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.
201
Beyond the Five Ws
The curious grammar of questions in languages around the world.
49 min
202
Tweety Bird and Toddlerspeak
Language acquisition is like magic—how do children do it?!
44 min
203
Coronavirus: Isolation and Aspiration
41 min
204
Our Indigenous Languages
A luxuriance of long words, baroque case endings and irregular everything—the Native American tongues!
58 min
205
I Just Can't!
Host John McWhorter shares some of his longstanding language peeves—yes, linguists have them too!
43 min
206
The Many Meanings of Too
Host John McWhorter finds linguistic inspiration in an 80-year-old musical performance of Rubber Dolly.
39 min
207
Sicko, Whacko, Weirdo
The -o suffix traces back to old comic strip characters with names like Knocko and Groucho. Neato!
40 min
208
Chinese Has No Grammar, Right? Wrong!
Mandarin might not have gender or case endings but there's more to grammar than conjugations.
47 min
209
From Uptalk to Vocal Fry, Women Are Prolific La...
Want to hear what English will sound like in the future? Talk to a woman.
46 min
210
In What Order Did Languages Arrive in Europe?
DNA analysis is revealing which speakers traveled where and when.
41 min
211
Digging Up the Past
Let's talk about how we talk about that which already occurred.
38 min
212
Verbs on the Move
Coming and going in languages around the world.
38 min
213
Does PROCESSES Rhyme with KNEES?
How our idea of formality can affect the way we say certain words.
44 min
214
A Bisl Yiddish
Add to German a large helping of Hebrew and a dollop of Slavic. Stir. Let marinate. Enjoy!
44 min
215
Private Parts
What does a rooster have to do with male genitalia anyway?
37 min
216
The Soft Power of Like
Terms such as "like" and "sort of" are ways for English speakers to sound more polite.
42 min
217
Men, Women and Children
What is it with people and animals and irregular plurals?
34 min
218
Zombie English
Long-dead elements of the language still haunt our everyday speech.
31 min
219
Let's Do Lunch
Come table-hopping as we discuss the linguistic quirks of some mealtime terms.
35 min
220
How to Think Like a Linguist
Never mind those 26 letters—the English language has 44 unique sounds.
34 min
221
Has English Gotten Less Complex?
English has shed many of its nuances over the centuries. Take pronouns, for example.
37 min
222
S#!t, Hell and Darn
Dissecting three common curse words.
33 min
223
This Family Speaks 1,200 Languages
From Madagascar to Easter Island, Austronesian tongues traveled far and wide with early seafarers.
42 min
224
Language vs. Dialect
The difference between a language and a dialect is mostly meaningless and entirely political.
39 min
225
The Internet Loves the Exclamation Point!!
A conversation with linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her new book, Because Internet.
35 min