Getting Down & Wordy

Sacre Bleu, it's the return of Billie Eilish, and she's singing in French! Oh wait she's not, just the song title is in French. Well anyway! C'est la vie. We talk about the rise of queerness in music. And then we talk about French, the language of love. Why is it thought of as the most romantic language? For Eurovision, we discuss Luxembourg's 2024 song "Fighter" by T...

Today we're talking about a super sunny song and the darkness that lies within. And we're pairing that with the topic of covert hate speech, basically. A lot of numbers. Bigots seem to really like numbers. Kind of good to know what the tainted numbers are so you don't accidentally use them, just saying. For Eurovision, we are finally talking about the winner of Eurovision, Switzerland&...

We're talking about perhaps the greatest Metallica song, probably the most listened to now that it got the Stranger Things bump. And we're talking about "puppet". The word, the history, the creep factor, the surprising relevance and popularity of puppets today. If anything, they're more popular than ever before. For Eurovision, we talk about Estonia's 2024 entry 5MIINUST...

Next week's episode will be about the word "puppet", the etymology, history, and cultural stuff surrounding the word. So this week, I am interviewing my favorite puppeteer, Matt Sandbank. Matt Sandbank does lightbox shadow puppetry. His shows are clever, poignant, and hilarious. He is based in North Carolina, but he does shows around the country. We talk about his puppet work, and hi...

We selected the cringiest musical artist we could think of to feature in our discussion of cringe. What is this complex emotion and how has it evolved? And where did the word come from? Is it an ideophone? What's an ideophone? We discuss it. In Eurovision, we discuss Austria's 2024 song "We Will Rave" by a Kaleen. Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownan...

Recently I got into the band Mannequin Pussy, and I thought it's interesting that they have trouble with censors in media and platforms such as Tiktok, for "pussy", a word that not that long ago was acceptable to use in any context because it had two meanings - cat and genitals. So we're exploring how it shifted over time from first meaning only cat, to then meaning cat and genit...

Welp, we watched the musical Wonka movie. And one of us loved it and one of us did not. Which of us is which may not surprise you. It's a "funny" movie with some funny words, so we thought we'd talk about what makes some words funny. We look at the discourse and research into what makes a word funny. And we list lots of examples of words that various people have pointed out as be...

We're talking about the only artist whose name rhymes with RZA . . . SZA! And of course we're talking about the surprising history of rhyming plus different kinds of rhymes. Which words do and don't rhyme? It's more complicated than you think. Are slant rhymes bad writing? It's more complicated than you think! For Eurovision, we discuss Croatia's 2024 song "Rim Tim Tag...

On this jagged little podcast we discuss Alanis Morisette's first hit and what she's done since. Amazing what a woman with pockets can do. Of course we're talking about hands, including the etymology of the word, and also the fingers, and also various hand signs such as the high five. In Eurovision talk, we discuss the UK's 2024 offering, "Dizzy" by Olly Alexander. And we...

Today, building on our discussion last week with Michelle Troszak, creator of the Interstellar Song Contest, we talk about fictional languages. We have all your favorites except for the Game of Thrones ones! Klingon! Elvish! Simlish! Furbish! Wenja from Far Cry! And more! In Eurovision, we talk about space-themed songs throughout the years. Remember to check out the Interstellar Song Contest at an...

Today we talk to Michelle Troszak, founder of Skysail Theatre, about her new musical, The Interstellar Song Contest. This episode is part 1 of our discussion on fictional languages, which will conclude in next week's episode. The Interstellar Song Contest currently exists as a cast recording and a radio show in podcast format. Find Michelle, Skysail Theatre, and the show at the following links...

Maybe a lesser known Decemberists song, but probably one of the first ones I ever heard, we talk about "Myla Goldberg", and the person who it's about, author of the novel Bee Season. Lots of spoilers for people who have not read it and intend to, so watch out. We discuss the spelling bee. How'd it start and what are the rules? And why is it only an English thing? In Eurovision, w...

We discuss the OG oxford comma enthusiasts, Vampire Weekend, the first hit song off their new album, and everyone's favorite goat-fish astrological sign, the capricorn. What are capricorns like? Where'd the goat and fish combo come from? What's the age of capricorn going to be like? Why are you asking us all these questions? In Eurovision, we'll talk about Italy's 2024 entry &q...

This one's for the grammar nerds! (But not such grammar nerds that you'll cringe at all the stuff we inevitably got wrong.) We're talking about Paula Abdul's greatest hit "Straight Up", and we're talking about irregular verbs, particularly about verbs that used to be irregular but are now regular, and about other words which are actually formerly irregular verb forms...

Today we discuss Shrek the Musical, the live action musical play version of the first Shrek movie. How did this get made? Should it have been? And we talk about the origin and many different meanings of gross. In Eurovision talk, we discuss Ireland's "Doomsday Blues" by Bambie Thug. Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of our theme song “Who’s Wordy Now”! Find Patsy on youtube at...

We discuss Ceelo Green's big hit (the radio edit) "Forget You", and we go deep into the evolution of the word dementia and society's ideas about it. For Eurovision, we do Slovenia's song "Viktoria" by Raiven. Check out another podcast in our network, Crime & Spirits, you can find them here https://linktr.ee/crimeandspiritspodcast Find them, us, and lots of other...

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...