Stuttering As Art

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Gina Waggott, who is a writer, editor, and former TV professional. She is the author of the authorized biography Scatman John: The Remarkable Story of the World’s Unlikeliest Popstar, due from Bloomsbury in February 2026   Together, they also talk about John Larkin, aka Scatman John, was a stuttering jazz pianist turned global pop sensation in his 50s, thanks to his...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Tyson Higel, a nurse, a poet, and most unimportant of all, a person who stutters. His difficulty with speaking is what led him to writing, however—a landscape in which words are no longer obstacles, but bridges. Confessions of a Stutterer aims to be a bridge itself, to connect the reader, the listener, to what goes unspoken for from those who struggle with speaking....

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Jordan Scott, poet and children’s author. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020. I Talk Like a River is translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s, Schneider Family Book Award, which honors authors for the artistic expression o...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with James Hayden, who lives in the New Orleans area with his fiancée and works in the medical field. He is the author of Dear World, I Stutter: A Series of Open Letters from a Person Who Stutters. Together, they talk about facing fears, content creation, creativity, and finding your community.  Links: Buy Dear World: I Stutter Reflecting on Our Reality: Seeing Stuttering...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Tv writer/Caregiver Influencer Jacquelyn Revere. After college, she moved to Atlanta to help care for her grandmother, then to NYC to pursue a career in theatre. Her openness about becoming her mother's dementia caregiver lead to her Op-Ed in the LA Times and feature on NPR. Revere specializes in family-centered half-hours that center on themes of disability and care...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Darcey Steinke, the author of the memoirs Flash Count Diary, This is the Door, Easter Everywhere and five novels: Sister Golden Hair, Milk, Jesus Saves, Suicide Blonde, and Up Through the Water. Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her nonfiction has appeared widely. Her web story “Blindspot” was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been bot...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Barry Yeoman, a person who stutters and an award-winning journalist whose stories put human faces on complex issues. He lives in North Carolina and teaches journalism at Duke University and Wake Forest University. Barry has been involved in the stuttering self-help movement for more than 30 years and co-founded Passing Twice, an informal network of LGBTQ+ people who...

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Vince Vawter, a retired newspaper editor and publisher. Vawter is the author of the popular Paperboy Trilogy, a series of autobiographical novels that follow the life of a boy from age 11 to 21 as he grows up in the segregated South and deals with a worrisome stutter. The first book of the series, Paperboy, was a 2014 Newbery Honor Book published by Penguin Random Ho...

This week, Madeline talks with Ezra Horak, a stutterer and the founder of Stutterology, an empowering digital content platform that educates about stuttering lived experience through a neurodiverse and trauma-informed lens. Ezra talks about their journey with stuttering, what stuttering feels like, how they express creativity with Stutterology--and more!  Ezra Horak is a stutterer and the founder...

Stuttering As Art, the podcast, is all about exploring the ways people who stutter create works of art alongside and involving their stutter.  Each week, host Madeline Wahl--writer, independent academic, and person who stutters--interviews fellow writers, poets, award-winning authors, adjunct professors, investigative journalists, and more about their stuttering journey, writing, and creativity. ...