Cultivate Talk

About Cultivate Talk

Cultivate Talk explores the depth and breadth of human communication. Hosted by a Ph.D. in Communication Studies, this podcast covers everything from interpersonal and family relationships to health, science, rhetoric, journalism, and more. Episodes feature thought-provoking insights and guests—researchers and professionals across the communication spectrum. Whether you're a student, scholar, or simply communication-curious, this show invites you to grow, reflect, and connect.

Publisher

emily

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Aug 2025

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026

   Playing Our Way to Better Communication

   What if becoming a better communicator could start with playing a game? In this episode of Cultivate Talk, Emily sits down with Dr. Ian Borton, Professor of Communication at Aquinas College, to explore the surprising connections between roleplaying games, conflict resolution, and communication education. Drawing from his research on conflict and his work using roleplaying games as teaching tools, Dr. Borton explains how fictional worlds and collaborative storytelling can create meaningful opportunities to practice real-world interpersonal skills. Together, they discuss how gaming environments encourage cooperation, problem-solving, perspective-taking, and conflict management—and why stepping into a fictional character can sometimes make it easier to experiment with communication and identity. The conversation also explores Dr. Borton's experiences incorporating roleplaying games into college classrooms and youth summer camps, the difference between meaningful gamification and simply adding rewards, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in gaming and education. Ultimately, this episode challenges traditional ideas about how communication skills are developed. Whether you're an educator, a parent, a gamer, or simply someone interested in human connection, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on how creativity, play, and shared experiences can help us become more thoughtful and effective communicators.

2. 

   9 Oct 2026

   The Rhetoric of Abandonment

   What do abandoned buildings, forgotten spaces, and repurposed objects tell us about the world around us? In this episode of Cultivate Talk, Emily sits down with Dr. Evan R. Jones of North Carolina Central University to explore the rhetoric of abandonment and the surprising ways spaces, places, and objects communicate meaning. Drawing from his interdisciplinary research in rhetoric, cultural geography, and media studies, Dr. Jones challenges us to reconsider what abandonment actually means. Together, they discuss why we're fascinated by ruins, how different people and communities interpret the same spaces, and why something abandoned isn't necessarily something without value—or without a future. The conversation also explores how abandoned buildings become sites of preservation or redevelopment, how everyday objects take on new meanings through adaptive reuse, and what the spaces around us reveal about memory, identity, power, and belonging. Ultimately, this episode invites listeners to expand their understanding of communication beyond words and conversations. From forgotten buildings to transformed landscapes, the places we encounter every day tell stories about what we value, what we remember, and what we choose to leave behind.

3. 

   8 Sept 2026

   Women Talking: Dialogue, Disagreement, and Imagination

   In this episode of Cultivate Talk, Emily is joined by Dr. Jennifer A. Zenovich, Dr. Jess Gantt-Shafer, Dr. Lori L. Britt, Dr. Erika Engstrom, and Dr. Lars Stoltzfus, the scholars behind The Possibilities of Women Talking: Deliberative Dialogue and Feminist Imagination. Bringing expertise in critical rhetoric, feminist theory, dialogue and deliberation, media, gender, identity, and power, the five authors use the film Women Talking as a starting point for examining what happens when people come together to make difficult decisions, navigate disagreement, and imagine possibilities beyond the circumstances they've been given. Together, they discuss the collaborative process behind the book, productive disagreement, feminist organizing, cultural representation, motherhood, identity, and the possibilities—and limitations—of dialogue. At the center of the conversation is a deceptively simple question: Can talking itself be a form of action? It's a conversation about listening, disagreement, imagination, and what might become possible when we're willing to stay in the conversation.

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Contact Cultivate Talk

Guest appearances

Books guests

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