The Vocal Fries

Send a text Carrie and Megan talk about the Epstein emails and Chomsky's correspondence with him. Carrie swears more than usual. Support Tim Brookes KickstarterSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk about the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year. TACO Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Tim Brookes about his newest book, By Hand, about the importance of handwriting. NBER report Current Affairs WOTY: 6-7rage baitparasocialvibe codingAI slopmaple washing Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk about Makaton, an artificial sign-based system, particularly Sara Novič's article about it. Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk about random words that are scary or scary-adjacent. facsismeldritchghostvampireSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text We have a few things to say about Pinker. War on ScienceThe Language InstinctRace RealismoverregularizationOpen LetterarticledogwhistlingThe Harper's LetterGuardianSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Adam Aleksic about his new book, Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language. Bromism and ChatGPTSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Megan C. Reynolds, Dwell magazine editor, about her book, Like: A History of the World's Most Hated (and Misunderstood) Word. Putin and RussianSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Paulette van der Voet and Martina Terrazzano, PhD students at the University of Umea, about their class called “Linguistics and the Eurovision Song Contest”. Top 20 Eurovision songsMalta and Estonia Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text We talk with Dr Lorna Gibb about her newest book, Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages. Steven Pinker: Harvard Derangement Syndromevs. LSAJews and IQSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Drs Emily M. Bender, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington, and Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), about their new book, The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want, out May 13, 2025. Virtual Book LaunchBender v. BubeckInventing Intelligence: On the History of Complex Information Processing and Artificial Intelligence in the United States in the Mid-Twentieth CenturyRoxane Gay's anti-AI stanceThe TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence The Conduit MetaphorKevin Roose's Conversation with BingMystery AI Hype Theatre 3000 Intro: UK ruling on the legal definition of "woman"JK Rowling looking smugSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Gabe Henry about his new book, Enough is enuf: Our failed attempts to make English eezier to spell. Puerto Rico and English as an Official LanguageSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Gerald Roach, Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Cultures at La Trobe University, about his new book, The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet, language oppression, solidarity, China and Tibet. LSA's responseEO on English as the Official Language of the USSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Megan and Carrie talk with Massimiliano Canzanella about the Neapolitan language and how it is perceived in Italy. Asian languages and the LA firesSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Adam Benkato, Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, about Arabic. incarcerationSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Ayala Fader, professor of anthropology at Fordham University, and Dr Mike Mena, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY, about their new project, the Demystifying Language Project, where academics and high school students work together to rewrite linguistic articles into more accessible versions. First article: Speech or Silence Intro from our patron René: Barron'sSpeech of the yearSupport the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk to Dr Leonard Cassuto, Professor of English at Fordham University, about his class called "Literature and Psychology of Disgust," which explores how language evokes emotional responses, particularly disgust, and his book Academic Writing as if Readers Matter, which was released in September. Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us a text Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Elia Powers, Associate Professor of Journalism at Towson University, about his book Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality. 5 Podcasts for Word NerdsWhy Does Trump Do That Weird Capitalization Thing?Support the show Contact us: @vocalfriespod@vocalfriespod.bsky.social Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on