Getting Down & Wordy

Today we discuss Meghan Trainor's new song "Made You Look". That's right, Mrs. Spy Kid herself (she married a Spy Kid). Is the song kind of good or really bad? We also talk about "make" and other delexical verbs like take get do have go . . . Those verbs that get used to mean anything such that you can make a product, but you can also make a bed, make up with someone, m...

This is the first episode of our new format. We've decided to stop talking about music, and from now on we will talk about fruits and their etymology and history instead. Today we'll taste some varieties of apples, kumquats, goldberries, pineberries, horned melons, and starfruit. As for Eurovision, we're going to talk about the documentary released about the 2020 Eurovision competition...

** AUDIO QUALITY ADVISORY ** There's some trouble with Russell's recording in this episode. He may be a little tough to hear. Today we talk Taylor Swift's song Anti-Hero. We talk about anti-heros and the etymology of the word hero, and we discuss linguistic bleaching, the way that words fade in strength over time. In Eurovision, we talk about the Baltic countries' entries. This epi...

Today we talk about Waka Flocka Flame's hit song "Hard in da Paint". What does hard in the paint mean and where did it originate? For that matter where did the word paint come from? We discuss some other basketball idioms in every speech. Then we do a March Madness style tournment bracket of the last 16 Eurovision winners. We choose our winner. If you want to choose your winner, you can find our l...

We talk about Sam Smith (who Russell stupidly misgenders like a hundred times, sorry listeners!), Kim Petras, LGBT and transgender stuff of course, and the etymology of body shop and specificly the word body. We look at some songs about other kinds of shops and Hannah tries to guess if they're sexual or not. And for Eurovision we talk about some of the songs that have been chosen for 2023 thus far...

We talk "Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by The Fifth Dimension, and of course we talk about Aquarius the astrological sign, astrological ages, and the endless list of different astrological bodies which a sign can be 'in', i.e. moon sign, saturn sign, etc., and what each means. TRIGGER WARNING: we are a little derisive toward the whole idea of astrology at times, even though Hannah is an ast...

We review our favorites and least favorites of the podcast episodes of 2022. We talk 5 favorite songs from the podcast. 1 worst song covered. 3 favorite language facts learned. Favorite and least favorite Eurovision song. And predictions for the future of the English language in 2023. Today's featured podcast is Anything Bones! Find them here or anywhere you get podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.co...

**POOR AUDIO QUALITY ADVISORY** There are some problems with the audio in this episode, namely some voice quality loss and a background puppy. Listener beware. Today we are joined by Andres from the Latin Jukebox podcast to talk about Bad Bunny and the history and impact of Spanish on American culture and the English language. We discuss Bad Bunny's activitism in LGBTQ rights and Puerto Rico advoc...

We talk about NSYNC, why pretzels are the ultimate Christmas snack, etymologically speaking, the merry marry mary merger, and of course why we say "Merry Christmas", spoiler - it's like saying have a drunken socialist christmas . . . We also talk about Lithuania's Eurovision offering Sentementai by Monika Liu.

We talk Migos, Takeoff's death, car words, the history of the bourgeoisie in France and communist theory, and the origin and rise of 'bougie' in African American culture through class struggles and civil rights. And we discuss Portugal's 2022 Eurovision offering "Saudade Saudade" by MARO.

We talk about the KPOP band Blackpink and the history and etymology of the color pink. And for Eurovision, we discuss Finland's The Rasmus.

Today we talk about Coolio and his hit song "Gangsta's Paradise", and the etymology and history of paradise as a word and concept. For Eurovision, we discuss Ukraine's 2022 winning song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra.

In honor of Halloween we decided to talk about the Swedish metal band Ghost and the etymology of metal, both as a word for the substance and as a word for the music. In Eurovision, we talk about Azerbaijan's 2022 song Fade to Black by Nadir Rustamli.

We talk about the Eiffel 65 song "Blue", the etymology of the word blue and some common idioms and expressions using the word blue. And for Eurovision, this week we discuss Switzerland's 2022 song "Boys Do Cry" by Marius Bear.

We talk about Lil Uzi Vert. Are they a Dr. Seuss character? Also the history of the purse and how it became pointlessly gendered. And from Eurovision, we discuss Tiktok phenomenon song "Snap" by Rosa Linn, and a little about the Armenian language.

Special guest Paisely from the podcast Learn German Through Music joins us to talk about Die Toten Hosen, the etymology of beer and alcohol, and Oktoberfest. And we discuss 2022 Eurovision German entry, "Rockstar" by Malik Harris. Listen to Learn German Through Music on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JpaBUaBBb9JWk2djk533g?si=55b0eba0fa6b4a30

We talk about Rebecca Black's meteoric super hit song "Friday" and the history and etymology of the weekend. As for Eurovision, we discuss Sam Ryder's "Spaceman".

We talk about Beyonce's "Break My Soul", contractions, particularly "won't" and why it isn't "willn't". In Eurovision we talk about Moldova's "Trenuleţul" by Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers and the cedilla and the comma below in Romanian.

We talk about the etymology of the words nickname and pet name, why some nicknames don't look much like the name they're shortened from (like Robert -> Bob). Honorifics. Pet names through history. And for Eurovision we talk about Give That Wolf a Banana by Subwoolfer.

We talk about Lizzo and her use of the word "overstand" in a statement she made apologizing for using ableist language. We look at the history and meanings of overstand and also ableist language and words you may not have realized are ableist. For Eurovision, we do Slo Mo by Chanel and discuss a few of the differences between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin America.

We discuss the etymology of the word gremlin from its origins in fighter pilot culture to the Chris Columbus movie, which . . is it racist? I mean, besides the Asian culture racism. Are gremlins a racist caricature of African Americans? Then we talk about some other country's weirdly specific monsters. And we discuss our first Eurovision song of the 2022 contest - Romania's Llamame by Wrs, plus Ro...

We talk about pop songs about abortion and the etymology and history surrounding the word abortion. Also we play a game we're calling Kinkshame Abort Cancel. And we talk about other healthcare procedures which would make good pop songs. This episode is bound to be offensive to many. Don't @ us. Sum 41's doctor said your mom should've had an abortion, and we support that.

We discuss "As It Was" by Harry Styles, verb tenses, and whether a language's treatment of time, among other things, has any influence on our perception of time, which is to say, linguistic relativity. Also, instead of Eurovision, we continue to talk about the American Song Contest.

We talk about "ABCDEFU" by Gayle and the alphabet - where it came from and why it's in the order it's in among other things. Instead of Eurovision, we discuss Amerovision - The American Song Contest.

We talked about "Surface Pressure" from Encanto, onomatopoeias, and Ukraine's 2021 Eurovision song "Shum" by Go_A.