Podcast Conversation on Embodiment and Communication - I was interviewed on 23 February 2026 by Jon Di Luca for his podcast Ki to the City, hosted on Substack.
The conversation explores aikido as an embodied language of interaction and reflects on how practice-based knowledge can inform research and professional communication training.
Across the episode, we discuss how aikido can be understood not only as a martial art but as a structured system of interactional meaning-making. Movement, timing, attention, and relational positioning function as communicative resources that shape how people engage with little common ground because of differences, tension, and challenges. Approached in this way, aikido offers a lens on communication that extends beyond verbal language and cognitive models.
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| Ki to the City: Podcast by Jon Di Luca |
The dialogue also connects directly with themes central to my research and teaching: embodied learning, multimodal communication, and the development of professional and intercultural competence. Aikido practice makes interactional dynamics tangible and observable, allowing participants to experience principles such as tranquillity, connection, unification, softness, and noble outcomes in a concrete form. This experiential grounding supports reflection and transfer to professional and daily contexts.
I am grateful to Jon Di Luca for inviting me onto his podcast. After all, he has interviewed well-known aikidoka such as Richard Moon, Chris Thorsen, Susan Dutton, Linda Holiday, Miles Kessler, Richard Moon, Quentin Cooke, and many others.
🎧 The full episode is available on Substack:
https://kitothecity.substack.com/p/speaking-the-noble-language-of-aikido
Author
Greet Angèle DE BAETS
Communication Doctor
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