Getting Down & Wordy

We talk about Kentucky rapper Jack Harlow and the history of the whip, as a word and as a thing! Different types, whippings through the ages, whips in fiction . . . For Eurovision, we talk about the Czech Republic's 2024 competitor, Aiko's "Pedestal", and we talk about trilled R's and the Czech Republic's unpronounceable variant on a trilled R. This week's featured po...

This week we talk about the 4 Non Blondes' one hit song from their one album. Why does it get so much hate? What’s under Linda Perry’s hat? Is it meth? And is Dolly Parton okay? We tell you about various greetings and their origins. Looking to spice up your saying hello to people game? We’ve got you covered. And in Eurovision we talk about Romania’s 2023 song, D.G.T. by Theodor Andrei. Enjoy i...

Today we discuss famous brother and sister duo Jack and Meg White. Explain cow punk. And talk about Lay Bankz' "Lady Boner Gone". Then we get into the ick. What is it? Who has it? How can you avoid giving it to girls? Is it problematic? For Eurovision, we'll tell you about Netherlands' Joost Klein and the Frysian people and their language. Spoiler, it's very close to Engl...

Today we discuss Ghostwriter's faux Drake and Weeknd song made using "AI". We talk the ethics of it. The news and controversy around it. The concept of digital blackface. And we talk about AI generally and some of the words and terms that have arisen such as hallucination. In Eurovision, we talk about Luxembourg, who is returning to the contest this year after thirty years of not par...

We try to make sense of the Skibidi Toilet youtube videos and trace the word skibidi which really gets around, from Little Big's song "Skibidi" to Biser King's "Dom Dom Yes Yes". We discuss the history of nonsense words with various examples including nonce words, sniglets, wugs, etc. And of course Lewis Carroll. In Eurovision, we discuss the troubled past of Russia and...

Today we talk about the classic Bobby Darin song and the original song which it was based on. We also talk about his life and career generally. In etymology, we discuss the origin of various aquatic animals' names, including whales, dolphins, and cuttlefish . . . We also talk generally about the relationship between naming and observation. We talked about water animals, so for Eurovision we ta...

It's the holiday season! Today we discuss The Neighbourhood's hit song "Sweater Weather" and the history of the sweater. Why did we settle on SWEAT as the thing to name an article of clothing after? We'll talk about that, the etymology of "sweat" and other words for sweater like jumper, and generally how this particular sort of knitted shirt came to be so uniquely i...

Today we talk about Metallica. Are they objectively bad? We talk about the song "Welcome Home" (that's the song where they say "sanitarium"). What's it about, what's it based on, that kind of stuff. We talk about sanitariums. What were they? How did they work? We also talk about backronyms. In Eurovision talk, we discuss Germany's "Blood and Glitter" b...

It's cuffing season, and we're talking about beige flags, things about a romantic partner that are not bad enough to be red flags, more like quirky or mildly annoying. Where did this phrase come from? What are some examples of beige flags? By the way, where does this word flag come from, etymologically? We also talk about the flagpole sitting craze of the 1920s. Yes, people literally sat o...

Today we see what was the most popular song from exactly 100 years ago in 1923. And wow, it's weird. But it's nicely rooted in the history and culture of the time and tells us a lot about ethnicity, comedy, and the precarious fate of the banana at the time. So we dive into all that. Additionally we give you the history and etymology of banana of course. And we talk about its relation to co...

Today we discuss Hannah's favorite song so she'll stop suggesting we do an episode about it every week. We talk about the pop culture of movie monsters that it arose from, and the pop culture of songs about dance crazes. We explain the origin of the word monster and what words it's related to. And we explore the history of the idea of a monster. Where did it begin, and how has it evolv...

Today we discuss charisma and its little Scrappy Doo-esque sidekick rizz! What does it mean, where'd it come from? What's the story of charisma? Why do we say charisma in Dungeons & Dragons and not like "persuasiveness" or something? And while we're talking about Dungeons & Dragons, what slang terms could we come up with for the other D&D stats? We also discuss wh...

We talk about how men talk! And we talk about how Matchbox Twenty talk with "Push" the surprisingly controversial song about pushing women around. Will I have some research about it? Well, I will. Well, I will. As we did with the feminine genderlect episode, we have a couple interesting lists of words that men are more likely to know than women. Additionally, we talk about various resear...

This week we talk about barbie - the movie and the doll and the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua. And as you'd expect we're pairing that with a girly language topic. We're talking about how women talk. Is it different from how men talk? Or is that a myth? How do you perform femininity in language? What are the conceptions and misconceptions, and what is the reality? In Eurovision w...

Today we welcome special guest, Youtube star Rob Watts of the Robwords English language show. He joins us to talk about the definitely real UK rappers Pete & Bas. And we reveal the true story behind their whole deal (hoax? how dare you!). Then we talk about some of the differences between UK and US English that you definitely don't already know about. I'm telling you. There are some re...

Today we talk about Ice Spice, whose appearance on the scene has been so meteoric she hasn't even had time to make enough songs to fill an album yet. Is she an industry plant? Is that really a thing? Do Hannah and Russell know enough famous zoomers to stuntcast a new Spice Girls? And we discuss the word mood itself, its etymology and how it's used now in contemporary culture. Additionally,...

Today we're joined by Lowell Hobbs the lead singer of post-punk band Tongues of Fire to discuss the language of spiciness. We talk about the history of spicy food, the different kinds of spiciness, and how different languages have adapted words to describe the relatively recent introduction of capsaicin to their cultures. For Eurovision, we talk about Australia's 2023 song "Promise&qu...

Michael Colby, from the podcast Jack Billings Presents: Haunted Apartment Complex, stops by to fanboy out with Russell over Yeah Yeah Yeahs . . while Hannah sits there awkwardly and probably thinks about Dungeons & Dragons or something. And we discuss the dialect-y origins of their band name. Then we talk about all the things that we say that hark back to a simpler, flatter earth (like 'ed...

We discuss the culture's complex and changing perceptions of Vanilla Ice, a rapper who there are lots of reasons to dislike, but maybe everyone's being a little too mean? His real story will suprise you. Will it make you like him more? Well.... No.... Then we talk about "gangway", a word which somehow we all intuitively know is kind of nautical and piratey, but where are we even...

Today we excitedly interview Puppy Songs creator and musical genius Matt Hobbs, and together we all talk about how humans talk to pets, whether pets understand or not, and how pets communicate with us. We discuss pet voices. Child-parent relationships as models for interspecies relations - do they go in both directions? I mean like, does my cat think of me as her son? Should I give her a mother&#3...

In light of the release of the live action The Little Mermaid and in support of Pride Month, in this episode we're talking about Doctor Octopus's drag persona, Ursula. Just kidding, but she IS purported to be based on a drag queen. Is it a fun cool drag queen that we should all celebrate? Well... At least Divine had lots of pride about being a drag queen. Oh? He didn't at all? Well . ....

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Today we talk about the number 1 most played karaoke song of all time (?) "Before He Cheats", and struggle to say something thoughtful about country music, a genre we know even less about than usual. We talk about the wild history of the expression "Souped Up", from safe crackers boiling dynamite to race horses taking the most cruel and disturbing drugs imaginable. Hannah tries...

We talk about Karol G, who made a song that Hannah actually liked (a rare phenomenon) even while saying repeatedly that she doesn't have an ear for spanish, whatever that means! We discuss "affirmative language", words like "yes", and in Spanish "si". Some alternatives like aye, roger, yeppers, uh-huh, nodding.... Is nodding an instinctive action? Darwin thought s...

We talk the origins and evolution of "slime" from unassuming mucus to cool guy best friend. DnD oozes. Young Thug's singing voice. RICO. And in Eurovision, we talk about the big 5's songs - Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and UK. This week's ad is Memento Mori. Find this podcast at https://mementomoripod.buzzsprout.com/ You can find tons of other great podcasts on our network...