Two Department of English faculty members with the Program in Rhetoric and Composition, assistant professor Maggie Fernandes and assistant professor Megan McIntyre, recently launched a writing studies podcast entitled Everyone's Writing With AI (Except Me!).

The podcast, which questions the embrace of generative AI in writing studies, is available through Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms that host podcasts.

So far, three episodes have been released and are "about what it means to refuse generative AI in writing studies, about Big Tech's encroachment on higher education and about the environmental impact of generative AI," Fernandes said.

Fernandes and McIntyre came up with the idea for the podcast following ChatGPT's release in the fall of 2022.

"We decided to start a podcast this past summer when we felt that there was not enough discussion of refusing generative AI in writing classrooms at the disciplinary level," Fernandes explained.

A third English faculty member, teaching assistant professor Kat Gray, also with the Program in Rhetoric and Composition, began contributing to the podcast this fall due to their interest in how generative AI technology influences writing pedagogies.

Future podcast episodes will examine "the implications of genAI and linguistic justice and language diversity, data and surveillance, and labor of writing instructors," Fernandes said. "We'll also continue talking about the extractive nature of the Big Tech industry and how educational technology isn't always good for higher education."

Guests who have already been interviewed by Fernandes and McIntyre on the podcast include Dustin Edwards from San Diego State University, who researches digital damage, and Lisa Corrigan from the U of A, whose recent article in The Nation looks at Big Tech's influence on public education.

Future guests will include other scholars in rhetoric, composition and writing studies (like Jennifer Sano-Franchini with West Virginia University and Cara Marta Messina with Marist College) who can discuss generative AI as well as LLMs (large language models), linguistic variation, technical communication, fandoms and educational technology. 

When asked about what has been the most rewarding part of creating the podcast, Fernandes responded that "speaking with smart people about genAI refusal" has been a definite plus.

Likewise, she and McIntyre have been pleased to compare their responses to generative AI and Big Tech with those from others in their field of research.

"We named the podcast Everyone's Writing With AI (Except Me!) for the silly acronym (EWWAI) and as a cheeky way to highlight how isolating it's been to not join in the AI hype, but we never thought we were the only people who felt the way we do about generative AI and Big Tech," Fernandes said.

"It's been really rewarding to hear feedback from folks in our field that yes, this is exactly the conversation we need to be having right now!"

On the other hand, Fernandes acknowledged that the production schedule has been challenging, and starting each podcast with critique has similarly been hard.

"We're very vocally disappointed by how limited the conversation about generative AI has been in our field," Fernandes said, "even though we know that we're far from the only ones who feel the way we do."

A silver lining, however, has been the opportunity that the podcast has given Fernandes and McIntyre "to figure out how to disagree with very smart people in the discipline with grace, compassion and understanding."

In the end, Fernandes pointed out, all of those doing research in the field of rhetoric and composition studies share "a concern for student writing, and while we may disagree about what that looks like in the generative AI moment, we know that common purpose still unites us."