We have books for language-lovers and recommendations for history buffs. • How did the word boondoggle come to denote a wasteful project? The answer involves the Boy Scouts, a baby, a craft project, and a city council meeting. • Instead of reversing just individual letters, some palindromes are sentences with reversed word order. • Also squeaky clean, dad, i ... Show More
Oct 6
Diamond Dust (Rebroadcast) - 6 October 2025
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs -- a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. And a mom says her son is dating someone who's non-binary. She supports their relationship, but still struggles to use their prefer ... Show More
51m 45s
Mar 2023
140.2. - The Story of Dr. Seuss ("The Father of Children's Literature")
If you don't know who Dr. Seuss is, you should!He was a cartoonist and author that brought us The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, Green Eggs and Ham and over 40 other incredible books for children and adults around the world. He's been called "the father of contemporary children's li ... Show More
39m 49s
Dec 2022
135.2 - The Story of "Jingle Bells"
In today’s lesson you’re going to hear the story of the creator of Jingle Bells, his questionable character and we’ll go through the lyrics of the song so if you want to sing it in English, you can. This is Part 2. In Part 1, we spoke about the common English expression Bells a ... Show More
34m 56s
May 2024
How Can We Be More Effective With Language?
Have you ever wondered what’s up with double negation, the history of gender neutral pronouns, or why swearing is taboo? Then get ready for this week’s guest, linguist Anne Curzan! Anne and Jonathan talk about how the English language has evolved since the 1300s and how our words ... Show More
55m 20s
Mar 2023
140 - Expression: Cat Got Your Tongue?
It's a ridiculous visual, is it not?! If the cat's got your tongue, you can't talk, you're speechless! And that's pretty much how we use it in English conversation. We often ask someone "Cat got your tongue?" in situations when they can't respond, or they don't respond. Listen to ... Show More
19m 57s
Sep 2022
129.2 - The Monster Study
The Monster Study (aka Tudor Study) is an unethical psychology experiment that was conducted in 1939 on 22 orphans in Davenport, Iowa. The goal was to a test the theory that by deeply worrying about starting to stutter, one may develop the speech disorder. Mary Tudor, a graduate ... Show More
35m 57s
May 2022
#286 Learn English with Pop Culture
One of the greatest ways for you to be part of the current conversation, socialize and understand jokes is by staying up-to-date with what’s going on in Pop Culture. In today’s episode, we will discuss some recent events involving celebrities, and share our thoughts about them. P ... Show More
36m 41s