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A linguistic Lord of the Flies?

What would happen if you placed six families, each speaking different languages, on an uninhabited desert island for three years? How would they communicate? Would their

Julie Sedivy’s personal history of language

In this episode, a conversation with language writer Julie Sedivy. Her memoir, Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love is a kind of natural history of language, told through

How composer Leoš Janáček set his daughter’s last words to music

As 20-year-old Olga Janáčková lay dying from typhoid fever, her father wrote down everything she said. Later, he transformed those words—and gasps—into music. The grievin

Will Icelandic survive the invasion of English?

Some Icelanders are becoming unsettled by this existential question: Will their language still be spoken in the future? Comedian and former Reykjavik mayor Jón Gnarr is c

The language that gave Missouri its name

Many place names in the United States are borrowed from Native American words. It's often hard to trace the roots. Over time, the original names were often transformed be

Presenting Home, Interrupted

In this episode, we're handing over the reins to the podcast series, Home, Interrupted, produced by Feet in 2 Worlds. The series explores how the climate crisis affects i

Icelandic, the language that recycles everything

Icelanders are protective of their language. When a new piece of tech or a new disease emerges, people debate what to call these things in Icelandic. New words must sound

The bilingual edge: what the research says

In recent decades, Americans' perception of bilingualism has been transformed. As recently as the 1990s, the prevailing belief was that if a child grew up bilingual, they

How Basque speakers saved their language

How did Basque survive Spain's military dictatorship under Francisco Franco when speaking, writing and reading it were illegal? With more than six dialects, how did its s

Chinese sci-fi has crossed the translation barrier

Netflix's lavish new adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem is the latest 'translation' of one of this century's best, and best-selling, sci-fi novels. In this

Why the French use the English word ‘black’

The French language is replete with words borrowed from English, like 'weekend' and 'podcasting.' But French speakers' use of 'black' is in a category of its own: this on

The Irish language renaissance

Irish is among Europe's oldest languages. It's a near miracle that anyone speaks it today. Patrick talks with online Irish teacher Mollie Guidera whose students include a

From linguistic shame to pride

Israel Jesus used to be ashamed of being from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and speaking the local indigenous tongue, Triqui. When he moved to Salinas, California, a kid in

Easing into multilingualism

Mastering six languages sounds like a slog, right? But in some corners of Europe, it happens—maybe not effortlessly, but more easily than in, say, Ohio. Gaston Dorren gre

How the brain of an improv performer works

Does the brain of an improv comedian or freestyle rapper function in a particular way? Is it processing language faster than a regular, lower-improvising brain?  Or is so

Sugar Sammy’s multilingual comedy

A conversation with comedian with Samir Khullar who grew up speaking Punjabi, Hindi, English and French. He does standup in all those languages, sometimes mixing them up.

Is Mx here to stay?

When a word first enters the language, it sounds weird to some, radical to others and comforting to just a few. Only later does it seem 'natural.' So it was with the hono

Americans, Brits and the foreignness of English

American English and British English aren't different languages. But they're not the same either, even if they're getting closer. There are all those different words for

A German-speaking outpost in the American Midwest

German used to be one of the most widely-spoken languages in the United States. A survey in 1900 listed 613 US-based German-language newspapers. Today, only a handful sur

Season 4 is coming

In our upcoming season, we have stories about voice clones, tongue twisters and small languages fighting back. We'll hear from comedians, bilingual lovers and badly-behav