Episode 3 Shownotes: Can internet culture help us get academia out of the ivory tower?
Episode 3: Can internet culture help us get academia out of the ivory tower?
Recorded March 18, 2025, 9pm.
Music cred: DanAndPhilBEATS. Track: A Good Stretch
Welcome to episode three of the Apprentice Dialogues! In this episode, Ariel & Michelle take an in-depth look at Michelle’s independent research, which focuses on some of the overlooked pros of internet culture, the challenges researchers face translating academic knowledge to social media, why academic language can be so difficult to understand, and why people raised on the internet sometimes do a better job at public scholarship than professional researchers!
On the way, they chat about learning a language on the internet, YouTube video essays, and the mystical (?) encounter that pushed Michelle to study linguistics.
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A note on terminology: We say “SLA” a few times during the episode; this refers to second language acquisition, aka the field of research that looks at how people learn second (or third, or fourth languages). To learn more, stay tuned for episode 5 ;)
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Michelle: Dang, this season really is like a groundwork season, huh? In episode 1, we talk about ourselves kinda sorta, in episode 2, we spend a VERY long time talking about our thesis writing experience, and now I’m introducing MY research interests? The pilot season indeed.
Ariel: I really like that you’ve been so dogmatic about calling this The Pilot Season.
Michelle: Listen. I have a vision.
Ariel: I know, and I love it. I really didn’t have a vision past being pretty certain that episode 1 would most definitely be unrepresentative of the ultimate vibe of our podcast. But now that I’m looking at the whole season as it unfolds, it really is still unfolding and therefore the whole Pilot Season thing makes a lot of sense.
Michelle: Pilot Season, Season of Pilots…and any other manifestations. I’m glad you’re warming up to it after almost 7 months of us slowly working on this project haha.
It’s funny, I think episode 4 (coming out soon, folks!!) is the episode that feels most like an authentic Apprentice Dialogues episode so far.
Ariel: That’s interesting - for me that was this episode, episode 3.
Michelle: Do you know what I remember most about the recording of this episode? My laptop almost completely dying at the beginning of the recording process. It definitely left me feeling on edge during the recording, and with the episode being focused on my research, I was more flustered than I would have liked.
Ariel: I remember that - definitely not the best, and made for I’m sure a nerve-wracking first few minutes … but then we got right into the subject, which - do you want to explain a bit?
Michelle: Sure! In episode 1 I half-joked that my research is about research and also complained about the accidental tendency for research/academics to get “dumbed down” when it’s taken to a general audience — a big part of the Public Scholarship question, so to speak. Episode 3 is a very meta episode for me in this way because this really is my first time trying to present my research to a general audience, outside of like, explaining to my parents what I’m doing with my degree.
Season 1 of The Apprentice Dialogues is themed around public scholarship and creativity, and in alignment with that theme, we spend a good amount of time exploring digital culture and play as…say it with me… creative approaches to doing The Public Scholarship Thing (™).
Ariel: We are NOT trademarking that!
Michelle: Come on, it’d be so funny!
