The Word Nerds: A Weekly Podcast About Words, Language, and Why We Say the Things We Do

Find out who we are.

Please vote for our podcast every month at PodcastAlley.

Podcast Alley
Fill out our audience survey.
Join our Frappr map.

Word Nerds Frappr Map
Free subscription:

Click to open the iTunes page for The Word Nerds.

The Word Nerds Odeo channel

Download Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver



Press:


Send an email.

Archives

2018
February

2007
July

2006
July
May
April
March
February
January

2005
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March

May 2005
S M T W T F S
     
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31




Want this badge?

Powered by
Liberated Syndication

copyright © 2005, 2006 by Dave Shepherd, Howard Shepherd, and Howard Chang

Creative Commons License
Unless otherwise specifically attributed, all original work in this site and feed (including all audio files, web pages, and images) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 2.5 License.


Re-introduction of the Three Nerds (2:09)

Feedback on the baseball edition of The Word Nerds (3:20)

DISCLAIMER: This is definitely a 'not-safe-for-work-or-school' podcast. (4:27)

Howard Shepherd and Dave discuss categories of rudeness. (5:05)

Song: 'Planet Blue' by Mike Musgrove (16:15)

Rude Word of the Week: 'f**k' (20:59)

Song: 'The Whole Day Sleeping' by Dark Smile (28:04)

Our favorite rude words (31:31)

time: 35:57
size 24.7 Mb

rating: R (This show frankly discusses the background and roots of some of English's rudest words, but with a largely academic approach.)

Direct download: TWN-2005-05-28.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:56pm EDT

Howard Chang and Dave Shepherd discuss 'gay' as a pejorative and as a cultural identifier. (1:41)

Song: 'Bring the Devil,' by The Jane Doe's (14:25)

Rude word of the week: 'faggot' (17:57)

Song: 'I'm Over It,' by Suzanne Smith (21:57)

The homophobic penumbra: the re-purposing of neutral words as homosexual labels (25:41)

Time: 31:17
Size: 21.5 Mb

Rating: R (This week's show talks about hurtful speech, and cites a couple of obscene epithets as examples.)

Direct download: TWN-2005-05-21.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:54am EDT

Baseball in Asheville, Washington, and American English Dave enthusiastically recommends Annik Rubens' podcast Schlaflos in München to podcast fans who speak German. (2:14)

Dave explains baseball to people who don't know the game (or tries to). (3:00)

Howard Shepherd, Jim Taylor, and Luke Taylor see an Asheville Tourists game at McCormick Field. (9:00)

Dave explores the word 'southpaw.' (13:44)

Dave Shepherd and Mark Holm go to their first Washington Nationals game at RFK Stadium. (18:18)

Dave discusses some examples of baseball language in American English. (22:20)

Dave waits out a rain delay at RFK; he buys peanuts but does not buy a Nationals jacket. (25:05)

Statistics and baseball (40:16)

Music:
'Carolina Dreams,' by Heroes and Villains (14:32)

(Photo by Mark Holm)

time: 44:04
size: 30.2 Mb

Direct download: TWN-2005-05-14.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:01pm EDT


Dave Shepherd and Howard Chang discuss quotations from movies and their resonance in popular language. (1:39)

The meaning of 'film noir' and its echoes. (9:45)

Dave and Dreadful Snake Guy discuss the Podshow initiative and its meaning for mid-level podcasters. (14:43)

Rude word of the week: 'bomb' (19:36)

Washington obfuscation: Undersecretary of Defense Stephen Cambone testifies unclearly before the Senate Armed Services Committee. (24:55)

Different names for motion pictures (26:57)

Music:
'Film Noir,' by Venus Throw (9:45)
'70s Movies,' by Father Festus (22:01)

time: 31:53
size: 29.2 Mb

Direct download: TWN-2005-05-07.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:57am EDT

Two faithful and helpful listeners have corrected me (Dave) on a mistake of which I was aware as soon as I uploaded the last podcast.

The acronym LASER stands for light amplification through STIMULATED emission of radiation, not simulated. The emission is absolutely, totally real, not fake at all.

Well, I was de-acronymizing (??) right off the top of my head. Got most of it right, at least!

Oh, also, one of those faithful listeners pointed us to a Wikipedia article that explains the concept of aggregators very clearly (although we think our interviewee, Julie, did a pretty good job in the podcast, actually).

Category:general -- posted at: 5:18pm EDT