Podcast Parlor
New for Faculty & Staff
This fall, the Language and Intercultural Learning Center hosts a new opportunity for Valpo faculty and staff. Podcast Parlor is an occasional group for faculty and staff interested in discussing language matters and intercultural perspectives. The group meets five times this semester, usually (but not always) on a Thursday, 12:00 – 1:15 pm. See below for dates and episode links. If you want to receive a reminder message about upcoming discussions, please contact Carol Goss at carol.goss@valpo.edu.
- Listen to a pre-selected podcast episode on an intercultural or language-focused topic.
- Participate in an informal discussion about that episode.
- Come to one discussion or all five, depending on your availability and interest in the episode topic.
- Arrive late or leave early – whatever your work schedule allows. Feel free to bring your lunch.
- Questions? Contact
Episode Discussion Schedule
Thursdays, 12:00 – 1:15 pm (ASB 240)
Nov 21, Thursday
How to have curious conversations in dangerously divided times (from How to Be a Better Human)
Interview with Mónica Guzmán, author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Guzmán shares the tools she uses to find common ground with her loved ones. She talks about why interacting with, and listening to, different points of view is critical work – and how through curiosity we can achieve the seemingly impossible task of understanding those we tend to think of as our enemy.
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Oct 31, Thursday
Halloween and Cultural Appropriation (from Dear White Women)
A conversation between two biracial cohosts about Halloween and cultural appropriation is a springboard to explore questions related to the costumes we choose for ourselves, and not just on October 31st. What is the intended (or unintended) outcome when we wear a particular costume? Is it possible to appropriate a culture or group whose identifiers are not reflected in an ethnicity or recognized style of dress? Are there contexts in which we assume we are observing cultural appropriation, but are mistaken due to our lack of knowledge about other cultures? Outside of American celebrations of Halloween, when do we wear costumes? When do we choose to adopt a style of dress or physical presentation as a way to mask (or unmask) our true selves? When do non-dominant members of a particular cultural setting use masking as a strategy for navigating the dominant culture?
Oct 22, Tuesday: Lies Your Teacher Taught You: The Truth About Thanksgiving (from All My Relations)
Hosts Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene sit down with Matika’s 13-year-old nephew to teach about the true history of European and Native contact. “Most of what we know about Thanksgiving is invented and packaged in easy-to-digest bites. This convenient story allows for the avoidance of discomfort for people with settler ancestries. The path to reconciliation starts with honest acknowledgement of our past, with open eyes…We can do that by learning to give thanks in a good way.”
Sept 12: The Beauty and Entitlement of Traveling as a Tourist (from Code Switch)
In her book Airplane Mode, an Irreverent History of Travel, Shahnaz Habib discusses “passport privilege.” How does our view and lived experience of travel impact our perception of who the world belongs to, and our expectations of how we, and others, move throughout the world?
Sept 26: Eurovision Part 1 / Optional – Part 2 (from The Allusionist)
Historian Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, discusses the long history of Eurovision, the multilingual, multinational television show that has been running for nearly seven decades. Vuletic recounts the many linguistic controversies that have plagued Eurovision over the years and explores how this international televised event is much more than just a song contest. It is, in fact, an illustration of the complications that arise when language, politics, and popular culture intersect, and often clash.