The Secret Life of Language

First Nation knowledge surrounding sustainable food systems has largely been ignored in Australia. In this episode we consider how all of us can acknowledge and learn from the historical denial of this ancient wisdom to build common ground for the future. Host Adrian Hearn and co-host Lara Anderson are joined by Zena Cumpston, a Barkandji Woman from Western New South Wales and Research Fellow in Urban Environments, and Chris Williams, a board member at the Collingwood Children's Farm with a passion for growing sweet potatoes.

A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced and edited by Adrian Hearn and Gavin Nebauer.

Keywords - Nothing

In this episode of The Secret Life of Language, we explore a keyword, nothing.

A keyword is a word or concept of great significance. Our Keywords project follows ever-changing words for an ever-changing world. In this episode of The Secret Life of Language, we explore the word nothing, it's history and its relevance today. Our guests talk about the etymology of nothing, its meaning and importance for their own work. Will we discover that nothing actually means something and can be very productive of materials, activities and thoughts?

A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced by Véronique Duché and Craig Jeffrey.

The world speaks some 6,700 languages, and 4,000 of them are spoken by indigenous peoples, who make up less than 6% of the global population. In this episode, we speak with researchers who venture into the world's remotest corners in their quest to document languages, to help revive or reinforce community tongues, or to discover what even a single, little-known language may have to teach us about the way humans communicate. Linguist Assoc Prof Nick Thieberger and cultural anthropologist Dr Debra McDougall are joined by hosts Charlotte Mackay and Peter Hurst.
A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced by Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param of Profactual, Gavin Nebauer, Charlotte Mackay and Peter Hurst.

In the second of a two-part conversation, we look back at life as it really was for ordinary people "behind the Iron Curtain" in the now defunct German Democratic Republic. German studies researchers Alison Lewis and Claudia Sandberg join host Leo Kretzenbacher to examine East German pop culture and film, uses of language and humour, and notions of identity either side of the Berlin Wall.
A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced by Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param of Profactual, and Gavin Nebauer.

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent demise of the German Democratic Republic, how should we remember life in the famously authoritarian state? German studies researchers Alison Lewis and Claudia Sandberg join host Leo Kretzenbacher to look back at how ordinary East Germans negotiated their lives and livelihoods in the self-proclaimed "most egalitarian society in Europe". First of a two-part conversation. A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced by Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param of Profactual, and Gavin Nebauer.

In stories adapted from the declassified files of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, we examine the roles of informer and victim in which so many ordinary East Germans found themselves over the four decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall. German studies researcher Alison Lewis also helps us decode the broader impact of the Stasi's tentacles and its lasting legacy. Presented by Leo Kretzenbacher.
A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics.
Produced by Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param of Profactual, Gavin Nebauer, and Alison Lewis.

Download the transcript.

This is a teaser for The Secret Life of Language, a podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Watch this space for upcoming episodes.