What’s the difference between a geek and a nerd? An Ohio professor of popular culture wants to talk about it. Here’s the a MetaFilter thread and a Venn diagram about the differences. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
This week, it’s headlines that make you do a doubletake, like “Child’s Stool Great for Use in Garden.” Martha and Grant discuss a few of these bloopers, also known as crash blossoms. Also, if you unthaw something, are you...
When is it more appropriate to use the word female as opposed to woman? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Female vs. Woman” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Krista from Dallas, Texas. Hello, Krista. Welcome...
A woman from Indianapolis is trying to convince her grandmother that it’s okay for restaurant servers to refer to both male and female customers as you guys. Grandma says it’s sexist. Our caller maintains it’s fine, drawing an...
A Pensacola man says he’s invented a gender-neutral pronoun, and wants to know how to popularize it. He’s not the first to try, as shown by linguist Dennis Baron’s chronology of failed attempts to create and popularize epicene...
How’d we get the term colorblind, and when it did come to be mean “indifferent to race”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Colorblind” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how are you...