Episode 10: How Hormones Affect the Female Voice

This is for the women working in dual and duet narration who have quietly been trying to survive the emotional, financial, and unprofessional chaos that can come from working with certain men in this industry.

This is for the narrators sitting there wondering, "Gosh, is this happening to anyone else? Am I overreacting? Why does this keep happening?" It's happening to me too, and based on the number of private conversations I've had over the last few weeks and months and years, it's happening to a lot of us.

So I want this episode to be two things, a reality check and a game plan.

I don't want us only whispering about this privately anymore.

I want us talking about it openly enough that the people who actually have the power to shift the culture can no longer ignore it.

The conversation is starting.

The SAG Steering Committee is already beginning to address lateness issues and unprofessionalism, and PANA, the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association, already has documentation around dual and duet best practices and professional standards.

The framework exists.

The problem is that these conversations are still mostly staying inside narrator spaces, and I think we are at a point where we need to get brave enough to say the quiet parts out loud.

Not cruelly, not recklessly.

It's not all men.

We're not vindictively out to get anyone, clearly.

But this is not gossip anymore.

This is a workplace culture issue.

Romance audiobooks are largely powered by women, women authors, women listeners, a lot of women producers, women narrators.