Accentricity is a podcast about people and how they talk. About accents, and why we care about them. About languages, and how they refuse to be controlled. About why there is no such thing as bad grammar, no language is more important than any other language, and every voice is valid.
I started making Accentricity while I was doing my PhD in linguistics, because I wanted to use podcasting to explore the connections between who we are and how we speak. I'd noticed that there's often a big gap between how academics talk about language and how people outside of academia talk about language. I wanted Accentricity to be a conversation, bringing together different voices and different points of view. I also wanted it to be an exploration, where I try to work out my own thoughts and ideas, and my own relationship with the way I talk. More than anything, I wanted to tackle head-on the linguistic prejudices I kept encountering - to show people that linguistic diversity is vital, and that no way of speaking is better than any other. I started recording interviews on my phone, learning the skills I needed and upgrading my equipment as I went, and in January 2019 I launched Accentricity.
During 2019, the podcast gained international recognition: it was featured in iTunes’ New and Notable section (UK), on the Radio Public platform (USA), and by The Bello Collective (USA), who included it on their worldwide list of the 100 best podcasts of 2019 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). By the end of 2019, it was being used as a teaching resource in schools, universities and language classrooms in the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Poland, Germany, Japan and Australia, and in early 2020 it was added to the Lyceum Podcasts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) catalogue, a curated list of the best educational audio content. In May 2020, it was nominated for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), and in July 2020 it won Steady’s Independent Media Academy Award (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
At the moment, I make Accentricity during my evenings and weekends, but as the podcast grows, it's becoming too much for me to manage on my own next to a full-time job! Developing a monthly income for the podcast will allow me to pay people to help me with the admin, research and editing.
Become a member and help keep Accentricity going! Becoming a paying member will ensure I'm able to continue making free, high-quality content, available to anyone with an internet connection, including those who can't support the podcast financially.
Thank you for your support, always!
Sadie