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Episode · Discovery

Waking up with a different voice

1 Dec 2025 · 26 min

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What’s it like to wake up with a brand new voice? For those with foreign accent syndrome, this is their reality. Patients who develop this rare speech disorder start speaking in a brand new accent that they often have no connection to. So how does losing the voice you’ve known your entire life shape, or break, your identity? Presenter Ella Hubber speaks to Althia Bryden, who developed foreign accent syndrome last year, and Sarah Colwill, who has lived with the condition for the past 15 years. They share the deep impact it has had on their identity and connection to those around them. And to…

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Discovery

BBC World Service · Tech & Science · English

Explorations in the world of science.

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