You know a medium has edged into the mainstream when everyone wants a piece of it; entertainers, news disseminators, persuaders, educators, even academic researchers. With universities increasingly under pressure to not only engage in “relevant” research that has clear social and economic returns, but to also make their research accessible to various audiences, many academics are communicating their work through popular digital platforms — blogs, data visualisations, video explainers and, yes, podcasts.
Some academic grant applications actually encourage researchers to use innovative methods to popularise their findings so the public at large can learn about how the research connects to their lives. So, while most of us might still go to podcasts to keep us entertained or informed about the world during our long commutes or as we step on the treadmill, there’s also a fair amount out there for those who are obsessive about keeping up with new material in a particular knowledge base.
A conversation
Academic podcasts have not necessarily upset the tradition of rigorous peer review, but it has resulted in a whole slew of offerings, some from established academic journals and others produced by university research centres. Neil Fox and Dario Llinares from the U.K.’s University of Brighton suggest that podcasting is a “disruptive academic practice” which challenges the established relationship between knowledge production and the written word.
Most academic writing is directed at a small, informed audience; it is packed away into journals often hidden behind a paywall, and only rarely does the content get discussed in popular forums. Podcasts, instead, get academics talking about their research — not in the manner of a conference presentation, but like a conversation with a curious layperson.
You can find podcasts of varying levels of detail and depth on almost any area of research and study, from architecture to history to religious studies to neurology and more. For instance, In Depth, Out Loud from the U.K. media outlet The Conversation features long-form stories written by academics on topics such as ‘How IVF changed the way we think about fertility’ and ‘How the humble potato fuelled the rise of liberal capitalism’, while others draw on findings from a specific research project. Many do more than simply explain; they get into the messy details of doing research, the confusions and complexities it presents, and the slow and painful process of discovery or invention.
Talking ideas
In the six-part series Childhood Publics , for instance, Melissa Nolas and Christos Varvantakis of University of London present their ongoing effort to understand the relationship between childhood and public life, and the challenges of doing research with and among children. As Varvantakis notes in his introduction to the series, “Most of our ideas have been realised through discussion… it is in talking that ideas came about.” So, naturally, a podcast.
Taking a somewhat different approach is the Online Gods podcast from the For Digital Dignity project run by media scholar Sahana Udupa at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. Each of the monthly episodes brings together the worlds of academics and activism, featuring separate conversations with a scholar who breaks down theoretical concepts and an activist (“online god”) who uses digital media as a tool for social or political change.
This eminently listen-able podcast has host Ian Cook (who, incidentally, is an anthropologist based in Mangaluru) introducing the topic in a chatty and informal style, and a line of pundits who are able to speak about social science without resorting to obscure jargon.
Online gods who have been on the show include founder of The Ladies Finger portal, Nisha Susan, rapper Sofia Ashraf, fake news buster Govindraj Ethiraj, and stand-up comic Atul Khatri. The most recent episode, perhaps predictably, focused on the politics of the body and the MeToo movement in India through conversations with University of Pennsylvania professor Marwan Kraidy and Indian comic Mahima Kukreja.
There seems to be something fundamental about sharing ideas, however complex, through the spoken word. Podcasting might yet become that disruptive tool, breaking down the ivory tower, sound byte by sound byte
(A fortnightly series on podcasts.)
The Hyderabad-based writer and academic is a neatnik fighting a losing battle with the clutter in her head.
