Lexicon Valley
Lexicon Valley
A podcast about language, with hosts Mike Vuolo, Bob Garfield and John McWhorter.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 18, 2016 • 31min
Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?
What Bette Davis, FDR, and Ralph Kramden have in common when it comes to speech.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Oct 4, 2016 • 25min
Billy and Me Went to the Store. Deal With It.
John McWhorter on what the intricacies of the future tense tell us about the unwritten rules of pronouns.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Sep 20, 2016 • 22min
What Is a Dictionary, Really?
John Simpson, former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, talks about life as a lexicographer.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Sep 6, 2016 • 23min
Hickory Dickory Dock: The Invisible Language of Nursery Rhymes
John McWhorter makes linguistic sense of seemingly arbitrary children's verse.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Aug 23, 2016 • 35min
Word Sex
How Words Hook Up and Make New Ones
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Aug 8, 2016 • 44min
Should Shakespeare Get a Modern English Update?
John McWhorter talks with author Jack Lynch about the sacrilege of modified Shakespeare.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Jul 26, 2016 • 38min
Are Emoji a Language?
Gretchen McCulloch talks to John McWhorter about the big meaning behind our favorite little pictograms.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Jul 12, 2016 • 25min
Finding Life in a Dead Language
Ann Patty, author of "Living With a Dead Language: My Romance With Latin," talks about her transformative experience of learning Latin.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Jun 29, 2016 • 29min
Rules Are Made to Be Spoken
Sali Tagliamonte, author of Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics, talks about the underlying disorder of the English Language.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
Jun 14, 2016 • 25min
English Spelling is a Mess. It's Time to Reform It.
Etymologist and poet Anatoly Liberman says that English is one of the most difficult languages to spell. But we can change that.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
