Slate Debates
A feed from the Slate podcast network featuring episodes with enlightening conversations, opposing views, and plenty of healthy disputes. You'll get a curated selection of episodes from programs like What Next, The Waves, and the Political Gabfest, with deep discussions that go beyond point-counterpoint and shed light on the issues that matter most.
351
Lexicon Valley #28: A Brief History of Swearing
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss curse words old and new with author Melissa Mohr.
24 min
352
Lexicon Valley #27: Accentuate the Positive
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the seemingly paradoxical phrase "yeah-no."
25 min
353
Special Announcement
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo announce a new run of Lexicon Valley episodes.
0 min
354
Special Announcement
Lexicon Valley will be back with a run of all-new episodes in the spring.
1 min
355
Lexicon Valley #26: The Fawth Flaw, Part II
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss R-dropping and the New York accent.
29 min
356
Lexicon Valley #25: The Fawth Flaw
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss a defining feature of the classic New York accent.
22 min
357
Lexicon Valley #24: Get Your Creak On
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss creaky voice.
26 min
358
Lexicon Valley #23: Good Is Up
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss metaphor and the "fiscal cliff."
27 min
359
Lexicon Valley #22: Talking Leaves and Lightnin...
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Cherokee syllabary.
28 min
360
Lexicon Valley #21: Undocumented Illegals
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the debate over "illegal" versus "undocumented" at the heart of U.S. immigration policy.
32 min
361
Lexicon Valley #20: Death to Potatoes
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo speak with Nataly Kelly, coauthor of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World.
32 min
362
Lexicon Valley #19: Here's to You Mrs. Malaprop
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what malapropisms might reveal about the way we organize our mental dictionary.
30 min
363
Lexicon Valley #18: The Rate of Exchange
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the commonly held belief that some languages are spoken faster than others.
24 min
364
Lexicon Valley #17: Ascent of the A-word
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to linguist Geoffrey Nunberg about his book Ascent of the A-word: A**holism, the First Sixty Years.
25 min
365
Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley
Mike announces a run of all new episodes beginning later in the summer.
1 min
366
Lexicon Valley #16: Our Dying Words
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what we lose when a language goes extinct.
21 min
367
Lexicon Valley #15: Then Is Now, Now and Then
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the historical present.
29 min
368
Lexicon Valley #14: By Their Words You Shall Kn...
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss stylometry.
30 min
369
Lexicon Valley #13: Capturing the Past
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk about how Mad Men and Downton Abbey can teach us about language change.
37 min
370
Lexicon Valley #12: The Eloquence of Plain English
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Gettysburg Address.
30 min
371
Lexicon Valley #11: When Being Done Replaced Doing
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the most significant change to the English language that you've never heard of.
26 min
372
Lexicon Valley #10: One Giant Leap for Humanity
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the he said/she said of the epicene pronoun.
37 min
373
Lexicon Valley #9: And May He Be a Masculine Br...
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss how a simple quirk of grammar may affect the way we think.
29 min
374
Lexicon Valley #8: When Nouns Grew Genitals
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what it means for language to have gender.
28 min
375
Lexicon Valley #7: A Needle Pulling Thread
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the big ambitions of the word "so."
27 min