Word Bomb

Word Bomb

By TVOSociety & Culture
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Word Bomb episodes

  • Word Bomb is back for season four!

    Word Bomb is back with nine episodes that tell the story behind hot-button words like genocide, homeless, and deaf. Season four drops October 14th.

    Let’s continue to explore language together! Please support the Word Bomb podcast by donating today at www.tvo.org/supportpods. 

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1 min
  • BIPOC: Can a term be too inclusive?

    The acronym BIPOC has been around for years-but in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and BLM protests across North America this summer, it's been thrust into the spotlight. Is this hot-button term inclusive or homogenizing? Does it signal solidarity or perpetuate erasure? Pippa and Karina break down BIPOC from a uniquely Canadian perspective with help from Paige Galette, a queer Black artist and organizer from Ontario, as well as France Trépanier, an artist and curator of Kanien’kehà:ka and French ancestry and the co-director of the initiative Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 min
  • Sex: The words and the bees
    Now that we've got your attention: Pippa and Karina investigate how sex drives slang creation in the English language. With Jonathon Green, one of the world's leading lexicographers and author of Green's Dictionary of Slang, they take a trip through steamy slang and anatomical idioms from the 1500s all the way to the present day. They also break down the all-important distinction between the words "sex" and "gender."

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min
  • Expat: A passport to privilege
    Why are some people living abroad called "expats" and others called "immigrants" or "migrants"? Is it simply semantics, or something much deeper? In this episode, Pippa and Karina decode the politics, power dynamics, and privilege behind these loaded terms, and unpack the baggage carried by travelers to and from the global north and south. They're joined by Dr. Anu Taranath, a racial equity consultant and author of the book "Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World."

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min
  • Organic: Farm to label
    Karina and Pippa take a trip down the grocery aisle to peel back the "organic" label. The organic food industry is booming-but is it all marketing and markup at Whole Foods, or the future of sustainable farming? A tightly regulated industry, or ripe for fraud? Is an apple really just an apple? Along the way, they speak to one of Canada's foremost food trend analysts and sink their teeth into both the assumptions and the facts behind this agricultural movement.

    Thank you to Dana McCauley of New Venture Creation for the interview, and special thanks to Joel Aitken of Ecocert Canada for his invaluable background on the path to organic certification in Canada.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
  • Cancel: Dispatches from the culture wars
    2020 is definitely #cancelled, but who can cancel who, and where does boycotting end and cancelling start? Pippa and Karina data-mine Twitter, sort through the endless op-eds, and debate the catharsis and consequences of call-out culture. Online and IRL, cashing in on the thriving "attention economy" has never been so easy-or so fraught.

    For some extra reading, we recommend checking out the article "Everyone Is Canceled" by NYT writer Jonah Engel Bromwich, as well as "Why we can't stop fighting about cancel culture" by Vox writer Aja Romano.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 min
  • Karen: Calling cops and naming names
    Pippa and Karina talk to an entire chorus of Karens and break down the memeification of this now-infamous first name, from the baby boom to Black Lives Matter. Women weaponizing their whiteness have never been so easily called out-but how did one of the most popular baby names of the mid-century come to represent the biggest villain of 2020?

    Thank you to all Karens who we spoke to this episode: Karyn Guenther, Karin Freeman, Karen Burgess, Karen Stowe-Spektor, Karen Williams, Karen Gray, and Karen K Ho.

    For further reading, we recommend checking out the NYT article "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror" by Charles M. Blow; the book They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rogers; and the SNL "Baby Shower" skit for good measure.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 min
  • Republican: Grand Old Party in the U.S.A.
    Pippa and Karina take a quick break from doomscrolling to ring in the U.S. presidential election with an episode on the word "Republican." From res publica to revolution, from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, identifying as Republican has gone through some major sea change over the centuries-and the word has never been more loaded than in 2020. As the United States stands on the brink of a historic vote, is the GOP what it used to be?

    Thank you to Rob Vipond of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy for his interview!

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    21 min
  • Nice: A journey into the friendzone
    Pippa and Karina follow this surface-level word straight into one of the darkest corners of the internet: the manosphere, complete with Nice Guys, good boys, incels, and MRAs. How did one boring, overused adjective become the ultimate red flag? "Nice" is so much more than the sum of its parts.

    Thank you to our guest Shelby Lorman, the artist behind the Instagram account @awardsforgoodboys and the book of the same name.

    Credit for Not Ready to Make Nice: Emily Robinson, Natalie Maines, Martha Maguire, and Dan Wilson/Sony/youtube.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min
  • Hustle: The millennials aren't alright

    Millennials are often called the "hustle generation." They're famous for side gigging, bootstrapping, and burning out. But what really is hustling, and where did it come from? This week on Word Bomb, Pippa and Karina meet hustle culture at the source, investigating the way we talk about work-all the way from its Jim Crow-era roots to 1950s workaholism, 90s rap to Silicon Valley startups.

    There are so many articles on the phenomenon of millennial hustle culture, but you might want to start with Anne Helen Petersen's "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation"(https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work) and Erin Griffith's ,Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?, (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/business/against-hustle-culture-rise-and-grind-tgim.html)

    For more reading on the Black roots of the word "hustle" and how the word has been co-opted by startup culture, we recommend checking out this great 2020 article (https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/04/03/826015780/when-the-hustle-isnt-enough)
    from Isabella Rosario of NPR's Code Switch, as well as Lester Spence's book Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics.

    Credit for "Everyday Struggle": The Notorious B.I.G./Sony Music Entertainment/youtube.com
    Credit for "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)": JAY-Z/Universal Music Group/youtube.com
    Credit for "U Don't Know": JAY-Z/Universal Music Group/spotify.com
    Credit for "Hustlin'": Rick Ross/Universal Music Group/youtube.com

    Thanks for listening!

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    23 min

About Word Bomb

From the publisher's feed

Language moves fast and Word Bomb is here to help. Unpacking one explosive word per week, hosts Pippa Johnstone and Karina Palmitesta talk to experts and dive deep into lived experiences to share…

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