Language and Translation

Language and Translation

episodes

Interviews with scholars of language and translation about their new books.

Gregory Kenicer, "Scottish Plant Names: An A–Z" (Birlinn, 2026)

May 29, 2026

Scottish Plant Names

Gregory J. Kenicer
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Names are incredibly powerful things and are a crucial part of the way we see and classify the world around us. Plant names are especially fasci…

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

May 29, 2026

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

Hosted by YIVO Institute

Sh. An-ski (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport, 1863-1920) was a writer in Russian and Yiddish, a revolutionary, a wartime relief worker, and an ethnographer who…

Patrick S. D. McCartney, "Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development" (Routledge, 2026)

May 28, 2026

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development

Patrick S. D. McCartney
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development (Routledge, 2026) is a recollection of the McCartney's journey acro…

Learning Languages on Social Media

May 26, 2026

Learning Languages on Social Media

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Dr. Yeong Ju Lee about her new book Social Media and Language Learning: …

Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson, "Cyril of Alexandria: Against Julian: Introduction and Translation" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 25, 2026

Cyril of Alexandria: Against Julian

Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson
Hosted by Michael Motia

In 362/363 the Roman emperor Julian composed a treatise titled Against the Galileans in which he set forth his reasons for abandoning Christianity and…

Yosef Grodzinsky, "How Deeply Human Is Language?: Chomsky, the Brain, and the AI Fantasy" (MIT Press, 2026)

May 24, 2026

How Deeply Human Is Language?

Yosef Grodzinsky
Hosted by Mariam Olugbodi

How Deeply Human Is Language? Chomsky, the Brain, and the AI Fantasy (MIT Press, 2026) is Yosef Grodzinsky’s exploration of the criticality of the lin…

Elina Penner, 'Nightberries" (CMU Press, 2026)

May 24, 2026

Nightberries

Elina Penner
Hosted by Hollay Ghadery

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Elina Penner about her translated novel, Nightberries (CMU Press, 2026, translated by Bradley Sch…

Georgia C. Ennis, "Rainforest Radio: Language Reclamation and Community Media in the Ecuadorian Amazon" (U Arizona Press, 2025)

May 19, 2026

Rainforest Radio

Georgia Ennis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Rainforest Radio: Language Reclamation and Community Media in the Ecuadorian Amazon (U Arizona Press, 2025), Dr. Georgia C. Ennis provides a compr…

Italo Calvino on the Written and the Unwritten Word

May 10, 2026

Italo Calvino on the Written and the Unwritten Word

In this episode of the Vault, we revisit the Italian writer Italo Calvino’s James Lecture, presented at the New York Institute for the Humanities on M…

Yiddish: Biography of a Language

May 6, 2026

Yiddish: Biography of a Language

Jeffrey Shandler
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Jeffrey Shandler’s new book, Yiddish: Biography of a Language (Oxford UP, 2020), presents the story of Yiddish, the defining vernacular of Ashkenazi J…

Aya Elyada, "A Lingering Legacy: The Afterlife of Yiddish in German-Jewish Culture, 1818–1938" (Stanford UP, 2026)

May 5, 2026

A Lingering Legacy

Aya Elyada
Hosted by Amir Engel

Aya Elyada is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on German and German-Jew…

Bilingual Writers and Corpus Analysis

May 5, 2026

Bilingual Writers and Corpus Analysis

David Palfreyman

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Ingrid Piller speaks with Professor David Palfreyman (United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain) ab…

David Krolikoski, "Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea" (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)

May 2, 2026

Lyrical Translation

David Krolikoski
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)is a literary history of modern Korean poetry's origins an…

Elena Foulis, "Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latina/o/e Experiences" (Ohio State UP, 2026)

April 29, 2026

Embodied Encuentros

Elena Foulis
Hosted by Brad Wright

In Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latina/o/e Experiences (Ohio State UP, 2026), Elena Foulis offers a practical guide for completing et…

The (Un)imagined Work of Linguistic Inclusion

April 21, 2026

The (Un)imagined Work of Linguistic Inclusion

Brynn Quick

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Emily Pacheco speaks with PhD candidate Brynn Quick (Macquarie University, Australia) about her 2…

Nathaniel Greenberg, "The Long War of Ideas: American Public Diplomacy in Arabic After 9/11" (Columbia UP, 2026)

April 19, 2026

The Long War of Ideas

Nathaniel Greenberg
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, US officials identified the so-called battle for hearts and minds as the “second front” in the war on terror.…

Gautamiputra Kamble, "The Seekers" (Blaft Publication, 2025)

April 18, 2026

The Seekers

Gautamiputra Kamble
Hosted by Jessica Zu

The seekers in these stories travel through worlds both ancient and modern, worlds of symbol and fantastical allegory, on their paths to greater truth…

Yanara Friedland, "Thanatographies" (U Alabama Press, 2026)

April 18, 2026

Thanatographies

Yanara Friedland
Hosted by Rachel Pafe

Yanara Friedland is a writer, translator, and educator born in Berlin. She is the author of Uncountry: A Mythology (2016) winner of the Noemi Press Fi…

Elizabeth Rosner, "Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening" (Catapult, 2025)

April 14, 2026

Third Ear

Elizabeth Rosner
Hosted by Ilana Maymind

This illuminating book Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening (Catapult, 2025) weaves personal stories of a multilingual upbringin…

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love”

April 10, 2026

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love"

Books on Asia Podcast

Translator Ted Goossen talks about everything from first landing in Japan in 1968 to the differences between translating Haruki Murakami and Hiromi Ka…