I Speak Your Language

Kadi looks back on Season 1, shares a few lessons, thanks listeners and guests, and gives a small preview of what’s ahead for I Speak Your Language .

In this episode, Kadi sits down with Dr. Joseph Garcia, researcher, educator, and early advocate for using sign language with babies, to explore how infants can communicate before speech develops. They discuss why signing is accessible to babies, how it reduces frustration and strengthens bonding, and what modelling (rather than teaching) looks like in everyday routines. You can find Dr. Garcia’s...

In this episode, Kadi is joined by cognitive neuroscientist Dr Matt Davis (University of Cambridge) to explore how we understand speech, even when it sounds nothing like speech at all. From noisy cafés to unfamiliar accents to whispered or electronically altered speech, Matt explains how the brain fills in the gaps when what we’re hearing is degraded or difficult to make out. Kadi and Matt walk th...

Kadi sits down with Fiona McPherson, Executive Editor in the New Words team at the Oxford English Dictionary, for a behind-the-scenes look at how the OED keeps up with an ever-changing English language. From playful slang to pandemic vocabulary, they explore what it really takes for a word to make it into the dictionary... and why some never do. Oxford University Press feature on the Oxford Word o...

In this special episode of I Speak Your Language, produced in celebration of and collaboration with Leeds City of Languages , Kadi is joined by Dr. Sofia Martinho, Associate Professor in Portuguese, and Dr. Bettina Hermoso Gómez, Associate Professor in Spanish, both from the University of Leeds and co-founders of the festival. Together, Sofia and Bettina share how the festival was born, how it bri...

In this episode, Kadi speaks with poet and performer Amina Atiq about memory, radical joy, and what it means to create from a place of both inheritance and imagination. They reflect on diasporic storytelling, healing through art, and how to reframe the burden of representation into power and presence. Amina Atiq is a Yemeni-British poet, artist and activist from Liverpool. Her work explores migrat...

In this special episode, Kadi speaks with Sven Gatz, Brussels Minister for Multilingualism, about what it means to build language policy in one of the world’s most multilingual cities. They explore how Brussels is navigating official languages, community languages, and everything in between, and why embracing the mother tongues of residents matters. Sven Gatz served as the first-ever Minister for...

In this episode, linguist Dr. Lauren Gawne joins Kadi to explore how gestures shape the way we communicate, often without us even realising it. From metaphors you can see with your hands, to cultural differences in pointing, this conversation unpacks the subtle, powerful role of our bodies in everyday communication. Dr. Lauren Gawne is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University, cohost of the Lingth...

What happens when life-changing information is written in a way no one understands? In this episode, Kadija speaks with Dr. Deborah Bosley , an internationally recognised expert in plain language, former tenured professor of technical communication, and founder of The Plain Language Group , which advises Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities on clear communication. They talk...

Why do we all have an accent? And why do some people face bias because of theirs? Sociolinguist Prof. Rob Drummond joins Kadija to explore how accents shape our identities, signal belonging, and carry stereotypes we rarely question. Together, they unpack what “accentism” looks like and why embracing linguistic diversity is not just fair, but essential. Prof. Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolingu...