On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Ira Allen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University. Ira is the author of The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory and Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing. Together, they chat about living in a system of Carbon-Capitalism-Colonialism (or CaCaCo), AI’s disruption to meaning-making, and panicking. Enjoy the episode!
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html
Resources:
Ira J. Allen: https://troubledfreedom.com/
Ira’s CV: https://directory.nau.edu/?person=ia298
The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822965367/
Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing: https://utpress.org/title/panic-now/
Bio:
Dr. Ira Allen (he/him) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Departments of English and of Politics & International Affairs at Northern Arizona University. His scholarship on human meaning-making includes The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory (U Pittsburgh P, 2018), alongside many articles and chapters, and undergirds his inquiry into the AI revolution and other features of polycrisis in Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing (U Tennessee P, 2024). With Scott Sundvall and Caddie Alford, he has a volume exploring our hypermediated and increasingly automated crisis of meaning forthcoming in 2026: Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth (U Pittsburgh P). Among other topics, Ira teaches undergraduate courses on digital argumentation and graduate courses on #datapolitics and humanizing rhetoric.
Cite this episode:
Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Panic Now? — with Ira Allen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 5, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html.
All content for Below the Radar is the property of SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement and is served directly from their servers
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On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Ira Allen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University. Ira is the author of The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory and Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing. Together, they chat about living in a system of Carbon-Capitalism-Colonialism (or CaCaCo), AI’s disruption to meaning-making, and panicking. Enjoy the episode!
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html
Resources:
Ira J. Allen: https://troubledfreedom.com/
Ira’s CV: https://directory.nau.edu/?person=ia298
The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822965367/
Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing: https://utpress.org/title/panic-now/
Bio:
Dr. Ira Allen (he/him) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Departments of English and of Politics & International Affairs at Northern Arizona University. His scholarship on human meaning-making includes The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory (U Pittsburgh P, 2018), alongside many articles and chapters, and undergirds his inquiry into the AI revolution and other features of polycrisis in Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing (U Tennessee P, 2024). With Scott Sundvall and Caddie Alford, he has a volume exploring our hypermediated and increasingly automated crisis of meaning forthcoming in 2026: Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth (U Pittsburgh P). Among other topics, Ira teaches undergraduate courses on digital argumentation and graduate courses on #datapolitics and humanizing rhetoric.
Cite this episode:
Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Panic Now? — with Ira Allen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 5, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Dave Biddle, artist, musician, theorist, and PhD Candidate at SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts. Together, they chat about Dave’s research, artistic practice, and rugby. Enjoy the episode!
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-dave-biddle.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-dave-biddle.html
Resources:
Copyright Linda Fox: https://kopyrightlindafox.bandcamp.com/
Dave’s Oasis: https://davesoasis.cargo.site/
Liquidation World: https://www.instagram.com/liquidationw0rld/?hl=en
Bio:
Dave Biddle (being me) is a musician (being Copyright Linda Fox), a theorist (being susceptible to gnosis), and a filmmaker (being quick to tell you about his new "script").
He (still being me) is interested in how the many different forms of life on earth (being metaphorically different) are all oriented toward the production of new expressions of meaning (being negentropic), and in this process some of those expressions emerge as something called an "artist bio" (being the ultimate expression).
Dave Biddle (being the artist whose bio is in question) was born in Vancouver (being the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations) and he continues to live in that (being this) strange place where he studies the silverfish in his books (being being).
Cite this episode:
Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “M.I.T.C.O.E. — with Dave Biddle.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 21, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-dave-biddle.html.
Below the Radar
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Ira Allen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University. Ira is the author of The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory and Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing. Together, they chat about living in a system of Carbon-Capitalism-Colonialism (or CaCaCo), AI’s disruption to meaning-making, and panicking. Enjoy the episode!
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html
Resources:
Ira J. Allen: https://troubledfreedom.com/
Ira’s CV: https://directory.nau.edu/?person=ia298
The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822965367/
Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing: https://utpress.org/title/panic-now/
Bio:
Dr. Ira Allen (he/him) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Departments of English and of Politics & International Affairs at Northern Arizona University. His scholarship on human meaning-making includes The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory (U Pittsburgh P, 2018), alongside many articles and chapters, and undergirds his inquiry into the AI revolution and other features of polycrisis in Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing (U Tennessee P, 2024). With Scott Sundvall and Caddie Alford, he has a volume exploring our hypermediated and increasingly automated crisis of meaning forthcoming in 2026: Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth (U Pittsburgh P). Among other topics, Ira teaches undergraduate courses on digital argumentation and graduate courses on #datapolitics and humanizing rhetoric.
Cite this episode:
Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Panic Now? — with Ira Allen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 5, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html.
