Podcast Episodes

118: The A.I. Con (with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna)

Artificial intelligence (so-called) is typified by its boom and bust cycles, and we're in a boom now. But as more and more money pours in with decreasing returns, we're going to see a shakeout, and h…

Published on 6 months, 1 week ago

117: Sometimes It Feels Like I'm the Only One Trying to Fix English Around Here (live with friends for LingFest25)

Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/wxGeXMzlwng

If you repeat something twice, how many times did you do it? Can more than one dinner be "the perfect dinner"? And what does "every other" …

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago

116: Enough Is Enuf (with Gabe Henry)

Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound and escape its etymological origins, but have …

Published on 7 months ago

114: Bye Bye I Love You (with Michael Erard)

First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we see if we focused on interaction instead? A new book looks at words, gesture…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago

113: "Official" English (with Carmen Fought)

Breaking news: The president of the United States intends to sign an executive order designating English the official language of the USA. Is this a big deal? Why was this necessary, and what happens…

Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago

112: WotY 2024: The Last Word

What really goes on behind the scenes at the biggest Word of the Year vote in linguistdom? Are we really going to stick with sanewashing for our word? And which words did we miss? We lock in and cras…

Published on 8 months, 4 weeks ago

111: Words of the Week of the Year 2024 (live with Mignon Fogarty and friends)

It's our Words of the Year episode, where we do a vibe check on all the words and name one of them our Because Language Word of the Year. We're joined by Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty and a lot of frie…

Published on 10 months, 4 weeks ago

110: Diego's Dossier (with Diego Diaz)

What's in the linguistic news? Diego knows. He's been tracking down stories and words for us all year long, and now he's curated an entire show for us. It's the latest in the Diego series.

Published on 11 months ago

109: Language Oppression in Tibet (with Gerald Roche and Sasha Wilmoth)

Minority languages are under threat everywhere, but Tibet represents a particularly difficult challenge. The Tibetan language family is under pressure from (no surprise) Mandarin, even as community s…

Published on 11 months, 1 week ago

108: Mailbag of Etymology (with Douglas Harper)

We're joined for the first time by Douglas Harper, proprietor of the world-renowned Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com). He's here to help us with our Mailbag questions, and even test us in …

Published on 1 year ago