A Way with Words
Series produced by A Way with Words
A Way with Words is a national, lively, hour-long public radio show about language, on the air since 1998. Author/journalist Martha Barnette and linguist/lexicographer Grant Barrett take listener calls about slang, grammar, old sayings, word origins, regional dialects, family expressions, and speaking and writing well. There are no carriage fees.
222 Pieces
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Oldest First
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem "Beowulf" in high school. But what if you could actually hear "Beowulf" in the English of today? The...
- Added: Dec 27, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
What's it like to hike the Pacific Crest Trail all the way from Mexico to Canada? You'll end up with sore muscles and blisters, and great stories t...
Bought by KUAT, WYAP, WSLR, WPCA-LP, KHOL (Jackson Hole Community Radio) and more
- Added: Dec 20, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 16
Astronauts returning from space say they experience what's called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our n...
- Added: Dec 13, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 17
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha's savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist w...
- Added: Dec 06, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
Some TV commercials launch catchphrases that stick around long after the original ads. The exclamation Good stuff, Maynard! is still a compliment a...
- Added: Nov 29, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
Asthenosphere, a geologist's term for the molten layer beneath the earth's crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece t...
- Added: Nov 22, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
A documentary film called My Beautiful Stutter" follows youngsters at a summer camp specifically for stutterers. It's a place for finding acceptanc...
- Added: Nov 16, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 19
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange ...
- Added: Nov 08, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry ban...
- Added: Nov 01, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
In the 15th century, the word respair meant "to have hope again." Although this word fell out of use, it's among dozens collected in a new book of...
- Added: Oct 25, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don't they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaini...
- Added: Oct 18, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 17
What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry ...
- Added: Oct 11, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
This week on "A Way with Words": When there's no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? S...
- Added: Oct 04, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 17
An ornithologist says there's a growing movement to change the name of a pink-footed bird currently called the flesh-footed shearwater. The movemen...
- Added: Sep 27, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city's youngest reader...
- Added: Sep 20, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 17
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little 7-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding -- and all in Latin. A ne...
- Added: Sep 13, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child's letter to the Toot...
- Added: Sep 07, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 16
Youngsters want to know: What's the difference between barely and nearly, and what's so clean about a whistle, anyway? Plus, adults recount some mi...
Bought by KMXT, KUAT, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, KTSW 89.9, Tri States Public Radio and more
- Added: Sep 04, 2021
- Length: 23:35
- Purchases: 6
The adjective canine refers to dogs, and feline refers to cats. But how does English address other groups of animals? Plus, cabin fever has been ar...
- Added: Aug 30, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 18
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means "money." In the same way, cat beer isn't alcoholic -- some pe...
- Added: Aug 24, 2021
- Length: 54:00
- Purchases: 17
