Currency: Howard Shepherd and Dave Shepherd cash in on the latest news and trends as they talk about currency–in money and in speech.
Investing something (language or money) with value; potency and context (2:10)
Profanity and language in different cultural contexts; a citation from John Ciardi, the Charles Hodgson of the 1980s (8:30)
Music bumper from “Topsy” by The Jay Lawrence Trio (10:39)
Reputation as value: political capital, economic perception, relative value (13:05)
Song: “Gimme the Money” by Harper (21:50)
Rude Word of the Week: “piss-poor” (26:19)
Music bumper from “Just Looking” by The Jerrys. (28:41)
What creates value? Tangible vs. intangible exchanges (29:26)
Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and the Ioda Promonet
Theme music by Kick the Cat
time: 39:59
size: 36.6 Mb
rating: PG-13 (We discuss some taboo insults from non-English languages.)
Jay Lawrence Trio
“Topsy” (mp3)
from “Thermal Strut”
(OA2 Records)
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Harper
“Gimme The Money” (mp3)
from “Down To The Rhythm”
(Blind Pig Records)
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Thank you for this gift!
This is probably your most semiotic episode to date. Made me think of Saussure’s ideas about the conventional nature of links between linguistic signs and their objects in relation to the conventional (”symbolic”) nature of monetary currency in Marxian analysis.
Also, thanks for the reference to “political capital.” Seems to me that “capital” has been used more frequently in this sense, over the last little while, and “social capital” seems closer to Putnam than to Bourdieu. Given the way US discourse tends to work, it’s quite likely that Bush gave this meaning of “capital” renewed currency.
I also enjoyed the fact that you went in diverse directions. When I saw the title, I did think about the two main meanings of the term and I wasn’t sure what would be the topic for this episode. You then brought me to think about currency in financial terms and I thought you might spend most of your time talking about different words for currency. But you went in diverse directions during the show, making its structure resemble literary styles which aren’t that prominent among Anglos. In a way, you “disobeyed” some of Grice’s maxims and it made the show even more enjoyable. Playful, poetic, deep, thought-provoking.
Thanks again!
I’m reminded that Lake Superior State University has issued a list of “banned” words over the years, noting that some words or phrases get overused by zealous speakers and need to be yanked from current usage. The latest crop, identified by LSSU’s Unicorn Hunters, can be found here:
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
ALexandre–Thanks for a very erudite response to our latest episode. I have to admit that several of your references had me doing some serious Googling. Glad you found the episode thought-provoking; thanks for returning the favor.
Alan–I just read the LSSU “banned” list yesterday online, and I was disappointed that they left off my pet peeve of 2008: the expression “going forward.” Next to the now ubiquitous practice of beginning sentences with “So,” the overuse of “going forward” (almost always pronounced “going fuhward”) has been been sticking in my consciousness like a burr (or a bad Barry Manilow song). Thanks for the link.
Howard S.
This show was very interesting. Besides it was really useful because I learned a lot of new more words and expressions. By listening to these kinds of shows the learning process of the target language becomes more interesting. Besides it’s a lot of fun.
I am Jonny Algaranaz. I am a 32 year-old non-native English teacher from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I live in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the largest city in the country. My mother tongue is Spanish. I’ve been teaching English for four years mostly to adults and young adults.
I like listening to your podcasts because in every show I learn something new that I can learn and share it with my students as well.
See you
Jonny