Language Lessons of Past Presidents

FromSlate Debates

Start listening View podcast show

Language Lessons of Past Presidents

FromSlate Debates

ratings:

Length:

33 minutes

Released:

Nov 15, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

What can we learn about English from Bill Clinton, the two Bushes, and other leaders of the free world? Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at www.slate.com/podcastsplus. Twitter: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyEmail: lexiconvalley@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released:

Nov 15, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Lexicon Valley is a show about language, from pet peeves, syntax, and etymology to neurolinguistics and the death of languages. Hosted by linguist John McWhorter.

Skip carousel

Lexicon Valley #1: A Sin of Which None Is Guilty: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the longstanding English language proscription against ending a sentence with a preposition. by Slate Debates
25 min listen
Lexicon Valley #17: Ascent of the A-word: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to linguist Geoffrey Nunberg about his book Ascent of the A-word: A**holism, the First Sixty Years. by Slate Debates
28 min listen
Lexicon Valley #12: The Eloquence of Plain English: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Gettysburg Address. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Lexicon Valley #4: Jumpin' Salty in The O: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the vernacular wrapped in a dialect inside a language that some call Ebonics. by Slate Debates
41 min listen
Lexicon Valley #2: A Bundle of Faggots: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the evolution of the word "faggot." by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a batch of brand new episodes. by Slate Debates
3 min listen
Lexicon Valley #14: By Their Words You Shall Know Them: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss stylometry. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Lexicon Valley #22: Talking Leaves and Lightning Paper: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Cherokee syllabary. by Slate Debates
31 min listen
Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost: Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Lexicon Valley #7: A Needle Pulling Thread: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the big ambitions of the word "so." by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Lexicon Valley #11: When Being Done Replaced Doing: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the most significant change to the English language that you've never heard of. by Slate Debates
29 min listen
Lexicon Valley #16: Our Dying Words: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what we lose when a language goes extinct. by Slate Debates
24 min listen
Lexicon Valley #5: Untuning the String: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to author David Skinner about his book, The Story of Ain't, which will be published in the fall of 2012. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Special Announcement: Lexicon Valley will be back with a run of all-new episodes in the spring. by Slate Debates
4 min listen
Lexicon Valley #6: A Meditation on Scrabble: Mike Vuolo talks to "Word Freak" author Stefan Fatsis about the nature of language in Scrabble. by Slate Debates
36 min listen
Lexicon Valley #20: Death to Potatoes: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo speak with Nataly Kelly, coauthor of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World. by Slate Debates
35 min listen
Lexicon Valley #10: One Giant Leap for Humanity: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the he said/she said of the epicene pronoun. by Slate Debates
40 min listen
Lexicon Valley #24: Get Your Creak On: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss creaky voice. by Slate Debates
29 min listen
Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a run of all new episodes beginning later in the summer. by Slate Debates
4 min listen
Lexicon Valley #25: The Fawth Flaw: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss a defining feature of the classic New York accent. by Slate Debates
25 min listen
Lexicon Valley #26: The Fawth Flaw, Part II: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss R-dropping and the New York accent. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
Lexicon Valley #8: When Nouns Grew Genitals: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what it means for language to have gender. by Slate Debates
31 min listen
Lexicon Valley: Special Announcement: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo announce the return of Lexicon Valley. Yay! by Slate Debates
3 min listen
Lexicon Valley #13: Capturing the Past: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk about how Mad Men and Downton Abbey can teach us about language change. by Slate Debates
40 min listen
Lexicon Valley No. 31: Name That Tone: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the relationship between tonal languages and musical acuity. by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Lexicon Valley #18: The Rate of Exchange: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the commonly held belief that some languages are spoken faster than others. by Slate Debates
27 min listen
Lexicon Valley #15: Then Is Now, Now and Then: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the historical present. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
Lexicon Valley #9: And May He Be a Masculine Bridge: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss how a simple quirk of grammar may affect the way we think. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
Lexicon Valley No. 30: Eject at High Altitude: Mike Vuolo talks with an anthropological linguist about the influence geography might have on speech. by Slate Debates
22 min listen
Lexicon Valley #21: Undocumented Illegals: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the debate over "illegal" versus "undocumented" at the heart of U.S. immigration policy. by Slate Debates
35 min listen

More Episodes from Slate Debates

Skip carousel

Hear Me Out: Colonialism Never Ended: …And other ideas Florida doesn’t want to teach you. by Slate Debates
39 min listen
Hear Me Out: Trump Isn’t a Bug. He's a Feature.: The founders weren’t exactly anti-authoritarian. by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Hear Me Out: Punishing A Shooter’s Parents Misses The Point: Justice is a bigger picture. by Slate Debates
39 min listen
Hear Me Out: Student Protests Can Backfire (Badly): It’s the law of unintended consequences. by Slate Debates
44 min listen
What Next: The Jewish Case for Protest: How views of Israel have changed—and how some Jewish Americans are grappling with the dissonance. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
What Next: Columbia Calls the Cops: How student protests have intensified and spread. by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Hear Me Out: Third Parties Are Saving Democracy: It’s just that their job isn’t winning (yet). by Slate Debates
35 min listen
Hear Me Out: Legalize Weed, But Not Like This: Smoke and mirrors. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
A Word: Candace Owens: Back to Black?: What’s next for the conservative provocateur’s redemption tour on Black media. by Slate Debates
43 min listen
Hear Me Out: Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist: And their children could pay the price. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Hear Me Out: Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis: For-profit developers could be the solution. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Hear Me Out: Anti-Vaxers Aren’t Just Extremists: They’re often responding to real problems with American healthcare. by Slate Debates
36 min listen
Hear Me Out: You Probably Don’t Need Therapy Forever: The point of therapy is to equip you for success on your own. by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Hear Me Out: Purity Is Poisoning the Progressive Movement: Incrementalism isn’t a dirty word. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Hear Me Out: The House Should Elect The President: Not we the people… at least, not directly. by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Hear Me Out: Horse Race Journalism Is Good, Actually: Giddy up, voters. by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Hear Me Out: Un-Cancel Woodrow Wilson: It’s time to reassess what a great president looks like. by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Care & Feeding (After Dark): Couples’ Therapy: Our spouses have entered the group chat. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Hear Me Out: The Constitution Can’t Save Us: And we should stop pretending like it can. by Slate Debates
38 min listen
What Next: A Mass Shooter’s Mom Found Guilty: Two years after Jennifer Crumbley’s son shot up Oxford High School, she’s been convicted of manslaughter. by Slate Debates
24 min listen
Hear Me Out: Campus Assault Hearings Are A Disaster: Restorative justice might be the solution. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Hear Me Out: Actually, Trump Supporters Are Delusional: “Death cult” may sound hyperbolic, but it also might be true. by Slate Debates
38 min listen
Hear Me Out: Feminism Is Dying (But It Can Be Saved): When we say all women, we need to mean it. by Slate Debates
36 min listen
Care and Feeding: Private School Guilt: Slate’s parenting podcast on choosing the school that’s right for you. by Slate Debates
23 min listen
Hear Me Out: George Santos and Gypsy-Rose Aren’t Your Icons: Meme responsibly. by Slate Debates
44 min listen
Hear Me Out: Trump Voters Are Not Delusional: Writing them off is missing the point. by Slate Debates
42 min listen
Hear Me Out: Yes, You Can Self Improve Right Now: F— your gut. Trust your enemies. by Slate Debates
48 min listen
Hear Me Out: The Holidays Are Tacky. Embrace It: Stop trying to class it up. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Hear Me Out: Race Isn’t Real. The Census Should Reflect That.: Checking a box is oversimplifying. by Slate Debates
43 min listen
Hear Me Out: The Oppressed Still Have Moral Duties: Fighting fire with fire has its limits. by Slate Debates
33 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

Language vs. Dialect by Slate Debates
42 min listen
Do Languages Simplify Over Time?: Old English was arguably more complicated than Modern English. Is that true of all languages? by Slate Debates
32 min listen
Does Language Affect Thought?: We revisit the popular notion that our language helps shapes our worldview. by Slate Debates
48 min listen
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!: How an American Revolutionary War figure spawned a new name for a very old game. by Slate Debates
28 min listen
Verbs on the Move: Coming and going in languages around the world. by Slate Debates
41 min listen
Digging Up the Past by Slate Debates
42 min listen
The Art of the Spiel: A brief history of oratory from the Gilded Age to the Era of Trump. by Slate Debates
44 min listen
The Romance Languages: What an ancient, undecipherable manuscript says—and doesn't say—about Latin and its spawn. by Slate Debates
44 min listen
When Ain't Was Alright: What we can learn about English from am, the seemingly simplest verb. by Slate Debates
39 min listen
New Life for Dying Languages: The Language Conservancy's Wil Meya discusses the effort to revive Native American languages. by Slate Debates
38 min listen
Sometimes Just Because: Language is often at the mercy of pure chance. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
A Penetrating History of F*%k: English speakers have been getting it on with the F-word for centuries. by Slate Debates
46 min listen
Can Climate Influence Language?: Tonal languages evolved mostly in hot and humid places. What would explain that? by Slate Debates
45 min listen
Does PROCESSES Rhyme with KNEES? by Slate Debates
48 min listen
Heyo, Let's Talk About Hamilton: John McWhorter talks to linguist Neal Whitman about the mash-up of "hey" and "yo." by Slate Debates
31 min listen
The Soft Power of Like by Slate Debates
46 min listen
How New York Became the Big Apple: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the true story behind the most famous municipal nickname. by Slate Debates
25 min listen
Men, Women and Children by Slate Debates
37 min listen
English Spelling Is a Beautiful Mess: John McWhorter on why English spelling is so frustratingly idiosyncratic. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Tee Time: What the French Canadian version of The Flintstones can teach us about the letter T. by Slate Debates
42 min listen
Private Parts by Slate Debates
41 min listen
The Rise of They: English pronouns are evolving and it's time to embrace it. by Slate Debates
42 min listen
The Tragedy of English Spelling: Etymologist and poet Anatoly Liberman says that English is one of the most difficult languages to spell. But we can change that. by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Is Social Media Changing English?: Our speech is becoming more childlike, but not for the reasons you think. by Slate Debates
41 min listen
A Fleeting Glance: The word "transient" reveals some enduring patterns in English pronunciation and etymology. by Slate Debates
39 min listen
One Tongue to Rule Them All: The tantalizing prospect of a universal language. by Slate Debates
38 min listen
S#!t, Hell and Darn: Dissecting three common curse words. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
From Pidgins to Creoles: John McWhorter discusses the process by which some new languages are born. by Slate Debates
40 min listen
Black Like Us: Are the slang, sounds, and syntax of Black English a kind of lingua franca for America's youth? by Slate Debates
37 min listen
The Internet Loves the Exclamation Point!! by Slate Debates
39 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Language Lessons of Past Presidents

Language Lessons of Past Presidents

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Slate Debates

Related podcast episodes