The Language Project Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jay Mason
Come and take a listen to all the ways that language impacts our society! In this podcast we'll explore various topics related to language - everything from how it defines us as humans, how it manifests itself in our technology and our media and arts and impacts the way we think, and how its automation makes our lives easier but also brings its own set of ethical challenges. I'll be joined by many special guests whose own lives have been notably impacted by language, as well as experts in the field of linguistics.
In Pt. 2 of my series on TikTok, I continue to delve deeper into TikTok's algorithms to explore the question of whether they introduce and propagate bias. I'll also share the results of a survey I conducted to assess whether people could detect bias in the news they consume on social media. Finally, I'll share my opinion on policy recommendations to reduce bias in social media platforms.
To explore technology bias, I recently did a research project about TikTok, a popular social media platform. In this Part 1 of a two part series, I'll introduce the background and history of TikTok as well as some key important industry terms like shadowbanning and filter bubbles. I'll also talk about how TikTok's algorithms work to set up a deeper exploration into bias in Part 2.
I continue my conversation with Dr, Sue Hertz, digging deeper into the complexities of text-to-speech technology, including the challenges of embedding emotions into speech. We talk about specific examples of speech nuance - like the difference in the sound of the letter “p” in the word “Poke” versus “Spoke”. We also discuss how it has taken years of research to get to the point where Synfonica’s text-to-speech system is today. I loved hearing her talk about her fascination with how listeners parse the nuances of speech.
Come join me as I speak with Dr. Sue Hertz, Adjunct Professor at Cornell University and President of Synfonica LLC, a speech technology company developing knowledge-based text-to-speech systems and related applications. She shares what initially sparked her interest in linguistics and how learning computer programming became an essential part of her journey. We’ll learn about her pioneering research and development in text-to-speech synthesis over the last several decades. I was especially inspired to hear about how one of her systems is still one of the most widely used programs in screen readers for blind individuals.
Dr. Hertz asked me to clarify that when she said that the knowledge-based approach Synfonica is taking to text-to-speech synthesis differs from the approaches taken by others, she meant “others today.” Decades ago, there was no choice but to use such an approach due to the severe memory limitations of computer systems at that time.
I continue my conversation with Professor Cisneros as we delve further into his interest in minority languages such as Mixtec and Guaymi. We discuss the many reasons languages can become extinct, including globalization and colonialism. We also learn about the only language that has ever been truly revitalized! (Can you guess what it is?)
Come join me as I speak with Professor Carlos Cisneros, former Linguistics professor at Berkeley. In this podcast, we talk about how his interest in Mesoamerican culture sparked his interest in the study of linguistics. We also discuss the importance of studying minority languages, and what they teach us about what the human mind is capable of, and how language can reflect upon both universal as well as divergent aspects of our cultures.
"The fire destroyed the apartment complex."
"People curled up next to the fire with their cocoa."
The word "fire" here means something very different within the context of each of the broader stories, in a way that a dictionary cannot capture. Join me as I continue my conversation with Professor Erk. We discuss the concept of 'story salads' and how they can help us understand how language works, and what it means for a word to have meaning. We also talk about some fascinating real world implications, such as how we can better ensure accuracy in the social media processing of natural disasters in real time.
Come join me as I speak with Professor Katrin Erk, a professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. We explore what sparked her initial interest in this field, as well as her specialty in computational semantics. We learn about the challenges of understanding the meaning of sentences, and how formal logical structures and machine learning can be very helpful in certain situations, but can't always handle more nuanced or longer stretches of text. I was especially intrigued by how Professor Erk illustrates these challenges through her research on how advice in various on-line forums can take on different and nuanced forms!
Come join me as I continue my discussion with Professor Elsner. In this podcast we learn about the connection between language and vision, and how language can help us understand visual systems and vice versa. What does the popular children's game Where's Waldo tell us about how we describe and process visual cues? What is the concept of visual salience and how does it relate to language? We discuss the Gricean process and how we make inferences from what is unspoken, and how this concept extends to how we describe what we see.
Come join me as I speak with Professor Micha Elsner, a professor of Computational Linguistics at Ohio State University. We explore his intellectual journey and what sparked his interest in this field. We also dig into one of his areas of focus - child language acquisition. What is known about how children learn language and what is still a mystery? Are certain language easier to acquire? What is a language 'subsystem'? And how does the 'labor of lifetimes' continually help us understand more about how languages are learned?
In this podcast, I will explore the modern applications of the Sanskrit language, a classical language of ancient India. Is Sanskrit the perfect language for coding and AI? Are there certain attributes of Sanskrit that make computers perhaps understand it better than other languages? What exactly is the 'Sanskrit effect'? Come have a listen to some of the more intriguing hypotheses of the potential benefits of Sanskrit on our modern times!
Join me as I continue my discussion with Jacqueline Gutierrez, the Youth Program Coordinator of Poder, where we continue to explore the impact of language on community. We talk about the day to day challenges that non-English speaking communities face when accessing basic civic services such as housing applications, voting, and court visits, and how the nuances of language and cultural context are so important in translation. We also explore the concept of environmental justice and how we should challenge ourselves to think about the change we want to see in our communities as being more than 'just in English'.
Please join me in my conversation with Jacqueline Gutierrez as I continue my mini-series focusing on how language plays a role in immigrant and multilingual communities. Jacqueline is the Youth Program Coordinator of Poder, a San Francisco based organization whose mission is to organize with Latino immigrant families, along with other low-income communities of color, to cultivate community rooted solutions that create an society with immigrant rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. We explore the important work her organization does in the Mission and Excelsior communities to build community power. We also explore nuances of race, language and ethnicity, and specifically how it is important to break through the notions of what it means to be Latinx and how the concept of 'Latinidad' is not a simple 'box'.
Come join me for Part 2 of my conversation with Marco Montenegro of Excelsior Works, where we continue to explore the role of language on workforce development. We explore questions such as - what does equity mean when it comes to opportunities to work? How does language impact that ability to find work? What is the impact of language on identity and one's place in the community? We delve deeper into the important work that Marco and the team at Excelsior Works does every day to uplift the diverse community of the Excelsior district in San Francisco.
Join me in a new mini-series where I explore how language plays a role in immigrant and multilingual communities. Today, I will be talking to Marco Montenegro, the director of Excelsior Works, a San Francisco-based multicultural and multilingual workforce development center focused on helping individuals and families in the Excelsior neighborhood to achieve economic security and strengthened community.
Did you know that India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world? In this podcast, I'll explore some of the origins of the various language families in India, what it means to be an official 'classical language', and how English fits into the vast landscape of languages in India.
In this podcast, I continue my discussion with Yoav Schlesinger in which we dig further into the ethics of AI. Join me as we hear him walk us through how something as seemingly benign as voice assistants can propagate bias through a 'stacking' effect with life altering consequences. We'll also hear about the similarities between the introduction of AI technologies and another messy introduction of technology from our history (spoiler alert: it has 4 wheels!) And we'll also discuss how the pandemic influenced our understanding and usage of AI.
In this podcast, I speak with Yoav Schlesinger, a Principal AI Architect in the technology space. We'll discuss ethical and responsible innovation and the benefits and challenges. We'll explore several interesting questions such as - what is the business value of ethics and how can we quantify that value? How does bias manifest itself in technology and how can we mitigate it?
In this podcast, I'll explore the topic of conversational assistants. We'll talk about concepts such as high involvement vs high considerateness speakers, contextualization clues, the importance of diversity in language models, and whether a bot should have gender identity. We'll also have the opportunity to hear from one of our previous guests, Greg Bennett, a conversational designer in the tech field.
In this podcast, I interview Greg Bennett, a conversational designer in the tech field. Join me to learn more about how an impactful series of text messages he received in his youth led to his interests in interactive social linguistics.
In this podcast, I interview Giorgia Troiani , a researcher at UCSB. Join me to learn more about the path she took to becoming a linguistics scholar (hint: an interest in Sci Fi served as an early spark!) and how her journey took her to interesting places like Siberia. Giorgia shares how grammatical forms emerge from the way people use language in everyday life and is impacted by both cognitive and social factors, and how language can be a powerful tool for fighting oppression. We'll also hear about how far the field of computational linguistics has come, and her work on a software to interpret language patterns.
In this podcast, I explore the historical roots of modern rap and hip hop, and how language has played an important role in how this musical form has evolved to be such an impactful cultural force in our society.
We continue to explore the impact of bilingualism with our guests from Episode 1, with the focus in this episode on the cognitive impact of being able to speak multiple languages
In this inaugural podcast, I explore perceptions around multilingualism and speak to a couple bilingual guests around their personal experiences and how these skills have impacted their lives.