In this final episode of the 2020-21 academic year, "Speaking Well" host Greg Dickinson talks about the origins of the "Speaking Well" project, his reflections on surviving with the massive upheaval COVID-19 cast on all our lives, getting comfortable with uncertainty and how rhetoric offers a framework for a way forward.

Serious topics are usually presented in serious mediums, but comedy can be a powerful influencing force. Comedy and satirical media are increasingly popular, especially in politics for young people. Marx challenges the idea that comedy is mainly used by liberal figures and suggests that conservative figures are using comedy talk shows and similar mediums to present their agenda and attack their adversaries. Why are right-wing news outlets adding political entertainment shows? Listen in for the answer and other insights about comedy's role in our society.

In this episode of "Speaking Well," host Greg Dickinson sits down with Elizabeth Williams to chat about life as essential employees and what we can do to keep going during this pandemic.

Communication studies professor Eric Aoki has explored the notion of community through ethnographic research in the small town of Biola, California, located in the heart of the Central Valley. He talks with "Speaking Well" host Greg Dickinson about the ways in which communication defines community, the forces that reshape our understanding of it and approaches to exploring difference that are not grounded in binary ways of thinking.