A new conversation on culturally competent language, lived experience, and violence prevention
Language shapes how people are understood, how research is interpreted, and how solutions are built. In the Policy Outsider podcast episode, Ep. 114. The Glossary Project,” Tyrique Glasgow joins researcher William Wical to discuss a powerful idea: people may share the same language, but they do not always share the same meaning. The episode was released on October 15, 2025 by the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s podcast.
The conversation introduces The Glossary Project, an effort to help academics, practitioners, victims of gun violence, and the media use more culturally competent language when discussing violence and its community impact. The project grew out of Tyrique Glasgow and William Wical’s review of interviews with Black men who had been involved in a hospital-based violence intervention program, where differences in interpretation revealed how much meaning can be lost when community language is misunderstood.
Tyrique’s voice is especially important in this episode because he speaks from both professional and lived experience. In the discussion, he shares that he is a gunshot survivor and explains that trauma cannot be understood through data alone. He emphasizes that communities need more than analysis. They need shared language, real understanding, and approaches that reflect how people actually live, heal, and define safety.
One of Tyrique Glasgow’s strongest messages is that effective violence prevention must include the community at the table. He highlights how issues like lack of resources, the digital divide, and unequal quality-of-life conditions shape everyday experiences, and he argues that researchers and institutions must listen more carefully to how residents describe their realities. In the episode, he positions the glossary as a bridge that can help communities, practitioners, and academics work toward a common goal with greater trust and clarity.
This podcast is a meaningful introduction to the kind of leadership Tyrique Glasgow brings to violence prevention and community engagement: grounded, honest, and deeply connected to the people most affected. It is a reminder that better outcomes begin with better listening.