We try to make sense of the Skibidi Toilet youtube videos and trace the word skibidi which really gets around, from Little Big's song "skibidi" to Biser King's "Dom Dom Yes Yes". We discuss the history of nonsense words with various examples including nonce words, sniglets, wugs, etc. And of course Lewis Carroll. In Eurovision, we discuss the troubled past of Russia and the Eurovision song contest. Today's featured podcast is Speak of the Devil. Find them anywhere you get podcasts or at this link: https://linktr.ee/speakofthedevil Find them, us, and lots of other great podcasts at our podc ..read more

Today we talk about the classic Bobby Darin song and the original song which it was based on. We also talk about his life and career generally. In etymology, we discuss the origin of various aquatic animals' names, including whales, dolphins, and cuttlefish . . . We also talk generally about the relationship between naming and observation. We talked about water animals, so for Eurovision we talked about Waterloo, the hit song by Abba that won Eurovision in 1974 and really changed the game. Today's featured podcast is The Moustachio Podcastio. Find it anywhere you get podcasts or at this lin ..read more

It's the holiday season! Today we discuss The Neighbourhood's hit song "Sweater Weather" and the history of the sweater. Why did we settle on SWEAT as the thing to name an article of clothing after? We'll talk about that, the etymology of "sweat" and other words for sweater like jumper, and generally how this particular sort of knitted shirt came to be so uniquely iconic We also consider other non-religious winter seasonal songs, including "Brrr" by Kim Petras, which we forget to say the name of in the episode, so I'm mentioning it here, for you rare few who read episode descriptions. For Euro ..read more

Today we talk about Metallica. Are they objectively bad? We talk about the song "Welcome Home" (that's the song where they say "sanitarium"). What's it about, what's it based on, that kind of stuff. We talk about sanitariums. What were they? How did they work? We also talk about backronyms. In Eurovision talk, we discuss Germany's "Blood and Glitter" by Lord of the Lost. This weeks featured podcast is Haunted Apartment Complex. Check them out anywhere you get podcasts or at this link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jack-billings-presents-haunted-apartment-complex/id1572711048 Find the ..read more

It's cuffing season, and we're talking about beige flags, things about a romantic partner that are not bad enough to be red flags, more like quirky or mildly annoying. Where did this phrase come from? What are some examples of beige flags? By the way, where does this word flag come from, etymologically? We also talk about the flagpole sitting craze of the 1920s. Yes, people literally sat on flagpoles. And for Eurovision, we discuss Armenia's 2023 offering, "Future Lover" by Brunette. And! Armenian terms of endearment. Check out the podcast Freaky Fridays at this link: https://linktr.ee/frea ..read more

Today we discuss Hannah's favorite song so she'll stop suggesting we do an episode about it every week. We talk about the pop culture of movie monsters that it arose from, and the pop culture of songs about dance crazes. We explain the origin of the word monster and what words it's related to. And we explore the history of the idea of a monster. Where did it begin, and how has it evolved over time. Additionally we discuss some of the class Universal monsters. In Eurovision, we talk about Austria's 2023 song "Who the Hell is Edgar?" by Salena and Teya. One of us loves it, one of us is very und ..read more

Today we discuss charisma and it's little Scrappy Doo-esque sidekick rizz! What does it mean, where'd it come from? What's the story of charisma? Why do we say charisma in Dungeons & Dragons and not like "persuasiveness" or something? And while we're talking about Dungeons & Dragons, what slang terms could we come up with for the other D&D stats? We also discuss what is the deal with "ch". Why do we pronounce it three different ways (like k, ch, and sh)? We're talking about CHArisma, so of course for Eurovision we have to talk about "Cha Cha Cha"! The song from Finland by Käärij ..read more

We talk about how men talk! And we talk about how Matchbox Twenty talk with "Push" the surprisingly controversial song about pushing women around. Will I have some research about it? Well, I will. Well, I will. As we did with the feminine genderlect episode, we have a couple interesting lists of words that men are more likely to know than women. Additionally, we talk about various researchers' takes on the notion, including Otto Jesperson who claims that English is a very manly language. Find out why he says so. In Eurovision we discuss Italy's 2023 offering "Due Vite" by Marco Mengoni. Lots o ..read more

This week we talk about barbie - the movie and the doll and the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua. And as you'd expect we're pairing that with a girly language topic. We're talking about how women talk. Is it different from how men talk? Or is that a myth? How do you perform femininity in language? What are the conceptions and misconceptions, and what is the reality? In Eurovision world, we discuss Czechia's 2023 offering "My Sister's Crown" by Vesna. Hannah tells us about this really wild Czechian myth featuring a famous detective of all things. Our featured ad this episode is the podcast Beyond th ..read more

Today we welcome special guest, Youtube star Rob Watts of the Robwords English language show. He joins us to talk about the definitely real UK rappers Pete & Bas. And we reveal the true story behind their whole deal (hoax? how dare you!). Then we talk about some of the differences between UK and US English that you definitely don't already know about. I'm telling you. There are some really surprising differences in pronunciation and word choice beyond the stuff everyone already knows like "aluminum/aluminium". For Eurovision, of course we talk about UK 2023, Mae Muller's "I Wrote a Song ..read more