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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Chad M Topaz, professor of complex systems at Williams College and cofounder of the QSIDE Institute, about his book Unlocking Justice: The Power of Data to Confront Inequity and Create Change.

• Yoda and BSL

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Valerie Fridland about her newest book, Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents.

• Maine Monitor interview with Platner
• Platner's apology

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Carrie and Megan talk with Drs Lynnette Arnold and Anna I. Corwin about their new co-edited book (with Jennifer R Guzmán and Emily Avera), Language and Health in Action (ebook), along with two authors in the same volume, Drs Stephanie Keeney Parks and Abby Mack about their chapters "Autism Diagnostics as White Public Space in US Clinics" and "In the Spirit, in the Flesh: Performative Language, Embodiment, and Sustaining Recovery in Appalachia".

• Code Switch episode on Trump's culty language

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Carrie and Megan talk with Kory Stamper, about her newest book, True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color from Azure to Zinc Pink. Out March 31, 2026!

• Chatbots and bias

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Carrie and Megan talk about the Epstein emails and Chomsky's correspondence with him. Carrie swears more than usual.

• Support Tim Brookes Kickstarter

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Carrie and Megan talk about the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year.

• TACO

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Carrie and Megan talk with Tim Brookes about his newest book, By Hand, about the importance of handwriting.

NBER report

Current Affairs

WOTY: 

• 6-7
• rage bait
• parasocial
• vibe coding
• AI slop
• maple washing

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Carrie and Megan talk about Makaton, an artificial sign-based system, particularly Sara Novič's article about it.

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Carrie and Megan talk about random words that are scary or scary-adjacent.

• facsism
• eldritch
• ghost
• vampire

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We have a few things to say about Pinker.

• Part of the War on Science
• The Language Instinct
• Pinker on Race Realism
• Co-authored paper on overregularization
• The Open Letter to the LSA
• The article that Carrie was interviewed for, but not named, about the Open Letter
• Our episode on dogwhistling
• The Harper's Letter
• Guardian on his appearance on Aporia

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Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on