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