Semantic Reactions

Our May 2024 episode features an interview with Dr. Margaret Cassidy, the newly elected president of the New York Society for General Semantics, and the author of Bookends: The Changing Media Environment of American Classrooms ; and of Children, Media, and American History: Printed Poison, Pernicious Stuff, and Other Terrible Temptations . Peggy Cassidy is Professor and Chair of the Department of...

Our April 2024 episode features an interview with lawyer, media activist, and artist-designer Paul Guzzardo. The 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 cours...

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.

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 perfor...

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.

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". 

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.

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 i...

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 retribaliza...

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: Com...

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 ;...

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 th...

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...

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 tim...

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.

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.

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 abou...

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.

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...

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 Kara...

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...