Podcasts · Science · Education

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård

100 episodes · Explicit

A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Episodes page 1 of 2

  1. 148: On the Mark (with Florence Hazrat)

    · 2 h 19 min · Explicit

    Commas, em dashes, apostrophes, and interrobangs. We use them for timing, for grammar, and even for social purposes. But these little marks didn't just arise overnight. Dr Florence Hazrat fills us in on the history and…

  2. 147: The Language Beat (with Michael Erard)

    · 58 min

    Michael Erard has been covering language in major publications for a good long while. What has he learned, and what can linguistic communication take from his work? Michael sits down for a chat with Daniel and Hedvig…

  3. 146: Beyond Words (with Karen Stollznow)

    · 2 h 02 min · Explicit

    How do children learn language, and why can't other animals? Why are false friends between languages always naughty? And how is public perception of language changing? Dr Karen Stollznow is taking us through a tour of…

  4. 145: Face With Tears of Joy (live with Keith Houston and friends)

    · 1 h 34 min · Explicit

    Emoji, once regarded as some kind of frivolous nonsense, have become an important way we communicate online. But how did these little pictures come to our devices? What is the Unicode Consortium, and how did they get…

  5. 144: Sociophonetics Deep Dive (with Jennifer Nycz, Lauren Hall-Lew, and Kelly Wright)

    · 1 h 08 min

    Why don't we all sound the same? Are some accents easier to learn? And are there reasons for the differences in how people sound and sign, or is it just random? We use sound and sign to encode information about our…

  6. 143: How to Kill a Language (with Sophia Smith Galer)

    · 2 h 17 min · Explicit

    How does it feel to be isolated from a language and a culture that could have been yours? There are many paths to language loss, but there are also many ways back. Language revitalisation is now happening for…

  7. 142: If This Be Magic (with Daniel Hahn)

    · 2 h 02 min · Explicit

    Translating Shakespeare takes a knowledge of language, culture, and poetry — both in English and in the target language. There are tradeoffs and pitfalls, but a skilled translator can bring Shakespeare closer to our…

  8. 141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)

    · 2 h 24 min · Explicit

    Each letter in our Latin alphabet tells a story. But what about spaces? Or writing direction? Should we get rid of some letters, or could we even do with more? Here to answer all these questions is Dr Danny Bate,…

  9. 140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)

    · 2 h 02 min · Explicit

    We created software that could generate human-like text output quickly and easily. Now we're dealing with the societal upheaval it's caused. What are the risks and rewards, and what can we learn about language from…

  10. 139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)

    · 2 h 47 min · Explicit

    Australian magpies are even cleverer birds than we thought. New research from Dr Stephanie Mason shows that they do two language-like things we used to think only humans could do: learn their calls socially, and…

  11. 138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)

    · 1 h 32 min · Explicit

    Wherever Irish speakers in the world get together, you can have a "pop-up Gaeltacht"! And we're having one on this episode. We've got author and TG4 presenter Laura Pakenham taking us through the history and…

  12. 137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)

    · 1 h 02 min

    What goes on in our minds when we construct an utterance? Linguists often use syntax trees to represent the structure of sentences, but are they psychologically real? Yngwie Nielsen and Dr Morten Christiansen have…

  13. 136: These Languages Are Anchors (with Mary Walworth)

    · 2 h 11 min · Explicit

    What will happen to the languages of climate refugees? Dr Mary Walworth has been working with the small island community of Nusi in Papua New Guinea, which was recently featured in an episode of Pole to Pole with Will…

  14. 135: Linguistic Illusions (with Dan Parker)

    · 2 h 09 min · Explicit

    "More people have listened to this episode than you have." Why does this sentence look so right, but feel so wrong? When your grammar says one thing, but your brain says another, you may have found a linguistic…

  15. 134: True Colour (with Kory Stamper)

    · 2 h 21 min · Explicit

    How do you define what blue is? What even IS colour? Turns out, the quest to define colours was happening along with a standardisation crisis and a dictionary crisis at the venerable Merriam-Webster. Lexicographer and…

  16. 133: Why We Talk Funny (with Valerie Fridland)

    · 2 h 28 min · Explicit

    We all have an accent — or several! And we use them to communicate things about us, and highlight aspects of our identity. So what's going on with the accents we hear? Are we losing some accents, or are they just…

  17. 132: WotY 2025, the Final Word (with Kelly Wright)

    · 1 h 30 min · Explicit

    We're talking to Dr Kelly Wright, friend of the show and data czar for the American Dialect Society. They run the biggest and most prestigious Word of the Year event, and she was there when the 2025 WotY votes came in.…

  18. 131: Words of the Week of the Year 2025 (live with friends)

    · 1 h 32 min · Explicit

    Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/Mqf05kN-TaI It's Word of the Year season, and we're counting down our Words of the Week of the Year! In the time-honoured tradition, we gathered them all up from our 2025…

  19. 130: Back to the FTR (with Séan Roberts, Cole Robertson, and Annemarie Verkerk)

    · 2 h 54 min · Explicit

    You know the story. The language you speak doesn't determine your savings. If your language has a future tense, there's no impact on the way you see or describe the future. Language and perception are separate. Well,…

  20. 129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)

    · 2 h 26 min · Explicit

    We've asked linguists about how language began, but what would an evolutionary biologist tell you? Prof Madeleine Beekman says it's part of a complex web of body, brain, and community, and at the heart of it is…

  21. 128: Across the Universe (with Natan Last)

    · 2 h 07 min · Explicit

    Among so many great word games, crosswords still reign supreme. How have they survived — and even expanded — in our digital age? What goes into a good puzzle, and will computer techniques take over? Daniel chats with…

  22. 127: Oh (with Maia Chao, Kelly Wright, and Caitlin Green)

    · 2 h 16 min · Explicit

    The "Oh" show was an experimental linguistics performance lecture. It happened in June 2025 at Creative Time HQ in New York City. Actors, musicians, and audience came together (with at least one linguist!) to act out…

  23. 125: Friends With Words (live with Martha Barnette and friends)

    · 1 h 31 min · Explicit

    Martha Barnette is one half of the linguistics podcast A Way With Words, and author of the new book Friends With Words: Adventures in Languageland. Her lifelong love of language has led her through some of the…

  24. 124: Algospeak (with Adam Aleksic)

    · 1 h 50 min · Explicit

    Creators have to be mindful of what to say and what not to say in their content. This affects the language we're exposed to — and what we say IRL. But it's part of an old process. Popular LingToker Adam Aleksic breaks…

  25. 123: Conscious Language (with Karen Yin)

    · 1 h 54 min · Explicit

    We've all seen style guides that tell us what to say and what not to say. Has a style guide ever asked you what you wanted to say? Or challenged you to examine your thinking? This one does. It's the Conscious Style…

  26. 122: The Interaction Engine (with Stephen Levinson)

    · 56 min · Explicit

    How did language start? What do all languages have in common? How does language really work? Many answers have been posed to these questions, but one thing is for sure: interaction is the combustion chamber where…

  27. 121: Learning from LLMs (with Adele Goldberg)

    · 2 h 23 min · Explicit

    How do large language models (LLMs) do their thing, and it is anything like how we do our thing? What can we learn about human language from this software? The answer might involve constructions — pairings of form and…

  28. 120: Gesture! ✨👐✨ (with Lauren Gawne)

    · 1 h 54 min · Explicit

    Gesture is everywhere. We wave our hands when we talk, even if we're alone. Signed languages are, of course, full languages that use gesture. And it could even be argued that emoji are the online equivalent of gesture.…

  29. 119: Eurovision Goes to Uni (with Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig)

    · 2 h 15 min · Explicit

    It's Eurovision season! We love to talk about what we can learn about language from this international song contest, but even we didn't realise that there was so much to learn. Language choice, language policy,…

  30. 118: The A.I. Con (with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna)

    · 51 min · Explicit

    Artificial intelligence (so-called) is typified by its boom and bust cycles, and we're in a boom now. But as more and more money pours in with decreasing returns, we're going to see a shakeout, and hype is rushing in…

  31. 117: Sometimes It Feels Like I'm the Only One Trying to Fix English Around Here (live with friends for LingFest25)

    · 1 h 47 min · Explicit

    Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/wxGeXMzlwng If you repeat something twice, how many times did you do it? Can more than one dinner be "the perfect dinner"? And what does "every other" mean? We are once…

  32. 116: Enough Is Enuf (with Gabe Henry)

    · 2 h 07 min · Explicit

    Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound and escape its etymological origins, but have never seen their…

  33. 114: Bye Bye I Love You (with Michael Erard)

    · 1 h 56 min · Explicit

    First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we see if we focused on interaction instead? A new book looks at words, gestures, and silence at…

  34. 113: "Official" English (with Carmen Fought)

    · 48 min · Explicit

    Breaking news: The president of the United States intends to sign an executive order designating English the official language of the USA. Is this a big deal? Why was this necessary, and what happens now? Dr Carmen…

  35. 112: WotY 2024: The Last Word

    · 1 h 33 min · Explicit

    What really goes on behind the scenes at the biggest Word of the Year vote in linguistdom? Are we really going to stick with sanewashing for our word? And which words did we miss? We lock in and crash out with New…

  36. 111: Words of the Week of the Year 2024 (live with Mignon Fogarty and friends)

    · 1 h 43 min · Explicit

    It's our Words of the Year episode, where we do a vibe check on all the words and name one of them our Because Language Word of the Year. We're joined by Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty and a lot of friends and supporters.…

  37. 110: Diego's Dossier (with Diego Diaz)

    · 1 h 04 min · Explicit

    What's in the linguistic news? Diego knows. He's been tracking down stories and words for us all year long, and now he's curated an entire show for us. It's the latest in the Diego series. • How do you write laughter…

  38. 109: Language Oppression in Tibet (with Gerald Roche and Sasha Wilmoth)

    · 2 h 36 min · Explicit

    Minority languages are under threat everywhere, but Tibet represents a particularly difficult challenge. The Tibetan language family is under pressure from (no surprise) Mandarin, even as community support for Tibetan…

  39. 108: Mailbag of Etymology (with Douglas Harper)

    · 1 h 25 min · Explicit

    We're joined for the first time by Douglas Harper, proprietor of the world-renowned Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com). He's here to help us with our Mailbag questions, and even test us in a game of Related…

  40. 107: Linguaphile (with Julie Sedivy and Matt Spike)

    · 2 h 07 min · Explicit

    Language is a lot like love. You can enjoyably lose yourself in both. They can both be dangerous. And they both entail a responsibility to keep each other safe. A new book Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love is both a…

  41. 106: What One Thing? (with Mark Ellison)

    · 1 h 21 min

    What one thing explains the most about language? Here to answer that question is linguist and friend of the pod Dr Mark Ellison — and many of our listeners and friends. It's one of our Deck Chats! Grab a coffee and…

  42. 105 or 500 (live with Kelly Wright and friends)

    · 1 h 36 min · Explicit

    For our 500th episode, we got together with our great listeners for their words, stories, and inspiration. It's a look back at the show, a look at language from our friends' point of view, and a celebration of our…

  43. 104: Dogwhistles (with Elin McCready, Lizzy Hanks, Jesse Egbert, and Rikker Dockum)

    · 1 h 44 min · Explicit

    Can you hear them? Only if you're meant to. Political dogwhistles exploit lack of knowledge in one group to send a coded message to another group. But that's just the beginning. How are dogwhistles different from…

  44. 103: Unequal Englishes (with Ruanni Tupas and Nicole Holliday)

    · 2 h 21 min · Explicit

    There are lots of Englishes out there, but the way we approach varieties of English sets learners up to fail. How do we combat language ideologies out there in the world — and in our own minds? Dr Ruanni Tupas is the…

  45. 102: Signed Language Mailbag (with Adam Schembri, Christy Filipich, and Mark Ellison)

    · 2 h 45 min · Explicit

    What do signed languages have in common? How do oral languages influence signed languages? How do they influence each other? Here to answer these questions and many more, it's Dr Adam Schembri of the University of…

  46. 101: Talkin' Chomsky (with Katie Martin and Abduweli Ayup)

    · 2 h 27 min · Explicit

    Noam Chomsky is one of the world's foremost thinkers, and his impact on linguistics is incalculable. Yet many people are only familiar with his political activism. What are his linguistic ideas, and why have they been…

  47. 100: Spicy Mailbag

    · 1 h 28 min · Explicit

    A hundred episodes already? To celebrate, we're doing our favourite kind of episode: a Mailbag. • Why is it a BLOW JOB when there's no blowing? Why JOB? And why is OFF often used in sexual expressions? • Why do we say…

  48. 99: Gender in Germany (with Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán from Corner Späti)

    · 2 h 09 min · Explicit

    What's going on in Germany? How are people talking about gender in the German language, and how is freedom of expression being handled? We have a couple of German experts — linguist Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán of the…

  49. 98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman)

    · 1 h 43 min · Explicit

    How much can we really know about the words we use? What are the facts behind some of the most tangled etymologies in English? And is our "Related or Not" game a good way of approaching word history? We're talking to…

  50. 97: The Dictionary of Fine Distinctions (with Eli Burnstein)

    · 1 h 39 min · Explicit

    What's the difference between a KINK and a FETISH? Does it matter if you ASSUME or PRESUME? English is full of these close groups of words, and author Eli Burnstein has untangled many of them in his delightful book The…

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.