
Hot Gossip (Rebroadcast) - 29 June 2026
Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the grapes, the gore, and hot tea. Plus, Jo...
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A fun weekly radio show about language seen through culture, history, and family. Co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett talk with callers who have questions and stories about linguistic...
Listen to A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over, a Society & Culture podcast by A Way with Words. Stream 976 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the grapes, the gore, and hot tea. Plus, Jo...

It’s the ultimate road trip: A father and son retrace the journey of Odysseus and find a way to navigate their relationship. Plus, the story...

Novelist Charles Dickens and the musician Prince were very different types of artists, but they also had a lot in common. A new book chronic...

A writer stumbles upon a tiny, motionless creature on a country road and, against all good advice, takes it home. The resulting memoir, Rais...

Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experie...

A new book about how animals perceive their environment reveals immense worlds beyond our own. A bee can see ultraviolet light, catfish have...

While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and v...

Why do speakers of the same language have different accents? A lively new book called Why We Talk Funny offers a linguist’s look at how and...

High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality c...

If you work in tech support, you might use snarky slang for problems caused by computer users themselves. There’s the acronym PEBCAK, for ex...

There are word nerds, and then there’s the woman who set up a folding chair on sidewalks throughout the country, cheerfully dispensing tips...

How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”?...

A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever...

Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below you...

Why does the term vegetarian cause so much confusion? Some people assume it means avoiding red meat but still eating chicken. And is there a...

How long can a newly married woman be called a bride? Does bride apply only as long as her wedding day, or does it extend right on through t...

Over the centuries, the meaning of happiness has traveled a long way. Today we speak of the pursuit of happiness, but it used to be that the...

Whether it’s a Rubik’s cube or a round of Wordle, why do so many of us find puzzles irresistible? A new book celebrates the allure and psych...

Every subculture has its own secret lingo, whether you’re talking about surfers, cab drivers, or coffee-shop baristas. A new book uncovers t...

When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a respon...