"If you say 'like' one more time, I'm gonna lose my shit." These were the words uttered to me through gritted teeth as I sat in green plastic patio furniture on a humid summer night a few years back.

"That was the first moment I felt [my voice] was hurting my career beyond just irritating a couple listeners," Grose tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. Grose sought help from a voice coach in an effort to ...

An error has occurred. Please try again. With a Centralmaine.com subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month. It looks like you do not have any active ...

At age 50, I qualified for my AARP Card, entitling me to senior citizen discounts. Years later, I earned my Curmudgeon Card. This license allows us old folks to complain about even the smallest, most ...

How can you improve your speaking style, and your level of success? Drop the upspeak (when your statement sounds like a question) and the vocal fry (also known as creaky voice), says Valerie Burton, ...

AUSTRALIAN ‘upspeak’ is frowned upon in the UK. Teachers are being discouraged from sounding Aussie and some employers are not hiring those who sound Australian. But the spread of the Aussie ...

With its upward tone at the end of a sentence, ‘upspeak’ has become an increasingly familiar sound since Neighbours arrived on our televisions in the mid-1980s. But the spread of the irritating habit ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. "That was the first moment I felt [my ...

At age 50, I qualified for my AARP Card, entitling me to senior citizen discounts. Years later, I earned my Curmudgeon Card. This license allows us old folks to complain about even the smallest, most ...

Journalist Jessica Grose is no stranger to criticism of her voice. When she was co-hosting the Slate podcast, the DoubleX Gabfest, she would receive emails complaining about her "upspeak" — a tendency ...

Journalist Jessica Grose, linguistics professor Penny Eckert and speech pathologist Susan Sankin discuss upspeak, vocal fry and why women's voices... From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young ...