Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchWe Simply Must Talk About Modal Verbs
Must, could, should, shall, might, may... We dig into the weird, wiggly, weaselly world of modal verbs.
1 year, 6 months ago
Let's Hit the Beach
Grab your swimsuit! Or your bathing suit. That's up to you. We're heading to the beach for a look at the language of tides, waves, and other things b…
1 year, 6 months ago
Now is the winter of our discontent made brat summer
With Charli XCX sparking a summer phenomenon, we take a look at the nature of slang: who uses it, why we use it, and how we need to be very careful w…
1 year, 6 months ago
Back-formations
Today we look at words that came from other words even though we think the second word should have come first.
1 year, 6 months ago
Silly Rules (Or, the Unpredictability of the English Language)
Today, we look at language rules that are rules sometimes, and rules that don't make sense. Well, they make some sense. Whatever. They're rules, anyw…
1 year, 7 months ago
The Etymology Olympics
With the world's greatest sporting event upon us, we look at the origins of some sports-related words.
1 year, 7 months ago
Is This a Fossil? Or Just Some Dumb Old Rock?
A listener question prompts us to think about words like rehabilitate, revamp, and nonplussed, and whether we can be plussed about habilitating and v…
1 year, 7 months ago
The Ambiguity of English (Is the Name of My Jazz Band)
This week, we're talking ambiguous words and ambiguous phrases– sometimes we think we know what we're saying and sometimes we're really wrong.
1 year, 7 months ago
It's a Dead Language, I Always Say
Latin may be dead, but we still use it every day. This week we look at some common Latin phrases and what they actually mean.
1 year, 8 months ago
Cranberry Morphemes
We know what a berry is, we know what a cranberry is, but what the heck is a "cran?" We enter the sometimes murky world of the cranberry morpheme...
1 year, 8 months ago