling is you can't just go to a neurologist and get it cleared up.
28:59There are a whole range of doctors that you'll probably see along the way, including a neurologist. You talked about a speech-language pathologist. You might go to a clinical psychologist to deal with the fallout from everything, uh maybe a neuropsychologist maybe a radiologist you might see you know six and eight doctors and still not get anywhere right because can't do a lot for you we don't know how to treat strokes very well and once damage has has occurred in the brain it can be pretty tough if not impossible to reverse that damage, right? If it's permanently damaged. So yeah, the idea that you've now gotten a foreign accent, they're probably like, that's kind of the least of your worries.
29:50You just had a massive stroke or a huge head injury or something like that. But what it's revealed to them is not that there's this huge mystery. And we have kind of played into it a little bit by not revealing this from the outset. But you as a patient with foreign accents syndrome, it didn't hit your head and wake up with the foreign accent. It's all in the ear of the beholder. The whole idea that there is a foreign accent syndrome as the way that it's stated is false. And we'll talk about that after this break.
30:38Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company, which would have been unimaginable without AI, and now it will happen.
31:12I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents in small to medium businesses. Listen to Show Game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Like if we're on the air here and I literally have my contract here and I'm looking at, you know, as soon as I sign this, I'm going to get a seven figure check. I've told them I won't be working here in two weeks.
31:49From the underground clubs that shaped global music to the pastors and creators who built the cultural empire. The Atlanta Is podcast uncovers the stories behind one of the most influential cities in the world. The thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a city of hustlers, man. Each episode explores a different chapter of Atlanta's rise, featuring conversations with Ludacris, Will Packer, Pastor Jamal Bryant, DJ Drama, and more. The full series is available to listen to now. I really just had never experienced anything like what was going on in the city as far as like, you know, seeing so many young, black, affluent creatives in all walks of life.
32:26The church had dwindled almost to nothing. And God said, this is your assignment. And that's like how you know, like, okay, are you from Atlanta for real? I ain't got to say too much. I'm a Grady baby. Shut up. Listen to Atlanta is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says. Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on SmokeyBear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey bear.
33:05Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at Audible.com.
33:54Okay, Chuck, we're back. Yes. So I thought I heard you draw in a breath right before we broke. I might have been. Did you have something to say? I don't know. Yeah, I think I have a little trouble wrapping my head around this whole idea that it's only in the ear of the person. Because, you know, that lady clearly has a Chinese accent. It's not, oh, I'm just hearing it that way. So there have actually been studies where they've played a video clip of, or an audio clip of a person with foreign accent syndrome to different people. Yeah. And said, you know, where do you think this person's from? And the same person will get tens of different answers out of tens of different people.
34:40Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that makes sense in some cases, I think. but I don't see how anyone could hear this woman and say she sounds British to me. Right. Well, no, no, no. She definitely doesn't sound British, but that's the point. She sounds Chinese, but she's not actually speaking in a Chinese accent. She didn't hit her head and wake up with a Chinese accent. What happened was she got these series of migraines, probably had some sort of stroke, and a region of her brain that controls the really intricate process of prosody, of making your tongue do certain things to intonate and accent certain words in certain ways that make up your accent and your dialect overall, that got damaged.
35:25And so now she can't control it in the way she used to before. It comes out sounding differently. And to you, somebody who has heard people speak in a Chinese accent before, it sounds like a Chinese accent. That's the difference. Yeah, I still don't get that. What I do get, though, is we take second nature just when we open our mouth, we talk. We don't realize the complex series of events that's going on to make your voice come out the way it does. So, you know, you're well in the brain. And again, the mysteries of the brain, how you create speech is really complex and involves all kind of areas of the brain.
36:05but specifically damaged in the left hemisphere and the cerebral artery, they know a lot of times can cause foreign accent syndrome. But when you're speaking, you're using your tongue, you're using your lips, your jaw, your larynx, and the way all these things combine in who you are is going to make you have, and we should do one on accents, period. Agreed. It's going to control how your speech comes out. And the one example they use in here is if you have a little too much to drink, you might lose some of that muscle control and you might slower your words or talk funny or differently. Right.
36:44So that's a pretty basic way of understanding it. But I know vowels are sort of a big deal when it comes to foreign accent syndrome. Yeah, if you say ah instead of a, or you substitute consonants like R for L, right? So you're, you know, what's that? What were they singing? Jingle bells on, oh no, Deck the Halls on A Christmas Story. A Christmas Story. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, right? Yeah. So if you were a Caucasian English speaker and you damaged your brain in a way that the part of your brain responsible for forming L's now formed R's instead. Right. To other English speakers who'd heard native Chinese speakers, you would sound like you had a Chinese accent because that's what people who speak Chinese do when they're speaking English.
37:44Right. So you didn't actually adopt a Chinese accent. You're just creating sounds in the same way that somebody who was a native Chinese speaker would. Yeah. I mean, I see what they're getting at with all this. To me, it's a little bit splitting hairs. I think that's what I'm trying to say. I think the difference is this, Chuck. With your accent, your native accent, your native dialect is the result of your exposure to your environment, right? lifelong, all the people around you, all the stuff you've learned, all the things you've heard, it creates your dialect, right? When you suffer foreign accent syndrome, your dialect, your brain is damaged so that you can't produce that anymore.
38:30And you just kind of haphazardly producing something else. You don't actually follow. So like if you took Sarah Calcowell's language and had her read a passage from a book. And then you had a native Chinese speaker, typical accented Mandarin speaker, read that same passage. It would not be the exact same thing. There'd be all sorts of derivations and deviations from that normal Mandarin accent because Sarah Calcowell's brain was damaged in a certain way that makes it a totally unique accent. Yeah, I get that, but that happens within the Mandarin accent between people, too. You're not letting this one go, are you?
39:14I just don't get it. All right. One thing I do get is that there's no, like, and this is probably what's so frustrating, or one of the things that's so frustrating is it's not like they wake up with a new cultural identity either. Right. I mean, this woman still wants to have her tea and biscuits every afternoon, but when she says that she says it with chuck would call it a chinese accent a neurologist would say well you're just hearing that right right uh so you know it like you said people suffer a bit from uh their own like sense of self right you know because uh see here's what i wonder is in in their do they hear it in their head as their own regular accent i don't think so no i I think it sounds off to them, and I think it's probably distressing because they're like, wait, let me say that again.
40:05And they still say it, what they perceive is the wrong way. Because apparently one of the hallmarks of foreign accent syndrome is the errors or the differences that they make in their prosody is predictable. Right. Which makes it like an accent. I mean, that's what an accent is. is you're going to drop your T's or replace the T with the TH with a D. Right. Just about every time I add that R when you say wash. Wash? Yeah, exactly. Like, it's a predictable thing, and that's part of foreign accent syndrome. It starts to happen in predictable ways, too. So I would guess, yeah, it sounds off to them as well.
40:47Well, because the reason I say that is because when, and I think I've talked about this, when my grandfather had a stroke, he still talked but it just came out as gibberish but in his head he was saying the things that he was trying to say which is one of the most frustrating things I think after a stroke victim is I remember seeing him talk and getting so frustrated he would just say things out loud and it would come out as gibberish to us but in his head he's still saying his English words right it's got to make you feel trapped in your body Yeah. However, FAS is a little all over the map because there have been other weird cases.
41:31Because we've been saying this whole time, there's not a new identity. It's the same. You're saying the same words and everything. But there have been cases where people do substitute out words, like you would say lift instead of an elevator. Right. That's like the psychogenic version. I know. It's just so confusing. Well, it almost makes me think like, so before there was nothing but neurogenic foreign accent syndrome, right? Everything else was, you're just crazy. Now they recognize that they're psychogenic FAS as well. I think what's going to happen with more and more study, they're going to just diverge into two totally different syndromes now.
42:11Yeah, that makes sense. You know, I think they're going to be like, that's actually not the same thing. That's something totally different. Neurogenic foreign accent syndrome is its own thing. and psychogenic is something else entirely as well. Yeah, they'll just make up a new name. Yeah. This one other case I thought was interesting about the Dutch woman. Which one? She was Dutch, is Dutch, and she developed a French accent, but she spoke Dutch using French syntax and occasionally French words as if she was a French person learning Dutch. and it turns out that she was a Dutch language teacher who taught French people to speak Dutch.
42:55Right. And I don't know, is her psychogenic or neurogenic? It would have to be psychogenic because neurogenic has basically that original Harry Whitaker criteria in 1982. You'd never use different words and things? Well, it has to not be related to the patient's ability to speak a foreign language. Oh, okay, yeah, right. So she would be technically canceled out from neurogenic for that one. And it didn't have anything to do with central nervous system damage. Right. Which is, again, that's why I think it's going to end up being its own thing. Man, so interesting. It is. What else you got? That's all I've got, man.
43:39Isn't that enough? I think so. Man, any language stuff, anytime we talk about language in the brain, I guess neuro linguistics. I just, I turned to goo. It's so interesting to me. Yeah. That's what happens when something interests me. I turned to goo. If you want to turn to goo and learn more about foreign accent syndrome, you can type those words in the search bar at how stuff works.com. And since I said that it's time for Chuck. Administrative details.
44:12How was that? That was great, man. So, Chuck. Yes. We've got some more people to thank for sending us some nice stuff. That's right. I'm going to start off with Nathan Ferlazzo. Oh, that's good. He sent us some really lovely hand-drawn calendars and bookmarks. And you can find those at wildlife.mariniferlazzo.com.au. And that's M-A-R-I-N-I-F-E-R-L-A-Z-Z-O dot com dot A-U. And it was really, really beautiful work. And it's a cool thing because a portion of every sale is donated to a nonprofit wildlife organization. Very nice. I think you handled that foreign accent very well. Thank you. Want to say thanks big time to Robert Combs from Whitetail Coffee for the amazing coffees.
45:09Especially, like seriously, this is a really good coffee. Especially the Ladaris and La Morella. And that's Whitetail, T-A-L-E, coffee. It's just an amazing coffee subscription service that you should check out. Well, I've got a couple of more coffees. I'll just knock them both out. You have one sitting. Actually, you have two of them sitting on your desk right now, my friend. Can't wait to go grab them. True Stone Coffee Roasters from St. Paul, Minnesota sent us their medium blend. and I can't vouch for the taste yet because it just got here, but it smells good. And then Devin from True Coffee Roasters in Fitchburg, Wisconsin sent us a dark roasted Sumatra and a Mexico Alutra.
45:51Nice. I'm sorry, Altura. Nice. Thanks a lot, guys. We got coffee coming out of our ears. That's great. That's a good place to be. We're not going to have diabetes, my friend. No. Doug Fuchs sent us a beautiful illustrated card. Thanks for that, Doug. Thanks for saying hi. Meg from Seattle, she sent me a card about Laron's passing, my cat, which I lost last year, which is very, very sweet. And while I'm on that, Buckley, my old boy, passed away a couple of weeks ago, and everyone on Facebook was beyond supportive and sweet, and that really helped out. So thanks for that. Yeah, from everybody listening to you, Chuck, we send our condolences to you.
46:33Thank you. It was a very dark time. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Preston Pope. He sent us some amazing chocolates, Chuck, from V Chocolates. V, just the letter V, chocolates.com. Seriously, it's good stuff. I feel bad. I feel like I'm running around on Little Bits Sweets. That's okay. We'll always come back to them. Okay. Our buddy Jeff Barney was kind enough, and I still haven't tried it. It's in my fridge, but you said it's the best. He sent us Kewpie Japanese mayo. Oh, it's so good. Because of my love for mayonnaise. Chuck, you may never go back to American mayo again. Well, I'm finishing up a gallon of Dukes.
47:19This afternoon? Yeah, I'm just going to shoot it down and then I'm going to dive into the Kewpie and see what's going on there. Got to see what the difference is. It's subtle, but you'll notice. You'll say, wow, this is actually really, really good mayonnaise. All right. Well, thanks, Jeff Barney, for that. Thanks a lot to Tim and Joe from Primer Stories. I don't know if you remember, but our animal rights double parter tied into an essay I wrote on primerstories.com. And they sent T-shirts to say thanks for that. So thanks back for you guys' support. Ian Newton of the Baltimore Whiskey Company sent us some ginger apple liqueur and gin yes thanks a lot Don Kent who last gave us some Pliny the Elder before which was nice also sent us a bunch of Soylent and thank you also to Soylent itself, the company, who heard our Soylent episode and said you guys haven't tried Soylent?
48:20here, here's some Soylent and thank you for that Soylent that was very nice I think they got what they wanted out of this, which is for us to say Soylent 12 times. Soylent. This came in today. Thomas Kregel, K-R-E-G-E-L. He sent me a friggin' monocle. Oh, that's neat. And he heard me talking about my eyes going and how I just need him to read things close up. And he said, buddy, here's what you need to do because you will one day embarrass your daughter like I embarrass my children. You need to rock a monocle. and it's a monocle. So is he like a trained optometrist who can like... No, no. So he just gave you a piece of glass that's going to ruin your eye over time?
49:06Yeah, I mean, I tried it and it's kind of like a reader. It works about the same as my prescription. But he uses one. He sent a little picture of himself. Yeah. And I guess I should plug the company. It's Nearsight's Monocles is what he used. Yeah, for sure. and yeah, I got a monocle now. Nice job, Chuck. I'm going to use it. Your new nickname is Pringles Guy. Okay. I've got someone else, Pringles Guy. Janelle Samara sent us a copy of her book, Our Only Hope. Thank you and congratulations on writing a book. Bridget Massoth, M-A-S-S-O-T-H, sent us some really cute, along with an extra large handwritten note, sent us some really cute Josh and Chuck cutouts, like kind of paper cut and paste, uh, cutouts.
49:54Nice. And yours is on your desk. Thank you. You got to get out of this room and go over to your desk. You got a bounty. Uh, Francis De La Paz. Uh, so, you know, there's like a whole group of people out there who believe in writing letters, beautiful letters with fountain pens and all that. Yeah. And Francis De La Paz is one of them sent us a beautiful handwritten letter. And you also apparently customarily send what's called a flat gift. And they sent a postcard, The Sad Life of Sad Clown, which is great. We think sad clowns are great. Well, I got a few letters, actually. I'll just knock those out because Sandra, maybe this was because of International Correspondents Writing Month that we got these because apparently that happened.
50:37Oh, okay. But Sandra sent us a nice handwritten letter in honor of that specifically. And then Austin from Bakersfield sent us a very nice handwritten note. And then Kristen Cook sent us a Valentine's Day card to all of us, including Harry Knoll. Not Harry Knolls of Ain't It Cool News, but our own Knoll, who was just Harry. Right. We got some other ones too, Chuck. We got a lighthouse postcard from Big Sable Point from Teresa. We got a couple of Christmas cards from the Johnson-Allemann family and Tess Sullivan and her family. And I guess in part because of National, what is it, National Writing Month or Letter Writing Month?
51:20International Correspondence Writing Month. Exactly. Noel Verosa. No, sorry. Noel Versosa. Noel Versosa. I got it. It's handwritten. You can't, you know. I got it that last time. Noel Versosa wrote us a nice handwritten letter and fountain pen. I've got two more. Megan Moon Waltman that's Megan with two G's oddly she sent us a copy of this really cool thing she made it's a book, it's called Songbook a book of music for all levels, all ages and it is 11 songs kind of written out as chords and things and illustrated for different instruments, like there'll be a song for guitar an intro song for banjo, one for cello and it's got these cool pictures and then you can download these songs and And kind of, I figure it's, I mean, it says for all ages, but it seems like it'd be great to give a kid.
52:15Right. So check that out. It's very worthwhile. I've got two more to finish than two. One, Austin Doyle sent me an amazing oil crayon painting, which I assume will inflate in value very rapidly once Austin dies. Hopefully that doesn't happen because Doyle is one of our oldest, and I don't mean by age, but one of our longest time listeners. Yeah, he's a great guy. I mean like when he dies of old age. I just plan to outlive him. Oh, okay. So I can cash in on the painting he made me. And then Ben and Aaron Gibson sent us the Japanese car magnets that signify an elderly driver or a teen driver, which we've talked about before.
52:56Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember those. Thanks, dudes. I got one more in this one. Boy, you have no idea what's waiting in there. You just came right into the recording studio for a change. Yeah. on your desk right now, Josh. I can't wait. You have a handmade cutting board. Awesome. And it's really, really nice. This is from Christopher at The Timbered Wolf. And it's just, you know, it's gorgeous. He sent a couple of these in, and they're really, really nice. Nice. So you got to take care of it, though. I left the instructions for you. I got a lot of stuff to carry out of here. Yeah, you need a, someone needs to send Josh a wheelbarrow.
53:31Or a radio flyer. Ooh, I got one of those for my kid. It's nice. Oh, yeah? Yeah, the old red wagon. Like the real one? The radio flyer? Yeah, they still make them. Nice. Well, thank you again to everybody who sent us so much great stuff. We appreciate it big time. And if you want to get in touch with us, you can send us both an email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. And as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com.
53:59Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
54:32Then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com with other wildfire prevention tips. Because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the Ad Council. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age.
55:06Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.
55:44Sign up for a free trial at Audible.com. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
Foreign accent syndrome isn't when your mom talks funny when she goes abroad. It's an actual condition where people wake up one day with an entirely different accent, usually from some kind of head trauma. Learn all about this decidedly rare affliction in this classic episode.
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