This is a podcast, and that was an assertion. Joseph spent a year exploring the nature of assertions like this in his thesis (which was mostly written after midnight, apparently).

This is also the last interview conducted by last year's student producer, Amelie. Thank you Amelie for all the work you did for the podcast, and for helping us get to where we are.

Reed community members can read Joseph's thesis, “Asserting as Committing,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:

https://rdc.reed.edu/i/9e17a67d-63a5-4b51-b128-a357ecc8ff9f