Let’s end 2022 more or less where it began, shall we? Back then, I offered a tease of a podcast in the making (co-created with Giulia Pelillo-Hestermeyer). At the time, that podcast was more virtual than real. A few hours of unedited audio. A website with a mostly unpopulated WordPress template. And some loose ideas about what that site might eventually look like. I made no promises about how soon a proper site/podcast might appear, but I had hopes that it would be a matter of weeks . . .
. . . and then life (predictably?) was not so cooperative. At least not with respect to audio-editing and website-building labor. Technically, of course, the site is still a work in progress. But that’s true of most websites, yes? And it’s polished enough (I think) for what my friends in the service industry would call a “soft opening.” Which is what I’m announcing here and now. Go to Culture Media Language and give it a spin around the block. Kick the tires. Test the brakes. Let us know how it rides.
Some of you will recognize the title is (lovingly) borrowed from one of the classic volumes that came out of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, but it’s also a marker of the roots/routes that led to the podcast’s creation (Giulia’s training is in linguistics, mine is in media studies, and our paths first crossed courtesy of a cultural studies event) as well as what we expect will be a major set of recurring frames for our conversations.
As I type these words, there are four episodes already available for your listening pleasure (or at least we hope it’s pleasurable listening). Look for a fresh episode centered around Stuart Hall’s memoir, Familiar Stranger, and the politics of (im)migration . . . soon-ish.