Word of Mouth

Colonel Chris Hadfield is a veteran of three spaceflights. He crewed the US space shuttle twice, piloted the Russian Soyuz, helped build space station Mir and served as Commander of the International Space Station.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

How we talk about getting older can affect how we age, both mentally and physically. Michael asks Dr Lucy Pollock for her advice on ageing well and happily.

Dr Lucy Pollock has been an NHS consultant geriatrician, a doctor specialising in the care of older people, for over 30 years. She is the author of The Book About Getting Older, and her new book is The Golden Rule: lessons in living from a doctor of ageing.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Recently a video went viral of a baby talking - or babbling - with a Liverpool accent. Professor Julian Pine from Liverpool University explains how babies and young children learn language, including the rules we take for granted. Including the surprising reasons who children make mistakes like saying "nana" instead of banana, or "I play football yesterday" instead of "I played football yesterday." Plus, did you know verbs and nouns go to different parts of the brain?

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

Michael explores the mysterious rules of word order with linguist Dr Laura Bailey. We all know them instinctively, without knowing that we know them. Contains the truth about killer whales and also why Yoda sounds like an alien.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Michael meets fellow children's author Michael Morpurgo - author of over 150 books - including Kensuke's Kingdom, Private Peaceful and Warhorse. They talk words, writing, books and language and why it's so important that children learn to love reading at an early age.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Joshua Reno talks about how Charlie, his non-verbal son who is on the autism spectrum, communicates with him very effectively using gestures known as "home signs".

Joshua is the author of Home Signs: An Ethnography of Life beyond and beside Language.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

In conversation with Michael about his book "32 Words For Field" Manchán Magan reveals Ireland's deep connection with the landscape expressed through the Irish language. The author traces his country's relationship with the natural world and its corresponding belief system that encompasses the 'otherworld'. He lists many similarities between Irish and Sanskrit and even Arabic - suggesting a link between the ancient Islamic word Shamrakh and the Irish Seamróg (shamrock). It's a fascinating discussion of a rich and poetic language that survives in traditional communities on the west coast and is being enthusiastically revived in the cities. Manchán also lists the many words that we use in English that have come from Irish and Scots Gaelic: words like 'bog' 'whisky' 'hooligan' and Tory.

Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol

A longer version of this programme is available on the podcast

Professor Lucy Easthope explains why language is important in the aftermath of a disaster, why some words are useful and some can be damaging.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

Dominic Fifield explains how football clubs got their names, uncovering a fascinating social history behind the Wanderers, Wednesdays and Villas.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

"If you want to hide something in the 21st century world, you don't need to create a James Bond style plot. Just cover it in acronyms".

Gillian Tett is a columnist at the Financial Times, but she initially trained as a cultural anthropologist, studying marriage rituals in Tajikistan.

She joins Michael Rosen to discuss how the study of language has been vital to her work, who continues to see the world through the lens of an anthropologist. The pair talk about the etymology of words like 'company', 'office', and 'bank', why we should all speak more like the Dutch, how Brits in the workplace are more similar to the Japanese, and why it would be useful for all of us to think more like an anthropologist.

Gillian Tett is the author of Fool's Gold, The Silo Effect, and Antho-Vision.

Producer: Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio Bristol.