Lulu Miller

Yeah.

Nothing.

So we were able to record that day.

This was actually Alice's fifth attempt to use the valve since she went into the ICU in 2022.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, five different times of trying this thing that promised to give her her voice back and failed to give her her voice back.

And she said that over these years, she's had this thing with her in her apartment, just kind of sitting there on the shelf, unused, not working.

And over time, she grew to resent it.

And she said that one day... I went to their website and did some digging.

And she found some writings by its inventor, this guy, David Muir.

Talking about the value of this valve.

Writing about the power this valve holds, how it can really give people their life back.

What it can do as if it's some miracle solution.

And that the mission, the whole point of this valve was... Quote, dignity through speech.

Dignity through speech.

The phrase dignity through speech gave me pause.

And Alice ended up publishing this open letter addressed to David, who she learned had died back in 1990.

And she said going through that process of writing to him, imagining him, also left her with all these questions about him.

Of how the two of them could be so similar and yet so different.

David Muir is a mystery to me.