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.
126
Capital Language From Kyiv to Washington, D.C.
How the capital of Ukraine has become a linguistic hot take.
29 min
127
The Making of Wordle
The creator of the online word game tells us about the product decisions that have us playing day after day.
34 min
128
The Year of the “Vaxx”
Two top dictionary editors tell us about the selection process for Word of the Year.
30 min
129
Choosing Your Voice
VocaliD founder Rupal Patel talks about the importance of identity when choosing a digital voice.
32 min
130
Cracking the Omicron Code
The latest COVID variant’s name is proving to be a mouthful.
30 min
131
Taylor Swift’s “F— the Patriarchy”
The colloquialization of Swift’s now-infamous line in the new version of All Too Well.
30 min
132
Interrupting to Show We Care
A closer look at the interrupt-y conversational style that’s gone viral on TikTok.
35 min
133
The Millennial Language Cheat Code
Speaking the language of millennials one GIF at a time
36 min
134
Squid Game in Translation
Netflix’s popular show Squid Game has some issues with its English subtitles.
41 min
135
The Wide World of Language Diversity
Exploring Black American Sign Language and regional grammar.
24 min
136
Double Dutch
How popular online language-learning tool Duolingo is taking people around the world via technology.
35 min
137
How the Grid Kid Became King of the Online Spel...
The New York Times’ Sam Ezersky breaks down how he adjudicates the Spelling Bee.
29 min
138
Sponsored: How Can We Improve Our Communication...
30 min
139
TikTok Language Rabbit Hole
TikTok and Reddit are great places to observe language.
26 min
140
Taking Home the Gold in Language
How language made an appearance in the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
25 min
141
They Might Be Linguists
Slate’s new language podcast talks to John Linnell of They Might Be Giants about his new project in an unexpected language.
26 min
142
Russian Is My Mt. Everest
A grueling, painful, lifelong joy of studying Russian was sparked by Anna Karenina.
35 min
143
Languages of Northern Africa
From vowelless words to complex poetry, Berber to Somali.
41 min
144
You're Gonna Hafta
Deconstructing a single line of dialogue from Netflix's "The Crown."
42 min
145
The Languages of Southeast Asia
Why are so many of the languages of Southeast Asia "like Chinese"?
36 min
146
Irregardless Make You Cringe? Relax.
English is full of redundancies—so why are we bothered by only a select few?
37 min
147
Nine Nasty Words
John McWhorter teases his new book about off-color English expressions, starting with c!#k.
36 min
148
The Invisible Complexities of Translation
A single word—take "self," for example—reveals the thorny nature of literary translation.
42 min
149
English Is Plain Weird
Don't be fooled into thinking that English is a typical language. It's not.
40 min
150
Subject-Verb-Object. Right?
For many languages, the idea that the subject belongs up front is plain backwards.
39 min