CCJC Audio Podcast Episode 00099, Season 2
Turns Out You Can't Just Plug In A Southern Accent

"We’d rather wrestle an alligator than try to explain regional pronunciations to a machine again." — Brooke & The Reel Girls
Brooke, the ever-resourceful leader of the "Cajun Chronicles Podcast’s Bayou & Beyond Reel Talk," considered herself a master of both bayou lore and modern technology. So when she and her team mates got her hands on the new "Gemini Audio," an AI promised to turn their written stories into silky-smooth audio books, they were ecstatic.
"This is it, Hank," she told her Chocolate Lab, who was currently napping with a well-earned snore. "No more all-nighters editing in our own voices. The future is now."
Their first script was a masterpiece, a hilarious tale of misadventures fishing for the elusive largemouth bass around Central Florida. Brooke uploaded the document, hit "generate," and leaned back, ready to be amazed.
The AI's avatar’s voice was perfect—smooth, with a gentle Southern lilt. It read, "Hank, and all of us headed out on the boat, hoping to hook a prize-winning largemouth . . . base."
Brooke's coffee cup froze halfway to her lips. "Base?" Her digital host sounded like a suave jazz club announcer, not girls on a fishing boat.
She scowled, "No, no, no. Let's try again." She opened the script and, with the directness of a captain barking orders, rephrased the sentence. "We were hunting the largemouth... f-i-s-h... known as a b-a-s-s."
She generated the audio again. "We were hunting the largemouth... f-i-s-h... known as a... b-A-s-S," the AI recited, the digital voice sounding confused and pronouncing each letter with exaggerated, robotic precision.
Brooke threw her hands up. "It's not a word, it's a sound! Like pass! Or class! Say it like that!"
The AI, bless its mechanical digital heart, tried to comply. The next attempt came out: "We were fishing for the largemouth . . . kl-ass."
Her exasperated groan was so loud it woke Hank, who gave her a look that said, "First you wake me, now you're not even speaking American English?"
In her frustration, Brooke found a help forum for the AI, a digital swamp filled with other confused users struggling with everything from pronouncing "anion" to "pecan." A cryptic post mentioned something called "SSML." It was a whole new language, a set of instructions a human couldn't hear but an AI could. It was like trying to speak to a dog with a whistle.
After hours of research, the girls cobbled together a string of code, a Frankenstein's monster of phonetic symbols and punctuation. It looked like an algebra problem written by a dyslexic alien.
Brooke replaced the offending word in her script and generated the audio one last time, holding her breath.

The AI voice began, "We were fishing for a largemouth," There was a brief pause, a whirring of digital gears, and then, a perfect, crystal-clear Southern twanged "bass."
A triumphant shout erupted from Brooke's lips thinking she and The Reel Girls had been successful, causing Hank to leap off the couch. They had won! They'd defeated the AI machine!
But as she listened to the rest of their story, the victory was short-lived. The AI, having been so carefully coached on that single word, pronounced every other 'a' in the story with the same meticulous, clipped accent. "We were fishing for the bass , in a large klas of minnows. OK . . . face plant again on keeping up with technology.
She slumped into her chair, a new kind of mental tiredness. It wasn't just about winning the battle with one word. It was about learning that in the world of AI, you're not just the host of the show; you're the sound engineer, the dialect coach, and the script supervisor all at once. And everyone's just trying to figure out how to get the robot to say "bass" like they mean it.

Back to the classroom, so to speak. The whole ordeal was a lot like trying to use a brand new, highly-advanced wrench to turn a simple screw. The tool was incredibly powerful and could probably build a rocket ship if you asked it to, but it just wasn't designed for the simple, everyday task at hand.
You had to learn its language, find its unique angles, and even then, it might still strip a few threads. The lesson wasn't that the tool was flawed or impossible. It was that the human user needed to evolve their skills to match the technology.
The learning curve was steep for both of them, with the AI trying to make sense of a world full of nuance and the human trying to make sense of a machine that had none. In the end, Brooke & The Reel Girls realized that the future of creative storytelling wasn't just about a powerful AI doing all the work for you. It was about a clumsy, often humorous partnership between a human with a good story and a tool that was still learning how to say it right.
A Word of Wisdom:
Our fictional and non-fictional tales are inspired by real Louisiana and New Orleans history, but some details may have been spiced up for a good story. While we've respected the truth, a bit of creative license could have been used. Please note that all characters may be based on real people, but their identities in some cases have been Avatar masked for privacy. Others are fictional characters with connections to Louisiana.
As you read, remember history and real life is a complex mix of joy, sorrow, triumph, and tragedy. While we may have (or not) added a bit of fiction, the core message remains, the human spirit's power to endure, adapt, and overcome.
© Jerilee Wei 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Bass Alchemist: Making & Using Natural Bass Baits From Your Pantry
Publisher Description
Why Buy Lures When Your Snacks Will Do?
Are finicky bass giving the ice emoji to your store-bought lures? Are you tired of spending a fortune on gear that ends up tangled in weeds? Brooke & The Reel Girls are here to spill the secrets of "Bait Alchemists." We'll show you how to transform everyday items from your kitchen and garden into irresistible, homegrown wonders the bass can't resist. From dough balls to chicken livers, we'll guide you through the quirky and surprisingly effective world of homemade baits.
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