Some people have origin stories. Pardis Mahdavi has a hyphenation story. Her Iranian family was the target of a hate crime in Minnesota. She was stripped of her citizenship in Iran. Eventually she embraced the hyphen between the words 'Iranian' and 'American' as her identity: two cultures within one person.

But what exactly is the function of a hyphen? Does it unite two ideas, or divide them? Together with Pardis Mahdavi, we trace the many disputes surrounding this seemingly humble horizontal line, from Romans and Celts, then via Hollywood to politicians and lexicographers.

Photo of Pardis Mahdavi (center) and her family courtesy of Pardis Mahdavi. More info about her here.

Music by Damma Beatz, Nylonia, Walt Adams, Amaranth Cove, Marc Torch, Pulsed, and Saira Ridley. Read a transcript of the episode here.

In our upcoming season, we'll have stories on people who have "lost" their mother tongue, the language of self help, why certain sounds make us laugh, and much more. The first episode drops December 15. Subtitle is a production of Quiet Juice and the Linguistic Society of America. Music by Organized Chaos. Photo by Nola Cox.

Gwich’in is among Alaska’s most threatened languages. but Princess Daazhraii Johnson is determined to change that. Her mother, she says, was of "that boarding school generation that was hit for speaking Gwich’in.” Today, more Gwich’in people are learning their language, and kids are exposed to it by shows like PBS’ Molly of Denali. In this episode, Princess Daazhraii talks about the past, present and future of her people’s native tongue. This episode is reported by Kavita Pillay and comes to us via the Seedcast podcast.

Music by Podington Bear, Reveille, Dream Themes, Mark Himley, Four Trees, and Grant Borland and Blue Dot Sessions. Photo by Adam Jones. Read a transcript here.

Who writes the fortunes in fortune cookies? Why are so many of them not really fortunes at all? Why did some fortunes turn ominous for a while? (“After today, you shall have a deeper understanding of both good and evil.”) And who was behind the theft of countless fortunes? Lidia Jean Kott has the answers to these questions, and to one more: Where do fortune cookies come from? Hint: It's not China. Music in this episode by Lisa Germano, Podington Bear and Blue Dot Sessions. Photo by Megan Swan/Museum of Food and Drink. Read a transcript of the episode here.

With the Scripps National Spelling Bee back after a Covid-enforced year off, we conduct our very own spelling quiz. Also, Kavita Pillay offers her take on why Indian American kids perform so well in spelling bees. And author and self-described “crummy" speller David Wolman tells us why he wrote a history of English spelling and the many attempts to reform it. 

Photo of a spelling bee in Fulton, MD, by Howard County Library System via Flickr/Creative Commons. Music in this episode by Cloudline, Podington Bear and Alexander Boyes. Read a transcript of the episode here.