My guest for this episode is the fantastic Sam Kirkham!

Sam Kirkham is senior lecturer in the Phonetics Lab, Department of Linguistics and English Language and Data Science Institute at Lancaster University. He is also associate editor at Journal of Phonetics.

His research investigates the dynamics of spoken language, such as how people coordinate movements of the tongue, lips and larynx to produce speech. Sam does experiments that monitor vocal tract movements using sensors and imaging technology, and build computational models of the cognitive and physical mechanisms that underpin spoken language.

He is currently working on the following projects:

• Interpretable acoustic-articulatory relations in speech production (Royal Society, 2025-27)
• Modelling the dynamics of phonetic variation & phonological change (AHRC fellowship, 2024-25)
• TARDIS: Targets and dynamics in speech (AHRC, 2019-23)

You can read more of his extensive work here.

Thank you so much, Sam!

My guest for this episode is the spectacular Erez Levon!

Erez is Professor of Sociolinguistics, at the University of Bern. His work focuses on how people produce and perceive socially meaningful patterns of variation in language. He is particularly interested in how variation signals group membership and in the relationship between language and broader structures of social inequality.

Join us in a compelling conversation about social identity, class, gender, sexuality, and national belonging in various countries and linguistic communities.

You can read his numerous and very interesting publications here.

Thank you so much and what an honour, Erez!

My guest for this episode is Matthew Hadodo!

Matthew is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Salzburg. His work encompasses variationist and discursive approaches to how people use language in relation to how they view themselves and others. He has mostly been focusing on the endangered Istanbul Greek dialect, and balances ethnographic fieldwork with sociophonetic approaches to studying language contact and change.

We discuss all of this, his family and their languages, being a heritage speaker and so much more. You will also hear the occasional sprinkle of Greek words between us!

If you would like to read more about his work, here is the book he has co-authored with Petros Karatsareas and Elena Ioannidou:

• Greek in Minoritized Contexts: Identities, Authenticities, and Institutions by Routledge

Follow Matthew on Academia and on ResearchGate to read more of his articles and work.