Radio and PodcastRadio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
It's not what you say, it's how you say it artwork
Society & Culture

It's not what you say, it's how you say it

Word of Mouth by BBC

Sep 25, 202527:54Society & Culture

Michael Rosen on the linguistic comfort food of clichés, pragmatics and how we use language to connect us beyond the actual words used. Derek Bousfield explains how words do more than carry meaning: context governs what...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Word of Mouth.

Bias against women's voices

Sep 10, 2026 - 28:30

Jane Setter talks to Michael Rosen about negative attitudes to vocal traits seen as exclusively female, f...

Gaelic

Aug 27, 2026 - 27:55

Michael Rosen is in conversation with Gaelic language expert Roddy Maclean about the status of Gaelic in...

Fairy Tales

Jun 30, 2026 - 27:17

Michael Rosen talks to anthropologist Jamie Tehrani about how fairy tales travel the world, ever changing...

Smell

Jun 11, 2026 - 27:35

Michael Rosen on the words used to describe the qualities of smells in different languages. Asifa Majid i...

Words to Love the Living World

May 28, 2026 - 27:50

The words that we use to label or describe things in nature – words for landscapes, creatures, seasons, t...