It’s the 01st of April, 2025, and I’m sitting at my desk, reading a script into a microphone. The weather outside is, well, uninspiring—a dull, grey sky stretches across the horizon, and a persistent drizzle taps against the window like a particularly passive-aggressive metronome. The campus is unusually quiet for a weekday, save for the distant hum of a lawnmower struggling against a sea of damp grass.

On my desk, scattered between half-empty mugs of coffee and an ambitious pile of academic papers, is today’s script. It’s a story about language, deception, and the ever-blurring lines between human and machine. But we’ll get to that soon enough.

For now, let’s begin. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Can you tell your real individual from your robot agent? In the ultimate game of Bot or Not, would you stake $26m of your own money on it? Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast.

This episode was supported by UKRI as part of the annual Festival of Social Science. Each year this Festival celebrates the amazing research and advancements of our best and brightest social scientists. Hundreds of events are running all over the country from the 19^th of October to the 09^th of November, and this year’s theme is “Our Digital Lives”.

Play the real Bot or Nots

• Audio Edition: can you your doting aunt from your digital agent?
• Text Edition: can you spot the scam, AI-generated hotel reviews?

Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write, well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five century old con? In the last episode of this slowburn mini-series, some big names in the field of Shakespeare attribution try their own hands at penning dramatic texts. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write, well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five century old con? Part 5 of this slowburn mini-series pitches the computational linguists against the forensic linguists in an effort to determine whether either side can work out who wrote Shakespeare. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write, well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five century old con? Part 4 of this slowburn mini-series looks at our last two possible contenders and weighs up the evidence. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write, well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five century old con? Part 3 of this slowburn mini-series looks at our first three possible alternatives and weighs up the evidence. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write, well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five century old con? Part 2 explores why we doubt Shakespeare and what happens if we kill him off. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: universal

Did Shakespeare really write…well, Shakespeare? Or is the Swan of Avon a five-century-old con? Part 1 of this slowburn mini-series looks at the question “Who wrote Shakespeare?” Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: Universal

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When you have codebreakers like Alan Turing to contend with, how do you come up with a code that even the smartest people alive can’t break? This episode tells the story of the Native American codetalkers, starting with the Choctaw codetalkers in WWI. en clair is a podcast about forensic linguistics, literary detection, and language mysteries from past to present. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →

CONTENT RATING: PG-13

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Can you make a person confess to a crime they haven’t committed? To a crime as serious as murder? What about a whole group of people? This episode tells the story of the disappearances of two men and the series of confessions spun out of thin air afterwards. en clair is a podcast about forensic linguistics, literary detection, and language mysteries from past to present. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast. Continue reading →