A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over - Podcast Episodes, Ranking & Reviews

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

Just Skylarking (Rebroadcast) - 28 September 2026

The art of the invitation can be tricky. An inviter’s idea of invitation may be taken by an invitee as merely mentioning an event while they’re nearby. One such a misunde

Sep 28
53 min

Carpe Diem - 21 September 2026

Carpe diem! A new book reveals the surprisingly unfamiliar stories behind familiar quotations. Also: Rock climbers have gumbies, and surfers have kooks. What do those wor

Sep 21
53 min

Folding Money (Rebroadcast) - 14 September 2026

Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to K

Sep 14
53 min

Takes the Cake (Rebroadcast) - 7 September 2026

What do you call a long sandwich filled with lots of ingredients? Whether you call it a sub, a hoagie, a grinder, or something else entirely depends on where you’re from.

Sep 7
53 min

Secret Code - 31 August 2026

“Are we ready to order yet?” Why do restaurant servers use the word “we” when they’re not eating with you or helping you pay the bill? And a story of Cold War intrigue: A

Aug 31
53 min

Blessing Box (Rebroadcast) - 24 August 2026

Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things li

Aug 24
53 min

Apple Turnover - 17 August 2026

Critters, co-workers, and clothes: What do you call your favorite mixed-breed dog? There are Heinz 57 mutts and Texas brown dogs in the U.S., while in parts of the Caribb

Aug 17
53 min

Fair Dinkum (Rebroadcast) - 10 August 2026

A magnificent new book celebrates the richness and diversity of 450 years of written and spoken English in what is now the United States. It’s called The People’s Tongue,

Aug 10
53 min

Wired for Sound - 3 August 2026

If someone tells you it’s flisky or flobby outside, do you need to take an umbrella? A new book about England’s soggy climate includes 188 terms for rainy weather. Americ

Aug 3
53 min

By a Landslide (Rebroadcast) - 27 July 2026

How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small

Jul 27
53 min

Mischief Night - 20 July 2026

What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came on

Jul 20
53 min

Big Dog (Rebroadcast) - 13 July 2026

If you’re ever near a sundial, step closer and look for a message. Many sundials bear haunting, poetic inscriptions about the brevity of life. Plus, language development

Jul 13
53 min

Cheese Toasties - 6 July 2026

If you mistype something, that’s a typo. But what do you call it when your voice-to-text program mistypes as you’re dictating? Is that a mico, as in microphone? Plus, the

Jul 6
53 min

Hot Gossip (Rebroadcast) - 29 June 2026

Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the grapes, the gore, and hot tea. Plus, John Donne’s love poems are amon

Jun 29
53 min

Flash in the Pan - 22 June 2026

It’s the ultimate road trip: A father and son retrace the journey of Odysseus and find a way to navigate their relationship. Plus, the story behind the phrase a flash in

Jun 22
53 min

In the Ballpark (Rebroadcast) - 15 June 2026

Novelist Charles Dickens and the musician Prince were very different types of artists, but they also had a lot in common. A new book chronicling their extraordinary caree

Jun 15
53 min

Outer Space - 8 June 2026

A writer stumbles upon a tiny, motionless creature on a country road and, against all good advice, takes it home. The resulting memoir, Raising Hare, is a lovely meditati

Jun 8
53 min

Stub Your Toe (Rebroadcast) - 1 June 2026

Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their o

Jun 1
53 min

Snookums and Snicklefritz (Rebroadcast) - 25 May 2026

A new book about how animals perceive their environment reveals immense worlds beyond our own. A bee can see ultraviolet light, catfish have taste buds all over their bod

May 25
53 min

If Grandma Had Wheels (Rebroadcast) - 18 May 2026

While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new co

May 18
53 min

Chart trend

Position in the Society & Culture chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#99#197JulAugSep

#46

all-time peak

day in the top 50 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 29, 2026).

#156 ▲ 5 Society & Culture US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

I stumbled upon this show one weekend while I was listening to NPR and now I’m hooked. I have always been a fan of languages, but I’ve honestly never thought about linguistics as much, or the history behind it. This is a truly fascinating and fun show. I especially enjoy listeners calling in with their stories of different expressions. I’ve learned so much from this show in the past few months. Thank you!

Baggin Saggin Mary · Aug 2025

I’ve been listening to this show for nearly a decade now. It’s an entertaining exploration of the English language, its global expression, and its variations in the United States.

B Belew · Dec 2024

Excellent podcast! Martha and Grant are so warm and welcoming. Their approach puts me in the perfect head space to simultaneously relax and learn. I love how accepting they are of different pronunciations and usages while still clarifying accepted rules and conventions; I am now far less harsh in my criticism of other people. I believe I have listened to every episode available via podcast, and I will continue listening as long as it keeps coming out!

IOleary24 · Jul 2024

The host are incredibly friendly, and so incredibly enthusiastic about words! Each episode has a few little offerings of different new stories, or book releases, or something pertaining to the world of words, and then most of the rest of the show is responding to calls or emails either about word meaning disputes, derivation origin questions or usage queries. Every episode also has a really excellent puzzle. That is often easy enough to do in real time while you’re listening, but almost always gets increasingly harder so that you can’t quite keep up with it. But because the host play the puzzle live it’s something you can sort of play against them, the flow of the show is that they come from the polite culture where you keep saying buy it at the end of the call until someone gives up and since I come from a culture where you say goodbye once it’s agonizing to me to listen to everyone to jockey for final, bye-bye position

Mehitchcock · Apr 2024

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.