The Vocal Fries

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk with Kory Stamper, about her newest book, True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color from Azure to Zinc Pink. Out March 31, 2026!Chatbots and biasSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk about the Epstein emails and Chomsky's correspondence with him. Carrie swears more than usual.Support Tim Brookes KickstarterSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk about the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year.TACOSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk with Tim Brookes about his newest book, By Hand, about the importance of handwriting.NBER reportCurrent AffairsWOTY: 6-7 rage baitparasocialvibe codingAI slopmaple washingSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk about Makaton, an artificial sign-based system, particularly Sara Novič's article about it.Support the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk about random words that are scary or scary-adjacent.facsismeldritchghostvampireSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailWe have a few things to say about Pinker.Part of the War on ScienceThe Language InstinctPinker on Race RealismCo-authored paper on overregularizationThe Open Letter to the LSAThe article that Carrie was interviewed for, but not named, about the Open LetterOur episode on dogwhistlingThe Harper's LetterGuardian on his appearance on AporiaSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk with Adam Aleksic about his new book, Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language.Bromism and ChatGPTSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

Megan C. Reynolds, Dwell editor and author of Like: A History of the World’s Most Hated (and Misunderstood) Word, joins to trace 'like' from 1600s records to today. She explains quotative uses, hedging and approximation. They tackle gendered criticism, prescriptive policing of speech, and why the backlash says more about power than intelligence.

Send us Fan MailCarrie and Megan talk with Paulette van der Voet and Martina Terrazzano, PhD students at the University of Umea, about their class called “Linguistics and the Eurovision Song Contest”.Top 20 Eurovision songsMalta and EstoniaSupport the showContact us:Threads us @vocalfriespodBluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.socialEmail us at vocalfriespod@gmail.comThanks for listening and keep calm and fry on