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Welcome to the Valley!

With esteemed Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter as your host, Lexicon Valley dissects this messy, maddening and thoroughly wonderful thing we call language.

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Latest Episodes View All

Podcast Episode

The Story of Us

John talks about the subject of his new book by Avery Publishing — Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words.Please subscribe at www.booksmartstudios.com and thank you for listening! This...

· 21 min 6 sec

Podcast Episode

Fire, Die, Rim

The Thai words for fire, die and rim sound an awful lot like the English words fire, die and rim. Why is that? John explains.To help support Lexicon Valley please consider a paid subscription — visit...

· 32 min 22 sec

Podcast Episode

Hither and Yon

Words like thence and thither are all but obsolete in English, but they were actually quite useful! John explains.SUBSCRIBE to LEXICON VALLEY — please go to www.booksmartstudios.com to become a paid m...

· 25 min 51 sec

Podcast Episode

Down the Rabbit Hole

Do you know the difference between a rabbit and a hare? And what then is a bunny? Follow John through the etymological warrens of these several words. This is a public episode. If you would like to di...

· 22 min 55 sec

About us

In his close examination of language — its power to inform and misinform, to elucidate and obfuscate, John analyzes the words and phrases that dominate our discourse and make the headlines.

Questions? Comments? E-mail booksmartstudios@gmail.com and one of our producers will get back to you as soon as possible.