Podcasts are important to me as a way of accessing wider audiences than via academic publishing, even in the form of public humanities publications intended for a wider audience, such as The Book About Everything.
Furthermore, podcasts are excellent teaching tools. I sometimes assign podcasts as reading to teach students particular content and, even more often, have students create their own podcasts to learn to communicate class content in multiple media, to multiple audiences, and to model and practice engaged speaking and listening for better class participation.
I list some of my multiple podcasts below and highlight standout episodes.
Tipsyturvy Ulysses is a casual book discussion podcast celebrating James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) and emphasizing the fun of reading it to encourage potential first-time readers. The podcast lessens likely reader intimidation and increases reader engagement by conveying serious academic interpretation of the text with a familiar casual recap podcast format. In each episode, someone chooses three passages from the episode of Ulysses or theme being covered—one they love, one they hate, and one they don’t get—and shares them with the others to start conversations that quickly shift between close readings, jokes, and global discussion of Ulysses and literature more broadly. The three hosts—Eric and fellow Joyceans Wendy Truran and Shinjini Chattopadhyay—are often joined by guests ranging from friends like a Georgia Tech librarian to prominent Joyce scholars and podcasters like UC Berkeley’s Catherine Flynn.
Tipsyturvy Ulysses is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Example Episodes:
“Who are we when we’re at home?”
In the first episode, Eric, Wendy, and Shinjini introduce themselves and the podcast. Who are they when they’re at home? What’s their history with Ulysses? Whose first experience with Ulysses is sadder or more fun?
“Ulysses Ep. 8: Lestrygonians: ‘God. Save. Our.’ with Catherine Flynn”
As happens so often in Ulysses itself, we interrupt our linear chronology to reflect on a previous episode. In a retrospective kind of arrangement—to quote pretentious Dubliner Tom Kernan—we recall the good old days of episode 8: Lestrygonians.
We are joined by Catherine Flynn, Associate Professor of English at UC Berkeley, editor of the recently released Cambridge Centenary Ulysses, and host of U22 The Centenary Ulysses Podcast. After we challenge her claim to host the only podcast celebrating the centenary of Ulysses, she leads us to consider how everything is focused on food in this episode, and how it can “get out of control.” If everything can be consumed—food, bodies, colonies, empires—what might this episode tell us about our own world of intense consumer capitalism?
We relish the delicious language and narrative, but also choke and chew over the racist depiction in the Mr. MacTrigger limerick.
On Technically Pop, humanities faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology get together to discuss their pop culture obsessions.
Technically Pop is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Example Episodes:
Lee, Eric, and David get together to discuss Hulu's Prey (2022), a movie they all love. They discuss its place in the Predator franchise, film in 2022, cinematic representations of Native/First Nations/indigenous people, and horror.
Eric Lewis, Corey Goergen, and Molly Slavin discuss the 2021 Candyman.
The Buzz Word is a writing center pedagogy podcast. Eric and other Georgia Tech CommLab staff interview experts in various forms of communication from Georgia Tech and Atlanta to learn different genres and create resources for communicators of all levels to learn new forms of communication.
The Buzz Word is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Example Episodes:
“Graduate School Statements of Purpose”
Susan Belmonte, pre-teaching and pre-graduate advisor in Georgia Tech’s Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising program, joins Eric to talk graduate school personal statements. What are they? How do you write one effectively? How do you revise one effectively? What are the essential dos and don’ts?
Eric is joined by Caitlin Kelly, Director of the Naugle Communication Center, to interview Melissa King, Manager of Public Programs at Zoo Atlanta, to discuss the ins and outs of zoo communication and Caitlin’s long-lived love of pandas.