30:T564,md`# A vocal note I recently read [Bad Blood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood:_Secrets_and_Lies_in_a_Silicon_Valley_Startup), John Carreyrou’s riveting account of the [Theranos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos) deceit. CEO Elizabeth Holmes — who wasn’t interviewed for the book — said and did many shocking and unethical things. One of the more salacious and potentially tricky stories concerns her voice. Holmes speaks with a low baritone in her public appearances: I think she speaks at around a C2 (the baritone range is A2-A4). But the book alleges: > Carreyrou spoke to one employee who caught her briefly in her office one evening, where she "lapsed into a more natural-sounding young woman's voice." The pitch was several octaves higher than her normal baritone. Characterizing the gap as octaves is certainly an exaggeration or at least a use of inaccurate terminology, but nevertheless, I wanted to see this through. So, Googling pulls up a [LinkedIn thread](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/elizabeth-holmes-real-voice-david-eller/) that links to a [Biotech nation podcast episode that was released unedited](https://player.fm/series/biotech-nation-radio-podcast/episode-18-26-unedited-2005-interview-with-elizabeth-holmes-recorded-at-kqed-in-san-francisco), that features a few minutes of chatting before Holmes and the host Dr. Moira Gunn.`31:T630,md`I’m a long-time reader of [LanguageLog](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/) and hope they or a similar outlet lends a more knowledgable phonetician ear to this idea. This is really tricky ground, socially, and culturally: I think everyone should be able to speak with the voice that they want to, and it's clear that in many cases pitch is a really complicated and deep thing. For Holmes, there’s a very likely theory that she pitch-shifts to fit in in a male-dominated industry, and maybe to stand out. In her particular case, it easily fits into a narrative of someone who [defrauded doctors and investors](https://www.vox.com/2018/6/15/17469332/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-criminal-charges-fraud) and put patients at risk. But for many other people, [voice work](http://theconversation.com/how-trans-people-can-change-their-voice-to-suit-their-preferred-gender-52863) is part of being trans, or adopting certain tones is part of being accepted in a workplace. The [vocal fry register](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_fry_register) is often criticized in women’s voices, but ignored in men’s (and it’s something that Holmes’s voice doesn’t feature, as far as I can hear). So while her vocal patterns might be fascinating, we should all be careful not to focus too much on them. After all, she’s responsible for a company that clearly defrauded investors, pushed a man to suicide, and harmed peoples’ health. That’s much more important than an affect. --- Update: [LanguageLog now has a post about Holmes](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=42210).`32:T40d,chartAudio = async (url, title) => { const fft = await getFFT(url); const c = DOM.context2d(fft.length, 256); for (let i = 0; i < fft.length; i++) { for (let y = 0; y < fft[0].length; y++) { c.fillStyle = d3.interpolateViridis(fft[i][y] / 256); c.fillRect(i, 256 - y, 1, 1); } } const audioElem = html`

${title}