What happens when the way you sound in a language starts to define how people see you — and how do you decide whether to change it, keep it, or stop caring?

In this episode, we explore accent not as a technical problem to fix, but as a marker of identity that carries weight, judgment, and belonging. We examine who gets to sound "neutral," why some accents are celebrated while others are stigmatized, and what it means to reclaim your voice in a language that keeps telling you to sound like someone else.

This is about the politics of accent, the labor of code-switching, and the choice between performing competence and owning the voice that's actually yours.

If you've ever been told your accent is "charming" or "hard to understand" — if you've ever wondered whether to work on sounding more "native" or to stop apologizing for the way you speak — this episode is for you.