Ep. 4: Cursing & Crossed Fingers

What our word choice says about us

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Description

WARNING: This episode contains swearing, suggestive language, and references that some listeners may prefer to avoid.

Why do we swear? And why do we protect people from swearing? Should we ban jargon from the workplace? Or should we encourage it? Are subtle language tricks shaping our most controversial opinions? And what is it about certain words and phrases that evoke such strong feelings? 

Whether it's jargon-packed monologues we hear everyday in meetings, expressions we only hear while perched on a beer-soaked bar stool, or twisted tales spun by world leaders from a podium, why do we choose the words we do and what does that say about us? To get the answers we’re diving head-first into the world of taboo language.

In this episode, Kyla sits down with Professor Timothy Jay, psycholinguist and the foremost expert on swearing and curse words. Together they unpack the origins of benign office jargon, how certain naughty words develop from childhood, and the story of one comedian's infamous bit that ended up in front of the Supreme Court. We also hear from Jennifer Saul, Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language at the University of Waterloo. She shares how one presidential campaign upended decades of political linguistic thought and inspired her own research into deceptive speech and linguistic devices.