Non-Americans Who Think Peat's Voice Sounds Weird, Let Me Explain

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I don't feel like digging up and posting all of the quotes but over the years I've seen many people comment on how Peat's voice sounds "weird" and it almost always comes from someone who is from EU, OZ, NZ, or anywhere, but usually EU. Some Americans have commented on it but it's mostly non-Americans who do and if they're American then they are young, born post 1990.

Here's one:

"his voice is so shaky"

from a forum called acne.org

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/topic/318834-ray-peat/

There's even an old thread from here on it: viewtopic.php?t=538

If you're not from the US and your only exposure to Americans is from movies and TV shows of today or recent, then of course you will think Ray sounds weird.

It's because people don't understand American culture from the time Peat grew up in.

He was born in 1936 which means he grew up in the 1940's and 50's. I believe he spent his first few years in Santee, CA which is the hot SoCal desert but eventually his family made their way to Oregon.

The culture was completely different back then.

Whereas we have Starbucks and other places now, the 1940's saw the growth of soda shops (aka malt shops) in America. Adorned with a quintessential jukebox, these establishments became hot spots for young people looking for a good time, good music, and a delicious treat.

"Say Jack, we're gonna go meet up with Ray at the malt shop for some Coca-Cola vanilla ice cream floats with the dames, what'dya say?"

"That place is lousy, let's go to the other one."

Unfortunately, Americans today don't put "say" in front of sentences, and they don't use the awesome word "lousy" anymore.

f57gvl.jpg


Actual photo of Peat circa 1960's:

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When I first listened to a Ray interview in October of 2011, I was thrown off for the first minute or so because at that point the only picture I saw of him was the tiny one on his site

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where it seems to be from when he was around 35 years old, so I didn't know he was 76 at the time of the audio I was listening to. But then once I realized his age and where he grew up, it all made sense.

I was thrown off because I was expecting to hear an authoritative, snide, smug, arrogant, nutrition know it all snake oil seller because that's how most people who do nutrition/health interviews are. But what I heard was just the opposite.

Danny Roddy once said "Peat is the grandpa I've always wanted," look at the waybackmachine archive of dannyroddy.com. But I get why he said that. There's a certain part of American culture where Grandparents are cherished in a special way. Watch old TV shows from the 50's and you'll see this. There's a special kind of "Look what Grandpa taught me Ma!" kind of characterisitcs of American culture. I was lucky enough to spend the first few years of my life with my great-grandparents, and my great grandfather fought in WW2. I cherish the memories of him teaching me about different things, or simply just throwing a baseball with him. Peat once mentioned one of his cousins who was a "ball player" meaning baseball player, in one of the audio interviews, another sign of his American culture.

"I had put a tablespoonful of coconut oil on some rice I had for supper, and half an hour later while I was reading, I noticed I was breathing more deeply than normal." - RP

The fact that Ray used the word "supper" shows exactly what I'm talking about. Only people who come from Peat's era use the word "supper."

Even Matt Stone of 180degreehealth once wrote in one of his books that the reason he lives in Florida is so that he can spend time with his grandpa who lives there. Americans who were born pre 1990 know exactly what I'm talking about.

Outside of default American English, there are only about 5 American regional accents: Boston/New England, New York City/New Jersey, Chicago/Upper mid West, The South, and Hawaiian Pidgin. Everyone else does not have an accent. The surfer/stoner dude or the ditzy valley girl are characters of that person and not a regional accent. There are people from all over the country who can have that character.

So besides regional accents, there are generational, tones, I guess would be a good word. Since there is no California or Oregon accent, Ray just has his generational tone.

Peat's not odd. Listen to Americans his age and you'll see that in general conversation they sound just like him; polite, friendly, non-authoritarian, with wisdom and wit. Combine that culture of a person with a brilliant scientist and artist and you get Ray Peat.
 
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Non-American's who think Peat's voice sounds weird, let me explain.

:confused I think they refer to the stuttering.
 
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Non-American's who think Peat's voice sounds weird, let me explain.

Such_Saturation said:

Some have. But most I've seen are talking more about how his voice sounds, as in the timbre of it and not the stuttering. He actually doesn't stutter very much. There are many comments on the old peatarian of this nature and as I said, I'm not going to dig them up.

Just because you're a European who has a degree in Americanism SS, don't assume that all other Euro's do. ;)
 
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Non-American's who think Peat's voice sounds weird, let me explain.

Assuming assumptions
 

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Such_Saturation said:

Stuttering from my observation tends to be more common in people who have spent a lot of time alone, especially during their formative years. I wouldn't be surprised if that was Peat's case with his unconventional parenting.

I don't think it's often related to poor health, but I suppose it could be. When you spend most of your time thinking, the flow of verbal language can get a little rusty. I went through a socially isolated stage growing up and had a stutter only when talking to people I didn't know well. I still stutter sometimes when talking to people I first meet, but as I get to know them I don't stutter at all.
 
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Nicholas

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i think his voice is a little odd - only in that it seems like it has many qualities of a younger person's vocal habits. his voice does make more sense when you see him talking - as you pick up on the intensity of his interest in what he is talking about. the thought did cross my mind in the beginning that it sounded like he was hyperventilating, but i do the same thing when i'm in an intense conversation sometimes, regardless of health.
 

pboy

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jolly chap! you do say! susan, get this fine fellow here a soda water!
 

SQu

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Very interesting and thought provoking. Thank you
 

supercoolguy

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The Phrases he uses are priceless in my book because im old enough to remember adults using the now Really Old-Old School vocabulary. As kids we would use those phrases to talk with adults or just for fun. Even some of the customs like overcooking meals i caught the tail-end of growing up in the 70s near farms of MN.
Paper Bag breathing, Coffee. Good Stuff! Just takes a little while to adjust your ears to Rays manor of speech. Plus his sense of humor is blended in their too.
 
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When people are talking about his voice sounding weird, they're not talking about his colloquial use of language like "ball player" that's defined by his upbringing but the physical sound of his voice produced through his vocal cords -- Peat's voice sounds weird because he has some problem with his vocal cords.

His shaky and stutter like speech is closer to being a speech impediment. The guys producing On The Back Of A Tiger should ask him directly why his voice sounds broken and disjointed. Peat wouldn't mind sharing since he was more than willing to reveal how he lost some teeth experimenting with nutritional yeast.
 
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cantstoppeating said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97343/ When people are talking about his voice sounding weird, they're not talking about his colloquial use of language like "ball player" that's defined by his upbringing but the physical sound of his voice produced through his vocal cords -- Peat's voice sounds weird because he some problem with his vocal cords.

His shaky and stutter like speech is closer to being a speech impediment. The guys producing On The Back Of A Tiger should ask him directly why his voice sounds broken and disjointed. Peat wouldn't mind sharing since he was more than willing to reveal how he lost some teeth experimenting with nutritional yeast.

There were many people from Europe who posted on peatarian.com over the last 3 years who often said “sorry for my bad english.” These were the same people who said he sounded weird. There are some who still say that here on RPF. I interact with people from all over the world daily as a part of my job, and 98% of the time these people do not understand the current slang. Everything from the modern “on fleek” to Peat’s generation idioms like “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” these non-US people want me to explain these things to them.

Do you have a source for the claim that he has a problem with his vocal chords?

How come in the 1996 Gary Null Peat interview his voice sounded just fine? The same with the “Your Own Health and Fitness” interview from 1997, his voice was fine. The same with the 2005 video of him speaking at the Silicon Valley Institute, just fine. The same with the 2010 Bud Weiss classroom video, just fine.

Did something happen along the way?

Brad and Jermey got some HQ audio of Peat. I can hear it just from the excerpts they posted. Finally hearing his voice through a quality microphone makes it come together nicely.

Everyone should be familiar with the concept of realizing that someones voice sounds completely different in person than on the lo-fi telephone.

I'm from the US so I understand US culture. I don't understand British culture. I met someone from the UK recently who told me that there is a certain area of England where the people talk in a slang with ending sentences in rhymes. I said "they're like rappers!" :lol: And these were white British people, not non-white Ali G wannabe rappers.

He also told me about the many, many different accents in the UK. If I started listening to a scientist from the UK, who was 80 years old, there may be some idioms and things he says that just don't make sense to me being from the US and being born at the time I was.
 
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Westside PUFAs said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97346/
cantstoppeating said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97343/ When people are talking about his voice sounding weird, they're not talking about his colloquial use of language like "ball player" that's defined by his upbringing but the physical sound of his voice produced through his vocal cords -- Peat's voice sounds weird because he some problem with his vocal cords.

His shaky and stutter like speech is closer to being a speech impediment. The guys producing On The Back Of A Tiger should ask him directly why his voice sounds broken and disjointed. Peat wouldn't mind sharing since he was more than willing to reveal how he lost some teeth experimenting with nutritional yeast.

There were many people from Europe who posted on peatarian.com over the last 3 years who often said “sorry for my bad english.” These were the same people who said he sounded weird. There are some who still say that here on RPF. I interact with people from all over the world daily as a part of my job, and 98% of the time these people do not understand the current slang. Everything from the modern “on fleek” to Peat’s generation idioms like “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” these non-US people want me to explain these things to them.

Do you have a source for the claim that he has a problem with his vocal chords?

How come in the 1996 Gary Null Peat interview his voice sounded just fine? The same with the “Your Own Health and Fitness” interview from 1997, his voice was fine. The same with the 2005 video of him speaking at the Silicon Valley Institute, just fine. The same with the 2010 Bud Weiss classroom video, just fine.

Did something happen along the way?

Brad and Jermey got some HQ audio of Peat. I can hear it just form the excerpts they posted. Finally hearing his voice through a quality microphone makes it come together nicely.

Everyone should be familiar with the concept of realizing that someones voice sounds completely different in person then on the lo-fi telephone.

You're confusing two different things: the sound of a voice and the meaning of speech. Idioms and colloquial language like "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" that non-US people want you to explain to them is about the meaning of someone's speech not the sound of someone's speech.

Your thread title is literally "Peat's voice sounds weird" but then you justify his sound (i.e. shaky) by talking about the meaning (i.e. idioms) of his speech. That doesn't make sense.

It's like the following: a man walks into a bodybuilding store and asks for "juice" in a deep and husky voice. Someone says his voice sounds deep and husky and you say "it's because he comes from an era where people use the word "juice" to refer not to a beverage but to anabolic steroids." Err.. I'm talking about the sound of his voice, not the meaning of his words.

The shaky and disjointed sound of Peat's voice is as apparent and obvious as his missing teeth.
 
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It's a combination of both, culture and timbre, but mostly culture. Please look up the word timbre. His 1940's culture and his own timbre make it confusing for Euro's why he not only sounds the way he does, by more why he talks the way he does. If energy and structure are interdependent at every level, then culture and timbre are interdependent at every level as well.

cantstoppeating said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97349/ The shaky and disjointed sound of Peat's voice is as apparent and obvious as his missing teeth.

I'm still waiting for your source. I just gave you many examples where his voice sounds fine. If it's shakey" now then it's simply from aging.
 
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cantstoppeating said:
The guys producing On The Back Of A Tiger should ask him directly why his voice sounds broken and disjointed. Peat wouldn't mind sharing since he was more than willing to reveal how he lost some teeth experimenting with nutritional yeast.

Wait that's new to me. Yeast caused him teeth loss?
 
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cantstoppeating said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97343/ When people are talking about his voice sounding weird, they're not talking about his colloquial use of language like "ball player" that's defined by his upbringing but the physical sound of his voice produced through his vocal cords -- Peat's voice sounds weird because he has some problem with his vocal cords.
 
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jyb said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97353/
cantstoppeating said:
The guys producing On The Back Of A Tiger should ask him directly why his voice sounds broken and disjointed. Peat wouldn't mind sharing since he was more than willing to reveal how he lost some teeth experimenting with nutritional yeast.

Wait that's new to me. Yeast caused him teeth loss?

Correction: wheat germ, not nutritional yeast:

... We heard about his own journey to health, including an ill-fated nutritional experiment that destroyed his teeth back in the 50s (short story: don’t try to live off wheat germ).
http://www.perceivethinkact.com/
 
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cantstoppeating said:
There ya go. This is what people are referring to when they explicitly say "Peat's voice sounds weird". It's fine, you just confused the sound of a voice with the meaning of the words and phrases produced by that same voice.

No.

You claim something happened to his vocal chords. Now you're dodging what you said but conceding that it's just aging. I provided examples of him from 20 years ago with points in time in between where he sounded fine.

I don't think his voice is "shakey," I think it is somewhat aged, but not "shakey."

The point of this post is this:

I meet many people from other countries who say that they love American movies. They mostly seem to watch movies from the late 80's and on. If these same people have never met or known an American like Peat who was raised in the 40's and 50's and then they do meet or hear one they say "he sounds weird." And rightfully so, because they've never heard an old school American talk. The only American English they know is a newer one from late 1980's Hollywood fantasies onwards. They don't understand the Roddy Grandpa comment just like they don't understand Matt Stone and his sense of humor and style of writing. They read Stone for health info but are perplexed as to why he writes how he does because similar to Peat, they won't meet someone like Stone or be exposed to someone like him enough to understand him in the media they watch.
 
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Westside PUFAs said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/97358/
cantstoppeating said:
There ya go. This is what people are referring to when they explicitly say "Peat's voice sounds weird". It's fine, you just confused the sound of a voice with the meaning of the words and phrases produced by that same voice.

No.

You claim something happened to his vocal chords. Now you're dodging what you said but conceding that it's just aging. I provided examples of him from 20 years ago with points in time in between where he sounded fine.

Here you go doing your thing again: start with a nice big "No." and then a short paragraph of some incorrect inference from posts. I'll just ignore this.

Westside PUFAs said:
The point of this post is this:

I meet many people from other countries who say that they love American movies. They mostly seem to watch movies from the late 80's and on. If these same people have never met or known an American like Peat who was raised in the 40's and 50's and then they do meet or hear one they say "he sounds weird." And rightfully so, because they've never heard an old school American talk. The only American English they know is a newer one from late 1980's Hollywood fantasies onwards. They don't understand the Roddy Grandpa comment just like they don't understand Matt Stone and his sense of humor and style of writing. They read Stone for health info but are perplexed as to why he writes how he does because similar to Peat, they won't meet someone like Stone or be exposed to someone like him enough to understand him in the media they watch.

Like I said earlier, people who say "he sounds weird" are literally talking about the sound and not the meaning of his speech.
 
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But what is the mechanism through which "upbringing" makes your voice weak and stuttering?
 

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