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.
151
Russian Is My Mt. Everest
A grueling, painful, lifelong joy of studying Russian was sparked by Anna Karenina.
35 min
152
Languages of Northern Africa
From vowelless words to complex poetry, Berber to Somali.
41 min
153
You're Gonna Hafta
Deconstructing a single line of dialogue from Netflix's "The Crown."
42 min
154
The Languages of Southeast Asia
Why are so many of the languages of Southeast Asia "like Chinese"?
36 min
155
Irregardless Make You Cringe? Relax.
English is full of redundancies—so why are we bothered by only a select few?
37 min
156
Nine Nasty Words
John McWhorter teases his new book about off-color English expressions, starting with c!#k.
36 min
157
The Invisible Complexities of Translation
A single word—take "self," for example—reveals the thorny nature of literary translation.
42 min
158
English Is Plain Weird
Don't be fooled into thinking that English is a typical language. It's not.
40 min
159
Subject-Verb-Object. Right?
For many languages, the idea that the subject belongs up front is plain backwards.
39 min
160
Parting Company
How did a word meaning "with bread" come to sprout its corporate connotation?
40 min
161
Wallowing in Negativity
From the evolution of ain't to double negatives, simply saying no is wonderfully complex.
42 min
162
Fossil Hunting in English
Our language contains a trove of buried clues, petrified remnants of its past. But you have to know where to dig.
41 min
163
Why Do Languages Have Gender?
Lots of languages divide words into categories, like male and female. How does that happen?
52 min
164
Forgetting Your Roots
Words have a way of rebelling against their etymological parents, acquiring meanings of their own.
55 min
165
Future English Speaker, Can You Read Me?
That language changes is certain. How quickly or slowly is another matter.
62 min
166
Getting Got
The story of how one little verb developed a seemingly endless capacity to absorb new meanings.
40 min
167
On the Origin of English
A controversial theory holds that English, along with other Germanic languages, was profoundly influenced early on by Phoenician. The evidence is intriguing.
57 min
168
White Author, Black English. Problem?
Mark Twain famously depicted what he called the "Missouri Negro dialect" of Jim. Would that be acceptable today?
52 min
169
Do Cats Have Language?
Animals bark, sing, purr and even gesture, all fascinating but a far cry from human communication.
58 min
170
Sergeant, Corporal, Colonel!
Peculiar linguistic tales of America's soldiers.
36 min
171
To Reason Why
There's more than one way to ask why. How come? What for?
34 min
172
When Talking to Your Mother-In-Law Is a Minefield
From baby talk to formal varieties, languages around the world offer—or even require—different ways of speaking for different situations.
40 min
173
The Incredible Story of the Traveling Creole
Enslaved people developed a hybrid language that sailed from Africa to the Caribbean and—unbelievably—back again.
59 min
174
This Am a Minstrel Stereotype, Right?
A longstanding mystery of Black English may finally be solved.
52 min
175
When Jews Adapted Spanish
Languages of the Ottoman Empire, inspired by historian Alan Mikhail's new book God's Shadow.
44 min