Science Diction
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Science Diction
What does the word “meme” have to do with evolutionary biology? And why do we call it “Spanish flu” when it was never Spanish? Science Diction is a podcast about words—and the science stories within them. If you like your language with a side of science, Science Diction has you covered. Brought to y...
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43 эпизодов
New Show: Universe of Art
Hey Science Diction listeners! We’re back to tell you about a brand new show from Science Friday. Universe Of Art is a podcast about artists who use s...
Saying Goodbye To Science Diction
Dear Science Diction listeners,
It is with sadness that we announce the finale of the Science Diction podcast. Starting with a simple newsletter...
American Chestnut: Resurrecting A Forest Giant
We have a favor to ask! We want to know more about what you like, what you don’t, and who you are—it’ll help us make better episodes of Science Dictio...
Vocal Fry: Why I’m Not Getting A Voice Coach
For decades, vocal fry lived a relatively quiet existence. It was known to linguists, speech pathologists and voice coaches, but everyday people didn’...
Juggernaut: Indian Temple Or Unstoppable Force?
In 2014, a grad student in Kolkata named Ujaan Ghosh came across an old book by a Scottish missionary. And as Ghosh paged through the book, he noticed...
Jargon: We Love To Hate It
Head on over to plainlanguage.gov, and you’ll find a helpful table, dedicated to simplifying and demystifying military jargon. On one side of the tabl...
Algebra: From Broken Bones To Twitter Feuds
When high schooler Gracie Cunningham posted a TikTok asking where algebra came from, she probably didn’t expect to become a viral sensation. There wer...
Hurricane
CORRECTION: In this episode, we say that there were only two names left on the 2021 list of Atlantic hurricane names until we resume use of the Greek...
Knock On Wood And Tsunami
Journalists Kevin McLean and Shalina Chatlani join us for a round of Diction Dash, where Johanna tries - and usually fails - to guess the true meaning...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 3: What Is It Good For?
When Isabel Briggs Myers imagined that her homegrown personality test would change the world, she couldn’t have pictured this. Today, millions take th...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 2: Isabel
At first, it seemed like Isabel Briggs Myers would have nothing to do with personality typology. That was her mother Katharine’s passion project, not...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 1: Katharine
If you’re one of the 2 million people who take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator every year, perhaps you thought Myers and Briggs are the two psychologi...
Honeymoon: A Bittersweet Beginning
Honeymoon: It just seems like a word that would have a lovely story behind it, doesn’t it?
When a listener named Eric emailed us from Centervil...
It'll Never Fly: When Gene Names Are TOO Fun
In 1910, a fruit fly geneticist named Thomas Hunt Morgan noticed something strange in one of his specimens. Out of his many, many fruit flies—all with...
What Do You Call A Tiny Octopus That’s Cute As A Button?
What pigment do we owe to the squid? And what do you name a teeny tiny octopus that’s cute as a button? In this episode of Diction Dash, we’re talking...
Language Evolves: It’s Literally Fine
If you read the title of this episode and cringed, you’re not alone. At Merriam-Webster, editors and lexicographers receive countless letters grousing...
Serendipity and Syzygy: Fortunate Accidents
How did a country's name end up inside the word, “serendipity"? And what’s a “syzygy"? And, more importantly, why does it have so many y’s?
O...
Ambergris: How Constipation Becomes A Luxury Product
Last month, Science Diction received a letter from a listener named Ben. He wanted to know about ambergris, a strange substance that washes up on beac...
Orphans Delivered The World's First Vaccine
When the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved for emergency use last December, it felt like - at last! - our nightmare was nearly over. Then came rep...
Diction Dash: You Asked, We Answer
Over the past year, you’ve sent us words you want us to cover on the show. And for months, we let those suggestions pile up into a list of nearly 200...
Introvert: The Invention Of A Type
In 2013, introverts staged their comeback. For decades, they’d been told to get out of their shells and *smile*, while those showy, gregarious extrov...
Mercury: How It Made Cats Dance
In 1953, in the coastal town of Minamata in Japan, locals noticed some cats were acting strangely—twitching, spinning in circles, almost dancing. The...
Alcohol: History's Favorite Mind-Bending Substance
Vervet monkeys steal it out of people's hands. Chimpanzees in Guinea are known to climb up palm trees and drink it. There’s even a theory that loving...
Robot: Making A Mechanical Mind
In 1920, a Czech writer was stumped. He’d written a play about a future where machines that looked like people do our bidding. They were the perfect w...
Lunacy: Mind Control From The Sky
On December 5th, 2012, a bill landed on President Barack Obama’s desk, meant to do one thing: remove the word “lunatic” from the federal code. This is...
Mesmerize: The 18th Century Medical Craze Behind the Word
In the late 18th century, a doctor showed up in Paris practicing some very peculiar medicine. He would escort patients into dimly lit rooms, wave his...
Science Diction Returns For Season 3
Science Diction is back with a new season all about mind control—what happens when we decide to create new minds and they refuse to be controlled, why...
How Do You Name A Hurricane?
How did we wind up with a storm named Iota? Well, we ran out of hurricane names.
Every year, the World Meteorological Organization puts out a li...
Hydrox: How A Cookie Got A Name So Bad
The first Oreo rolled out of Chelsea Market in Manhattan in 1912, but despite the cookie’s popularity today, Oreos weren’t an immediate cookie smash h...
How Did The ‘Cosmic Crisp’ Apple Get Its Name?
This fall, there’s a new apple all around town. After 20 years of development, the Cosmic Crisp has landed.
In this episode, we’re bringing you...
Restaurant: How It All Began
In the 1760s, a new kind of establishment started popping up in Paris, catering to the French and fancy. These places had tables, menus, and servers....
Umami: A Century Of Disbelief
Salty, sweet, sour, bitter. Scientists once thought these were the only tastes, but in the early 20th century, a Japanese chemist dissected his favori...
Guest Episode: Communal Eating With ‘Gastropod’
This week, we’re sharing an episode from an excellent food podcast, Gastropod. This show is right up our alley—co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twil...
Rocky Road: Why It Sounds So Dang Delicious
Rocky Road is just a good name for an ice cream flavor. So good, in fact, that two ice cream institutions have dueling claims to Rocky Road’s inventio...
Ketchup: A Fishy History
At the turn of the 20th century, 12 young men sat in the basement of the Department of Agriculture, eating meals with a side of borax, salicylic acid,...
Science Diction Digs Into Food
Over the next few weeks, we'll investigate the science, language, and history of food.
Spanish Flu
In the fall of 1918, Philadelphia newspapers announced that a new virus had arrived in the city, the so-called “Spanish flu.” But the facts and scope...
Quarantine
Quarantine has been on many of our minds lately. The phrases “shelter in place” and “self-quarantine” have filled up our news, social media, and conve...
Vaccine
For centuries, smallpox seemed unbeatable. People had tried nearly everything to knock it out—from herbal remedies to tossing back 12 bottles of beer...
Dinosaur
At the turn of the 19th century, Britons would stroll along the Yorkshire Coast, stumbling across unfathomably big bones. These mysterious fossils wer...