Episodes

I was sitting on couch trying to decide what to write about this week. I must have had a puzzled or concerned look on my face because my son asked me what I was doing. I told him I was trying to figure out what my podcast for this week was going to be about. I was lacking in inspiration this time around. As is his wont, my ten-year-old immediately tried to help. [Read More]

In the last two weeks we have seen the conventions of the two major parties play out in very different ways than they have previously. The DNC went full virtual – there were Zoom meetings and music videos and an embrace of new media all the way around. The RNC seemed to want to maintain its traditional “convention” aesthetic. Speakers spoke on a platform at a podium and many of them to big crowds with cheering and shouting. These were political as much as stylistic statements and they resonated with their intended audiences. [Read More]

The Carnival is a collection of podcasts and podcasters who are all interested in rhetoric, but we come at from a variety of ways. Many of my fellow podcasters are interested in the rhet/comp side of things, which I absolutely value and understand – that was my introduction into rhetoric. My B.A. and my M.A. are in English and I spent some time in an English department T.A. -ing freshman comp. But when I switched to Communication Studies there was a shift in perspective. It wasn’t quite a paradigm shift, but it is enough to make a difference in who we perceive these things. In Comm Studies when we think of rhetoric we think of oratory. We share the history of rhetoric with rhet/comp, but around the 18th century rhetoric goes through a shift when it begins to mean writing as much as it does speaking. And in Comm Studies when we say “rhetoric” we mean speaking out loud and when they say “rhetoric” in English departments they mean “written composition.” [Read More]

We revisit the topics of truth and conspiracy theory. [Read More]

Did you see the Trump Axios interview? I mean did you SEE it? The academic term for that is “bonkerballs.” Honestly, I have never seen such a wild display of a combination of incompetence and complete denial of reality in such a short, compact amount of time. Jonathan Swan deserves an award for not allowing his eyes to pop out of his head in shock at what he was hearing. But I don’t know. Maybe he’s used to it by now. [Read More]