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
The Soft Power of Like
Terms such as "like" and "sort of" are ways for English speakers to sound more polite.
42 min
202
Men, Women and Children
What is it with people and animals and irregular plurals?
34 min
203
Zombie English
Long-dead elements of the language still haunt our everyday speech.
31 min
204
Let's Do Lunch
Come table-hopping as we discuss the linguistic quirks of some mealtime terms.
35 min
205
How to Think Like a Linguist
Never mind those 26 letters—the English language has 44 unique sounds.
34 min
206
Has English Gotten Less Complex?
English has shed many of its nuances over the centuries. Take pronouns, for example.
37 min
207
S#!t, Hell and Darn
Dissecting three common curse words.
33 min
208
This Family Speaks 1,200 Languages
From Madagascar to Easter Island, Austronesian tongues traveled far and wide with early seafarers.
42 min
209
Language vs. Dialect
The difference between a language and a dialect is mostly meaningless and entirely political.
39 min
210
The Internet Loves the Exclamation Point!!
A conversation with linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her new book, Because Internet.
35 min
211
Why Is "Ph" Pronounced That Way?
The answer is positively phantastic.
43 min
212
Does Language Affect Thought?
We revisit the popular notion that our language helps shapes our worldview.
44 min
213
A Fleeting Glance
The word "transient" reveals some enduring patterns in English pronunciation and etymology.
36 min
214
The Romance Languages
What an ancient, undecipherable manuscript says—and doesn't say—about Latin and its spawn.
41 min
215
Why Do Some Americans Say Warshed?
The letter R has a habit of intruding on spoken English. How come?
45 min
216
Flores Man vs. Sulawesi
A linguistic mystery in the Lesser Sunda Islands.
43 min
217
The Lingua Francas
A conversation with Gaston Dorren, author of Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages.
33 min
218
Can Climate Influence Language?
Tonal languages evolved mostly in hot and humid places. What would explain that?
42 min
219
When Ain't Was Alright
What we can learn about English from am, the seemingly simplest verb.
35 min
220
The Semitic Tongues
Where did Arabic, Hebrew and Amharic originate? And what is a triconsonantal root?
41 min
221
Precious Little
How an old word for child morphed into a versatile, and very modern, suffix.
39 min
222
When Words Collide
Some more of the many ways that neologisms form.
40 min
223
Truth Be Told
An actually very literal discussion of true words. Really!
36 min
224
A Penetrating History of F*%k
English speakers have been getting it on with the F-word for centuries.
42 min
225
When Did English Get Happy?
A New Year's meditation on a joyful word.
34 min