Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth episodes:

• 05.09.2024

  Football Club Names

  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

  
• 02.20.2024

  How to Think Like an Anthropologist, with Gillian Tett

  "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...

  
• 02.13.2024

  Family Sayings

  Michael shares listeners' stories about the words and phrases passed down in their families that they keep using, and what they mean to them. With Rob Drummond, Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Met University, and author of You’re All Talk:...

  
• 02.06.2024

  Are you different in another language?

  Michael Rosen talks to neuroscientist Dr Julia Ravey about whether we think and act differently when speaking a non-native language. More and more people are finding themselves speaking multiple languages in our cross-cultural societies. But when we communicate in a...

  
• 01.23.2024

  Words for Sale!

  Michael Rosen explores how language has become an online commodity, with Dr Pip Thornton, Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Thornton explains, with the help of auction props and a receipt machine, what happens to the words that...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Unequal English

  Michael Rosen is joined by language scholar Ruanni Tupas, to discuss Unequal English - how native English is perceived differently, depending on where you come from. Ruanni, who's from the Philippines and also spent two decades in Singapore, has spent...

  
• 01.17.2024

  A Life in Lexicography

  Grant Barrett is a lexicographer, linguist, author, editor, founder of Wordnik and Head of Lexicography at Dictionary.com. He also co-hosts A Way With Words, a phone in show about language, which airs coast to coast across the United States. He and...

  
• 01.09.2024

  Writing Comedy with Isy Suttie

  Isy Suttie is an actor and comedian best known for her role in Peepshow and her one woman show Love Letters on Radio 4 as well as many other shows and podcasts. Here she talks to Michael Rosen about...

  
• 08.22.2023

  Everyday Shakespeare

  Michael Rosen talks to Ben and David Crystal about the Shakespeare quotes we use every day, without even realising. We’ve all heard someone roll their eyes and say “the lady doth protest too much, me thinks” - or head...

  
• 08.15.2023

  Therapy Speak

  Susie Orbach talks to Michael Rosen about the use and misuse of “therapy speak”. With the rise of mental health awareness, it seems to have leaked out of the therapist’s office and into our homes. Instead of saying someone’s getting...

  
• 08.08.2023

  Fandom

  There's lots of 'birging' in this week's programme. For those not in the know - that's short for Basking In Reflected Glory and it's something football fans in particular do when they talk about their team's triumphs using the 'extended...

  
• 08.01.2023

  The stories behind our names

  Michael Rosen talks to journalist Sheela Banerjee about the family and cultural histories revealed by our names. In her book What’s in a Name? Friendship, Identity and History in Modern Multicultural Britain, she takes a deep dive into her own...

  
• 07.25.2023

  Audio description: putting art into words

  Lonny Evans audio describes in theatres and museums, and Terry James, who is vision impaired, trains audio describers. They talk to Michael about their work. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 07.17.2023

  Interpreting Presidents Putin and Zelensky

  Irina Morgan is a high level interpreter. Being bi-lingual in Russian and Ukrainian means she's in demand whenever Vladimir Putin or President Zelensky give a press conference requiring simultaneous interpretation. Irina talks to Michael about the language do's and don'ts...

  
• 07.11.2023

  Learning Yiddish

  Michael Rosen is learning Yiddish. Every Sunday, he joins other adults in an evening class, conjugating verbs and practising rhymes. For this episode of Word of Mouth, he invites his teacher, Tamara Micner, to join him in the studio. The...

  
• 05.12.2023

  Chatbots

  Michael is joined by Emily M Bender, Professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington and co-author of the infamous paper ‘On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots’. Cutting through the recent hype, she explains how chatbots do what...

  
• 05.09.2023

  The Language of Fascism

  Michael Rosen speaks with Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor at Yale University to discuss the language of fascism. They discuss propaganda, slogans and ‘vermin terminology’ as well as how fascist language changes according to culture, geography and time. Presented by...

  
• 05.02.2023

  Women's Words

  Dr Jenni Nuttall talks to Michael about the words used by and about women since the beginnings of language. Including some words we should never have lost.

  
• 04.18.2023

  A Load of Nonsense

  Michael Rosen talks nonsense with literary scholar Noreen Masud. From the nonsense language of Shakespeare's fools, to the nonsense lyrics of The Beatles, via the limericks of Edward Lear, the portmanteaus of Lewis Carroll, and the made-up words of three...

  
• 04.11.2023

  Psychiatrist and Patient

  Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David talks to Michael about the dialogue that takes place between him and his patients. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 04.04.2023

  The Life Inside: Philosophy in Prison

  Andy West talks to Michael Rosen about his work discussing philosophy in prisons around England. His book The Life Inside is a memoir of his own experience of the justice system through his family. His father, brother and uncle...

  
• 02.21.2023

  Richard Osman's love of language

  Richard Osman talks in depth to Michael Rosen about his life in language: from growing up loving TV and sports, to working on Pointless and then writing The Thursday Murder Club. And you can download the longer Word of Mouth...

  
• 02.14.2023

  Interpreting for Mum and Dad

  Sanmeet Kaur has been interpreting for her parents since the age of five, when her family arrived in the UK from Afghanistan. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 02.07.2023

  Subtitles

  Karli Witkowska is the subtitler behind films and TV shows including Stranger Things. She explains to Michael how descriptions such as 'tentacles wetly squelching' enhance the experience of Deaf and hard of hearing viewers as well as being entertaining in...

  
• 01.31.2023

  Snap Crackle and Every Little Helps - the language of food advertising

  Giles Poyner has worked in marketing and advertising for over twenty years and has worked on some of the biggest global brands. He explains how when it comes to marketing food and drink words really do matter. From taking...

  
• 01.24.2023

  Grammar Table

  Ellen Jovin is a grammar and language fan. Her book Rebel With A Clause: Tales and Tips From A Roving Grammarian details her travels with her Grammar Table. Keen to engage with people face to face rather than online Ellen...

  
• 01.17.2023

  Band names

  Bob Stanley from Saint Etienne talks band names, from the (subjectively) rubbish to the brilliant, along with some of the best origin stories. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 01.10.2023

  Exclamation Marks!!

  In the first of a new series, Michael Rosen exclaims excitedly over exclamation marks with Dr Florence Hazrat, who has a passion for them. They explore the history behind the first punctuation symbol to indicate emotion and ask why some...

  
• 08.23.2022

  Nihal Arthanayake on conversation

  Nihal Arthanayake has written a book based on his decades long experience of talking to people. Now he talks to Michael about what makes a good conversation. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 08.16.2022

  Like

  Carmen Fought is a Californian Valley Girl, born and bred and she's, like, there's nothing wrong with using 'like.' And Michael's, like, come on Word of Mouth and tell us why. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 08.09.2022

  A Murmuration of Starlings

  Most groups of wildlife can be described as a flock or a herd, a swarm or a shoal – but where is the fun in stopping there? From an army of ants to a dazzle of zebras, an exultation of...

  
• 08.02.2022

  The Art of Apologies

  Michael Rosen talks to sociolinguist Louise Mullany about all the ways in which we say sorry. From the sympathetic sorry in the face of bad news, to the polite sorry we say to strangers in the street. Via workplace hierarchies,...

  
• 07.26.2022

  Ghosting Caking and Breadcrumbing

  Michael Rosen talks to cyber-pyschologist Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton about the new language that has emerged now that so many relationships begin online. She has studied the way people use words and expressions to describe themselves in their dating...

  
• 07.19.2022

  Lords and Ladies: Folk Names for Plants and Flowers

  Snotty Gogs and Moggie Nightgown may not immediately mean a lot to you but as common or folk names for the Yew berry and Wood anemone they reveal a fascinating social and cultural history of the countryside. Michael Rosen talks...

  
• 07.12.2022

  My Stammer Story

  Michael Rosen asks William Laven about how he has learnt to embrace language and life with a stammer. For the first 10 years of his life, William Laven went to speech therapy with a stammer that was so severe...

  
• 05.10.2022

  What is language actually good for?

  Acclaimed Australian linguist Professor Nick Enfield has come to the conclusion that language is good for lawyers, for the purposes of persuasion, but bad for scientists who seek to accurately represent reality. It's a fascinating idea he explores in his...

  
• 05.03.2022

  Nathan Filer on the ways we talk about mental health

  Nathan talks with Michael about words we use when talking about mental health. Producer Sally Heaven

  
• 04.26.2022

  Weather Words

  It's Gone Dark Over Bill's Mother's In Britain talking about the weather is a good neutral way to start conversation. Because we have such varying weather conditions (three seasons in one day) there is always something to marvel at...

  
• 04.20.2022

  The language we use about children in care

  Adoptive parent Margaret Reynolds talks about the language used around children in care. From the unthinking people asking about 'real parents' to the clinical language used to describe children's lives. Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol, Sally Heaven

  
• 04.12.2022

  3 Ways to Speak English

  Dr Jamila Lyiscott describes to Michael Rosen the 3 ways in which she speaks English according to whether she's at home, at school or with friends. Her TED talk on the subject is one of the most-viewed language performances on...

  
• 04.05.2022

  The Language of Sci-Fi

  Are you a lover of SF and all things fantasy, or merely a fan? Jesse Sheidlower formerly of the Oxford English Dictionary began compiling a dictionary of sci-fi 20 years ago and has been updating it ever since. He brings...

  
• 02.22.2022

  Talking to Computers

  Will machine translation ever be as good as human translation? How do services like Google Translate actually work? How does Alexa or Siri know what I'm saying? And will I ever be able to have a true conversation with my...

  
• 02.15.2022

  John McWhorter on Language

  Michael Rosen is joined by John McWhorter, author and linguist at Columbia University, to talk about his life in language. John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American Studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is a contributing editor at...

  
• 02.08.2022

  Dropping the Mic and Jumping the Shark: Where Do Modern Idioms Come From?

  Some idioms feel like they've been with us forever. We're used to saying it's 'raining cats and dogs', that we feel like 'a fish out of water' or that someone has been 'pulling our leg'. But other idioms have emerged...

  
• 02.02.2022

  Remembering Mother Tongues

  Michael Rosen asks Julie Sedivy about what happens when we lose our first language. Julie Sedivy's family left their home country, the former Czechoslovakia, when Julie was a small child. They arrived in Canada as refugees with no English....

  
• 01.25.2022

  It's language, Jim, but not as we know it

  Could aliens 'speak' in chemicals? Could they converse in electricity? Would they be able to hear us? In the absence of a Star Trek-style universal translator, how would you talk to an alien newly arrived on Planet Earth? Dr Hannah...

  
• 01.18.2022

  When Words Fail Us

  Kathryn Mannix, author and palliative care specialist, joins Michael Rosen to think about those discussions we would rather avoid. She calls them "tender" conversations. In the moments that really count, how do we respond to someone sharing bad...

  
• 01.11.2022

  Words from World War I

  Doing your bit or shirking? Afflicted with ‘Belgian flush’? Don’t forget to BYOB. Lynda Mugglestone, Professor of the History of English at the University of Oxford, joins Michael Rosen to talk about the new language that emerged from British experience...

  
• 08.24.2021

  Digital body language: how to work online

  Michael Rosen gets advice from Erica Dhawan on the best ways to communicate on-screen, as people work and live more in zoom, text, social media and email rather than meeting up. We need to find new ways of talking...

  
• 08.17.2021

  When people get your name wrong

  Michael Rosen on why personal names are so often mispronounced or misspelled, in conversation and online. With guest Dhruti Shah, linguist Dr Laurel MacKenzie, and lots of stories from the Word of Mouth audience. Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC...