Semantic Reactions is the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics
Our October 2025 episode features author, filmmaker, and IGS trustee Nora Bateson, who is also president of the International Bateson Institute and the creator of the Warm Data Labs initiative. Her conversation with IGS president Lance Strate centers on the current sense that we are experiencing multiple crises, or what has been referred to as a polycrisis or metacrisis. They also touch on topics such as science communication, therapy, the family, language, AI, and storytelling, and draw upon media ecology, warm data, and general semantics.
10/28/25 • 85:20
Our September 2025 episode features Cristina Knopf, a professor of Communication and Media Studies at the State University of New York at Cortland, in conversation with IGS president Lance Strate. Their discussion focuses on her research in comics studies and reflections on the comic book medium, its history, and the superhero genre, as well as the depiction of superheroes in movies and television, including this past summer's films featuring Superman, and the Fantastic Four.
9/24/25 • 89:42
Our August 2025 episode features coaches Keith Clark and Ted Delicath, in conversation with IGS president Lance Strate, discussing the CORO Fellows Program in Public Affairs and its relation to general semantics, as well as related topics such as leadership, governance, listening, cybernetics, and journalism.
8/26/25 • 87:43
Our July 2025 installment features writer and journalist Ryan Zickgraf, the author of an op-ed on the continuing relevance of Neil Postman's best known book, Amusing Ourselves to Death that was recently published by the Washington Post. IGS president Lance Strate conducts the interview, which touches on politics and democracy, gamergate, the effects of screens and social media on public discourse, the additional impact of AI, the decline of rationality and time-binding, as well as the reaction against technology on the part of Gen Z.
7/29/25 • 75:36
Our June 2025 installment features IGS trustee and past president Martin H. Levinson talking about the recent publication of his latest book, Sensible Thinking 3: The Adventure Continues. In conversation with IGS president Lance Strate, Marty talks about general semantics, learning and education, and the process of writing, as well as topics such as PTSD, antisemitism, politics, and satire.
6/25/25 • 71:47
Our May 2025 installment features five of our IGS Trustees on the state of higher education in the United States today. The conversation is led by IGS President Lance Strate who teaches at Fordham University, and includes IGS Vice-President Corey Anton of Grand Valley State University, IGS Treasurer Thom Gencarelli of Manhattan University, and IGS Trustees Peggy Cassidy of Adelphi University and Susan Drucker of Hofstra University. Their freewheeling roundtable touches on a variety of topics, including the difficulties that students are facing, the challenges brought on by technological advances including AI, issues regarding administrators and financial problems, and the dangers of a hostile political environment.
5/24/25 • 77:29
Our April 2025 installment features the return of author, financier, and IGS Trustee Christopher Mayer to discuss the current economic situation in the United States with IGS President Lance Strate. Their dialogue emphasizes how general semantics can help us to understand financial concepts such as the trade deficit, tariffs, inflation, and even money itself.
4/16/25 • 74:08
Our March 2025 installment features the return of author, scholar, and critic Marleen Barr to discuss her recently published anthology entitled, Jewish Women Science Fiction Writers Create Future Females, with IGS President Lance Strate.
3/25/25 • 81:28
Our February 2025 podcast features IGS President Lance Strate interviewing writer, musician, artist, and author of the recently published book, Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought of Robert Anton Wilson, Gabriel Kennedy, aka Prop Anon. Their discussion deals with the life and work of Robert Anton Wilson and how he was greatly influenced by Alfred Korzybski and general semantics, as well as Gabriel Kennedy's background and career.
2/23/25 • 91:14
Our January 2025 podcast features IGS President Lance Strate interviewing computer programmer and activist Brianna Wu. Their conversation covers Gamergate, feminism, transexual issues, and politics and activism.
1/29/25 • 65:09
Our December 2024 podcast features IGS President Lance Strate interviewing computer scientist and IGS Past President Jeff Mordkowitz. Their conversation covers the history of general semantics and the Institute, approaches to teaching general semantics, the importance of the non-verbal or silent level, and Mordkowitz's Seven Simple Steps to Sanity.
12/28/24 • 81:52
Our November 2024 episode departs from our usual format as IGS President Lance Strate shares the Balvant Parekh Memorial Lecture that he recently delivered in India for the Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and other Human Sciences. The lecture, entitled "The Message, the Meaning, and the Medium," ties together general semantics, behaviorism, information theory and cybernetics, and media ecology.
11/29/24 • 69:56
Our October 2024 podcast features IGS Trustees Eva Berger, Corey Anton, and Lance Strate taking part a controversial discussion on some of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence and language models and their implications for the future, as well as their connections to general semantics.
10/28/24 • 91:36
Our September 2024 episode features an interview with author, New York Law School professor, and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, Nadine Strossen, conducted by IGS trustees Lance Strate and Susan Drucker. Their conversation centers on legal issues such as free speech in the context of contemporary American politics and culture.
9/29/24 • 64:08
Our August 2024 episode features Corey Anton and Thom Gencarelli discussing general semantics and politics, based on the recent special issues of the IGS's quarterly journal, ETC: A Review of General Semantics. In conversation with Lance Strate, they talk about Corey Anton's role as guest editor working together with Thom Gencarelli as ETC editor in chief, and their plans for publishing an anthology based on the two issues. Naturally enough, they also cover Alfred Korzybski's historical development of time-binding and how general semantics has been and could be applied to politics. They also had much to say about contemporary American politics, media and technology, and the current presidential election campaign.
8/28/24 • 97:24
Our July 2024 episode departs from our usual format, and instead features a series of short take interviews conducted in conjunction with the IGS's summer seminar entitled, Navigating the Now: A Guide to Recognizing What is Going On, which was held at the October Gallery in London, England, on July 25th to 27th, 2024. Over the course of the three days, Lance Strate recorded the ruminations and evaluations from the other faculty who were leading the seminar, Mary Lahman, Dom Heffer, Nora Bateson, and Peggy Cassidy. The episode also includes responses from some of the students and participants in the seminar, reflecting on what they learned and experienced.
7/30/24 • 45:22
Our June 2024 episode was recorded at a local radio station in the city of Gold Coast in Australia, and features Australian media personality and researcher, Renée Peterson. Renée has spent over two decades as a media industry professional in Australia and the US, as a radio and television producer, writer, and on-air broadcaster,and is currently completing her doctoral degree at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She joins IGS trustees Lance Strate, Thom Gencarelli, and Laura Trujillo-Liñán, who came to Australia for the annual meeting of the International Communication Association. Their conversation centers on the role of radio, along with sound recording and newer forms of digital media, in Australia, the United States, and Mexico, as well as on celebrities, influencers, and more recent developments in digital media. They also talk about language, dialects, and not surprisingly, general semantics.
6/26/24 • 90:17
Our May 2024 episode features an interview with Dr. Margaret Cassidy, the newly elected president of the New York Society for General Semantics, and the author of Bookends: The Changing Media Environment of American Classrooms; and of Children, Media, and American History: Printed Poison, Pernicious Stuff, and Other Terrible Temptations. Peggy Cassidy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Adelphi University, and a past president of the New York State Communication Association, and the Media Ecology Association. In conversation with IGS Trustees Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli, the discussion deals with dance and choreography, language and the arts, symbolic form and musical notation, orality and literacy, education and communication, technology and psychotherapy, leadership and administration, and of course general semantics.
5/19/24 • 80:32
Our April 2024 episode features an interview with lawyer, media activist, and artist-designer Paul Guzzardo. The conversation ranges across topics such as digital arts and deep fakes, the music of Ustad Imrat Khan, Henry Ford and the United Steel Workers labor union, Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong, Patrick Geddes and Aldous Huxley, Josephine Baker, Walter Winchell, Giovanni Piranesi, and of course general semantics, and takes us on a trip from Guzzardo's hometown of St. Louis to his current residence in Buenos Aries, Argentina, with stops along the way in places such as New York City, Edinburgh and Dundee in Scotland, and Calcutta, India.
4/26/24 • 59:35
Our March 2024 episode features a discussion held in the media lab at Panamericana University in Mexico City with Panamericana's Media Lab Director Gustavo Navarro, IGS Trustee and Panamericana Philosophy Professor Laura Trujillo-Liñán, and visiting IGS Trustees Thom Gencarelli and Lance Strate. Their conversation covers media ecology, new media, education, general semantics, and more.
3/29/24 • 57:37
Our February 2024 episode features the second part of an interview with singer-songwriter and activist Michelle Shocked. In conversation with IGS trustees Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli, they discuss Michelle's career and music, and issues regarding copyright, media and technology, artists' rights, and human dignity (and includes a bit of salty language). The episode concludes with a live performance and a prerecorded song. If you haven't heard episode 17, you may want to listen to that one first.
2/11/24 • 89:24
Our January 2024 episode features an interview with singer-songwriter and activist Michelle Shocked. In conversation with IGS trustees Lance Strate and Thom Gencarelli, they discuss Michelle's background and music, and issues regarding copyright, media and technology, artists' rights, and human dignity, and concludes with a live performance.
1/28/24 • 74:43
Our December 2023 episode features an interview with former IGS Executive Director and Trustee Steve Stockdale. In conversation with IGS President Lance Strate, Stockdale discusses his background and connection to general semantics, his experiences setting up a MOOC and teaching a course on general semantics online, and his initiative known as "calling out the symbol rulers".
12/27/23 • 69:56
Our November 2023 episode features an interview with author, public speaker, and strategy management consultant Marcy Axelrod. The interview, conducted by IGS President Lance Strate, focuses on her new book, entitled How We Choose to Show Up, her work as a business consultant, and the importance of speech, relationships, and personal presence.
11/28/23 • 54:27
Our October 2023 episode features an interview with Nora Bateson, who is an IGS Trustee and President of the International Bateson Institute. The interview, conducted by IGS President Lance Strate, focuses on her new book, entitled Combining, a volume that includes essays, poems, and artwork. Their conversation touches on topics such as systems theory, the ecology of communication, learning and interdependence, relationships and contexts, and poetry and forms of expression.
10/31/23 • 50:40
Celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of our podcast, our September 2023 episode features a roundtable discussion with IGS trustees Eva Berger, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli, Michael Plugh, and Lance Strate, as they take up the one of the most basic questions for the discipline of general semantics: What is going on? Their discussion touches on problems such as racism and retribalization, information overload and political polarization, chaos and complexity, AI and regulation, and how to make things better.
9/30/23 • 63:31
The twelfth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with Paul Soukup, SJ, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University, and the author of seven books, including Communication and Theology; Christian Communication; Media, Culture and Catholicism; Mass Media and the Moral Imagination; Fidelity and Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media; Out of Eden; and most recently, A Media Ecology of Theology. The interview is conducted by IGS president Lance Strate, and their discussion ranges across topics such as education, language, environmentalism, religion, and media.
8/24/23 • 65:09
The eleventh episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with novelist, literary scholar, and science fiction critic Marleen Barr. Dr. Barr is the author of two novels, Oy Pioneer! and Oy Feminist Planets, and a number of works of feminist science fiction, including Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory; Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond; Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction; and Genre Fission: A New Discourse Practice for Cultural Studies. Her most recent book, just published by Dark Helix Press, is a short story collection entitled This Former President: Science Fiction as Retrospective Retrorocket Jettisons Trumpism. The discussion covers feminism, literary theory, science fiction, and politics.
7/30/23 • 81:13
The tenth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with writer, educator and general semantics expert Mary P. Lahman. Dr. Lahman is Professor Emerita of Communication Studies at Manchester University in Indiana, and the author of Awareness and Action, published by the Institute of General Semantics. She is also a member of the IGS Board of Trustees. The discussion deals with communication as a field of study, the theory and practice of listening, and teaching on the topic of general semantics.
6/30/23 • 55:49
The ninth episode of Semantic Reactions, the official podcast of the Institute of General Semantics, features an interview with author and Past President of the Institute of General Semantics Martin Levinson. Their conversation covers Levinson's background in general semantics, his career in education, and his writing, centering on his satirical work. Levinson shares a reading from his latest book, Lunch with the American People: Satirical Food for Thought.
5/23/23 • 59:24
