Particularly in the African-American community, the affectionate term son is often used for more than just young male offspring—most anyone can be addressed as son. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Addressing as...
Grant’s 7-year-old son has gotten into Ancient Greek, of all things. While it’s a joy to teach your kids interesting things, a child’s eagerness to learn also poses a challenge for parents. You don’t want to squelch their...
If you’d like your son to become a statistician, Martha suggests naming him “Norm”! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Statistician Baby Name” Grant, I have another aptronym for you. What do you call...
An Indianapolis listener says his father used to often spoke of leaving this veil of tears. His son wonders about the origin of that phrase. Grant and Martha explain the expression is actually vale of tears, a synonym for valley. In some...
Word birth is Deb Roy’s term for the moment a child’s babble sharpens into a recognizable word. To study it, the MIT cognitive scientist and his wife wired their home with 11 cameras and 14 microphones, plus a privacy button, and recorded their...
Amid the stacks of new titles at the library, Grant picks out The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame to read with his son. The hosts discuss the appeal of classic children’s books. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...

