T.H. White’s The Once and Future King offers excellent advice about how to fight off despair: learn something. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Learning Fights Off Despair” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about...
“Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.” This may be a Jewish proverb, although its provenance is uncertain. In any case, it’s a reminder that while young people still have much to learn, they also...
In a 1994 interview in the Paris Review, Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe offered some great advice about having faith in your process as a writer based on his own experiences as an undergraduate. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
On our Facebook group, a member told the story of teaching English in Japan, where a student couldn’t remember the slang expression stud muffin, but came pretty close by substituting his own term, hunk waffle. This is part of a complete episode...
Howdy! Ever hear questions that are really veiled criticism, or apologies that are actually excuses? That, and more, in our latest episode: language for resolving personal conflict, in like Flynn, gradoo, Irish pennants, champing, and a silly rule...
Why do so many people begin their sentences with the word so? This sentence-initial so (as it’s known) can play lots of roles. We’ve talked about it before, too. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “So at the Beginning of Sentences”...