sign(e)s

Signs is a podcast that explores one sign per episode, selected by each guest. Guests come from semiotics, linguistics, and beyond, and choose a sign, any sign: visual or auditory; icon, symbol, index, gesture, inscription, object, or sound. Host Sophia Burnett guides each conversation through how the sign operates, the contexts in which it appears, and the meanings it produces or unsettles. Episodes are recorded in French or English, with transcripts and translations available on the website: www.signspodcast.com

sign(e)s is a society podcast hosted by Sophia Burnett, with 10 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Sophia Burnett hosts sign(e)s, a society show with 10 episodes published.

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  Episode #10

  Scare Quotes by Johannes Angermuller

  Sep 21, 202625 minS1

  Sophia welcomes linguist Johannes Angermuller to talk about scare quotes . Sometimes termed air quotes or even sneer quotes , Merriam-Webster defines scare quotes as “quotation marks used to express especially skepticism or derision concerning the use of the enclosed word or phrase.” A deceptively simple but politically potent discursive tool, scare quotes can distance speakers and writers from the words they use, question their legitimacy, or subtly signal irony, doubt and disapproval. Sophia and Johannes discuss how scare quotes operate across political, academic and everyday discourse — and what those tiny inverted commas can reveal about stance, ideology and power. Recorded in May 2026 and released only now, following Sophia’s move to China to take up a new academic position, this episode brings Season One to a close .

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  Episode #9

  Myth by Santiago Guillén Rozo

  May 26, 202643 minS1

  <p>In this episode of Sign(e)s, Sophia speaks with semiotician and linguist Santiago Guillén Rozo about his ambitious new book Sémiotique du mythe — a ten-year research project tracing theories of myth from Ferdinand de Saussure and Claude Lévi-Strauss to Roland Barthes, Ernst Cassirer, Bruno Latour, and beyond.The conversation moves from Barthes’ Mythologies and contemporary media discourse to ecological narratives such as Gaia theory, political symbolism, AI anxiety, transhumanism, and science fiction as the mythology of technological modernity. A rich discussion on semiotics and the enduring human need to narrate the abyss.</p>

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  sign(e)s

  Greenham Common Webs by Anna Feigenbaum

  Apr 15, 202647 minS0

  <p>For this eighth episode, Sign(e)s explores the history, symbolism, and activism of Greenham Common, a pivotal feminist and anti-nuclear protest camp in the UK, with Anna Feigenbaum.</p><p></p>

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  Episode #7

  i par Sophia Burnett

  Mar 25, 20261h 1mS1

  <p>Le i minuscule en anglais : faute ou ressource ?<br />Dans cet épisode de Signes, les rôles s’inversent : Sophia Burnett est invitée par Nicolas Pommier pour parler du i minuscule dans les écrits numériques. Loin d’une faute, il apparaît non comme un remplacement du I standard, mais comme une <b>forme supplémentaire</b>, créant un contraste signifiant au sein du système. Une exploration à l’interface de la pragmatique, de la sociolinguistique et de la grapholinguistique.</p>

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  Episode #6

  Kaleidoscopic Eye by Brendan Graham Dempsey

  Mar 2, 202653 minS1

  <p>In this episode of Sign(e)s, Sophia Burnett talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about the “kaleidoscopic eye”—a mandala-like symbol of nested vision, spirals, and fractal consciousness. Drawing on his work in complexity, theology, spirituality, and systems thinking, Brendan unpacks the symbol’s deep structure: from Dante’s celestial architecture to contemporary visionary and AI art. He shows how this recurring motif encodes an evolutionary movement toward integration and the divine center, while also acknowledging its inverted, darker expressions.</p>

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