Babies, dogs, and the riddles of word learning

Many Minds by Kensy Cooperrider

May 22, 202601:18:40Science & Medicine

It's kind of astonishing, really, that kids ever learn words. Each one poses a little riddle. Does this sound string refer to a person? A category of things? Or maybe some other feature of the blooming, buzzing world? An...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Many Minds.

The natural history of linguistic diversity

Aug 28, 2026 - 01:32:41

Thousands of languages are used around the world today, and this linguistic diversity is a precious part...

From the archive: Electric ecology

Aug 17, 2026 - 01:33:10

Hi friends! We're still taking a bit of a summer pause. We'll be back at the end of August—in the meanwhi...

From the archive: Varieties of childhood

Jul 31, 2026 - 01:28:48

Hi friends! We're taking a bit of a summer pause. We'll be back soon—in the meanwhile, enjoy this listene...

From the archive: Philosophers on psychedelics

Jul 17, 2026 - 01:40:49

Hi friends! We're taking a bit of a summer pause. We will be back soon—in the meanwhile, enjoy this liste...

The origins of Darwin's ideas

Jul 3, 2026 - 01:19:24

No discipline, no sphere of intellectual life, has been untouched by the work of Charles Darwin. He died...

The sparkling deep

Jun 20, 2026 - 01:20:28

It's tempting to see bioluminescence as an oddity, one of those rare eccentricities of life on earth. And...

Is Man the Hunter just a myth?

Jun 5, 2026 - 01:32:01

There's a story about of our past that you know well. It goes like this: At some point earlier in human e...

The inner life of the hand

May 7, 2026 - 01:10:17

Newton saw in the human hand proof of the divine; Darwin saw a key to our species' success. Many others,...