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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Light-hearted conversation with callers from all over about new words, old sayings, slang, family ex

Episodes

Total: 775

The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but

So you’ve long dreamed of writing fiction, but don’t know where to begin? There are lots of ways to

When an international team of scientists traveled to a research station in Antarctica for six months

Unwrap the name of a candy bar, and you just might find a story inside. For instance, one chewy trea

How can you kick the verbal habit of saying you know and um so many times in a sentence? For one thi

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when

In her sumptuous new memoir, Jamaican writer Safiya Sinclair describes her escape from a difficult c

One way to make your new business look trendy is to use two nouns separated by an ampersand, like Pe

What’s the best thing to say to someone who is grieving? Choosing the right words is far less import

“What has a head like a cat, feet like a cat, a tail like a cat, but isn’t a cat?” Answer: a kitten!

In Japan, if you want to order a corndog, you ask for an Amerikan doggu (アメリカンドッグ). These types of c

Book recommendations and the art of apology. Martha and Grant share some good reads, including an op

If you’re in a book club, how do you decide what books to read? There are lots of different ways, de

The edge of the Grand Canyon. A remote mountaintop. A medieval cathedral. Some places are so mystica

Your first name is very personal, but what if you don’t like it? For some people, changing their nam

What do you call a segment of an orange? These juicy pieces of fruit go by lots of different names,

The autocomplete function on your phone comes in handy, of course. But is it changing the way we wri

How do actors bring Shakespeare’s lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the

If you skip wearing underwear, you’re said to be going commando. This bit of slang originated during

Stunt performers in movies have their own jargon for talking about their dangerous work. In New York