Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

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1. 121: Vampires, ghosts, imposters and more linguistic monsters

   16 oktober 2026 · 42 min

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   Vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, zombies, imposters, and frankenstein have something in common: they're all possessed by the spirit of linguistics! Lees meer

   In this silly spooky episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about various kinds of linguistic monsters. We talk about how vampires would make the best historical linguists, the ghosts of borrowed words and old grammar haunting our modern vocabulary, why Your Honour can enjoy dressing up as a grammatical imposter, the common origins of witch and wizard, and more hauntings from the thrilling world of monster linguistics.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjQyMDAxMTg4Nw
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/830584421665128448/transcript-episode-121-vampires-ghosts

   Announcements:
   In honour of the 10th anniversary of Lingthusiasm, we're launching the Linguistics Zine Challenge: make or share a linguistics zine and tell us about it by the end of November, and you could win prizes! Full details, including the submission form and details of all the fun prizes up for grabs, can be found here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/829947863269294080/announcing-the-linguistics-zine-challenge

   November is also World Linguistics Day! Join your fellow language nerds around the globe on November 26th as we celebrate linguistics. Last year people from 70 cities in 34 countries participated. Tag us in your celebration posts on social media, or get extra lingthusiastic and share your favourite linguistics zine in honor of the day. More details here: https://lingcomm.org/category/world-linguistics-day/

   In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about the most deeply irrelevant pitch emails we have somehow ended receiving after almost 10 years of podcasting....and find creative ways to make them all somehow about linguistics anyway! (Don't worry, we've redacted all the na…

2. 120: How (not) to kill a language - Interview with Sophia Smith Galer

   18 september 2026 · 41 min

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   Narratives about smaller languages often focus on the death and endangerment sides of the story. There's generally less on the social and political reasons why some languages are favoured at the expense of others, and how community members are working on reconnecting with their languages. Lees meer

   In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch gets enthusiastic with Sophia Smith Galer about her new book, How to Kill a Language. We talk about Sophia's personal experience with Italian dialect from her nonna and mum growing up, how she moved from BBC journalism to vertical video about language, and how those things combined into writing a book highlighting the active ways that languages are suppressed by educational policies, shaming parents into not passing down their language to their children, colonial violence -- and what community members are doing to fight back. We also talk about travelling on a budget, talking with diaspora speakers, and how Sophia started an Italian language cafe in London to create the welcoming language practice space she wished she'd had.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjQwMjc5ODEzOQ
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/828057782684205056/transcript-episode-120-how-not-to-kill-a

   Announcements:
   In this month’s bonus episode we go Behind the Zines with our technical editor Leah Velleman and get enthusiastic about the process behind making the first four Lingthusiasm zines! We talk about We talk about how Leah got into linguistics through Lord of the Rings and conlanging, her pivot from PhD fieldwork to technical editing, and a very brief history of zines. We also talk about why Leah decided to go rogue with the formatting for her diminuitive zine about diminuitives, where the meat clarinet comes from, and comedic timing for most effectively offering people zines. Finally, a sneak peek at some future zine topics we're w…

3. 119: Irregularity is all over the place

   21 augustus 2026 · 46 min

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   Talk, talked. Walk, walked. Go...went? Lees meer

   In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about the many ways that languages are irregular in their patterns! We talk about sound and spelling irregularity, word irregularity and euphemisms, grammatical irregularity and fossils of older systems, and how irregularity is perhaps the most regular thing about languages. We also talk about those parts of systems that seem to be magnets for attracting irregularity, like negation in signed languages and common words generally, how kids learn irregular patterns in a U-shaped curve, and perhaps the most fun kind: jocular irregularity like octopodes and more.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjM4NTQ1MDQ4MA
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/825515335444807681/transcript-episode-119-irregularity-is-all-over

   Announcements:

   We have new merch! We've used the metaphor of a musical instrument several times when talking about how the human vocal tract is organized, and how you can change the shape of your mouth as the air is on the way out, which changes what the air sounds like. We've used a couple of different musical instruments as metaphors, the meat clarinet, the meat bassoon, the meat bagpipe… but Gretchen just couldn't get that original imagery of the meat clarinet out of her head (maybe it's because she played clarinet in high school band). So Lauren was eventually persuaded that what we really need in our lives is some art of the human vocal tract and a clarinet merged together, in… meat colours (Lauren would like it noted that she thinks this art is deeply cursed and will not be buying any).

   (No, it’s not anatomically accurate because the mouth of the clarinet would have to be your mouth and we decided that was even more disturbing.)

   If you want to see how our artist Lucy Maddox even went above and beyond and …

4. 118: Using tech to chat with bonobos, dogs, and whales

   17 juli 2026 · 46 min

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   Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? What about the studies trying to teach bonobos and other primates to communicate through buttons or signs? What have we learned about whale communication from the first-ever recording of a sperm whale birth? Lees meer

   In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about how people use technology to try and enhance our communications with bonobos, dogs, and sperm whales. (Sorry, other animals, you'll need to wait for a future episode.) We talk about the crucial distinction in animal communication studies between "any communication at all" (yes) and "language the way humans do it" (no), how we can actually learn more by appreciating animal communication systems on their own terms, and how some kinds of tech are helping us do that. We also talk about the logistics of studying animal communication, including avoiding the Clever Hans effect, how ubiquitous recording technology has changed the game on whalesong in recent decades (but there's still lots of catching up to do), and an at-home study of over 10,000 dogs using buttons (they're still recruiting if you want to join!).

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjM2MjQ0ODQ0NA
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/822345633242431488/transcript-episode-118-using-tech-to-chat-with

   Announcements:
   Gretchen was invited to narrate the audiobook for Shakespeare's Sonnets: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness by friend of the podcast Zach Weinersmith (https://smbc-store.myshopify.com/products/shakespeares-sonnets-abridged-beyond-the-point-of-usefulness?variant=46040499585162), and we have some free copies to give away to patrons! Follow us at any level on Patreon (including free) to read the behind-the-scenes post about reading the sonnets and get the audiobook: https://www.patreon.com/lingthusiasm/posts/gre…

5. 117: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking - Interview with Julie Sedivy

   19 juni 2026 · 49 min

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   Sometimes, a phrase seems to leap off the page and lodge into your mind, crisp and shining like a precious jewel. Other times, you're reading something and it just won't stick, your eyes wandering away no matter how hard you try. Lees meer

   In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch gets enthusiastic about what psycholinguistics can tell us about creative writing, with Julie Sedivy, who's a psycholinguist based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the author of two general-audience linguistics books, Memory Speaks and Linguaphile. We talk about moving from the style of scientific writing to literary writing by writing a lot of unpublished poetry to develop her aesthetic sense, how studying linguistics for a writer is like studying anatomy for a sculptor or colour theory for a painter, and how you could set up an eyetracking study to help writers figure out which sentences make their readers slow down. We also do a small linguistic experiment on air using the following words, which you can play along with: luggage, liminal, withstand, tremulous, pulchritude, zoo.

   Note that this episode originally aired as Bonus 96: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking, and we’ve added an updated announcements section to the top. We’re excited to share one of our favourite bonus episodes from Patreon with a broader audience, while at the same time giving everyone who works on the show a bit of a break.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjM0MjI1MTk0OQ
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/819808832839712768/transcript-episode-117-what-makes-for-beautiful

   Announcements:
   In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about linguistics podcasting with Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast! We talk about being nearly teenaged in the world of language podcasting (Lingthusiasm turns 10 later this year, and The Allusionist turned 10 last yea…

6. 116: Cross-cultural communication (in space!)

   22 mei 2026 · 32 min

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   Sometimes, you're talking with someone and you just seem to click. Other times, you just can't seem to get comfortable: they're standing too close or too far away for comfort, making too much or too little eye contact, touching or not touching you in a way that just doesn't quite feel right. But where do our senses of what feels comfortable in a conversation come from, and how can they be so different from each other? Lees meer

   In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about understanding aliens, fantastical creatures, and perhaps the trickiest group of all, other human cultures. We talk about a science fiction book called Hellspark by Janet Kagan (which was recommended by a listener!) which is a murder mystery set on a planet of cross-cultural communication gone wrong, and which sent us on a whole deep dive into the world of proxemics, aka the linguistics of personal space. We also talk about how these early roots of cross-cultural communication studies have shifted in modern-day linguistic anthropology, and compare several newer speculative fiction books about alternative structures for human societies (plus aliens and/or dragons), including What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed and To Shape A Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjMyNTQ2MDc3NQ
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/817301296196501504/transcript-episode-116-cross-cultural

   Announcements:
   Check our our updated topics page! It's a great resource if you're not sure what episode to listen to next or what to recommend to someone. We've added some new topics that let you browse, for example, which episodes analyze the linguistic elements of all the science fiction and fantasy that we've been reading! And we've kept the ability to browse episodes by linguistic structural features, which is perfect for when you're…

7. 115: The long shadow of Daisy Bates with This Guy Sucked

   17 april 2026 · 1 uur 1 min

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   What do you do when the only records that remain of a language were made by someone who had absolutely horrendous views of the people who spoke it? Lees meer

   In this episode, your host Lauren Gawne gets enthusiastic about a crossover episode with Claire Aubin of This Guy Sucked! Lauren's Guy who Sucked is Daisy Bates, who did a lot of early 20th century work documenting over 100 Indigenous languages in western and southern Australia, while also directly adding to policies and narratives that continue to harm Aboriginal Australians to this day. We talk about Lauren's history with the original archive, how much has changed since Daisy Bates's day, and where linguistics (and society) still has room to improve.

   Please note that this episode includes reference to deceased Aboriginal Australians, as well as reference to attitudes and actions that are harmful to the self-determination of Aboriginal Australians.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjMwNDAyODk5Nw
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/814101160008040448/transcript-episode-115-the-long-shadow-of-daisy

   Announcements:
   In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about the second half of our interview with Kory Stamper about her book on defining colour words, and this half contains spoilers!! We talk with Kory about how she learned about Margaret Godlove and many other women whose labour has been forgotten in early colour science and dictionary making.

   Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://patreon.com/posts/153313989

   For links to things mentioned in this episode:https: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/814100919507730432/lingthusiasm-episode-115-the-long-shadow-of-daisy

8. 114: Begonia, average coral, and sea pink - Defining colour terms with Kory Stamper

   20 maart 2026 · 54 min

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   begonia: a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see ‘coral’ 3B), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet William, called also ‘gaiety’. Lees meer

   In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about trying to pin down definitions for colour terms with Kory Stamper, author of the new book TRUE COLOR! Kory is a lexicographer and was Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster for almost two decades. Her first book was Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, which we also loved, and now Kory is back with the fruits of her dive into the mid-20th century quest to standardize colour terms, taking us from dying fabrics to painting cars to assessing grades of maple syrup.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjI4NzE3NTMzMA
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/811565836536086528/transcript-episode-114-begonia-average-coral

   Announcements:
   In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about childlore! We talk about our favourite bits of childlore from our own childhoods, such as skipping/clapping rhymes, counting-off rhymes, and fortune-telling. We also talk about tracking down the sources for "All Right, Vegemite!", a compilation of Australian children's chants and rhymes from Lauren's childhood, selectively choosing to pass on less racist and sexist versions of the rhymes, the relationship between childlore and memes, as well as research from folklorists and anthropologists on childlore around the world.

   Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152094450

   For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/811565466203111424/lingthusiasm-episode-114-begonia-average-coral

9. 113: Why "it's a diglossia!" explains so many social dynamics

   20 februari 2026 · 49 min

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   In some communities, everyone regularly uses two languages or varieties according to the social situation, with one of them being more prestigious (and more likely to be written down) than the other. This particular kind of multilingualism is known as a diglossia. Lees meer

   In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about diglossia! We talk about why diglossia is the answer to so many questions Gretchen gets asked at parties, what "high" and "low" versions of a language have to do with mountains, where the four "classic" cases of diglossia come from (Arabic, Greek, Haitian, and Swiss), and how at least some of them might not be diglossias anymore. We also talk about whether there are new diglossias emerging (French? English???) and how to tell if you might be in a diglossia.

   Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjI2OTg5MjkwMw
   Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/809025308745416704/transcript-episode-113-why-its-a-diglossia

   Announcements:
   The LingComm grants are running in 2026! If you're working on sharing linguistics concepts with broader audiences or know someone who is, whether in person, online, with kids, through art, video, audio, writing, in person events (or some other idea we haven't thought of!), we have $300USD grants to support your cool project. The grants also include a mentoring meeting with Gretchen, Lauren, and/or an experienced lingcommer who we have personally selected to be relevant to your project.

   Applications close on 30th of April 2026, that's the end of April anywhere on earth. Thanks to the generosity of several people we have more grants to give out than we expected, so please apply! Application form and further details can be found here: https://lingcomm.org/grants/

   In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about what we've been up to in 2025 and what's coming up in 2026! P…

10. 112: When language become-s(3SG) linguistic example-s(PL)

    16 januari 2026 · 49 min

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    Language is all around us. This sentence right here, is language! But between the raw experience of someone saying something and a linguistic analysis of what they've said, there are certain steps that make it easier for that analysis to happen, or to be understood or reproduced by others later. Lees meer

    In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about how language becomes linguistic data. We talk about making recordings of language, transcribing real-life or recorded language, annotating recordings or transcriptions, archiving all those materials for future generations, restoring archival materials from decaying formats, and presenting this information in useful ways when writing up an analysis. Along the way, we touch on playing 100+ year old songs from cracked wax cylinders, the multi-line glossing format used so readers can understand examples in a language they're not already fluent in, analyzing spontaneous conversation using tapes from the Watergate Scandal, recognizing everyone who's contributed (including your own intuitions!), and Lauren's role on a big committee of linguists and archivists formalizing principles for data citation in linguistics.

    Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjI0ODMzMjkyMA
    Read the transcript here:

    Announcements:
    If you wish there were more Lingthusiasm episodes to listen to or you just want to help us keep making this show, we have over a hundred bonus episodes available for you to listen to on Patreon.

    Not sure about committing to a monthly subscription? You can now sign up for a free trial and start listening to bonus episodes for free right away: https://www.patreon.com/lingthusiasm

    In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about about some of our favourite deleted bits from recent interviews that we didn't quite have space to share with you! First, an excerpt from our interview w…

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