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July082008

Peter J. Boyer Has an Extraordinarily Soothing Voice

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

I’m listening to the New Yorker Out Loud podcast in which Matt Dellinger (who has a calming, pleasant voice himself) interviews Boyer about the latter’s recent story about newsman Keith Olbermann, and am struck by how resonant the latter’s speaking voice is. It is a mellow, searchingly thoughtful voice, with a note of the South (Texas, I’m guessing), and the sound of the two of them together makes for a sort of duet for cello and bassoon. It’s a good interview, too.

Matt, bring back Mr. Boyer for another discussion soon, won’t you? In the meantime, he could read a short story for the fiction podcast, perhaps something by John Graves. This makes me think: Paul Muldoon’s similarly unboastful, shapely voice. A poetry podcast to complement the rest, complete with songs (Muldoon would choose them well), and it would be as lively as can be—something like the Favorite Poem Project, but with a New Yorker-specific tilt. Let’s hope that this is in the works.

Comments

Re Obama’s public utterances re abortion, particularly his remarks at Saddleback, I am rather miffed. Why doesn’t he follow up his inability to state when human life begins by expressing his absolute conviction that a woman made pregnant through rape should have the right to choose and emphasizing how absurd it would be to argue that under such circumstances abortion is tantamount to murder. But if human life begins at conception, abortion is murder. The religious right can’t have it both ways.

Peter HelmbergerSeptember 06, 2008

Re Obama’s public utterances re abortion, particularly his remarks at Saddleback, I am rather miffed. Why doesn’t he follow up his inability to state when human life begins by expressing his absolute conviction that a woman made pregnant through rape should have the right to choose and emphasizing how absurd it would be to argue that under such circumstances abortion is tantamount to murder. But if human life begins at conception, abortion is murder. The religious right can’t have it both ways.

Peter HelmbergerSeptember 06, 2008

Mr. Boyer does have a soothing voice and he is a very pleasant man. I had the good fortune of acting as his “deputy pit-master” for one summer. He is from Mississippi.

Sandy FrazierMarch 26, 2009

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