Shows / The Strategic Linguist Podcast
The Strategic Linguist Podcast
Revealing how language shapes power, markets, and competitive advantage | Expert analysis from workplace dynamics to global strategy thestrategiclinguist.substack.com
Episodes
The Strategic Linguist PodcastMeasuring Up: The Curry Powder Test
When I first started writing about linguistics, I gave myself a break every few posts to be a little more like Rebecca and a little less like The Strategic…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastDamned Either Way: What Robin Lakoff Discovered About Women’s Language
“Stop hedging,” a manager says, in the kind of feedback session that gets called constructive, “and just tell me what you think.” He isn’t asking her to…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastRight, According to Whom: What Foucault Discovered About Discourse and Power
A rightsizing announcement. A rejection for "culture fit." A promotion panel that decides someone doesn't quite have "leadership presence." Three sentences…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhy No One Takes a Position Alone: What DuBois Found in The Stance Triangle
This breakdown of DuBois’s stance triangle includes understanding:The three things every stance does at once — evaluate an object, position the speaker, align…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhat I'm planning to build for The Linguistics Lab
Honestly, my plan was to come on here for 15 mins to talk you through what I’m planning to build for my paid tier and so many of you turned up!Just me. A few…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWritten As If Watched
Before I start, there are many, many posts that have most of my arguments already written. I am late to this party but I brought snacks now that the good food…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Currency You're Born With: What Bourdieu Discovered About Language as Capital
The Currency You're Born WithWhat Bourdieu discovered about language as capitalTwo equally qualified candidates sit the same interview. Only one of them was…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Politeness Machine: What Brown and Levinson Actually Discovered
Someone tells you, calmly, that they’re giving you your time back. Someone else, mid-story, asks: “can I stop you there?” A third person, cornered on a…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastFluent Enough to Pass: The Standard That Was Never Neutral
You walk into an exam room.The test is supposed to measure whether you can use English. The writing section: write a 250-word essay on “the advantages and…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWho Died and Made You CEO: Genre Mimicry, Epistemic Trespassing, and the Applause Machine
LinkedIn has a genre problem.Not a content problem — the platform has always traded in self-presentation. A genre problem: the systematic borrowing of…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Story Behind My Logo
What my logo means, and why it represents The Strategic Linguist so well This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistic Hierarchy of Substack: Linguistics Unfiltered
Subscriber count is the linguistic hierarchy on Substack, for me. I think Bourdieu would agree.I’ve dedicated 52 weeks, over 45,000 words, to showing how power…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Double Register: How Workplace Power Now Compounds Itself
Picture a team meeting. Someone makes a comment about a colleague’s accent — not a slur, nothing disciplinable, just a brief impression. The room moves on…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastHow Product Language Shapes the Gap Between Institution and User
Ask someone how they’re doing financially and watch what happens. The pause before the answer. The slight shift in posture. The decision — usually in under a…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Tone Police and the Face-Threat Reversal
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thestrategiclinguist.substack.comSpeech Act Theory, and the frameworks that follow, describe what…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Conversation That Was Never About You
The Intention Shield and the Perlocutionary FallacyImagine you are parked at a red light, and another driver rear-ends your car. The impact is loud, your…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhy “I’m Giving You Your Time Back” Is a Power Play
Brené Brown and Adam Grant were talking about how to politely end a conversation in a recent episode of “The Curosity Shop”. Adam mentioned something he hears…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Grammar of Expectation: How Language Shapes Who Gets to Lead
There’s a moment in every feedback conversation where power shifts. Someone’s voice gets softer. Someone else’s gets firmer. Someone hedges; someone doesn’t…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastReading the Moves: The Language Practice of Designing Conversations
You’re typing something you haven’t told anyone. Something that keeps you awake at 2 AM. You tell an AI about it, expecting either nothing or judgement…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastLinguistics Lounge #2: How Language Shapes Creative Teams
Thank you Viktoria Verde, PhD, Claire Machado, Mariam Vossough, Diana, Jeff Long, and many others for tuning into my live video with Des Kennedy! My…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Framework That Changes Everything: Why Context Creates Meaning
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thestrategiclinguist.substack.comI’ve written about linguistic capital. About discourse…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastSilent Intelligence: The Information, Innovation, and Trust Your Organisation Loses When Leaders Don't Understand Language
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thestrategiclinguist.substack.comYou’re in a meeting. You propose something directly: “We should…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Founding Story: How Origin Corporate Narratives Determine Your Credibility to Change
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thestrategiclinguist.substack.comI almost always pull from my existing posts so these rarely sit…
The Strategic Linguist Podcast🎥 Linguistics Unscripted: Episode 3 | The Script Doesn't Exist
The video edition of Linguistics Unscripted where I discuss the key themes of my body of work on Substack This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhen Hedging Has Nothing to Do With Uncertainty And All to Do With Risk
In Part 1, I argued that hedging is not a weakness. That I think, I believe, as far as I know are epistemic markers — they tell listeners exactly how you are…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhat the Room Gets Wrong About Hedging
At some point, someone told you to stop hedging.Maybe it was feedback after a presentation. Maybe it was a manager preparing you for a senior stakeholder…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistics Lounge #1 - Let's Talk About Accents
Thank you Jen Benford, Mother Hood, Claire Machado, Stephen Scheidell, and many others for tuning into my live video with Anna | how to boss AI and Cristina!…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Rule That Never Was: What 7-38-55 Actually Means
There’s a good chance someone, at some point, stood in front of you with a PowerPoint slide and declared with absolute confidence:“93% of all communication is…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastLinguistics Unscripted: Episode 2
Welcome to my second episode of Linguistic Unscripted where I go off script and discuss topics from my posts that didn’t quite fit on the page. Today, we’re…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Performance of Online Authority: How Language Creates Power in Digital Spaces
A note before we begin: This piece examines how linguistic authority operates in online platforms, with particular focus on Substack as a case study. It draws…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastFrom Language Policy to Algorithmic Design: Linguistic Exclusion and AI Development
A note before we begin: This piece draws on both academic research and lived experience. My graduate thesis on linguistic identity in post-civil war Sri Lanka…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Invisible Hierarchy: How Voice and Accent Shape Identity and Authority
A quick note before we begin: the study of voice, accent, and identity is vast and complex, encompassing decades of research across sociolinguistics, discourse…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastYou Use Language Every Day. Here's Why That Doesn't Make You a Linguist
You speak English every day. You’ve been doing it since you were a toddler. You text, you chat, you argue about the Oxford comma. So naturally, you might…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastLinguistics Unscripted: Episode 1
Welcome to the first episode of Linguistics Unscripted - my little corner of Substack where I can talk about linguistics, reference my work and others that…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistics of Infertility: How Words Shape How We Feel About What Our Bodies Can Do
DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be an all-encompassing post on the topic of healthcare and the fertility industry. I am focusing on a few key areas and the…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhen Gaslighting Becomes the Record: How Power Rewrites What Actually Happened
This piece examined how hierarchical power amplifies effectiveness. Linguistic capital determines who deploys reality-contradicting claims with minimal cost…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhen Algorithms Gaslight: How AI Systems Reproduce Reality-Distorting Discourse Without Intent
In the previous piece in this series, I examined how gaslighting operates through specific discourse structures: three types of assertives (explicit, covert…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhy Gaslighting Is So Hard to Identify: The Linguistic Patterns That Make Reality Feel Negotiable
You’re in a meeting. Your manager says, “I never said we’d launch in Q2.” You remember the conversation clearly, you have notes but they continue: “I think…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Prompt Engineering Myth: Why ‘Talking to AI’ Isn’t Actually Communication
When you type instructions into ChatGPT or Claude, you’re not having a conversation. You might feel like you are because the interface looks like a chat…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastWhy Some People’s Stories Always Get Believed: The Linguistic Markers of Narrative Credibility
You’ve probably noticed it. The VP mentions a problem in passing, and everyone believes there’s a problem. The junior analyst raises the same concern with…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Meeting Narrative Battle: How Stories Get Contested, Controlled, and Canonised in Real-Time
Meetings are battlegrounds for narrative control. The story that wins becomes the official record, shapes future decisions and determines who gets credited or…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastSix Narrative Structures That Win at Work
Language follows patterns. Jokes work because they set up expectations and violate them at precise moments. Songs feel satisfying because verses and choruses…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastStorytelling as a Strategy: The Linguistic Architecture of Corporate Narratives
The ability to tell the canonical story is the ability to define reality. When your narrative becomes the accepted version of events, you control what counts…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastDetails of the Absurd
We have been telling stories as a way to understand the world since the dawn of human existence - no matter where it began. We’re hardwired to look for…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Spider and the Mockingbird
The Spider and the Mockingbird: Power Through Language in Westeros and the WorkplaceAn exploration of how Lord Varys and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish from Game…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistic Intelligence Gap in AI Leadership
Episode OverviewWhile tech CEOs spend billions on compute power and algorithms, they're missing the linguistic patterns that determine whether AI products…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistic Shift Behind AI Agents in Commerce: Part 2
In Part 1, I explored how the shift from keyword search to conversational commerce represents a fundamental linguistic change - from locutionary acts (literal…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Linguistic Shift Behind AI Agents in Commerce: Part 1
We spent twenty years teaching ourselves to talk like search engines—"running shoes men size 10" instead of actual sentences. Now AI agents understand natural…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Secret Language of Questions: How to Read Between the Lines and Control Any Conversation
That colleague who asks “How’s that project coming along?” might actually be evaluating your competence.Your friend who says “You know we all hang out at that…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastDecoding Gen Z: How Linguistic Innovation Shapes Financial Behaviour and Learning
Episode OverviewLove them or hate them, Gen Z is shaping the new world. But have you ever looked at their behavior from a linguistics angle? The words they use…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Invisible Performance: How Code Switching Reveals Workplace Power Dynamics
We dive into the hidden world of code switching in professional settings—how millions of workers unconsciously transform their speech patterns every day to…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Language Game: How Words Create Power (And Keep You Out of the Club)
Key ConceptsPierre Bourdieu - Linguistic CapitalLanguage functions like money - certain ways of speaking give you social advantagesSpeech communities use…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastUnderstanding the Fundamentals of Language
Explore the five core areas of language study and discover why some aspects come naturally to AI while others remain uniquely human territory.Key…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastOut of Bounds: How Sports Metaphors Sideline Global Teams
Episode OverviewHow American sports metaphors in corporate communication create barriers for global teams and non-native English speakers.Key Topics…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Space Between Languages
Rebecca explores the irony of being a linguistics expert who can't speak her heritage language. From childhood poetry books to a Columbia thesis on Sri Lankan…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Words That Built a Multi-Trillion Dollar Industry: Money, Morality and Meaning
"The Words That Built a Multi-Trillion Dollar Industry: What Islamic Finance Reveals About Language and Money"Key Topics Covered:How the Arabic word "riba"…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastYou Heard That, Right? The Hidden Language of Patronising Speech
Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling diminished but couldn't explain why? This episode breaks down the science behind detecting condescending…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Singapore Pivot: How One Nation's AI Strategy Exposes Silicon Valley's Blind Spot
The Current Linguistic World OrderEnglish today occupies an unprecedented position in human history, not just as a lingua franca but as the dominant medium…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastThe Writing Crisis That's Sabotaging Your AI Strategy
American businesses are facing a writing crisis that predates artificial intelligence but threatens to undermine its potential. Employees who can’t write…
The Strategic Linguist PodcastYour Brain’s Hidden Linguistic Radar: How We Detect Deception and Crave Authentic Communication
How your brain detects authentic vs. scripted speech and why it matters for professional communication"You know that feeling when someone starts talking and…