Episode 155: A Linguistic Examination of Emoji

July 26, 2017

“Emoji was crowned as this year’s top-trending word by the Global Language Monitor, and it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary (funny, because it’s a word that describes the concept of not actually using words). There is now a blog, Emojinalysis, that purports to psychoanalyze users’ most frequently used emoji.”

— Jessica Bennett of the New York Times, July 25, 2014.

“Emoji translation is itself an emerging field – but one dominated to date by software, which is often insensitive to the many cultural differences in usage and interpretation. We are therefore seeking an exceptional individual to provide the human touch needed where translation software is inadequate.”

— From a London advertisement for Today Translations

Language and imagery have intermingled for millennia of human communication and expression. In many cases, pictographs seem to capture nuance that words alone might miss. But how do Emoji function as a form of language? How have they evolved to reflect their users and what types of communication does their flexibility permit. This week we welcome Morgan Jaffe to explore the linguistic impact Emoji have had on our culture. They present numerous, tangible examples with regard to the law, political issues and creative thinking. How do they reflect a human tendency to identify with and cultivate a visual alphabet? What can our use (or lack thereof) of Emoji teach us about our emotional vocabulary and cultural lexicon?

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Episode 154: Cowspiracy

July 19, 2017

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“You can’t be an environmentalist and eat animal products. Period.”

— Howard Lyman, former cattle rancher, author, Mad Cowboy

In the past two decades, climate change (previously described as global warming) has been a polarizing and central topic in discussions both political and personal. Some look to governments and organizations to facilitate recycling, curb emissions and reduce waste byproducts. Others invest in individual contributions, like residential solar panels, composting and eco-friendly materials. But rarely do we think about the impact of food production on the environment. In 2014, documentary filmmaker Kip Anderson set out to explore the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. This week we sit down to discuss his film with Leland Holcomb. How have carnivorous habits been internalized on a cultural level? Could we, as a global community, alter our agricultural course for a more sustainable option?

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Episode 153: "Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong"

July 12, 2017

“There was another professor called Peter Cohen in the Netherlands who said, maybe we shouldn’t even call it addiction. Maybe we should call it bonding. Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond, and when we’re happy and healthy, we’ll bond and connect with each other, but if you can’t do that, because you’re traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief.”

— Johann Hari, 06:04 of his TED Talk on addiction.

“And they’ve got both the water bottles, the normal water and the drugged water. But here’s the fascinating thing: In Rat Park, they don’t like the drug water. They almost never use it. None of them ever use it compulsively. None of them ever overdose. You go from almost 100 percent overdose when they’re isolated to zero percent overdose when they have happy and connected lives.”

— Johann Hari, 04:40 of his TED Talk on addiction.

“It’s now exactly 100 years since drugs were first banned in the United States and Britain, and we then imposed that on the rest of the world. It’s a century since we made this really fateful decision to take addicts and punish them and make them suffer, because we believed that would deter them; it would give them an incentive to stop.”

— Johann Hari, 00:25 of his TED Talk on addiction.

“Professor Alexander began to think there might be a different story about addiction. He said, what if addiction isn’t about your chemical hooks? What if addiction is about your cage? What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment?”

— Johann Hari, 05:53 of his TED Talk on addiction.

In our cultural lexicon, we often casually note that we're "addicted" to the latest TV show, album or trend that enters our lives. But we rarely discuss the grave reality of actual addiction and the burdens it creates. This week, we examine a 2015 TED Talk given by Johann Hari on the subject. In particular, he looks at common misconceptions about how and why addiction takes hold. What are the social factors at play? What can addiction reveal about our deeper human nature? How might communities and governments better prepare and respond to citizens to mitigate addiction?

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Episode 152: Dreams of the Dying

July 5, 2017

“These events are distinct from ‘near-death experiences,’ such as those recalled by people revived in intensive care units. ‘These are people on a journey towards death, not people who just missed it.’”

— Pei C. Grant, director of the research team at Hospice Buffalo.

“The dreams and visions loosely sorted into categories: opportunities to engage with the deceased; loved ones “waiting;” unfinished business. Themes of love, given or withheld, coursed through the dreams, as did the need for resolution and even forgiveness.”

— Jan Hoffman of the New York Times, February 2, 2016.

““We should be opening the door with our questions, but not forcing patients through it. Our job is witnessing, exploring and lessening their loneliness. If it’s benign and rich with content, let it go. But if it brings up serious old wounds, get real help — a psychologist, a chaplain — because in this area, we physicians don’t know what we’re doing.”

— Dr. Timothy E. Quill, palliative care medicine expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center

Humanity at large has been fascinated, confused and humbled by dreams and the threshold of death since time immemorial. But what would the crossroads of these two phenomena look like and how might it help us better understand our minds and our lives? This week we're joined by Lucy Iselin to examine a New York Times article published in 2016. The thought-provoking article includes insights and perspectives from professionals in hospice care, stories from the terminally ill and those who study end-of-life experiences. How might this article and its subject matter encourage empathy through further observations of dreamers and their experiences? How do dreams of the dying differ from those whose hold on life is firmer? What can these dreams tell us about the most deeply-buried concerns and memories of dreamers late in life?

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