Bad Ideas about AI and Writing

About Bad Ideas about AI and Writing

This is Bad Ideas about AI and Writing, the podcast that responds to myths about how GenAI is changing the teaching and practice of writing. It's the audio version of the open access book Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, which was published in 2026 by the WAC Clearinghouse. That book features 48 chapters by scholars of writing and rhetoric, written in accessible language for university students, faculty, and administrators—or anyone interested in building a more nuanced understanding of writing.

Publisher

Kyle Stedman

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jul 2026

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

10 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   7: AI Use is a Natural Skillset, by Lisa Bell & Joni K. Hayward Marcum

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “AI Use is a Natural Skillset” by Lisa Bell from Utah Valley University and Joni K. Hayward Marcum from James Madison University. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter7.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter7.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "AI is a Learned Literacy." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   6: AI Can “Do It All!” by Charles N. Lesh

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “AI Can 'Do It All!'” by Charles N. Lesh from Auburn University. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter6.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter6.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "We Have Work to Do, Together." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

3. 

   28 Sept 2026

   5: AI is Completely Unlike Any Other Writing Software, by Matthew D. Bryan

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “AI is Completely Unlike Any Other Writing Software ” by Matthew D. Bryan from the University of Central Florida. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter5.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter5.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "AI Is Strange and Rhetorical Just Like Other Writing Software." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

4. 

   21 Sept 2026

   4: AI Is Revolutionary, by Tyler Easterbrook

   Tyler Easterbrook from the University of Idaho reads the bad idea “AI Is Revolutionary." It's a chapter he wrote that was first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter4.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter4.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "AI Is Conventional." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

5. 

   14 Sept 2026

   3: Generative AI Tools Are Color-Blind, by Aamir Zulfiqar & Sue Hum

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “Generative AI Tools Are Color-Blind” by Aamir Zulfiqar & Sue Hum from The University of Texas at San Antonio. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter3.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter3.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "Counterstorytelling Can Help Generative AI Tools Address Their Embedded Cultural Biases." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

6. 

   7 Sept 2026

   2: AI Knows Everything, by Shyam Sharma

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “AI Knows Everything” by Shyam Sharma from Stony Brook University. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter2.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter2.pdf). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "AI Can Perpetuate Ignorance, Prejudices, and Epistemic-Rhetorical Harms Globally." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

7. 

   31 Aug 2026

   1: Generative AI Will Make Knowledge Work Easier, More Productive, and Faster, by Paul Cook

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the bad idea “Generative AI Will Make Knowledge Work Easier, More Productive, and Faster” by Paul Cook from Indiana University Kokomo. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter1.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/chapter1.pdf) (PDF). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the beginning of the chapter’s title; the point the author wants to actually make is stated in its subtitle: "Critically Examine Generative AI from Economic and Cultural Frameworks." The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

8. 

   24 Aug 2026

   Introduction: From Faulty Ideas to Productive Practices: Writing and Learning in the Age of AI, by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads "Introduction: From Faulty Ideas to Productive Practices: Writing and Learning in the Age of AI" by Christopher Basgier (Auburn University), Anna Mills (College of Marin), Mandy Olejnik (Miami University), Miranda Rodak (Indiana University, Bloomingston), & Shyam Sharma (Stony Brook University). It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/intro.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/intro.pdf) (PDF). The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

9. 

   17 Aug 2026

   Preface, by Drew M. Loewe

   Kyle Stedman (@kstedman.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/kstedman.bsky.social)) from Rockford University reads the Preface by Drew M. Loewe from St. Edward's University. It's a chapter first published in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, a 2026 open-access book edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. Find the full text of this chapter, with all the references, at https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/preface.pdf (https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/bad/preface.pdf). The theme music is "Flicker (https://nctrnm.bandcamp.com/track/flicker)" by nctrnm (http://nctrnm.com/). The book is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/); the text is used here by permission. The full book was published by the WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado; find it online for free at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/ (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/). No AI tools were used to support the making of this podcast.

10. 

    16 Jul 2026

    Trailer: Bad Ideas about AI and Writing

    Coming August 17, 2026: a new podcast on AI and writing, straight from the minds of teachers and scholars of writing and rhetoric. It's the podcast version of the open access book Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication (https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/bad/) (2026), edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma, and read for you here by Kyle Stedman. Transcript of Trailer So something like a year ago, my wife suggested I give a public lecture in town, and I said, “I don’t know if the things I study and write about are the things that really fit in a public-lecture kind of context,” and SHE said, “But you’re a writing professor, and I think you know what people these days want to hear a knowledgeable, legit writing professor talk about, right?” I thought for 2 or 3 seconds before I said, “You’re talking about AI, right?” She said, “Bingo.” I’m Kyle Stedman, and it’s true, I’m a writing professor at Rockford University in Northern Illinois, and it’s true, I have opinions on Generative AI, like most other people these days—and like all writing professors. But I never gave that public lecture that my wife suggested; it felt like too big a topic to wrap my head around, with messy boundaries that change too often. So when I saw the release of a new open access book on misunderstandings people have about GenAI, written by scholars of writing and rhetoric, I realized what I could do: I could podcast it. And making a podcast wouldn’t be totally out of the blue or anything. From 2020 to 2022 I read aloud an open access book called Bad Ideas about Writing, and I released it slowly as a podcast. It had 60-something chapters written by different authors, so in the process of reading it for the podcast’s audience, I got to learn a lot of new ideas, connect with a ton of authors I didn’t know, and make that text more accessible. It was great. So now there’s this new book—at least it’s new now as I’m speaking, in summer 2026—called Bad Ideas about AI and Writing—and this one’s got a subtitle—Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, & Shyam Sharma. So I figured, why not dive in and make another podcast? Like the first book, this new collection has a bunch of short chapters written by a diverse group of super-smart scholars, giving me—and you—all the benefits of the first book and podcast: ideas, connections, accessibility, you get it. And hey, check it out: podcasting gives me a way to engage with these ideas without needing to put together a public lecture of my own. This way, I can just tell people all the typical stuff, which also happens to be true: “Subscribe to the podcast! It’s free, available wherever you like to get your podcasts! Episodes will come out weekly-ish, when I can make that happen, starting August 17, 2026! Leave a review and share with your friends! There aren’t any ads!” All that stuff. So get ready for episodes to start dropping soon, and let’s explore some bad ideas about AI and writing together, giving us all some ideas about how to respond to this cultural moment.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.