If you eat ice cream too quickly, the painful result is called an ice-cream headache, a cold headache, or brain freeze. But if you’d feel better using the medical term for it, it’s another mouthful: sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. This...
In 1963, the writer James Baldwin was the subject of a profile in LIFE magazine, in which he observed, “You think your pain and heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” This is part of a complete...
A wingnut is a handy, stabilizing piece of hardware. So why is it a pejorative term for those of a certain political persuasion? Also, is there something wrong with the phrase committed suicide? Some say that the word commit is a painful reminder...
The Mighty is a website with resources for those facing disability, disease, and mental illness. In an essay there, Kyle Freeman, who lost her brother to suicide, argues that the term commit suicide is a source of unnecessary pain and stigma for the...
In a powerful essay on white privilege, Good Black News editor Lori Lakin Hutcherson includes the term chandelier pain to describe how painful accumulated slights can be. Medical professionals use the term chandelier pain to refer to the result of...
Schadenfreude, from German for “damage-joy,” means “delight in the misfortune of others.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Schadenfreude” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Camille...