I talk for a living, and I live well. But I don't like how I sound when on occasion I listen to a recording of one of my lectures. Too many pauses and hesitations. Too many corrections and asides. Worse, I usually speak in a monotone, which seems okay when I am trying to deliver a deadpan joke but not otherwise. At least that's how I hear me. Although I love to talk, I try to avoid hearing my own voice because I sound like an inarticulate Ben Stein. Goodness. I bet many of you have had the same reaction when you hear a recording of your own voice, and maybe you have re-recorded the message on your telephone answering machine countless times because it just didn't sound right to you.