EP05. The Monsters Study: Authority, Identity & The Stories We Inherit About Ourselves

In 1939, six children at an Iowa orphanage who spoke normally were told by researchers that they were developing a stutter. Something else also happened that the data wasn't designed to capture: Some of the children became quieter, more hesitant, and afraid to speak. The Monster Study began as an experiment about speech, but nearly 90 years later, it leaves us with a much more personal question: How much of who we become is shaped by what other people repeatedly tell us we are?