"The Stuttering Paradox" is the story of a Nashville musician who saw stuttering as his greatest flaw. After trying to "fix" it his entire childhood, he was confronted with the "subway challenge”. By facing his fear JP Ruggieri learned to authentically accept himself just the way he was...and turns out that also dramatically helped his stutter. This story was produced by Cariad Harmon and edited by Jakob Lewis. You can hear JP’s music HERE.

You can find out more about the American Institute for Stuttering here: https://stutteringtreatment.org/

This episode also contains YOUR voices from the Neighbors “Reverse Complaint” Line and a remembrance of legendary Nashville singer-songwriter John Prine.

If you would like to share the ways you’re staying sane and connected with your community during the COVID-19 crisis, give the Neighbors “Reverse Complaint” Line a call: 615-601-1411 or record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected]

You can join “The Neighborhood” along with these wonderful, thoughtful, generous people by becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/neighbors

Who’s in “The Neighborhood”: Allison Sebastian, Adrian Cobb, Nathalie Stewart, Ben Lehman, Caroline Martin, Clark Buckner, Cody Spriggs, Dan Burns, Em Vo, Eric Detweiler, Gina, Griffin Bonham, Heather Price, John Kesling, Landon Rives, Marc Kochamba, Patrick Black, Patrick Gillis, Ray Ware, Ryan Arnett, Samuel Adams, Tom and Rachel Kraft, Nikki Black, Hunter and Bonnie Moore, Newton Dominey, Bea Troxel, Craig and Brenda Burns, and my mom Tonya Lewis (thanks mom!)

Visit our website at www.neighborspodcast.com

Our sonic logo at the beginning of the episode is by Dallas Taylor’s company Defacto Sound. Dallas makes a podcast about sound called Twenty Thousand Hertz listen at www.20k.org