You might have noticed that the word “y’all” is popping up everywhere. For decades, linguists have noted that regional American accents are disappearing. But at the same time, use of this traditionally Southern pronoun is rapidly spreading — and the reasons may surprise you. We hope you learn as much as we did from this special episode from The Broadside, produced by our colleagues at WUNC!

Meet the Guests:

- Brody McCurdy, Linguist and Researcher at NC State

- Antonia Randolph, Assistant Professor of American Studies at the UNC-Chapel Hill

Dig Deeper:

- You can find a transcript of the episode here.

- Check more of The Broadside's episodes here.

Anita is no stranger to anxiety, but her spirals are mostly short lived. In this episode she meets folks who often get caught in loops of extreme worry and compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode, and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating.

Meet the guests:

Dig Deeper:

Nicole's Modern Love essay

Mike and Nicole's Substack, Hey Honey

The website for psychologist Dr. Monnica Williams

OCD advocate Alexandra Reynolds on Instagram

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Anita usually feels better after a good, long cry. But why is that? She explores that question with a poet who spent years diving deeply into the science and culture of crying. And a forerunner of the "crying selfie" trend shares how he pushes back on toxic masculinity by embracing tears.

Meet the guests:

- Heather Christle, poet and author of "The Crying Book," takes us into some of the science of crying and looks at tears through a political and gender-informed lens

- Viorel Tanase, a model and creative director, explains why he decided to share a crying selfie (before the trend took off) and how being vulnerable is part of the human experience

Dig Deeper:

More about the "crying selfie"

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Erectile dysfunction affects as many as 30 million people in the U.S. — yet the fears of not being “normal” prevent folks from speaking up about it. Anita meets a man who was silent about his ED for 10 years before getting surgery and opening up to partners…and talks with a sex therapist who challenges the word “dysfunction.” Plus, a 72-year-old describes how he’s redefined intimacy in his 30 years of experiencing ED.

Meet the guests:

- Ven Virah, a public speaker and global healthcare staffing professional, talks about experiencing erectile dysfunction for 10 years before seeking help

- Dr. Reece Malone, a sexologist, sexuality educator and sex therapist, discusses how ED can be a gateway to discussing other relationship, mental or physical problems

- George Marx, a retiree in his 70s who started experiencing ED in his 40s, talks about how he's developed intimate relationships without penetration

Dig Deeper:

Reflections on ED from George's blog

An interview with author Will N. Richards, and his book "Mother" that features a character with erectile dysfunction

Steve Jones’s new book of poetry, Words Woke Me: My Prostate Cancer Journey in Poetry. 

The blog, A Touchy Subject, which Steve credits for preserving his sanity during his ED experience

The documentary Hard: The Fight to Solve Erectile Dysfunction, which features personal ED stories and info about inflatable penile prosthesis

Shannon's Facebook group

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Anita is committed to self-improvement but skeptical of self-help. She brings her qualms and questions to the experts: Kristen Meinzer, a podcaster who has lived by the rules of more than 50 self-help books, and Beth Blum, a scholar who's traced the genre back to its roots. Plus Sondra Rose Marie, a former self-help fan, shares how the industry has failed her as a woman of color.

Meet the guests:

- Kristen Meinzer, pop culture commentator and podcast host, shares what she learned from following the rules of over 50 self-help books

- Beth Blum, Harvard humanities professor and author, talks about the long history of the self-help industry, and how it's changed over the decades

- Sondra Rose Marie, writer, talks about why she started following a self-help guru...and what events made her leave

Dig Deeper:

Kristen's podcasts How To Be Fine and Daily Fail

Beth's book "The Self-Help Compulsion"

Sondra's Medium article on self-help

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Stuttering occurs in every culture with a spoken language. So why do many communities treat it as a source of shame? Two speech-language pathologists and a comedian help Anita question cultural assumptions about stuttering and explore the growing movement to embrace speech diversity.

Meet the guests:

- Dr. Derek Daniels, licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and associate professor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University, shares his own experience of stuttering and what we know about what causes stuttering

- Jia Bin, doctoral student at Michigan State University, talks about growing up in rural China with a stutter and what she's hoping to bring back to the stuttering community there

- Nina G, comedian and author of "Stutterer, Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen," explains why she decided to embrace her dream of doing stand-up and shares how her stuttering has impacted romantic and platonic relationships

Dig Deeper:

Follow Nina G's comedy on Instagram

Jia on stuttering as a superpower

Stuttering content on YouTube by Courtland Crain and Matice Ahnjamine

National Stuttering Association website

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Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her father's 20-year prison sentence and the untold stories of families navigating incarceration from the outside. Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey also shares how losing her mother to asthma and her father to a life sentence in prison before she was 6 years old led her to investigate the carceral system as a whole.

Meet the guests:

- Ashley Lucas, professor of theatre and drama at the University of Michigan, talks about how her experience growing up with an incarcerated father informs her research and led to her play "Doin' Time: Through the Visiting Glass"

- Sylvia A. Harvey, a journalist and author, examines the intersection of the carceral, education and child welfare systems and investigates some of the larger forces shaping the experiences of families with an incarcerated loved one

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Dive deeper:

My Dad Went to Prison When I Was 5. Now I Write About Families Like Mine by Sylvia A. Harvey

Resources from SAH

An article Ashley wrote about Russell Maroon Shoatz, who served 49 years in Pennsylvania prisons and was the father of seven children

An interview Ashley did with Maroon’s son, Russell III, “Tell a Tale of Two Fathers”

A virtual panel featuring Ashley called “What Prison Does to Children”

Dealing with pimples and blackheads in middle school is practically a right of passage. But when acne is a defining feature of your adulthood... it’s a whole different experience. Anita meets two acne content creators and a photographer who talk about the emotional toll of severe acne, the myth of normal skin, and the responsibility of being today’s skincare influencers.

Meet the Guests:

- Patsy Chem, an acne-positive skinfluencer, shares the experience of getting severe acne in her 20s and how that shaped her social life

- Peter DeVito, photographer behind the "Acne Normalization" project, talks about creating a safe space in portrait photography for models with acne and the ripple effect of those photos

- Cassandra Bankson, a medical esthetician, model and skinfluencer, discusses how she handles the responsibility of challenging beauty standards while also reviewing skincare products and practices

Dig Deeper:

Cassandra's viral video and YouTube channel

NYT on adult acne

Jessica DeFino in Teen Vogue on the myth of "normal skin" and in Vanity Fair on dermatology’s biggest rule that was meant to be broken

Patsy Chem on accepting her acne

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More Americans are living into their 90s and 100s than ever before, and it blows Anita's mind that so few people are talking about it! She meets a 94-year-old man who opens up about the changes in his romantic, platonic, and familial relationships, and his two kids join to share their perspectives. Plus, a woman in her 70s introduces Anita to an innovative model for combating social isolation in your senior years.

Meet the Guests:

- Charles Owens, a 94-year-old man living in North Carolina, talks about friendships, love, assisted living and saying goodbye to your waffle iron in old age

- Eddie Owens and Rosa Rouse, Charles' adult children, talk about how their relationship with their father has shifted in the later decades of his life and how they supported him through the changes

- Madeline Franklin, executive director of STL Village in St. Louis, talks about the "village" model that helps adults age in place

Dig Deeper:

Learn more about the broader Village Movement HERE

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Anita walked away from her first pole dancing class slightly bruised … but very intrigued. She talks with a veteran stripper about the history and politics of modern pole dancing and meets a pole sport athlete and studio owner who is trying to build an inclusive space for pole practitioners. Plus, a nonbinary pole dancer shares how their relationship with the pole has evolved alongside their gender identity.

Meet the Guests:

Dig Deeper:

Paige Gabert’s studio, Midwest Movement Collective 

Advocacy organization Strippers United, where Nats is on the leadership board

Anita’s pole lesson studio, Aradia Fitness Triangle

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