In this episode, we discuss Annie Ernaux’s writing in The Years alongside a paper by Jenefer Robinson entitled ‘Style and Personality in the Literary Work’. We consider Robinson’s assertion that an author’s style expresses their personality, and set it in the context of influential views of style formulated by such modernists as Flaubert, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot, and by such literary theorists as Barthes, Bakhtin, and Kristeva. Ernaux’s own study of literature coincided with the heyday of literary theory in France. We use Robinson’s paper as a starting-point for reflection on the purposes and effects of the impersonal style Ernaux crafts in The Years.
 
Hosts: 
Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor of English at University College London
Alice Harberd, PhD student in the Philosophy Department at University College London.

Guests: 
Clare Carlisle, Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London.
Lucy O’Brien, Richard Wollheim Chair of Philosophy at University College London.
Emmanuel Campion-Dye, PhD student at University College London.

Transcript link here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d080500d

Season 2, Episode 3 - Style and Personality: Jenefer Robinson

Don from San Mateo, Florida, recalls that when he asked his mother what he was getting for Christmas, she’d reply with: I got you a fastareus. It’s bigger than a breadbox and smaller than an elephant. His father also used fastareus as a placeholder word like doohickey or thingamajig. The word may be related to the Irish words fooster, foostering, and foosterins, all of which have to do with idling about. The expression bigger than a breadbox has a much clearer origin. The idea first popped on national television on January 18, 1953, spoken by panelist Steve Allen on the game show “What’s My Line?” http://waywordradio.org

1667-Caller-Don-Bigger-Than-A-Breadbox

A Havertown, Pennsylvania, listener wonders why her mother used to answer queries about how she was doing with phrase that sounded like either Fair to midland or Fair to middling. Middling has long meant “just OK” or “right in the middle,” and the expression fair to middling is among the categories used to grade agricultural products such as cotton, grain, and livestock depending on their quality. http://waywordradio.org

1667-Caller-Eden-Fair-To-Midland

A North Carolina listener is curious about his meemaw’s use of a term meaning “food” that he heard as either jasmine or jassum. A dialectal term with various spellings that include jassum, jasum, and jazm can mean “gravy,” “sauce,” or even “juice from a rotten apple.” It may stem from an older root that suggests energy, vigor, or vital force and may in fact be related to jazz. http://waywordradio.org

1667-Caller-Joseph-Jassum

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/ 

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•	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

Instagram: @theleadersway.podcast berkeleydivinity.yale.edu/podcast

You can support our work at https://tinyurl.com/support-transforming-leaders


68: A World Thirsty for Accountability with Loretta Ross

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809):
String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No 5, Hob. III, No 79
1. Allegretto – Allegro
2. Largo: Cantabile e mesto
3. Menuetto: Allegro
4. Finale: Presto

Equalis Quartet

Recorded in Levinsalen, Norwegian Academy of Music 02.04.2016 during the ECMA Oslo session 2016

www.nmh.no


Equalis Quartet - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No 5, Hob. III, No 79

The Norwegian Academy of Music offers the highest level of education for performers and composers, pedagogues and music therapists. The academy is an artistic and creative centre and provide research within various fields of music.

Equalis Quartet - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No 5, Hob. III, No 79

Norges musikkhøgskole