About the Audio

Each article on Ed Talks Stuff has a spoken version. If you would rather hear a piece than read it, or if reading the screen is hard, the audio is there for that.

The voice you hear is not mine.

Who is reading

The narrations are generated by Grok, from xAI, in a voice called Orion. Orion is a clear male read. There is no music under it. One voice, one article, start to finish.

Grok reads the piece. Grok does not write it. The sentences are mine. The byline is mine. If a paragraph sounds like me, that is because I wrote it, not because a machine guessed what I would have said.

I want that distinction on the record. A voice on a page is not the same thing as an author.

Why it isn’t me

I had a stroke in 2021. Since then I have had to cut back on audio recording. Talking into a microphone for the length of a column is a different job from sitting down to write one, and it is a job I do less of now, on purpose, for my health.

I can still write. I still do. I am not going to pretend the read is me when it is not.

If you knew my voice from earlier work, this will not match it. That is the point of saying so.

Why we bothered

EdTalksStuff.com is fully ADA compliant. A text-to-speech plugin can check that box and still be a poor way to hear an article. The one we were using had limited features. The controls were thin. For someone who relies on audio, thin controls are not a small annoyance. They are the difference between finishing a piece and giving up on it.

We wanted a read that was pleasant to stay with, and a player that behaved. Orion is the read. Spotify is the player. The playback on Spotify is excellent: pause, scrub, come back later, pick it up in the car. That is the tool, so that is what is on the page.

Listening may mean using Spotify. Their player, their account rules. The article itself stays here.

What the audio is

A narration of the article. Same piece, spoken.

The audio is made from the final draft. Not a rough read, not a rehearsal, and not a second version written for the microphone. When the piece is finished, that is the text Orion reads. What you hear is the article as it was published.

It is not a separate commentary, and it is not a podcast. It is not legal advice, medical advice, or a substitute for the document it describes. From Ed’s Chair is opinion. The other rooms are the same man, talking about food, tools, money, and this place. Hearing it does not change what it is.

What to do if it fails

If a player will not start, or a piece has no audio yet, the text is the article. Write me through the site and tell me which one broke. Accessibility that only works on a good day is not accessibility.  Email hello@edtalksstuff.com.