Case S02E07 – Slowburn Shakespeare, part 5 of 6 – The Wings Wherewith We Fly

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

Case S02E02 – Codetalkers

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

Case S02E01 – The Iceland Confessions

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

Voice only episodes

A quick update: whilst some (many?!) of you like the dramatic music and, well, ambience (which I actually use to disguise lots of terrible audio-engineering hacks) I know that some listeners find the non-voice audio tracks really distracting. I have therefore uploaded the whole of Season 01 again in a Voice Only format, which I will never be able to bring myself to listen to.

Apologies to anyone who saw episodes ping up on their phones and thought new stuff had landed. It’s just the same old stuff, but in a supremely minimalist format.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!

Case S01E15 – Enigma, part 3 of 3

CONTENT RATING: PG-13 (themes: war, death)

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Enigma was one of the most advanced mechanical ciphers of its time. In this final episode, as war consumes Europe, Alan Turing and Bletchley Park take on the ultimate version of the Enigma mechanical cipher – the naval Triton M4. Below you will find data, audio credits, further reading, and a transcript of the podcast.

Did you like this podcast miniseries? Would you have changed anything? Want something different? More of the same? This Festival of Social Science event was supported by the ESRC and they’d love to know your views on it, so if you have a moment, please fill in this quick survey to let them know your thoughts. Continue reading