Signs is a podcast that explores one sign per episode, selected by each guest. Guests come from semiotics, linguistics, and beyond, and choose a sign, any sign: visual or auditory; icon, symbol, index, gesture, inscription, object, or sound.
Host Sophia Burnett guides each conversation through how the sign operates, the contexts in which it appears, and the meanings it produces or unsettles. Episodes are recorded in French or English, with transcripts and translations available on the website: www.signspodcast.com (https://www.signspodcast.com)
Sophia welcomes linguist Johannes Angermuller to talk about scare quotes. Sometimes termed air quotes or even sneer quotes, Merriam-Webster defines scare quotes as “quotation marks used to express especially skepticism or derision concerning the use of the enclosed word or phrase.”
A deceptively simple but politically potent discursive tool, scare quotes can distance speakers and writers from the words they use, question their legitimacy, or subtly signal irony, doubt and disapproval. Sophia and Johannes discuss how scare quotes operate across political, academic and everyday discourse — and what those tiny inverted commas can reveal about stance, ideology and power.
Recorded in May 2026 and released only now, following Sophia’s move to China to take up a new academic position, this episode brings Season One to a close.
26 May 2026
Myth by Santiago Guillén Rozo
In this episode of Sign(e)s, Sophia speaks with semiotician and linguist Santiago Guillén Rozo about his ambitious new book Sémiotique du mythe — a ten-year research project tracing theories of myth from Ferdinand de Saussure and Claude Lévi-Strauss to Roland Barthes, Ernst Cassirer, Bruno Latour, and beyond.The conversation moves from Barthes’ Mythologies and contemporary media discourse to ecological narratives such as Gaia theory, political symbolism, AI anxiety, transhumanism, and science fiction as the mythology of technological modernity. A rich discussion on semiotics and the enduring human need to narrate the abyss.
15 Apr 2026
Greenham Common Webs by Anna Feigenbaum
For this eighth episode, Sign(e)s explores the history, symbolism, and activism of Greenham Common, a pivotal feminist and anti-nuclear protest camp in the UK, with Anna Feigenbaum.
25 Mar 2026
i par Sophia Burnett
Le i minuscule en anglais : faute ou ressource ?
Dans cet épisode de Signes, les rôles s’inversent : Sophia Burnett est invitée par Nicolas Pommier pour parler du i minuscule dans les écrits numériques. Loin d’une faute, il apparaît non comme un remplacement du I standard, mais comme une forme supplémentaire, créant un contraste signifiant au sein du système. Une exploration à l’interface de la pragmatique, de la sociolinguistique et de la grapholinguistique.
2 Mar 2026
Kaleidoscopic Eye by Brendan Graham Dempsey
In this episode of Sign(e)s, Sophia Burnett talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about the “kaleidoscopic eye”—a mandala-like symbol of nested vision, spirals, and fractal consciousness. Drawing on his work in complexity, theology, spirituality, and systems thinking, Brendan unpacks the symbol’s deep structure: from Dante’s celestial architecture to contemporary visionary and AI art. He shows how this recurring motif encodes an evolutionary movement toward integration and the divine center, while also acknowledging its inverted, darker expressions.
16 Feb 2026
Y par Nicolas Pommier
Cette conversation explore la pluralité du Y, non seulement comme lettre, mais comme glyphe et schéma formel. Nicolas Pommier y mobilise ses recherches pour retracer son évolution historique, typographique et sémantique, de l’étymologie aux usages contemporains. Le Y y apparaît tour à tour comme structure graphique, symbole culturel et matrice conceptuelle; investi dans des champs aussi divers que la génétique, l’art, le design et la culture visuelle.
2 Feb 2026
The 'W' gesture by Dara Theodora
In this episode, Sophia Burnett receives Dara Theodora to explore visual semiology through the lens of gesture, focusing in particular on a specific gesture that has traversed Spanish and Renaissance art. They discuss the meaning of this gesture, its use by various artists, and theories concerning its origin. The paintings referred to in this episode can be seen found in Dara's website: https://daratheodora.com/2017/11/01/mysterious-gesture/ (https://daratheodora.com/2017/11/01/mysterious-gesture/)
19 Jan 2026
Trois Lignes Blanches par Enzo d'Armenio
Dans cet épisode, Sophia Burnett reçoit Enzo D’Armenio, sémioticien et professeur junior à l’Université de Lorraine, afin d’examiner les liens entre la sémiotique et les images générées par machine. La discussion se concentre sur l’IA générative et ses implications pour la production d’images. Enzo y présente ses recherches sur la manière dont des modèles d’IA tels que Midjourney et DALL·E produisent des images à partir de consignes verbales, en soulignant les différences de valeurs esthétiques ainsi que le degré de contrôle dont disposent les utilisateurs sur les résultats obtenus. Enzo aborde également des questions sémiotiques plus larges soulevées par l’IA, notamment l’agentivité des images et le potentiel collaboratif entre humains et machines dans les processus créatifs.
4 Jan 2026
Australian Road Sign by Ghil'ad Zuckermann
In this episode of Signs, host Sophia Burnett engages with Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, who has chosen the road sign for his episode in which he touches upon several points, from the bureaucratic nature of Australian society, to the in-grouping facet of using visual puns in signage. Zuckermann also emphasizes the importance of language revival and cultural identity, particularly in the context of Aboriginal languages.
22 Dec 2025
La carte de randonnée par Jean-Marie-Klinkenberg
Pour cet épisode inaugural, c’est un immense honneur d’accueillir Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, linguiste, sémioticien et professeur émérite à l’Université de Liège. Figure majeure de la sémiotique contemporaine et membre de l’Académie royale de Belgique, il a renouvelé la rhétorique et orienté la sémiotique vers ses dimensions sociales et cognitives, notamment au sein du Groupe µ. Ses travaux — traduits dans de nombreuses langues — ont profondément marqué la théorie du signe et l’étude des cultures francophones.
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