After several weeks in Hawaii, a South Carolina listener returned curious about the terms aloha and aloha spirit. Founded on ideas of mutual respect among humans and in harmony with nature, the concept of the “Aloha spirit” is so fundamental to Hawaii that its definition is written into the state’s legal statutes. Although it’s often suggested that the word aloha combines the  Hawaiian words for “face” and “breath,” that’s a case of folk etymology. Aloha shares a linguistic root with words in several other Polynesian languages. The Hebrew greeting shalom and Arabic salaam convey some of the same notion of harmonious, mutual respect. http://waywordradio.org

1667-Caller-Kate-Aloha

Dilly-dally comes from Anglo-French dalier, which means "to chat" or “act playfully,” making it a linguistic relative of dally, “to trifle with” or “to spend time frivolously,” and dalliance, a “frivolous act.” http://waywordradio.org

1667-Caller-Tanya-Dilly-Dally

The English language has a variety of expressions referring to the excretion of moisture from the skin due to heat. There’s the verb perspire and the Yiddish borrowing schvitz. If you perspire profusely, you may sweat buckets, or be sweating like a sinner in church. The Spanish idiom  sudar como un pollo means “to sweat like a chicken,” a reference to juices exuding from a bird as it roasts. One Dutch idiom translates as “sweating like an otter,” and another as “I’m sweating little carrots,” possibly because the Dutch word for “little carrots,” peentjes, sounds a lot like Dutch for “pints.” http://waywordradio.org

1667-Intro-Sweat-Expressions

Martha shares a funny story about her 5-year-old great-niece, who misunderstood the name of her adopted home state, California. Then again, Unicornia does have a nice ring to it. http://waywordradio.org

1667-Unicornia

To talk about social media and politics, and how AI can help spread – or tackle – disinformation, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Josephine Lukito, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. Her research specializes in malicious political language in the public sphere, focusing on cross-platform flows of messages and frames about global economic and political issues. 

The discussion covers how social media and AI are influencing political communication, disinformation, and election strategies in the US and globally and about the evolving role of platforms, algorithms, and AI tools in shaping elections and democratic governance.

This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata.  

Further reading and resources
•	Lukito, J., & Pevehouse, J. C. (2022). Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 20(2), 125–138. 
•	Rodarte, A. K., & Lukito, J. (2024). Does Social Media Level the Political Field or Reinforce Existing Inequalities? Cartographies of the 2022 Brazilian Election. Political Communication, 42(3), 382–404. 
•	Lukito, J., Lee, T., Martin, Z., Glover, K., Hu, A., & Cui, Z. (2023). Connective action in Myanmar: a mixed-method analysis of Spring Revolution. Information, Communication & Society, 27(7), 1422–1440. 
•	Candidata - https://www.candidata24.org/ 

Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers!

The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 1 November 2025. 

•	Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 
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LSE Ballpark | AI, social media, and political disinformation with Dr Josephine Lukito

Loretta Ross is a public intellectual, professor, activist, and author of Calling In, a collection of stories from five remarkable decades working in social justice movements, including reproductive justice, white supremacy, and women of color organizing. Loretta and Leader’s Way host Brandon Nappi go deep into conversation about why calling people in—inviting them into conversation instead of conflict by focusing on your shared values over a desire for punishment—is a powerful and strategic choice toward making real change.

Host: Brandon Nappi
Guest: Loretta Ross

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68: A World Thirsty for Accountability with Loretta Ross

An Audio Described introduction for La Fille mal gardée by The Royal Ballet - Part 1

Audio Described introduction for La Fille mal gardée by The Royal Ballet - Part 1

An Audio Described introduction for La Fille mal gardée by The Royal Ballet - part 2

Audio Described introduction for La Fille mal gardée by The Royal Ballet - part 2

Me playing with Pulse Width Modulation on my Arduino board.
Here I have a 5K potentiometer connected to an analog pin, and am parsing it's output to control the frequency of the square wave I'm sending to a speaker on one of my digital pins.

Arduino PWM

Brendon Dodd

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