A podcast about languages and the people who speak them.
Steve Jobs’ last words were: “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” Oscar Wilde went with: “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do...
Latest episodes:
How do you keep your language alive while also protecting the health of elders? That’s been the quandary facing Ojibwe educators...
For centuries, Russians have dismissed the Ukrainian language as “Little Russian,” its speakers as simple-minded peasants. The...
Kavita Pillay recently moved to Helsinki with her Finnish husband and half-Finnish daughter. While husband and daughter effortlessly...
We can’t always find words to describe our emotions—not in English, at least. In this episode, Saleem Reshamwala asks friends who...
For hundreds of years, people living in Louisiana’s bayou country have spoken French. But rising sea levels are submerging entire...
They’re not in American dictionaries yet, but the terms, ‘punching up’ and ‘punching down’ are on the lips of...
In this episode, we tell the inspiring, heartbreaking story of Radio Haiti. For several decades, the station broadcast not just in French...
Does your grandmother call a chest of drawers a dresser? Or a bureau? Or perhaps a chiffonier? Over the years and across regions, Americans...
If you’ve ever set boundaries, taken up a gratitude practice or manifested, you’re already well-versed in the language of self-help. Over...
Why do so many of us laugh at a word like ‘poop’ but not at, say, ‘treadmill’? Is it all down to their meaning? Or...
When Julie Sedivy was four, her Czech family emigrated to Canada. In this episode we hear how Julie became estranged from her native Czech...