Dr. Adam Hodges: Political discourse; when words trump politics

“I am interested in the way we use language and others receive that language and attribute meanings” 

Adam Hodges is a linguistic anthropologist with expertise in political discourse. His books include The “War on Terror” Narrative: Discourse and Intertextuality in the Construction and Contestation of Sociopolitical Reality (2011) and Discourses of War & Peace (2013). In this interview, Hodges takes us on a fascinating, in-depth journey into the influence of language games, plausible deniability, gaslighting and literal meaning versus pragmatic meaning…and how we affect listeners with language regardless of good and evil intent.