Linguistics Careercast

“Networking is work, but it’s fun work – you get to talk to smart, fun people”

Abby Bajuniemi is a linguist with 10+ years of experience leading UX research and content initiatives across multiple industries, working for organizations such as Google, Calendly, Medtronic, Princeton University, and the non-profit New_Public. She is a contributing writer on the intersection of UX and linguistics for Code Like a Girl, and has published a number of articles at Medium. She is a self-professed word nerd and loves the oxford comma.

Abby Bajuniemi on LinkedIn

Abby Bajuniemi’s website

Abby Bajuniemi on Medium

Code Like a Girl

Topics include:

– UX research

If you’d like to support this show, we’ve got a Patreon!

The post Episode #84: Abby Bajuniemi first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

“I thought: I don’t know which way to go. Wow – what a wonderful place to be!”

Shannon DeJong is a linguist, namer, brand agency founder, writer, performer, artist, business advisor and coach; she’s worked big firms like HP, Google, Adobe, and Logitech as well as with non-profits, mission-driven orgs, startups, entrepreneurs and artists. She double-majored in linguistics and mass communications at UC Berkeley. In addition to her branding work, she also co-produces a literary salon in Sonoma County, California, and occasionally hosts a podcast.

Shannon deJong on LinkedIn

Shannon deJong’s website

Da Salon

ArtistCEO podcast

Topics include:

– naming

If you’d like to support this show, we’ve got a Patreon!

The post Episode #83: Shannon DeJong first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

“There’s so much you can learn from linguistics when you apply it to the business of naming”

Deborah Ball has been working in naming, branding, content creation, marketing, and communications for more than 10 years in the UK and the US. Her special focus has been brand naming. She has a Master’s in Linguistics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Durham University Business School. Over the years, she has immersed herself in the study of naming, including the grammar of brand names, to understand how meaning is more fully shaped when phonetic forms are placed in context.

Deborah Ball on LinkedIn

“Exploring the landscape of proper names and their grammatical characteristics to understand how brand names fit in” ANS Presentation on YouTube

NAMES, the journal of the American Name Society

Topics include:

– naming

If you’d like to support this show, we’ve got a Patreon!

The post Episode #82: Deborah Ball first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

“We take so much of communication for granted – until we can’t communicate”

Emelia BensonMeyer is a speech-language pathologist specializing in evaluation and treatment of voice, airway, and swallowing disorders. She has an undergraduate degree in linguistics and a Master’s in Communicative Sciences and Disorders. Her background in linguistics has equipped her to critically consider and be mindful of the disparities in the profession of speech-language pathology as they apply to the culturally and linguistically diverse populations who are served.

Emelia BensonMeyer on LinkedIn

ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)

Topics include:

– speech pathology

If you’d like to support this show, we’ve got a Patreon!

The post Episode #81: Emelia BensonMeyer first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

“I created Minority Languaging as a place to communicate, to share, and to debate”

Eukene Franco-Landa is sociolinguist with a Ph.D. from the University of Miami who works at the intersection of language, identity, and legitimacy, especially in minoritized and bilingual communities, especially Basque, of which she is a speaker. Her dissertation explores how linguistic features become tied to perceptions of authenticity and nativeness. She is the founder of Minority Languaging, an Instagram-based platform that connects linguistic minorities so they can reflect and learn about minority languages, cultures, and history.

Eukene Franco-Landa on LinkedIn

Minority Languaging on Instagram

Minority Languaging website

Topics include:

– Basque

The post Episode #80: Eukene Franco-Landa first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held online via the Linguistic Society of America, on August 16, 2025. This is part two of our conversation on GenAI and linguistics, this time focusing on Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, Ph.D.’s recent book “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.” I am joined again by our amazing panel of linguists to talk about the problems of anthropomorphizing AI, how AI magnifies inequalities affecting minoritized people, and what linguists can do to push back against the constant AI hype.

Panelists:

Part 1 of the discussion is here

Topics include

If you’d like to support this show, we’ve got a Patreon!

The post Episode #79: The AI Con Discussion Panel (Live) first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “User Experience Research for Linguists”. The moderator is Darrell Penta, and the two panelists are Josh Martin and Midam Kim. In this session, the panelists explore their journeys into UX research and what prepared them for the kind of work they do now. They share insights into the variety of UX careers, relevant experience in academia, and how to approach your job search.

Darrell Penta on LinkedIn

YouTube video of this panel

Topics discussed include:

The post Episode #78: User Experience Research for Linguists (LCL Audio) first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

“Don’t be afraid to reach for the job you want”

Erin Kuester has a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Ohio University, and is a copywriter and content creator for service businesses, as well as a writing mentor and editor. She is also an experienced instructional designer. She is very active on Instagram and Tiktok, and at her own website.

Erin Kuester on LinkedIn

Topics include:

– instructional design

The post Episode #77: Erin Kuester first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Societal Impacts and the Ethical Use of AI”. The moderator is Aubrie Amstutz, and the two panelists are Patricia McDonough and Alfonso Sánchez-Moya. In this session the panelists reflect on the ethical impacts of AI and how qualitative researchers and linguists alike can address these issues in tech industries. We explore and recognize how linguistics is an integral component of the human evaluation of AI.

Aubrie Amstutz on LinkedIn

YouTube video of this panel

Resources doc mentioned in this panel (readings, orgs, people)

Topics discussed include:

The post Episode #76: Societal Impacts and the Ethical Use of AI (LCL Audio) first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

Live Linguistics Careercast coming your way on August 16! Join us for part two of our conversation on GenAI and linguistics, this time focusing on Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, Ph.D.’s recent book “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.” And we’ll follow the taping with a networking event in Gather!

Host Laurel Sutton will be joined again by Alicia Beckford Wassink, Katie Swindler, and Aubrie Amstutz to continue the conversation from our live episode at LingFest25, which we released as a podcast on April 22, 2025.

The 90 minute panel will take place in Zoom and will include a Q&A portion. After the panel, we’ll move to Gather for an hour of networking. We invite attendees to mix and mingle, and to have space to process the great conversation.

PANEL DISCUSSION/LIVE PODCAST: 10:00 – 11:30 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Tickets are $5 for LSA members, and $7 for the general public. Registration can be found on Linguistic Society of America (LSA)’s website:

https://www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_day.asp?date=8/16/2025&eventid=106&mc_cid=d47d2d569b

Big thanks to LSA for sponsoring this event!

Haven’t read the book yet? Pick up a copy or stop by your local bookstore!

The post Live Linguistics Careeercast August 16 2025 – The AI Con Discussion first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.