The Translator Stuck

Smarty Pants by Stephanie Bastek

Aug 7, 202626:36Arts

Amanda L. Andrei’s parents—he Romanian, she Filipina—met in Bucharest as two free spirits in the 1970s and then moved to the United States. Growing up in Virginia, Andrei didn’t speak Romanian, but came to the language—a...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Smarty Pants.

The Extreme Path

Sep 18, 2026 - 34:26

For a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world, Japan has an unusual cultural export: the...

Call It Macaroni

Sep 4, 2026 - 31:29

Susan Stryker’s new book, Changing Gender , is as chameleonic as the scholar herself, combining as it doe...

Blades of Grass

Aug 21, 2026 - 22:40

Summon an image of an American home: Odds are there’s a green grass lawn in front of it. Was this what Wa...

Riot Girls

Jul 24, 2026 - 23:49

In her 25 years as a music journalist, Jessica Hopper has profiled the doyennes of modern rock and pop mu...

To the Manor Born

Jul 10, 2026 - 24:29

The English country house has been on the brink of ruination since at least the start of World War I—or p...

The Industrial Revolution of Bees

Jun 26, 2026 - 37:30

It’s Pollinator Week, and the bugs need us more than ever. Not just bees: butterflies, moths, wasps, flie...

The Geek Squad

Jun 12, 2026 - 20:06

Were you a geek? A nerd? Did you play Magic: The Gathering, paint Warhammer miniatures, learn to speak Kl...

Weather Kids and Panther Cubs

May 29, 2026 - 39:04

Zayd Ayers Dohrn was born underground, the son of Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, two cofounders of the...