re:verb is a podcast about politics, culture, and language in action, featuring interviews and segments from scholars, writers, critics, and activists in the humanities, social sciences, and outside the academy.
…
continue reading
On today’s show, Calvin and Alex analyze the rhetoric and politics of the 2024 presidential election in terms of a particularly significant job this cycle: the vice president, or veep! We begin by discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’s meteoric rise to the Democratic nomination following President Biden’s departure from the race, as well as Harr…
…
continue reading
Have you ever wondered why you immediately gravitate towards some speakers and writers? How they form a connection with you and make you want to pay closer attention? Or why you react with disgust and revulsion to other kinds of communicators? What is it about strategic discourse that fosters and nurtures deep connections with some audiences while …
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E93: Queer Techné and Queering A.I. (w/ Dr. Patricia Fancher)
1:02:15
1:02:15
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:02:15
On today’s show, Alex and Calvin are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Patricia Fancher, a Continuing Lecturer in the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In her fabulous new book Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetorics, and Desire in the History of Computing, Dr. Fancher offers a groundbreaking history of how the Manchester Universit…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E92: Academic Organizing and Palestinian Solidarity (w/ Olivia Wood)
54:03
54:03
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
54:03
On today’s show, Alex is joined by Olivia Wood, a lecturer in the English Department at City College of New York (CCNY) to discuss the recent escalations of force by the NYPD and campus administrators against student protesters in solidarity with Palestine over the past several weeks. In particular, we touch on the flashpoint raids by police - at t…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E91: Thinking Rhetorically (w/ Dr. Robin Reames)
45:01
45:01
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
45:01
On today’s show, Calvin and Alex sit down with Dr. Robin Reames - Associate Professor of English at the University of Chicago - to discuss her new book The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times. In this book, Robin synthesizes rhetorical theories and concepts from Greek antiquity to the 20th century to deliv…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E90: reel:verb - Civil War (Garland, 2024)
1:12:59
1:12:59
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:12:59
Spoiler Alert: This episode contains numerous plot spoilers for Civil War. On today’s show, we inaugurate a new episode series called reel:verb, in which we rate, review, and analyze a recent movie from the perspective of politics, culture, and language in action. In the first installment, Alex, Olivia, and Calvin tackle the 2024 dystopian thriller…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E89: Distance and Suffering in News Reporting (w/ John Oddo, Cameron Mozafari, & Alex Kirsch)
1:07:11
1:07:11
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:07:11
On today’s show, Calvin and Alex sit down with the co-authors of a hot-off-the-presses article in Discourse & Society about journalistic reporting on US drone strikes in the Middle East: Dr. John Oddo (Carnegie Mellon University), Dr. Cameron Mozafari (Cornell University), and Alex Kirsch (MA Professional Writing graduate, CMU). In their article, e…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E88: re:joinder - Lose Bigly with Scott Adams, pt. 3: Movies, Moist Robots, and Mass Delusions
1:27:43
1:27:43
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:27:43
Do you consider yourself to be a rational person? If so, Scott Adams (a.k.a. “The Dilbert Guy”), has some bad news for you. On today’s show, we attempt to surmount our various cognitive dissonances and confirmation biases to better understand “How to See Reality in a More Useful Way,” according to the third chapter of Scott Adams’s 2017 pseudo-rhet…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E87: Self-Immolation as Rhetorical Protest (w/ Dr. James Chase Sanchez)
48:07
48:07
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
48:07
Disclaimer: This episode covers sensitive issues related to suicide and self-harm. If this topic makes you uncomfortable, we recommend skipping this episode. If you or someone you know is in crisis, in the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a cris…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E86: Discourse & Manipulation (Part 2)
1:17:09
1:17:09
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:17:09
On today’s show, Alex and Calvin continue to break down the concept of “Manipulation” in rhetoric and political discourse, recapping part one of this series, demonstrating strategies for identifying and critiquing manipulation, and discussing how this kind of large-scale “mind control” is affecting contemporary foreign policy discourse in the US. T…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E85: Discourse and Manipulation
1:22:35
1:22:35
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:22:35
On today’s show, Alex and Calvin break down the concept of “Manipulation” in rhetoric and political discourse. We outline some key strategies for identifying and critiquing manipulation, and discuss its social and political implications as a form of large-scale “mind control.” The term manipulation, as we define it, comes from a school of linguisti…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E84: Toward a Media Theory of the U.S.-Mexico Underground (w/ Dr. Juan Llamas-Rodriguez)
1:11:47
1:11:47
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:11:47
On today’s show, Ben sits down with Dr. Juan Llamas-Rodriguez, Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss his research at the intersections of border studies, infrastructure studies, and Latin American and Latinx diasporic media. We begin by discussing Juan’s approaches to media studi…
…
continue reading
Ever since its announcement in 2021, the Atlanta police training facility project known as “Cop City” has been the subject of much criticism from activists concerned with police violence and environmental justice. The proposal included razing 85 acres of forest in DeKalb County, Georgia (just South of the city of Atlanta) to build, among other thin…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E82: The Rhetoric of AI Hype (w/ Dr. Emily M. Bender)
53:02
53:02
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
53:02
Are you a writing instructor or student who’s prepared to turn over all present and future communication practices to the magic of ChatGPT? Not so fast! On today’s show, we are joined by Dr. Emily M. Bender, Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Washington and a pre-eminent academic critic of so-called “generative AI” tech…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E81: Academic Labor Solidarity (w/ Dr. James J. Brown, Jr.)
54:16
54:16
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
54:16
On today’s episode, we’re thrilled to be joined once again by friend-of-the-show Dr. Jim Brown, Jr., Associate Professor of English and Director of the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers-Camden. While Jim is mainly known to us as an expert in digital rhetorical studies, today we speak to him about his experience as outgoing president of the Camden c…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E80: re:joinder - Scott Adams & Persuasion: The Squeakuel
1:07:34
1:07:34
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:07:34
The cognitive scientists at re:verb couldn't get enough of Win Bigly, Scott Adams' bizarre treatise on persuasion in a supposedly post-fact era. After tackling the introduction in December (listen to the first installment here!), we bring you our reading and re:joinder critique the first full chapter, which discusses why ordinary people like us fai…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E79: Legitimizing Situated Knowledge in East Palestine, Ohio (w/ Sophie Wodzak & Dr. Erin Brock Carlson)
1:00:46
1:00:46
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:00:46
On February 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio. Fearing an explosion, emergency crews conducted a controlled burn of several of the cars, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and forcing the evacuation of local residents. In the ensuing weeks, pict…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E78: Campus Misinformation and Academic Freedom (w/ Dr. Brad Vivian)
1:12:56
1:12:56
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:12:56
Trigger warning: if you are offended by evidence-based arguments against moral panics surrounding higher education, listen with discretion! Light kidding aside, this episode addresses a very serious issue: restrictions on free speech in higher education. And no, we’re not talking about the exaggerated culture war invocations: “angry mobs” of “coddl…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E77: Theaters of War (w/ Dr. Roger Stahl)
52:26
52:26
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
52:26
Was your favorite film approved by Uncle Sam? And just how much of your streaming watchlist did the CIA curate? On today’s episode, Calvin and Alex are joined by Dr. Roger Stahl, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Georgia, to discuss the widespread problem of US information operations in the motion picture industry–including, m…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E76: re:joinder - Lose Bigly: Scott Adams Explains Business, Politics, and Persuasion
1:09:36
1:09:36
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:09:36
Are you winning bigly? No? Neither is Scott Adams, the infamous cartoonist, blogger, and self-proclaimed “expert predictor”, whose formerly ubiquitous comic strip Dilbert was recently pulled from national syndication. In September, Dilbert featured “anti-woke” content caricaturing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the corporate world,…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E75: A.I. Writing and Academic Integrity
32:08
32:08
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
32:08
“A.I. Is Making It Easier Than Ever for Students to Cheat,” proclaims Slate. The Chronicle of Higher Education asks, rhetorically: “Will Artificial Intelligence Kill College Writing?” And the New York Times warns: “A.I. is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?” Judging by media coverage of A.I. writing algorithms, you would think they’r…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E74: Jordan Peele and the Speculative Fiction of Blackness (w/ Dr. andré carrington)
1:12:28
1:12:28
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:12:28
For this year’s Halloween special, we wanted to take a journey through the filmography of one of our favorite film directors, Jordan Peele. From the breakout success of his 2017 thriller Get Out, to 2019’s creepy and horrifying tour-de-force Us, to this year’s action-packed monster movie Nope, Jordan Peele is becoming arguably one of the most impor…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E73: re:joinder - The CIA's Podcast
1:10:23
1:10:23
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
1:10:23
We at re:verb can neither confirm nor deny whether the truth will set you free - but it certainly provides good fodder for rhetorical criticism! On today’s show, Alex and Calvin present a re:joinder episode with a unique rhetorical artifact: an “unclassified” podcast recently released by one of the most secretive intelligence agencies in the world,…
…
continue reading
![Artwork](/static/images/128pixel.png)
1
E72: Tenant Organizing and the Cult of Property Values (w/ Luke Melonakos-Harrison)
39:07
39:07
Redă mai târziu
Redă mai târziu
Liste
Like
Plăcut
39:07
What’s a tenant union, and why does it matter? On today’s show, Alex and Calvin get some fascinating answers to this question from Luke Melonakos-Harrison, a Masters student in Yale University’s Divinity School, tenant union organizer with the Connecticut Tenants Union and the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America, and aspiring Methodist pas…
…
continue reading
At the recent 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), right-wing movement leaders couldn’t stop whining about “pronouns.” For example, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said that his preferred pronouns are “kiss my ass,” and former Trump official Matt Schlapp complained that instead of carrying out his “duties” like dealing with the “open border…
…
continue reading