person
also known as McLuhan
The Canadian media theorist whose idea of media as extensions of the human runs under Syntopic's case for spoken word. In episode 01 he is cited twice: speech as the first technology, and the forecast that electronic media would bring back the oral tradition. Start at about 13 and a half minutes.
Across the episodes
01
Enters as the theorist behind the spoken-word thesis: speech as the first extension, and electronic media as orality's return
Chad uses McLuhan's extensions thesis to make recorded speech the oldest medium, not a newer format competing with print.
"what if you could tap into this big cloud of spoken thought because speech according to thinkers like Marshall McLuhan speech was the original technology it was the first extension of humans it was the extension of thought into the exterior social space"Marshall McLuhan, quoted by Chad Nantais, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 8:14
McLuhan's forecast is used to read the podcast boom and falling literacy as one movement rather than two trends.
"Marshall McLuhan predicted this, that the electronic technologies would move us away from literacy, back to the oral tradition."Marshall McLuhan, quoted by Chad Nantais, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 13:37
Connections
informsSecondary Orality
McLuhan's forecast of a return to the oral, named by Ong.