For more than sixty years, Ron Ruiz stuttered. It shaped his school years and kept him from flying for the airlines. Through decades of therapy, the advice he kept hearing was to accept it. Then, after he retired, Ron started learning the banjo, and that showed him firsthand that his brain could change.

So at seventy, he took one more shot at his stutter. Nine months later, he says it's gone. In this conversation, Ron takes us inside the head of someone who stutters, including the moment he blocked at an airport ticket counter right after three weeks of intensive speech therapy. He walks us through the program that finally worked for him, and we talk about why that program has so much in common with what helps a musician play what they know when the pressure is on.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Lee Lovett's Neuroscience Method to Stop Stuttering, the program Ron used: https://www.stopstutter.org/
• How to Stop Stuttering and Love Speaking, by Lee Lovett (the book Ron mentions)
• Brainjo banjo courses, where Ron learned clawhammer: https://www.brainjo.academy/

More from Josh:

• The Genius and the Impostor (book): https://geniusandimpostor.com
• What's your Pressure Profile? Find out your type (free, 3 minutes): https://performanceneurology.institute/pressure-profile
• Institute for Performance Neurology: https://performanceneurology.institute
• Brains, Banjos and Beyond (Substack): https://joshturknett.substack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainjojosh

Banjo player Bennett Sullivan was sure he'd ruined a Broadway show with one flubbed intro, and the research on how audiences actually hear our mistakes explains why almost nobody noticed.

Links:

• Order the bookThe Genius and the Impostor at GeniusAndImpostor.com
• The full interview with Bennett Sulivan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lvyXS6ek8
• Instagram: @brainjojosh

Theme Music composed by Julienne Ellen (@julienneellencomposes)

Bennett Sullivan has played banjo on Broadway, at the Grand Ole Opry, and on the Poker Face soundtrack. By any measure, he belongs on any stage. And for years, he couldn't convince himself of it.

In this episode, Bennett is honest about the gap between what he's accomplished and how it's felt from the inside: the comparison that made him great and got in his way at the same time, the night on Broadway he was sure he'd ruined the show, and the shift that finally let him get out of his own way, which turned out to have almost nothing to do with the banjo.

If you've ever been good at something and still felt like you were about to be found out, this one's for you.

Links:

• Bennett's teaching site: https://banjolicks.com
• Order The Genius and the Impostor: GeniusAndImpostor.com
• Bennett on Instagram: @thebennettsullivan
• Josh on Instagram: @brainjojosh