Why are there so few openly conservative black women? Gosh I don't know and that is something I've talked about with my friend Coleman Hughes. As you know there are some well-known black male conservatives. Thomas Sowell would be one well-known at George Mason. There are some women and what's interesting about the women is that for a reason they never wind up on the list as in they don't end up doing it for 25 years for 30 years. They don't get fostered by the circuit. One of them who I enjoyed a lot 10, 15 years ago, Star Parker. She was around but for some reason. It's a short list but still I don
Who can you ask about the Great American Songbook, the finer Jell-O flavors, and peculiar languages like Saramaccan all while expecting the same kind of fast, thoughtful, and energetic response? Listeners of Lexicon Valley might hazard a guess: John McWhorter. A prominent academic linguist, he’s also highly regarded for his podcast and popular writings across countless books and articles where often displays a deep knowledge in topics beyond his academic training.
John joined Tyler to discuss why he thinks that colloquial Indonesian should be the world's universal language, the barbaric circumstances that gave rise to Creole languages, the reason Mandarin won't overtake English as the lingua franca, how the Vikings shaped modern English, the racial politics of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the decline of American regional accents, why Shakespeare needs an English translation, Harold Arlen vs. Andrew Lloyd Webber, whether reparations for African-Americans is a good idea, how living in Jackson Heights shapes his worldview, what he learned from his mother and father, why good linguistics students enjoy both Russian and Chinese, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Recorded February 17th, 2020 Other ways to connect