Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios
Lexicon Valley
A podcast about language, with host John McWhorter.
- 25 minutes 10 secondsThe Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Author John Koenig talks about inventing words for those subtle emotions that hitherto had no name.
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9 December 2025, 10:30 pm - 18 minutes 26 seconds6 7: Everything You Don't Know About the Word of the Year
Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield join Mike Pesca of The Gist to talk about the long, strange journey of 6 7, from rapper Skrilla to the basketball court, from the classroom to the Word of the Year.
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2 December 2025, 9:48 pm - 24 minutesGobbledygook Explained
Gobbledygook sounds like one of those words that somebody just made up — so is it?
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18 November 2025, 9:07 pm - 24 minutes 7 secondsGen Alpha Thinks You're Cringe
Our parents were cringe-inducing but we're just cringe.
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28 October 2025, 7:44 pm - 20 minutes 27 secondsThe Amazing Great
Good is no longer good enough. Everyone is awesome, superlative or just great.
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7 October 2025, 9:03 pm - 24 minutes 47 secondsIt's Been a Minute
Returning as the primary hosts of Lexicon Valley, Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield speak to John McWhorter about understatement and hyperbole in Black English.
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15 September 2025, 8:07 pm - 31 minutes 21 secondsAsk Not?
An interview with Richard Tofel about his book Sound the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, revealing the startling authorship behind JFK’s most famous words.
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4 September 2025, 4:00 am - 33 minutes 42 secondsThe American Accent Came First
What did English sound like during the Revolutionary War? John has a number of fascinating observations about the way the language was spoken back then — including the accents!
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9 July 2025, 8:06 pm - 28 minutes 53 secondsOversleeping at the Sleepover
Over isn’t just the opposite of under and off is not necessarily the opposite of on.
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20 May 2025, 9:00 pm - 24 minutes 51 secondsThe Story of Us
John talks about the subject of his new book by Avery Publishing — Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words.
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22 April 2025, 9:32 pm - 36 minutes 7 secondsFire, Die, Rim
The Thai words for fire, die and rim sound an awful lot like the English words fire, die and rim. How could that be?
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11 March 2025, 9:45 pm - More Episodes? Get the App