119: Eurovision Goes to Uni (with Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig)
It's Eurovision season! We love to talk about what we can learn about language from this international song contest, but even we didn't realise that there was so much to learn. Language choice, langua...
18 Maj 20252h 15min
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 hy...
12 Maj 202551min
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" m...
5 Maj 20251h 47min
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 n...
19 Apr 20252h 7min
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, gestures...
25 Mars 20251h 56min
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 ...
2 Mars 202548min
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 crash...
21 Feb 20251h 33min
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 frien...
21 Dec 20241h 42min
