x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

re:verb

Calvin Pollak and Alex Helberg

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.

news & politics philosophy

All Episodes

00:40:13

E64: "Rationality" Bites - Steven Pinker's...

re:verb ·

2022/01/20

In his most recent book, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, Harvard University cognitive psychologist and noted Jeffrey Epstein associate Steven Pinker argues that “rationality” is what distinguishes good thinkers from bad, that societies which encourage rationality are superior to those that do not, and that making the world a better place requires that we all think more rationally about our past, present, and future. Sounds plausible, right? In making these sweeping

en-US

01:26:58

E63: Rhetoric and Violence at the Capitol (re:visited)

re:verb ·

2022/01/06

One year ago this week, a large crowd of Trump supporters disrupted what ought to have been boring and bureaucratic work: Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory over then-President Trump. Instead, a massive melee ensued, resulting in five people dead and over a hundred wounded–mostly Capitol and Metropolitan Police Officers. Loyal re:verb listeners will recall our episode from shortly thereafter, in which we provided our initial spit-takes on the events themselves as well as

en-US

01:49:54

E62: re:joinder - The University of the Cancelled

re:verb ·

2021/12/10

Last month, former New York Times columnist and current Substacker Bari Weiss took to Twitter to announce “a new university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”: the University of Austin (UATX). Not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin, UATX is thus far only a university concept–a pitch for a “new” kind of higher education institution–but the details are murky, it is not accredited, and by its own website’s admission, there are no concrete plans for undergraduate degrees

en-US

01:02:22

E61: A Cinema of Hopelessness (w/ Dr. Kendall R....

re:verb ·

2021/11/23

Look upon these films, ye mighty, and despair!In this episode, we’re thrilled to welcome back Dr. Kendall R. Phillips, Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University - this time, to discuss his hot-off-the-presses book, A Cinema of Hopelessness: The Rhetoric of Rage in 21st Century Popular Culture. In it, Kendall examines how some of the most emotionally-charged moments of 21st century U.S. public memory - from 9/11 to Occupy Wall Street to the presidential election of

en-US

00:44:06

E60: re:blurb - Publicity and Counterpublicity

re:verb ·

2021/11/11

Have you ever wondered why some issues are treated as private and personal, while others are self-evidently public concerns? Meanwhile, certain topics are discussed freely and openly, but only among niche subcultures: local interest groups, expert practitioners, hardcore enthusiasts, and even marginalized communities. How can we better understand these kinds of diverse audience groupings, which are so critical to the circulation of political text and talk?On today's re:blurb episode, we address

en-US

00:48:55

E59: The Power and Perils of Monstrosity (w/ Dr....

re:verb ·

2021/10/27

It’s spooky season, and you know what that means: time for another thrilling and chilling re:verb Halloween Special! This year, Alex and Calvin are honored to be joined on the mic by Dr. Bernadette Marie Calafell, Professor and Department Chair of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at Gonzaga University, and the recent recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Critical Cultural Studies division of the National Communication Association. Dr. Calafell’s research explores the concept of

en-US

01:02:44

E58: 20 Years of "War on Terror" Rhetoric (w/ Dr....

re:verb ·

2021/09/23

On today’s show, we are joined once again by Dr. John Oddo, Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, for a retrospective discussion of “War on Terror” rhetoric 20 years after September 11th, 2001. Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government and national news media have consistently used Us and Them categories of enemy- and threat-construction, drawing on a conceptual metaphor of terrorism as an act of war (as opposed to a criminal act) to justify preventative military

en-US

01:10:51

E57: re:joinder - The New Science of Arguing about...

re:verb ·

2021/07/30

It’s common to see tech journalists make proclamations about how the internet has fundamentally changed the ways that we think, interact, and most importantly, argue with one another. It’s also common to see them herald the arrival of a “new science” that promises to provide technical answers to all questions and solve all problems that come with the “disruptive” technologies that have “revolutionized” our world.But has the internet really caused such a drastic divergence from how we operate

en-US

01:23:46

E56: Black Artistic and Academic Labor From the Nixon...

re:verb ·

2021/07/09

On today’s show, Ben and Calvin have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Richard Purcell, Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University. We begin by discussing Rich’s current research on conceptions of work in Black artistic labor, and how that led him back to considering the discursive formations of a Nixon-era economic initiative/slogan known as “Black Capitalism.” We discuss Nixon’s policy efforts to revitalize Black economic citizenship as a way of pacifying radical resistance, as

en-US

01:11:06

E55: re:joinder - The Limits of Artificial Persuasion

re:verb ·

2021/05/07

We live in a world of unbridled technological and argumentative advancement. A.I. has learned to debate Thanksgiving-table politics against humans. People may soon be using “argument checks” as well as “grammar checks” on their smartphones. Cats and dogs have finally put aside their differences and learned to live in peace by forming a coalition against postal workers. Welcome to the future.Whether this sounds like an irenic utopian ideal or an Orwellian dystopia to you, it is the subject of today’s

en-US

00:22:23

E54: re:blurb - Conceptual Metaphor

re:verb ·

2021/03/26

On today’s show, the re:verb team gets “meta” - metaPHORICAL, that is! On this re:blurb episode, we discuss the rhetorical and linguistic features of conceptual metaphors, which provide us with a way to make connections between two (often very different) processes. To put it more simply: have you ever heard the phrase “time is money”? Have you ever scolded someone for *wasting* their time, telling them that they could *spend* it doing something more *worthy*? If so, you’ve been using a very common

en-US

02:11:42

E53: Third Anniversary Celebration (w/ John Oddo,...

re:verb ·

2021/03/12

On this episode, the re:verb editorial team -- Alex Helberg, Calvin Pollak, Sophie Wodzak, and Ben Williams -- kicks back, relaxes, and reflects on three years of podcasting about politics, culture, and language in action. Last Friday, to celebrate re:verb’s three-year anniversary, we held our first-ever livestream via Zoom / YouTube, complete with special guests, new segments, and a hilarious sound-board controlled by Alex. Note: since this was our first time streaming, we had some occasional

en-US

00:46:04

E52: Science is a Social Process (w/ Dr. Abby Cartus)

re:verb ·

2021/02/23

It’s 2021, science is back in charge in America, and we’re on a clear path to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. But is it really that simple?On today’s show, we talk with Dr. Abby Cartus, a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, about her thoughts on pandemic rhetoric and policy in the transition from president Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Abby lays out for us the way that the new Biden administration’s technocratic rhetoric has sought to reframe debates over COVID policy as purely

en-US

00:50:01

E51: Rhetoric and Violence at the Capitol

re:verb ·

2021/01/19

Since our last re:verb episode, the US House and Senate certified Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, paving the way for Biden’s inauguration -- but not before a large crowd of disgruntled Trump supporters descended on the US Capitol building, in a violent conflict that left five people dead and many wounded. Days later, President Trump’s Twitter account had been banned and he was impeached by the House, making him history’s first multiply-deplatformed, multiply-impeached president.On today’s

en-US

01:08:45

E50: The Century of the Elf (2020 Holiday Special)

re:verb ·

2020/12/24

In December of 2005 - 4 years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and just over 2 years after the U.S. launched troops to fight its “War on Terror” in Iraq - journalists James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a bombshell report in the New York Times detailing the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens taking place at the behest of the George W. Bush administration as part of its intelligence-gathering operations. This expose was the first of many reports to emerge in the early years of the

en-US

00:38:08

RV E49: re:joinder - Election 2020 "Hot Texts" (Part 2)

re:verb ·

2020/12/18

The inferno rages on as the re:verb team takes on more “hot texts” - arguments and opinions with questionable premises - that have emerged in the wake of the 2020 election. In this episode, we continue to examine the backlash against movements to “defund the police” via some anti-abolitionist rhetoric from the comedy podcast Chapo Trap House, which ironically echoes the Obama critique we discussed on our last show. In responding to CTH’s critiques of abolitionism, we touch on why it’s better to stay

en-US

00:49:15

E48: re:joinder - Election 2020 "Hot Texts" (Part 1)

re:verb ·

2020/12/10

Do you smell something burning? It must be all these Election 2020 ~Hot Texts~! Here at re:verb we try to practice "addition, not subtraction" (to quote former President Obama), so we don’t engage with "takes" anymore. As true postmodernist podcasters, we analyze texts.On this two-part show, Sophie, Ben, Calvin, and Alex analyze a collection of Hot Texts responding to the 2020 presidential election results. In part one, Calvin shares how presidential candidates have used the word "rhetoric" on

en-US

00:54:26

E47: Alienizing Logics and Coalitional Politics (w/...

re:verb ·

2020/11/12

On today’s show, Alex and Calvin have the distinct privilege of speaking with Dr. Karma R. Chávez, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mexican American & Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Karma is a scholar whose work runs the gamut from border rhetorics and pandemic discourses, to coalition-building and intersectionality. We begin by discussing Karma’s 2013 book Queer Migration Politics, considering how the issues of immigration and queer liberation have

en-US

00:23:37

E46: re:read - Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft...

re:verb ·

2020/10/29

This episode presents another installment in our “re:read” series, in which we take short works of literature and develop them into audio dramas featuring music, sound effects, and dynamic vocal performances.This re:read selection is an ever-timely tale of a post-apocalyptic dystopia: Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950). Taking its title from Sara Teasdale’s 1918 poem of the same name, Bradbury’s story tells the tale of an autonomous, mechanized house that continues to

en-US

01:03:58

E45: Deepfakes, cheap fakes, and the politics of data...

re:verb ·

2020/10/15

On today’s show, we sit down with Dr. Britt Paris, an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, and an affiliate with the nonprofit research institute Data & Society. Dr. Paris studies how groups build, use and understand information systems according to their values, and how these systems influence evidentiary standards and policy actions.This conversation focuses on a wide range of topics covered by scholars in critical data studies, an approach

en-US

104 results

Similar Podcasts

Boletines RNE

RNE

BBC News

BBC World Service

برامج

مونت كارلو الدولية / MCD

Journal Afrique

RFI

要闻解说

RFI - 法国国际广播电台