Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchCan You Play “Jew” in Scrabble?
Episode 225
Scrabble and other similar games have been the subject of an ongoing lexicographic debate in recent years, with some arguing that ethnic slurs have n…
4 years, 5 months ago
A*#holes and B%tches
Episode 224
Dividing up nouns as “masculine” and “feminine” has not been a part of English for many centuries. And yet our language remains peppered throughout w…
4 years, 5 months ago
On the Singular They and Slippery Slopes
Episode 223
English has been calling out for a gender-neutral pronoun for more than a century, with many failed attempts at invented words and portmanteaus. Sing…
4 years, 6 months ago
The Pandemic's Effect on Language
Episode 222
Turns out that some languages are less intelligible through a mask than others, and, believe it or not, it all depends on how often you use certain c…
4 years, 6 months ago
What Do They Speak in Afghanistan?
Episode 221
Dari and Pashto are the two major official languages of Afghanistan. One, says John McWhorter, is “disarmingly approachable” while the other is “deli…
4 years, 7 months ago
The Morphing of Critical Race Theory
Episode 220
What did CRT originally mean, and what does it mean now? What are children actually being taught? And why do some terms tend to become so thorny over…
4 years, 7 months ago
Mare of Easttown and the Philly Accent
Episode 219
In the 7-part crime drama, Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet plays a flannel-clad cop with a thirst for Rolling Rock, an appetite for hoagies and a tend…
4 years, 7 months ago
English Has a Bee in Its Bonnet
Episode 218
Not all languages lend themselves to spelling competitions. Plus: A special subscriber-only bonus segment — get them all by becoming a paying subscri…
4 years, 8 months ago
Introducing Lexicon Valley with John McWhorter
Lexicon Valley offers a close examination of language, exploring its power to inform and misinform, to elucidate and obfuscate. Hosted by renowned Co…
4 years, 8 months ago
Russian Is My Mt. Everest
Episode 217
A grueling, painful, lifelong joy of studying Russian was sparked by Anna Karenina.
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4 years, 9 months ago