Deep Reads: A songwriter had part of his brain removed. The music flowed.

深读:一位歌者割除了一部分大脑。音乐流淌而出。

Post Reports

2025-09-07

21 分钟
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单集简介 ...

The songwriter was unconscious, but his voice filled the operating room. Mike Frazier’s dirty-blond locks had been partially shaved and his head sanitized. The surgeon standing over him slid his blade in a crescent over Frazier’s right ear and tugged his scalp into position. Then he began opening a window into the musician’s brain. The task that day was to reach and remove the cause of the grievous pain that had besieged and mystified Frazier for years. After almost a decade as a folk-rock singer with a rollicking vibe and a knack for storytelling, piercing stomach pain had stymied his songwriting and drawn him into a dangerous depression before he turned 30. This story explores Frazier’s condition, diagnosis and recovery through the songs he would write about the experience.  Michael Laris reported, wrote and narrated the piece. Bishop Sand composed music and produced audio. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
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单集文稿 ...

  • Hi, I'm Michael Laris, and this is Post Reports Weekend.

  • It's Saturday, September 6th.

  • I'm a local enterprise reporter,

  • and what you're going to hear in a moment is a story I wrote about a musician who had brain surgery for a condition that affects more people than you think.

  • I'll be narrating it.

  • You'll hear audio from my phone calls with Mike Frazier's doctors, and when I talked with Mike,

  • his guitar in hand at a picnic table in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

  • This reporting is part of a Washington Post series called Deep Reads.

  • It's part of our commitment to narrative journalism.

  • This story is about a songwriter born in Virginia who faced an agonizing medical mystery.

  • A note to listeners,

  • this story includes descriptions of medical procedures that can be a little graphic.

  • Okay, here's the story.

  • The songwriter was unconscious, but his voice filled the operating room.

  • Mike Frazier's dirty blonde locks had been partially shaved and his head sanitized.

  • The surgeon standing over him slid his blade in a crescent over his right ear and tugged his scalp into position,

  • holding it in place with a dozen sky blue clips.

  • Then he began opening a window into the musician's brain.

  • The surgeon, Lee Selznick,

  • had chosen a Spotify playlist of Frazier's music for the delicate procedure.