Words Do Things

That’s not the only topic we discuss! Sørina gets her clearest answer yet about the relationship among consciousness, language, and mythology, and Janet solves the mystery of animal sentience! They dive into the history of Tolkien’s fame and what he’s done for the fantasy genre, and they close with a look at how The Lord of the Rings applies to their situation living in Minneapolis at the height of ICE activity and citizen response. Janet on Tolkien Gateway: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Janet_Brennan_Croft David on Tolkienists: https://tolkienists.org/david-l-emerson/ If you like my work, please support me by joining my Author’s Circle: https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina If you’re a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor: https://wyrdhoard.com/ If you want thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack: https://substack.com/@sorinahiggins

Please welcome my friend & hero, “the world’s least likely influencer”; poet, priest, rock-n-roller; the #1 best-selling poet in the world: Malcolm Guite! In his inimitable, inspiring fashion, the Rev. Dr. tells tales to delight the mind and the ear, praising the beauties of rhyme and meter, eschewing irony. He rhapsodizes about Tolkien’s prophetic power and genuine magic to speak worlds into being. As a special gift to listeners, he reads the entirety of his evocative--and invocational--poem “Spell.” Order Galahad and the Grail here—once they print more copies!  Follow Malcolm’s YouTube channel, “A Spell in the Library.”  Here’s his website. If you like my work, please support me by joining my Author’s Circle. If you’re a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor or Writing Coach. If you want thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack.  

Shawn Marchese & Alan Sisto talk Tolkien! The Prancing Pony Guys get back together for this delightful conversation about phonetic fitness, word nerdery, linguistic beauty, and personal delight in the Legendarium. What’s your favorite moment in the show? Please share! * Be sure to subscribe to The Prancing Pony Podcast if you don't already! https://theprancingponypodcast.com/  * Follow Prancing Pony Productions for all Alan's content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJvdkW6YasPhksZnPFfLZw.  * Subscribe to Shawn's substack: https://substack.com/@shawnemarchese.  * Buy a copy of Alan & Shawn's book, Why We Love Middle-earth, wherever fine books are sold (buy local! choose used!).  * If you like this work, please support it by joining  my Author's Circle https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina  * If you're a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor: https://wyrdhoard.com/ * If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack: https://substack.com/@sorinahiggins

Want to know a little more about what philology is, what Tolkien’s job was, and how languages work (both natural and constructed)? Then join these two professors for a long conversation asking things like: Which words are pretty? Why are they pretty? Does God think they’re pretty? Is English better than German? Is Welsh better than English? They get into the concept of “true names,” important discussions of war and peace, and lament the great decline. The conclusion is that Tolkien condemns coercion and petty tyrants—a topic applicable to our own times as to his. Carl Edlund Anderson’s faculty page Carl Edlund Anderson on Google scholar Carl Edlund Anderson on Academia.edu If you like this work, please support it by joining my Author’s Circle If you’re a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack    

Chad & Chad begin by reviewing several important language-related terms in Tolkien: “Elvish,” “Quenya,” “Sindarin,” “Westron,” “Tengwar,” and “Cirth.” They get into the question of why make up languages at all, then delve into the functions of words in Middle-earth, including the frame story and both primary- and secondary-world problems of translation. Tentatively, they touch on the nature of magic and the fabric of reality in Tolkien’s subcreated world, including the difficulties of ret-conning and the theological tangles Tolkien wrote himself into later on when trying to “scientificate” the legendarium. When talking about six principles from JRRT about how to talk to each other, they analyze the difference between Tolkien and George R.R. Martin and what makes someone fit for leadership. Both nerdy and relevant, this episode is a delicious Chad sandwich! Chad Bornholdt on Tolkienists.org Chad High on Tolkienists.org Chad Bornholdt’s Silmarillion Summaries Chad Bornholdt’s Silmarillion School Chad High on Tolkien Guide If you like my work, please support it by joining my Author’s Circle or giving a one-time gift. If you’re a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor. If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack.

Continuing the "Elvish English" series, Tom Hillman & Joe Hoffman take Sørina Higgins through how myth and language are co-causational, what Tolkien believed about the Logos and creation (and subcreation), and what makes languages beautiful. They share insights into how magic and art work in Middle-earth and whether Elvish poetry auto-translates (for more on that topic, see Tom's award-winning article "The Tides of Time"!). Maybe it be long before Sørina again finds herself between two such terrible old men! ;)  * Tom Hillman's piece that won the Tolkien Society Award for best article: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol22/iss1/5/ * If you like this work, please support it by joining my Author's Circle https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina * If you're a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor: https://wyrdhoard.com/ * If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack: https://substack.com/@sorinahiggins 

In the second episode in the "Elvish English" series, Sørina Higgins has the distinct honor of talking with Verlyn Flieger, one of the greats of Tolkien studies. They speculate why Tolkien loved certain sounds, how Dr. Flieger made her career on his works, and why they're her favorite books. They compare their experiences of reading Lord of the Rings for the first time and wonder whether Shakespeare or Tolkien offers more helpful insights for facing difficult times. 

Prof. Michael D. C. Drout explains that for J.R.R. Tolkien, words work on different levels: there is pleasure in sound patterns, but real power is in the way words act on people & how people act. Words are not magical. Drout talks about Saruman’s voice, lying, and how both left-wingers and right-wingers claim Tolkien is on their side: each revolts against domination. Fantasy cannot provide consolation for loss, but can give shape to grief and point to a world where there is comfort. * Prof. Drout’s faculty page * Prof. Drout on Tolkien Gateway * The Tower and the Ruin on Bookfinder (buy used! buy local!) * If you like this work, please support it by joining my Author’s Circle * If you’re a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor * If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack

Just some raw and random thoughts about how we don't have any plan for getting out of the mess we've gotten ourselves into.

Welcome to the final show—of this series. At last! Join me as I spend an hour (yeah, an hour; sorry!) looking back over what I’ve learned. Or maybe jump to 1:03 to hear what I think we should do about this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, okay? If you watch the whole thing, you'll hear me sing. And at the end, I talk about the new, upcoming series, all about J. R. R. #Tolkien! Thanks for going on this journey with me. * If you like this work, please support it by joining my Author's Circle https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina   * If you're a writer, hire me as your Consulting Editor: https://wyrdhoard.com/ * If you want more thoughts on politics, subscribe to my Substack: https://substack.com/@sorinahiggins Some other links to things mentioned in the episode:  "No Kings No Coherence" https://sorinahiggins.substack.com/p/no-kings-and-no-coherence The Enemies Project https://www.enemiesproject.org/ Language Jones https://www.youtube.com/@languagejones

Sørina reviews Owen Barfield's view of controversy as two separate publics with different definitions of words, then she compares defintions of terms from guests throughout the "Bad Words" series. She concludes that arguments in America today do not result from conflicting defitions, but from disagreements about what examples fit into categories. Sadly, she doesn't have a solution to offer.  Support this work: https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina Read Sørina's Substack: https://sorinahiggins.substack.com/ Hire Dr. Higgins as an editor: https://wyrdhoard.com/

In this final interview of the "Bad Words" series, Sørina Higgins interviews Larry Rosen, host of "The Enemies Project," about how to help people see that our enemies are just ourselves on the other side. Larry explains what makes people into activists and how everyone is motivated by a need for belonging. He distinguishes "platforming" from "discussion." They talk about power differentials, morality as a weapon of war, cooperation in an integrated society, and how to resist the enemy-makers. They explore what kind of language is more effective and for what ends. His advice is: Don't convince the other person; just understand them.

Dr. Taylor Jones of the popular YouTube channel  ⁨@languagejones⁩  joins Dr. Higgins to nerd out over pronouns, Black American English, and politeness in Persian. They sing the praises of the scientific method and critical thinking, then lament thought-terminating clichés. They talk about the social stigma attached to some accents, get passionate about immigration, and warn against gossip--yet they can't define what a language is, or a dialect, or even a word--but they do reflect upon Kabbalah, string theory, and whether the universe is fundamentally made up of music, so that's exciting!

I was honored to be on Theology in Pieces with two of my friends to talk about the Inklings, imagination, magic, and rhetoric. Visit https://www.theologyinpieces.com/2100783/episodes/18708410-72-magic-myths-and-imagination-as-tools-of-resistance-with-dr-sorina-higgins to get this section in context and follow the show!

Today Dr. Higgins enjoys a conversation with her first Orthodox guest, The Very Reverend Father Aaron Warwick. After defining and describing Orthodoxy, they share their love of awe-inspiring, embodied, sensory worship services. They unpack how honoring everyone's freedom of speech leads to greater understanding and why it's important to confront ideas with courage and grace. Fr. Aaron explains how the Bible describes a principled anarchy, but our fallen nature requires government restraints. What happens when we get a king (or any supreme human ruler)? They tax us, take away our children, make them fight our wars.... He recalls times people have been angry about political references in his sermons, but emphasizes that no political party is reliable or Christian. They discuss reading Scripture aloud, the challenges of marriage, and the horrors of the genocide in Gaza. 

This one's a bit fiery! In this solo episode, Dr. Higgins get a bit riled up as she reflects on the podcast as process, sharing emotional and conceptual difficulties with this series on Bad Words. She laments the decline in healthy pluralism, warns against "both sides" rhetoric, and goes on a rant against American pastors who are contributing to "us vs. them" attack language. She urges pastors to seek to fill their churches with whomever they think is the problem, then closes with some thoughts on why courteous discourse is effective and what we can do to fight against things we deplore. 

Dr. Higgins interviews Dr. Jim Beitler, Director of the Marion E Wade Center at Wheaton college, about the nature of rhetoric. Jim shares his expertise in transitional justice in South Africa’s truth and reconciliation process. They reflect on the role of storytelling in reconciliation and the power of confession, realizing that dehumanization does damage to the speaker, not only the recipient. They lament times when theological discourse gets co-opted by political discourse and talk about cultivating virtue (especially humility) while Writing. They share their experiences with Rogerian Discourse and try to separate wicked words from prophetic words. 

Sørina Higgins talks with Rev. Aaron Williams about his work as a Black Baptist preacher in a white Presbyterian church and the challenge of addressing political topics from the pulpit. Aaron gives a history of evangelicalism getting mixed up with politics and talks about justice as the public work of love. They lament the human tendency to reduce others by putting them into categories and agree we need to be good stewards of the words we speak because they carry power. Rev. Williams urges people to be a voice for those who were being mistreated, protest, and get into good trouble.

In this rerun from an episode of the 1619 & 1776 podcast that originally aired on October 17th, 2022, Dr. Sørina Higgins interviews Rev. Aaron Williams about gospel fluency, messy unity, and reconciliation across differences. 

Sørina Higgins and former Baylor colleague Jeremy Larson, both English PhDs, get their nerd on in this episode. They talk about definitions of rhetoric and the art of learning to read, write, and speak well. They talk about the natural neutrality of words that can be used for good or ill. Some chat about magic and miracle comes up, as do some surprising topics such as the Deplorable Word in Narnia, the Black Speech in Middle-earth, and the varying origins of orcs. While sometimes getting theological, they riff on Milton, Disney, Lewis, Tolkien, theatre, music, grammar, and more. Enjoy this pretty much politics-free episode!   

Dr. Higgins talks with two Episcopal priests about how politics always intrude upon church and how the Bible itself is political, since politics refers to how we live together in communities. They discuss how people's objections to political statements from the pulpit are often reactions to the words of Jesus Himself, Who is the Word of God to create reality. Topics such as disability, animal communication, queerness, pronoun usage, and the role of social media. 

Sørina and her sister Eve (a sociolinguist) talk about situations in which words can cause psychological or emotional harm, marginalize people with intellectual differences, or even contribute to attempted genocide. Drawing on her field work in Russia, Romania, and the Middle East, Prof. Droma provides an overview of linguistic work and encourages listeners to use the terms that people want them to use and that are currently operating as tools of communication. She speaks of the importance of forgiveness and acceptance as ways to ameliorate combative and hurtful rhetoric. 

Sørina's friend Michael Hitchcock, co-director of a radical nonprofit, shares his hatred of euphemistic language and explains how enforcing civil discourse can be unfair and oppressive. The two of them talk about propaganda and narrative-shaping in the hands of the powerful, and he defines important terms such as "intersectionality" and "genocide."

Dr. Higgins interviews Dr. Christian Dickinson, a former grad school colleague who holds controversial conservative views on gender, economics, and public discourse. He is concerned about nice-sounding terms that either do not conform to his view of reality or that disguise policies he thinks are harmful or impractical. Although he does not approve of ad hominum attacks, he's more worried by words that have the power to make people do bad things, that make something he doesn't approve of seem more palatable, that assert a reality or an identity he thinks is deceptive or unreal, or that attack or dismantle a reality or an identity that he thinks is true or correct. 

The Rev. Charis Weathers talks about kindness and love in the ways we address each other and shares how she and members of her church participate in political protests. She recounts how studies of Christ as the incarnation of the Divine Feminine helped confirm her calling, and she surveys the history of the word "queer."

For the first time on this podcast, Sørina reaches out beyond pastors and begins inviting guests who engage with public rhetoric in other ways besides the specifically theological. Today, she talks to Melissa Chaudhry, a community organizer, author, public speaker, former state congressional candidate, and wife of a disabled American veteran detained by ICE. They discuss truth vs. injustice, principle vs. corruption and how narratives enable systemic violence. Melissa urges local communities to share and transmit memories and warns about impending social collapse. They discuss tradition, faith, integrity, morality, and our power to help one another and nurture positive change. Whether advocating for immigrants or fighting fascism, Melissa decries dehumanizing and violent rhetoric but believes in bold, direct speech and action. Visit https://substack.com/@votemelissa4congress or https://linktr.ee/justice4zahid for more of the Chaudhry's story. 

In this solo episode, Dr. Sørina Higgins lays out her plans for the rest of this series and the next: starting in spring 2026, she'll offer a refreshing series about what J.R.R. Tolkien thought words could do. Then she talks about her biggest concerns regarding dehumanizing language, attack rhetoric, and aiming at each other as enemies. She shares her goals for this show: To persuade people to speak more respectfully and to consider their opponents more thoughtfully. Do you think we can learn to speak with more charity towards one another?  Can we even avert civil war?

Rev. Dr. Adam Tyler shares his thoughts with Sørina Higgins about his church’s community engagement, how to interact with political discourse now that we are more divided than ever, and the impact of language on relationships. They discuss dehumanizing language, what’s wrong with labeling others as enemies, and why it’s essential to seek shared values when talking about divisive issues. They talk about using words thoughtfully and respecting others. Adam talks about how he wants to encourage language that expresses love and builds up our common humanity.