The Language Conservancy's Wil Meya discusses the effort to revive Native American languages.

The history and evolution of "no" and "not."

John McWhorter explains why we love shrinkage.

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards and Host John Donvan discuss the lost art of democratic debate in Congress.

John McWhorter considers the eccentric irregularity of the verb "to be."

With Stewart Baker, Michael Chertoff, John Yoo, and Catherine Crump

John McWhorter interrupts the hosts of Unorthodox to discuss hallmarks and stereotypes of Jewish communication style.

John McWhorter talks to Ben Zimmer about the Vietnam Graffiti Project and other slangy topics.

With Daphne Bavelier, Elias Aboujaoude, Asi Burak, and Walter R. Boot

John McWhorter discusses the near-futile impulse to determine what is, and what is not, a word.

John McWhorter discusses communication styles with linguist Deborah Tannen, author of You're the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women's Friendships.

With Jamelle Bouie, Ian Bremmer, Kris Kobach, Rich Lowry, and Jennifer Rubin

With John Tierney, Richard K. Vedder, Nelson Lichtenstein, Amy Traub

John McWhorter talks to linguist Neal Whitman about the mash-up of "hey" and "yo."

With Charles Murray, Andrew Stern, Jared Bernstein and Jason Furman

John McWhorter time travels to 1930 and eavesdrops on American English.

With Gary Miron, Jeanne Allen, Julian Vasquez Heilig, and Gerard Robinson

With Madawi Al-Rasheed, F. Gregory Gause, Mark P. Lagon, and James Jeffrey

John McWhorter talks to sociolinguist Alexandra D'Arcy about the spike in our use of like.

With Clive Crook, David Frum, Gayle Trotter, and Michael Waldman

John McWhorter discusses the subject of his new book, Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca.

With Gloria Browne Marshall, Heather Mac Donald, Marq Claxton, and Harry Stern

Mark Seidenberg, author of Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It, discusses the fallout from the so-called reading wars.

When "hath" gave way to "has," the original meaning of "merry," and other insights from popular Christmas carols.

The debaters are Lawrence Lessig, David Super, Mark Meckler, and Walter Olson

In "Arrival," Amy Adams plays a linguist who discovers that language can radically alter one's perception of reality. But is that true?

With Eliot Cohen, Derek Chollet, Kristen Silverberg, and Vikram Singh

Are the slang, sounds, and syntax of Black English a kind of lingua franca for America's youth?

With Caroline Fredrickson, Nolan McCarty, David Daley, and Chris Jankowski

What can we learn about English from Bill Clinton, the two Bushes, and other leaders of the free world?

With Angela Kelley, Steven Camarota, Marielena Hincapié, and Rich Lowry

How our rich and complex system of second person pronouns got whittled down to just "you."

With Ezekiel Emanuel, Lori Reilly, Neera Tanden, and Paul Howard.

What Bette Davis, FDR, and Ralph Kramden have in common when it comes to speech.

John McWhorter on what the intricacies of the future tense tell us about the unwritten rules of pronouns.

With Timothy Carney, Jennifer Rubin, Ben Domenech, and Bret Stephens

John Simpson, former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, talks about life as a lexicographer.

With Charles McConnell, Carl Pope, Michael Nasi, and Jody Freeman.

What does "Hickory Dickory Dock" really mean? John McWhorter makes linguistic sense of seemingly arbitrary children's verse.

How Words Hook Up and Make New Ones

John McWhorter talks with author Jack Lynch about the sacrilege of modified Shakespeare.

Gretchen McCulloch talks to John McWhorter about the big meaning behind our favorite little pictograms.

With David Brooks, Laura Ingraham, Mickey Edwards, and Ralph Reed

Ann Patty, author of "Living With a Dead Language: My Romance With Latin," talks about her transformative experience of learning Latin.

Rules Are Made to Be Spoken

With Roger Clegg, Deborah Archer, Stuart Taylor, Jr., and Erwin Chemerinsky

In this final episode of the podcast series, final words of advice are offered to college-bound students.

With Michael McConnell, Adam Cox, Carrie Severino, and Eric Posner.

Etymologist and poet Anatoly Liberman says that English is one of the most difficult languages to spell. But we can change that.

Are subject-specific SATs necessary?

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Parke Muth of the University of Virginia, answer listener questions.

Benjamin K. Bergen, author of the upcoming What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, discusses the science of cursing.

What juniors should be doing the summer before their senior year.

Listener mail about application pressure, teacher recommendations, and a lower GPA after a head injury.

With Anthony Licata, Catherine Semcer, Wayne Pacelle, and Adam Roberts

How an American Revolutionary War figure spawned a new name for a very old game.

Our college-bound seniors talk about what they’re most excited about in the year ahead.

The podcast breaks down the differences between the SAT and ACT, and how to decode the scores

Linguist John McWhorter argues that it makes perfect sense for the speech of black and white Americans to have subtle differences.

Listener questions about AP classes, college counselors, and finding the best fit.

An admissions expert weighs in on how school districts factor into college acceptance

How did Clupea harengus come to signify a diversionary tactic?

Why an HBCU or MSI may be the right fit for you.

With Jack Abramoff, Kate Gordon, Zephyr Teachout, and Michael Lind.

High school seniors share their joys and disappointments during college acceptance letter season.

The earliest known citation for “shit show” is from an English-language translation of a 1970s criminal trial in Germany. But what was the word or phrase being translated?

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Getting In expert Steve LeMenager hear an update from Getting In senior Jordana Meyer and they answer listener questions.

The podcast offers tips to parents who want to help their college bound kids help themselves

With Andrew Keen, Jaron Lanier, James Hughes and Martine Rothblatt

A traditional four-year college isn’t the best fit for everyone.

How many colleges to apply for, tuition discounts, and more.

A phrase with roots in Ancient Rome has confounded English speakers for centuries.

With Wendy Kaminer, Shaun Harper, John McWhorter, and Jason Stanley

Use your senior year of high school the right way

Financial aid, scholarship strategies, plus an update from Getting In senior August Graves

Donald Trump calls people (and publications) he doesn’t like sad. When did that word become an insult?

Senior year course selection, forming relationships with teachers who could serve as references, and more.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and expert Amy Young react to the criticism that's bubbled up around the Harvard report proposing sweeping changes to college admissions.

With Ian Ground, Aubrey de Grey, Paul Root Wolpe, and Brian Kennedy

A peculiar insult from the north of England has the Oxford English Dictionary stumped.

A pronoun that English borrowed from its Scandinavian neighbors gets new life as a gender neutral alternative to he and she.

With Robert Ford, David Frum, David Miliband, and Jessica Vaughan

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk about a mystery word or phrase with lexicographer Ben Zimmer.

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to editors at Oxford, Merriam-Webster, and Dictionary.com about their picks for Word of the Year.

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the early 20th-century origins of a bizarre food-industry code with lexicographer Ben Zimmer.

With Roger Clegg, Deborah Archer, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the energetic history of the word sleep.

With Roger Bootle, Edward Conard, Simon Johnson, and Andrew Huszar

With Paul Butler, David Hoffman, Nancy Gertner, and Reid Schar

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss a word that was popularized during the 1940s folk movement with lexicographer Ben Zimmer.

With Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, Eric Racine, Nita Farahany, and Nicole Vincent

With Shailen Bhatt, Adrian Moore, Alison Premo Black, and Stephen Moore

Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the etymological quirkiness of the word "pussy."

With Dr. Eben Alexander, Sean Carroll, Dr. Raymond Moody, and Dr. Steven Novella