Semantic Reactions

Semantic Reactions is the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics. We offer conversation and discussion, and readings and performances, on topic relevant to the discipline of general semantics, such as language and symbols, consciousness and culture, systems and ecology, media and technology, science and art, etc.

Episode 20 Featuring An Interview With Paul Guzzardo 04/26/2024

Episode 20 Featuring An Interview With Paul Guzzardo Our April 2024 episode features an interview with lawyer, media activist, and artist-designer Paul Guzzardo. Their conversation ranges across topics such as digital arts and deep fakes, the music of Ustad Imrat Khan, Henry Ford and the United Steel Workers labor union, Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong, Patrick Geddes and Aldous Huxley, Josephine Baker, Walter Winchell, Giovanni Piranesi, and of course general semantics, and takes us on a trip from Guzzardo’s hometown of St. Louis to his current residence in Buenos Aries, Argentina, with stops along the way in places such as New York City, Edinburgh and Dundee in Scotland, and Calcutta, India. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/31004388

Episode 19 Featuring a Discussion With Laura Trujillo-Liñán, Gustavo Navarro, Thom Gencarelli, and Lance Strate 03/29/2024

Episode 19 Featuring a Discussion With Laura Trujillo-Liñán, Gustavo Navarro, Thom Gencarelli, and Lance Strate Our March 2024 episode features a discussion held in the media lab at Panamericana University in Mexico City with Panamericana's Media Lab Director Gustavo Navarro, IGS Trustee and Panamericana Philosophy Professor Laura Trujillo-Liñán, and visiting IGS Trustees Thom Gencarelli and Lance Strate. Their conversation covers media ecology, new media, education, general semantics, and more. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/30599118

Episode 18 Featuring an Interview With Michelle Shocked Part 2 02/11/2024

Episode 18 Featuring an Interview With Michelle Shocked Part 2 Our February 2024 episode features the second part of an interview with singer-songwriter and activist Michelle Shocked. In conversation with IGS trustees Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli, they discuss Michelle's career and music, and issues regarding copyright, media and technology, artists' rights, and human dignity (and includes a bit of salty language). The episode concludes with a live performance and a prerecorded song. If you haven't heard episode 17, you may want to listen to that one first. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/29889288

Episode 17 Featuring an Interview With Michelle Shocked 01/28/2024

Episode 17 Featuring an Interview With Michelle Shocked Our January 2024 episode features an interview with singer-songwriter and activist Michelle Shocked. In conversation with IGS trustees Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli, they discuss Michelle's background and music, and issues regarding copyright, media and technology, artists' rights, and human dignity, and concludes with a live performance. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/29683168

Episode 16 Featuring an Interview With Steve Stockdale 12/27/2023

Episode 16 Featuring an Interview With Steve Stockdale Our December 2023 episode features an interview with former IGS Executive Director and Trustee Steve Stockdale. In conversation with IGS President Lance Strate, Stockdale discusses his background and connection to general semantics, his experiences setting up a MOOC and teaching a course on general semantics online, and his initiative known as “calling out the symbol rulers”. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/29244413

Episode 15 Featuring an Interview With Marcy Axelrod 11/28/2023

Episode 15 Featuring an Interview With Marcy Axelrod Our November 2023 episode features an interview with author, public speaker, and strategy management consultant Marcy Axelrod. The interview, conducted by IGS President Lance Strate, focuses on her new book, entitled How We Choose to Show Up, her work as a business consultant, and the importance of speech, relationships, and personal presence. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/28833973

Episode 14 Featuring An Interview With Nora Bateson 10/31/2023

Episode 14 Featuring An Interview With Nora Bateson Our October 2023 episode features an interview with Nora Bateson, who is an IGS Trustee and President of the International Bateson Institute. The interview, conducted by IGS President Lance Strate, focuses on her new book, entitled Combining, a volume that includes essays, poems, and artwork. Their conversation touches on topics such as systems theory, the ecology of communication, learning and interdependence, relationships and contexts, and poetry and forms of expression. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/28480340

Episode 13 Featuring a Roundtable Discussion With Eva Berger, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli, Michael Plugh, and Lance Strate 09/30/2023

Episode 13 Featuring a Roundtable Discussion With Eva Berger, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli, Michael Plugh, and Lance Strate Celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of our podcast, our September 2023 episode features a roundtable discussion with IGS trustees Eva Berger, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli, Michael Plugh, and Lance Strate, as they take up the one of the most basic questions for the discipline of general semantics: What is going on? Their discussion touches on problems such as racism and retribalization, information overload and political polarization, chaos and complexity, AI and regulation, and how to make things better. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/28186574

Episode 12 Featuring An Interview With Paul Soukup 08/24/2023

Episode 12 Featuring An Interview With Paul Soukup The twelfth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with Paul Soukup, SJ, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University, and the author of seven books, including Communication and Theology; Christian Communication; Media, Culture and Catholicism; Mass Media and the Moral Imagination; Fidelity and Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media; Out of Eden; and most recently, A Media Ecology of Theology. The interview is conducted by IGS president Lance Strate, and their discussion ranges across topics such as education, language, environmentalism, religion, and media. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/27843084

Episode 11 Featuring An Interview With Marleen Barr 07/30/2023

Episode 11 Featuring An Interview With Marleen Barr The eleventh episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with novelist, literary scholar, and science fiction critic Marleen Barr. Dr. Barr is the author of two novels, Oy Pioneer! and Oy Feminist Planets, and a number of works of feminist science fiction, including Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory; Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond; Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction; and Genre Fission: A New Discourse Practice for Cultural Studies. Her most recent book, just published by Dark Helix Press, is a short story collection entitled This Former President: Science Fiction as Retrospective Retrorocket Jettisons Trumpism. The discussion covers feminism, literary theory, science fiction, and politics. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/27607218

Episode 10 Featuring an Interview with Mary P.. Lahman 06/30/2023

Episode 10 Featuring an Interview with Mary P.. Lahman The tenth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with writer, educator and general semantics expert Mary P. Lahman. Dr. Lahman is Professor Emerita of Communication Studies at Manchester University in Indiana, and the author of Awareness and Action, published by the Institute of General Semantics. She is also a member of the IGS Board of Trustees. The discussion deals with communication as a field of study, the theory and practice of listening, and teaching on the topic of general semantics. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/27336840

Episode 9 Featuring an Interview with Martin H. Levinson 05/23/2023

Episode 9 Featuring an Interview with Martin H. Levinson The ninth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with author and Past President of the Institute of General Semantics Martin Levinson. Their conversation covers Levinson’s background in general semantics, his career in education, and his writing, centering on his satirical work. Levinson shares a reading from his latest book, Lunch with the American People: Satirical Food for Thought. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/26920131

Episode 8 Featuring an Interview with Gary Gumpert 04/24/2023

Episode 8 Featuring an Interview with Gary Gumpert The eighth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with Gary Gumpert, Professor Emeritus of Communicastion at Queens College of the City University of New York and President of the Urban Communication Foundation, conducted by Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli. The conversation covers the entirety of Dr. Gumpert’s life and times, from his childhood escaping from the Holocaust, to his early career in radio and television broadcasting, to his work as a communication scholar. Along the way, we find a consistent emphasis on the themes of community and connection. LinksGet Embed PlayerDownload Audio File /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/26628831

Episode 7 Featuring an Interview with Renee Hobbs 03/28/2023

Episode 7 Featuring an Interview with Renee Hobbs The seventh episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with media literacy maven and communication studies scholar Renee Hobbs, conducted by Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli. The conversation ranges across topics such as propaganda, media education, communication technology, and general semantics today. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/26372832

Episode 6 Featuring an Interview with Stephen Roxborough 02/27/2023

Episode 6 Featuring an Interview with Stephen Roxborough The sixth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with poet, author, and recordiong artist Stephen Roxborough. The conversation focuses on the recent release of Roxborough's Poetic Dystopia, an album available on CD and digital download, featuring spoken word poetry, with music by Karl Blau. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/26054457

Episode 5 Featuring An Interview With Paul Levinson 01/24/2023

Episode 5 Featuring An Interview With Paul Levinson The fifth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with author and media scholar Paul Levinson conducted by Lance Strate. The conversation ranges across topics that include science fiction, science, language and media, politics, and free speech, and concludes with a reading by Levinson of his alternate history short story about the Beatles, "It's Real Life". /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/25717569

Episode 4 Featuring Corey Anton, Nora Bateson, Eva Berger, Thom Gencarelli, & Lance Strate 12/27/2022

Episode 4 Featuring Corey Anton, Nora Bateson, Eva Berger, Thom Gencarelli, & Lance Strate The fourth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features a freewheeling discussion with IGS trustees Corey Anton, Nora Bateson, Eva Berger, Corey Anton, and Lance Strate, on media and technology in general, and especially computers, artificial intelligence, and Chat GPT, and their effects on human communication, consciousness, and culture. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/25441809

Episode 3 Featuring Interviews with Susan Jasko and Stephanie Bennett 11/22/2022

Episode 3 Featuring Interviews with Susan Jasko and Stephanie Bennett The third episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features interviews of Susan Jasko of the University of Alabama, and Stephanie Bennett of Palm Beach Atlantic University, conducted by Lance Strate during the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in New Orleans, November 17th to 20th, 2022. The conversations range across topics such as science communication, the weather, policing, speech, civility, religion, language, and of course general semantics. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/25103388

Episode 2 Featuring an Interview with Christopher Mayer and Reading by Adeena Karasick 10/26/2022

Episode 2 Featuring an Interview with Christopher Mayer and Reading by Adeena Karasick The second episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features Christopher Mayer, author of How Do You Know: A Guide to Clear Thinking About Wall Street, Investing, and Life, and most recently, Dear Fellow Time-Binder: Letters on General Semantics, interviewed by Thom Gencarelli and Lance Strate, followed by a reading by celebrated poet Adeena Karasick from her latest book, Massaging the Medium: Seven Pechakuchas. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/24812457

Episode 1 Featuring an Interview with Nora Bateson 08/29/2022

Episode 1 Featuring an Interview with Nora Bateson The first episdoe of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features Nora Bateson, author, filmmaker, educator, and president of the International Bateson Institute, interviewed by Lance Strate and Michael Plugh. The episode begins with a reading from the first book by IGS founder Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, originally published in 1921, read by Eva Berger. The episode concludes with a poetry reading by Martin Levinson from his recently published collection, Signal Reactions. /episode/index/show/6d181463-0a28-417e-ba33-4b7235122a85/id/24203340

Semantic Reactions

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