Inside SLP is a podcast that brings clarity to the complex systems shaping speech-language pathology. Most SLPs work inside a professional structure they were never taught to see. It is a system built from layers of history, policy, economics, and unspoken assumptions.
Each episode offers a single “lightbulb moment” to help clinicians understand the origins, tensions, and trade-offs embedded in the field. This is not activism, outrage, or quick fixes. It is a slow, steady practice of seeing the profession more clearly.
Whether you are new to the field or decades in, Inside SLP invites you to hold multiple truths, sit with complexity, and build a more informed, courageous, and connected professional life.
If you’d like to explore the system more deeply, learn about the PACT Survey, a large-scale effort to understand how SLPs, audiologists, employers, and potential service users experience our profession.
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Series Schedule
Chapter 1: The Foundation
How a small academic club in the 1920s invented a profession from scratch.
Releasing December 12, 2025
- Ep 1: The Summer I Failed the Test
What does a frost-covered tent in Montana have to do with the Golden Ticket you were promised? - Ep 2: Fixing vs. Contemplating
What happens when you realize the professional problems you’re trying to “fix” are actually 100-year-old structural knots? - Ep 3: How the CCC Came to Be
What does a 1952 temporary workaround have to do with the certificate you pay for today? - Ep 4: It’s 1969 in Florida
A stuttering-cure-by-mail scam and the first SLP state license in history.
Chapter 2: The Training Gap
Why our clinical education ended up as an “assemble at home” project after graduation.
Releasing December 19, 2025
- Ep 5: The Patchwork Profession
What does a Speech Langauge Technician in Utah have to do with the fact that your degree doesn’t guarantee you’ve ever seen a patient? - Ep 6: A Training Model Unlike Any Other
What does an empty chair in a state office have to do with your caseload? (Hint: ASHA isn’t “the boss”). - Ep 7: Why the Degree Never Changed
A crisp afternoon in St. Paul in 1983 and why you paid tuition for a degree that didn’t finish your training. - Ep 8: What We Were Never Taught
Why are 47% of grad programs admitting they can’t teach the full scope? - Ep 9: Audiology Pivots Away
What does “taxation without representation” have to do with the day audiology moved out?
Chapter 3: The Institutional Machine
Following the money, the law, and the $100 million pension anchor.
Releasing January 2 2026
- Ep 10: Who Actually Holds the Pen?
What does an empty chair in a state office have to do with your caseload? (Hint: ASHA isn’t “the boss”). - Ep 11: There Was Money Around
What does a McDonald’s menu have to do with why your profession is written into federal law? - Ep 12: What ASHA Can’t Legally Do
The boundary between permission and power. - Ep 13: Following the Money Without Losing the Plot
A $100 million retirement promise and why the CCC feels like a subscription you can’t cancel.
Chapter 4: The Future Blueprint
Moving from “buying belonging” to building a professional home that actually fits.
Releasing January 8, 2026
- Ep 14: Before the CCC Meant Anything
What does a letter accusing a clinician of being a Communist have to do with the Master’s degree? - Ep 15: Bogus, But Not Like That
Illegal tying arrangements and the day certification and membership got a divorce. - Ep 16: Optional Membership Is the Point
Why is “optional” the most important word in the professional dictionary? - Ep 17: Apparently, You Can Do That
Are we allowed to build more than one “house”
at a time? - Ep 18: What People Are Actually Arguing About
Are we experiencing burnout, or an unfinished architecture? - Ep 19: Building Things Up
What happens when mentorship is treated as a luxury rather than a foundation? - Ep 20: An Invitation
A call for holding multiple conflicting truths at once.