Best Modern Methods Of Construction Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 270: Damien Crough & Martin Fenn on the huge opportunities available from Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) 59:55

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3d ago59:55

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Damien Crough from prefabAus, a recognised leader and advocate for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in Australia. As Co-founder and Executive Chairman of prefabAUS, Damien has been instrumental in positioning the organisation as the national peak body for offsite construction. Under his leadership, prefabAUS has grown from a grassroots initiati…

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Chandra Chiara Ehm, "Queens Without a Kingdom Worth Ruling: Buddhist Nuns and the Process of Change in Tibetan Monastic Communities" (Vajra Books, 2024) 1:05:34

8d ago1:05:34

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Queens without a Kingdom worth Ruling: Buddhist Nuns and the Process of Change in Tibetan Monastic Communities is a fascinating study of nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist nunnery of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling in Kathmandu. Written by Dr. Chandra Chiara Ehm, who was a member of this monastic community for nearly a decade, it offers a rare perspective on life i…

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Oksana Sarkisova and Olga Shevchenko "In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos" (MIT Press, 2023) 59:37

8d ago59:37

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In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos (MIT Press, 2023) is an absorbing exploration of Soviet-era family photographs that demonstrates the singular power of the photographic image to command attention, resist closure, and complicate the meaning of the past. A faded image of a family gathered at a festively served dinner table, rai…

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William Lempert, "Dreaming Down the Track: Awakenings in Aboriginal Cinema" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 1:06:11

9d ago1:06:11

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The product of years of embedded fieldwork within Indigenous film crews in Northwestern Australia, Dreaming Down the Track: Awakenings in Aboriginal Cinema (U Minnesota Press, 2025) delves deeply into Aboriginal cinema as a transformative community process. It follows the social lives of projects throughout their production cycles, from planning an…

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Episode 269: Hassell's Moonshot - Xavier De Kestelier, Principal, Hassell Studio, on designing on the moon 26:45

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“Technology is often seen as the answer, but I believe design is the real answer. Technology is there to enable and to empower.” Xavier De Kestelier is a global Head of Design and leader of Hassell’s design technology and innovation team, which sets strategy and advises on the tools and knowledge the international design firm needs to succeed. Both…

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Mukul Sharma, "Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 43:01

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Prof Mukul Sharma is a professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University. His formal training is in Political Science and has worked as a special correspondent with a leading news outlet in India and received 12 national and international awards for his environmental, rural and human rights journalism. additionally he has also been the Direct…

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Episode 268: City West Housing CEO Leonie King on affordable homes, funding, planning approvals and how to solve our housing crisis 40:32

17d ago40:32

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By Architecture & Design

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John Mathias, "Uncommon Cause: Living for Environmental Justice in Kerala" (U California Press, 2024) 54:27

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How can activists strike a balance between fighting for a cause and sustaining relationships with family, friends, and neighbors? In this episode John Mathias joins host Elena Sobrino to talk about Uncommon Cause: Living for Environmental Justice in Kerala (2024, University of California Press). Uncommon Cause follows environmental justice activist…

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Jürgen Schaflechner, "Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan" (Oxford UP, 2018) 1:26:58

20d ago1:26:58

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About two hundred kilometers west of the city of Karachi, in the desert of Baluchistan, Pakistan, sits the shrine of the Hindu Goddess Hinglaj. Despite the temple's ancient Hindu and Muslim history, an annual festival at Hinglaj has only been established within the last three decades, in part because of the construction of the Makran Coastal Highwa…

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Deepa Das Acevedo, "The War on Tenure" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 1:02:47

20d ago1:02:47

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As academia increasingly comes under attack in the United States, The War on Tenure (Cambridge UP, 2025) steps in to demystify what professors do and to explain the importance of tenure for their work. Deepa Das Acevedo takes readers on a backstage tour of tenure-stream academia to reveal hidden dynamics and obstacles. She challenges the common bel…

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Michael Rowe, "Researching Street-Level Bureaucracy: Bringing Out the Interpretive Dimensions" (Routledge, 2024) 40:09

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Researching Street-level Bureaucracy: Bringing Out the Interpretive Dimensions (Routledge, 2024) is the first among a number of new titles in the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods that we’ll be featuring on New Books in Interpretive Political and Social Science. In it, Mike Rowe discusses the continued relevance of the idea of street level b…

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30: Sustainable Build to Rent and the Future of Living in Australia 39:51

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In this episode, we sit down with Rory Hunter, a visionary entrepreneur and CEO with a track record of building award-winning, sustainable property companies. Rory reflects on his journey, from his early career and the creation of Song Saa Private Island, to his latest venture, Model - a purpose-first Build to Rent (BTR) development group redefinin…

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Georgios Tsourous, "Orthodox Choreographies: Boundaries, Borders and Materiality in Jerusalem's Old City" (Gorgias Press, 2024) 1:04:05

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Orthodox Choreographies: Boundaries, Borders and Materiality in Jerusalem's Old City (Gorgias Press, 2024) offers a comprehensive anthropological study of lived Christianity in Jerusalem’s Old City, with a special focus on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Anastasis. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, the study explores t…

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Episode 267: Think Brick CEO Cathy Inglis & Architect Tone Wheeler on achieving greater urban density without compromising liveability while using low-carbon materials 48:07

24d ago48:07

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Cathy Inglis AM is Group CEO for Think Brick, Concrete Masonry Association & Roofing Tile Associations Australia and is an experienced Materials Engineer and technical expert with nearly 30 years in the building industry with a focus on research, product development and product compliance. Cathy has worked in key leadership roles in management and …

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Gina Vale, "The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State" (Oxford UP, 2024) 56:55

24d ago56:55

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The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Gina Vale explores the governance of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization through the lives and words of local Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish women. While the roles and activities of foreign (predominantly Western), pro-IS women have garnered significant attentio…

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Kolby Hanson, "Ordinary Rebels: Rank-And-File Militants Between War and Peace" (Oxford UP, 2025) 42:26

25d ago42:26

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In Ordinary Rebels: Rank-And-File Militants Between War and Peace (Oxford University Press, 2025), Kolby Hanson argues that these periods of state toleration do not simply change armed groups' behavior, but fundamentally transform the organizations themselves by shaping who takes up arms and which leaders they follow. This book draws on a set of in…

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Laurian R. Bowles, "Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness, and Modernity in Accra" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) 1:03:02

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Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness, and Modernity in Accra (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) explores the experiences of women porters, called kayayei, in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork, anthropologist Laurian R. Bowles shows how kayayei navigate precarity, bringing into sharp relief how racialization, rooted in histories of colonialis…

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Episode 266: HDR's Alison Potter & Simon Fleet talk about Opacity, their annual global design review, collaborative design and data centres 20:51

1M ago20:51

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Opacity is HDR’s annual global design review, bringing together diverse voices from across the design community to critically examine our best built and unbuilt work. It provides a platform for rigorous dialogue, sharpening our design conscience and pushing creative boundaries. In this episode, HDR's Melbourne Design Principal Alison Potter as well…

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Xiang Biao and Wu Qi, "Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) 1:39:40

1M ago1:39:40

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Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Xiang Biao on his new book, Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World, which was originally written and published in Chinese. The English translation has just come out with Palgrave Macmillan. Self as Method provides a manifesto of intellectual activism that counsels China’s young people t…

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29: Building Better Cities Through Design and Innovation 47:31

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In this episode, we sit down with Julian Anderson, Director at Bates Smart, to explore how design and innovation are shaping the future of Australia’s built environment. From reimagining Richmond Station as a gateway to Melbourne’s sports and entertainment precinct, through to activating underused rail land with mixed-use, transit-adjacent developm…

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Episode 265: Samantha Peart, Hassell’s Global Head of Sustainability & Prue Pascoe, Associate Interior Designer at Hassell on Closing the Loop 45:35

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Samantha Peart has worked across 20 different countries, involving sustainability strategies and multidisciplinary project delivery for commercial and residential buildings, healthcare facilities, retail developments, university campuses, large-scale infrastructure projects and organisations. In her role as Hassell’s Global Head of Sustainability, …

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Nidhi Mahajan, "Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean" (U of California Press, 2025) 1:04:03

1M ago1:04:03

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Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean (U of California Press, 2025) follows sailors from the Gulf of Kachchh in India as they voyage across the Indian Ocean on mechanized wooden sailing vessels known as vahans, or dhows. These voyages produce capital through moorings that are spatial, moral, material, and conceptual. With a view from…

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Susan M. Rigdon, "Oscar Lewis in Cuba: La Partida Final" (Berghahn Books, 2024) 1:07:48

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American anthropologist Oscar Lewis secured permission from Fidel Castro to undertake three years of field research on cultural and economic change in Cuba in the decade after the victory of Castro's M-26 Movement. Oscar Lewis in Cuba: La Partida Final (Berghahn Books, 2024) delves into Lewis' research goals, methods, the training and composition o…

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Chelsi West Ohueri, "Encountering Race in Albania: An Ethnography of the Communist Afterlife" (Cornell UP, 2025) 51:10

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Encountering Race in Albania: An Ethnography of the Communist Afterlife (Cornell University Press, 2025) is the first book to interrogate race and racial logics in Albania. Chelsi West Ohueri examines how race is made, remade, produced, and reproduced through constructions of whiteness, blackness, and otherness. She argues that while race is often …

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Darcie Deangelo et al., "Demilitarizing the Future" (Anthem Press, 2025) 50:25

1M ago50:25

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Demilitarizing the Future (Anthem Press, 2025) draws from art, anthropology, and activism to investigate the entrenchment of militarism in everyday lives and consider novel imaginaries of its dissolution--of peacemaking, community, and shared equitable futures. This book will be published in October of 2025. In this episode, Rebecca Kastleman, Darc…

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Jovana Diković, "The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia" (UCL Press, 2025) 55:05

1M ago55:05

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What if rural progress isn’t about government intervention but about the self-reliance and ingenuity of peasants themselves? The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia (UCL Press, 2025) subverts conventional wisdom on rural development by shifting the focus from state-led planning to the agency of peasants themselves. Rej…

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AI Edge Revolution: How Data Centres are Reshaping for AI Service Serving a Vertical Need | Emmanuel Becker 37:36

1M ago37:36

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The data centre industry is experiencing unprecedented disruption. As AI applications drive explosive demand for computing power, traditional approaches to data centre design and deployment are becoming obsolete almost overnight. In this episode, Emmanuel Becker, CEO of Mediterra Datacenters, shares insights from his extensive career spanning the e…

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Cold Rush 27:45

1M ago27:45

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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Ingrid Piller speaks with Sari Pietikainen about her new book Cold Rush (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). This book is an original study of “Cold Rush,” an accelerated race for the extraction and protection of Arctic natural resources. The Northernmost reach of the planet is caught up in the double dev…

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Episode 264: Metricon National Design Director Adrian Popple on why houses are not designed like cars 29:03

1M ago29:03

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Adrian Popple has over 35 years’ experience in residential design and under his guidance seen Metricon countless times recognised and awarded by Australia's peak building bodies for its innovative and industry leading designs. Joining Metricon in 1987, Adrian Popple swiftly ascended the ranks navigating diverse roles-from drafting cadet to design a…

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Ruth E. Toulson, "Necropolitics of the Ordinary: Death and Grieving in Contemporary Singapore" (U Washington Press, 2024) 58:30

2M ago58:30

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Can a state make its people forget the dead? Cemeteries have become sites of acute political contestation in the city-state of Singapore. Confronted with high population density and rapid economic growth, the government has ordered the destruction of all but one burial ground, forcing people to exhume their family members. In Necropolitics of the O…

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Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, "Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East" (UP of Colorado, 2025) 58:49

2M ago58:49

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Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East (University Press of Colorado, 2025) by Dr. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni offers an in-depth exploration of the Urartian empire, which occupied the highlands of present-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran in the early first millennium BCE. Lesser known than its rival, the Neo-Assyrian empire, …

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Climate Resilience in UK Housing: Preventing Overheating in Net Zero Homes | The Bryden Wood Podcast 49:12

2M ago49:12

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The UK's push toward net zero has dramatically improved building insulation and airtightness. But there's an unintended consequence that could prove dangerous: overheating. As climate change brings more extreme heat to Britain, these highly insulated homes risk becoming dangerously hot without adequate cooling strategies. In this episode, co-founde…

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28: Retail’s Next Chapter - Yields, Rents & Redevelopment 41:12

2M ago41:12

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In this episode, we’re diving deep into the performance and future of Australia’s retail property market with CBRE’s Kate Bailey. From neighbourhood centres to large-format retail, we explore how different retail asset types are faring across the country, uncover key differences between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and discuss the trends shaping…

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Episode 263: Phillip Rossington and Richard Francis-Jones on the the design philosophy, challenges, and vision that shaped Sydney House 34:55

2M ago34:55

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This is the story of Sydney House, a transformative mixed-use development that redefines luxury living while honouring over 130 years of built legacy. Rising above the historic facades of the former City Tattersalls Club, this elegant composition is more than just a building—it’s a conversation between past and present. From the scalloped rhythms o…

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Maan Barua, "Plantation Worlds" (Duke UP, 2024) 58:49

2M ago58:49

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In Plantation Worlds (Duke UP, 2024), Maan Barua interrogates debates on planetary transformations through the histories and ecologies of plantations. Drawing on long-term research spanning fifteen years, Barua presents a unique ethnography attentive to the lives of both people and elephants amid tea plantations in the Indian state of Assam. In the…

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Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football 58:04

2M ago58:04

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Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college footba…

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Vanessa Diaz, "Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood" (Duke UP, 2020) 50:01

2M ago50:01

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While Hollywood’s images present a veneer of fantasy for some, the work to create such images is far from escapism. In Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood (Duke University Press, 2020), anthropologist Vanessa Díaz examines the raced and gendered hierarchies and inequalities that are imbricated within the work …

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Episode 262: Designing for Hope with Design Psychologist Kylie Sandland 33:44

2M ago33:44

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In this episode of Talking Architecture & Design, we speak with Kylie Sandland, Design Psychologist and Co-Founder of Design for Hope, a social enterprise creating trauma-informed spaces for recovery and well-being. With three decades of experience in psychology and organisational consulting, Sandland brings a unique, evidence-based approach to the…

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Bettina Ng′weno, "No Place Like Home in a New City: Anti-Urbanism and Life in Nairobi" (U of California Press, 2025) 53:28

2M ago53:28

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Bettina Ng’weno is Professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis Nairobi, known as the Green City in the Sun, has taken shape through anti-urban ideologies that insist that the city cannot be home for most residents. Based on decades of experience in rapidly changing Nairobi, No Place Like Home in a New Ci…

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27: Private Credit - The New Frontier in Property Finance 49:28

2M ago49:28

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In this episode, we dive into the world of private credit, what it is, how it has emerged as an alternative funding source and why it’s becoming an increasingly important part of Australia’s capital stack. We explore where private credit fits in alongside traditional lending, the types of returns it offers and which asset classes are most attractiv…

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Erased Voices and Unspoken Heritage 41:01

2M ago41:01

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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Alexandra Grey speaks with Dr Zozan Balci about Zozan’s new book, Erased Voices and Unspoken Heritage: Language, Identity and Belonging in the Lives of Cultural In-betweeners, published in 2025 by Routledge.. The conversation focuses on a study of adults with three languages ‘at play’ in their…