Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchYour Brain on Profanity
Episode 86
Why are so many swear words monosyllabic? Benjamin K. Bergen, author of the upcoming What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains…
9 years, 10 months ago
Your Brain on Profanity
Episode 86
Benjamin K. Bergen, author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, discusses the science of cursing.
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9 years, 10 months ago
LinguaFile XXIII | Roshambo
Episode 85
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot! How an American Revolutionary War figure spawned a new name for a very old game.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
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9 years, 10 months ago
LinguaFile XXIV | Roshambo
Episode 85
Why some people call rock-paper-scissors roshambo, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer.
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Website: books…
9 years, 10 months ago
The Blaccent: What Does It Mean to Sound Black?
Episode 84
Linguist John McWhorter argues that it makes perfect sense for the speech of black and white Americans to have subtle differences.
Twitter: @lexicon…
9 years, 11 months ago
The Blaccent
Episode 84
Linguist John McWhorter says the so-called blaccent is largely about vowel sounds.
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Website: book…
9 years, 11 months ago
LinguaFile XXII | Red Herring
Episode 83
A wild goose chase that stinks from fish. How did Clupea harengus come to signify a diversionary tactic?
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
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9 years, 11 months ago
LinguaFile XXIII | Red Herring
Episode 83
How Clupea harengus — a.k.a. Atlantic herring — came to signify a diversionary tactic, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer.
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Facebook: face…
9 years, 11 months ago
Defecation Presentation
Episode 82
The earliest known citation for “sh-t show” is from an English-language translation of a 1970s criminal trial in Germany. But what was the word or ph…
10 years ago
Defecation Presentation
Episode 82
The earliest known example of "sh-t show" is from an English-language translation of a 1970s criminal trial in Germany. But what was the word or phra…
10 years ago