I got the chance to participate in a thing with the LSA on 22 August 2019. Imagine this stellar cast of characters:

• Anne Curzan (University of Michigan), Co-Host, That’s What They Say (Michigan Radio)
• Michelle McSweeney, Host of Subtext
• Geoff Nunberg (University of California, Berkeley), Commentator, Fresh Air (National Public Radio)

and the moderator:

• John McWhorter (Columbia University), Chair, LSA Public Relations Committee; Presenter, Lexicon Valley

And then — what do you know — me. In my recording pantry.

So much great advice for aspiring media folks.

One question remains, though: how do we pay people to do the work of explaining language to the public? Did you notice the complete silence after that question dropped? I decided to let that question hang for a bit, because I wanted to see what the others would say. Alas, their answer was: get tenure, and then you can do what you want. That’s a good one — Australian universities don’t have tenure. But that’s been the traditional model. In other words, do it as a side gig. There’s no provision to make it your main gig, because that hasn’t been the way. But what if you want it to be your main gig? Why shouldn’t linguistics have a massive media production machine behind it, the way (say) Crooked Media has done for American politics? Arguably, having a machine like that would be great for linguistics. How does it get paid for?

We need to fix the way public linguistics gets paid for. Watch for a post about that soon. In the meantime, thanks to the LSA and to John and the panellists for a great session. I learned heaps. Hope you did too.