Society, language + culture

People lie about being Native American all the time – on college applications, on job applications, in casual conversation. But how do "Pretendians" hurt real Indigenous people and communities? And wh...Show More

But somehow it got very scary. Today’s show was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Trans...Show More

Brad Aaron Modlin’s poem “What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade” speaks of learning to grow up by yourself. The poet wonders what life lessons would look like if they could be tau...Show More

Honey is one of Palestine’s first professional female soccer players and was the co-founder and captain of the Palestinian Women’s National Football Team. She speaks with us live from Qatar as the 202...Show More

This week, we’re taking an up-close look at the uglier side of French history: imperialism, racism, xenophobia, and the resilience of the communities who have had to survive under French power. The ta...Show More

Welcome to Part 2 of our Language Lifecycle series: what causes languages to become endangered, or even die? We’ll discuss the role of colonization on language, and the efforts some communities are ta...Show More

We say love is love is love is love. And that’s true! But it’s also รัก if you’re Thai. Yêu và quý if you’re Vietnamese. And a lot of hard work no matter where you’re from. In this episode of Radiolin...Show More

When Ross Showalter turned 18 and began dating hearing men, he found himself communicating with them on their terms: using spoken language. Years of speech lessons and lip-reading practice forced Ross...Show More

Host Ahmed Ali Akbar has always had trouble getting people to say his name “correctly.” Why? This episode explores how second generation immigrants choose names, and how a name can impact our lives in...Show More

How and why do we make assumptions based on the way people speak? What is considered “proper,” or “correct” language – and who decides that, anyway?

AI-art generators let users create fantastical images with just a few text prompts. But some artists see a problem: They say AI is ripping them off. Artist Greg Rutkowski and WSJ tech columnist Christ...Show More

For poet Camille Dungy, environmental justice, community interdependence and political engagement go hand in hand. She explores those relationships in her new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's...Show More

Gregory talks "inside baseball" of American English. And we revisit an episode that sparked a lot of conversation among listeners in 2021–about the global pursuit of "good English" and what it takes t...Show More

"You can't meditate yourself out of a 40-hour work week with no childcare and no paid sick days," says Dr. Pooja Lakshmin. But when you're overworked and overwhelmed, what actually can you do? On this...Show More

Coffee shops, churches, libraries, and concert venues are all shared spaces where mingling can take place. Yet the hustle and bustle of modern social life can pose challenges to relationship-building—...Show More

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar was in his office in New Delhi when he came across a puzzling story in the newspaper. Some university scientists in the U.S. had apparently filed a patent fo...Show More

In a society dominated by romantic couples, it can be hard to accept your unpartnered state for what it is. But for the “single at heart,” the desire for partnership is nonexistent—replaced with a sen...Show More

Jonathan has some hangups about class. In the first episode of this series, he takes us from a nightclub outside LA to the halls of a fancy Manhattan prep school, and asks sociologist Rachel Sherman '...Show More

We often follow a misguided formula for happiness—pushing us toward material wealth and other worldly successes. But when our expectations set us down the wrong path, it may be time to reorient oursel...Show More

Co-hosts Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost explore our relationship with time and how to reclaim it. Why is it so important to be productive? Why can it feel like there’s never enough time in a day? Why are...Show More

On this episode, we’re looking into one of the biggest chasms between us in this country – who serves in the military and who doesn’t. Every year, the United States military has to convince thousands ...Show More

Many of us complain about being too busy—and about not having enough time to do the things we really want to do. But has busyness become an excuse for our inability to focus on what matters?  Accordin...Show More

The chef Samin Nosrat lives by the idea that food is love. Her Netflix series, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,” and the James Beard Award-winning cookbook that inspired it, were about using food to build comm...Show More

In this episode we are joined by clinical psychologist and author of 'The Defining Decade' to talk about all the frustrations, stressors, misconceptions and hard moments of our 20s and why it's only g...Show More

When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down. Prologue: Ira goes out with a letter carrier, ‘Grace,’ as she delivers mail on her route. He learns about the people who brin...Show More

From how we build our cities to how we shop, it can seem as though our natural human tendency is to add. But a culture of accumulation may be exactly what holds us back from the simple solution in fro...Show More

Gender Reveal host and producer Tuck Woodstock joins us for an epic love story from another time .... the early aughts.  Follow Tuck on Twitter @tuckwoodstock. Get your tickets to our live show ...Show More

Traveling is supposed to open your mind and expand your horizons — but what if it doesn't? In her new book Airplane Mode, author Shahnaz Habib suggests that sometimes, traveling does more to enforce o...Show More

Today's conversation is long-overdue. The sisters have been circling, admiring and inspired by Sarah Schulman for many years. Finally, they convene to discuss the particularities of solidarity, how he...Show More

The sisters are thrilled to welcome Dean Spade to the show! He has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He is a professor at ...Show More