Sarah L. Kaufman on the shared rhythm of dance, critical writing, and finding better verbs
1213. Pulitzer-Prize-winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman goes deeper into her journey from the "Washington Post" copy desk to the world of professional dance criticism. We look at how writing about ...
20 Aug 16min
What 'kith and kin' and 'beck and call' have in common
1212. This week, we look at fossil words — old words like "kith," "beck," and "hue" that survive only inside phrases like "kith and kin," "beck and call," and "hue and cry." We also look at listener f...
18 Aug 12min
Word wagons and bobbasheelys: Life at DARE, with Joan Houston Hall
1211. Today, we look at the behind-the-scenes history of the Dictionary of American Regional English with Joan Houston Hall. We look at her personal journey into linguistics, the "word wagons" that tr...
13 Aug 20min
Why does 'shh' mean the same thing in so many languages, and what's 'broad' about daylight?
1210. This week, we look at why the sound "shh" means "be quiet" in so many different languages, and we trace the phrase "broad daylight" back to Old English to find out why it shows up so often in cr...
11 Aug 11min
How comics are made, with Glenn Fleishman
1209. Glenn Fleishman discusses the mechanical journey of a comic strip, from the cartoonist’s ink to the final newspaper page. We look at why drawing close to size helped “Calvin and Hobbes” creator ...
6 Aug 26min
Why does the U.S. have so many regional accents?
1208. This week, linguist Valerie Fridland explains why the U.S. has so many regional accents — tracing New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southern, and Western speech back to where their first settlers came ...
4 Aug 10min
Why "golly" and "gosh" are going the way of the dinosaur, with Sali Tagliamonte
1207. This week, we look at the hidden linguistic history of Ontario with Sali Tagliamonte. We look at why euphemisms like "golly" and "gosh" are going the way of the dinosaur, the surprising connecti...
30 Juli 28min
The secret language of gamers. Plus, why ducks don't ‘duck’ from danger
1206. This week, we look at the secret language of video gamers — including why getting "nerfed" is a bad thing and what it means to "rage quit" — and we answer a listener's question about whether the...
28 Juli 12min
