Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård · Daniel Midgley
Show overview
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. has been publishing since 2021, and across the 5 years since has built a catalogue of 113 episodes. That works out to roughly 200 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run over ninety minutes — most land between 1h 27m and 2h 2m — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. The publisher flags most episodes as explicit, so expect adult themes or strong language throughout. It is catalogued as a EN-language Science show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 weeks ago, with 17 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Daniel Midgley.
From the publisher
A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Latest Episodes
View all 113 episodes148: On the Mark (with Florence Hazrat)
147: The Language Beat (with Michael Erard)
146: Beyond Words (with Karen Stollznow)
145: Face With Tears of Joy (live with Keith Houston and friends)
144: Sociophonetics Deep Dive (with Jennifer Nycz, Lauren Hall-Lew, and Kelly Wright)
143: How to Kill a Language (with Sophia Smith Galer)
142: If This Be Magic (with Daniel Hahn)
141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)
140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)
139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)
138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)
137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)
136: These Languages Are Anchors (with Mary Walworth)
135: Linguistic Illusions (with Dan Parker)
E"More people have listened to this episode than you have." Why does this sentence look so right, but feel so wrong? When your grammar says one thing, but your brain says another, you may have found a linguistic illusion. We're talking to Dr Dan Parker, author of Linguistic Illusions: A Case Study on Agreement Attraction. Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/_9BcmMZrH7s Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 0:27 News: 6:30 Related or Not: 34:22 Interview with Dan Parker: 49:53 Words of the Week: 1:38:00 Comment: 1:54:16 The Reads: 1:58:19 Outtakes: 2:05:39
134: True Colour (with Kory Stamper)
EHow do you define what blue is? What even IS colour? Turns out, the quest to define colours was happening along with a standardisation crisis and a dictionary crisis at the venerable Merriam-Webster. Lexicographer and author Kory Stamper tells us all about it, and about her new book True Color. Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 1:17 News: 12:40 Related or Not: 33:34 Chat with Kory Stamper, author of True Color: 50:43 Words of the Week: 1:41:58 Comment from Lauretta: 2:04:57 The Reads: 2:08:14 Outtakes: 2:16:48
133: Why We Talk Funny (with Valerie Fridland)
EWe all have an accent — or several! And we use them to communicate things about us, and highlight aspects of our identity. So what's going on with the accents we hear? Are we losing some accents, or are they just changing? Dr Valerie Fridland is the author of Why We Talk Funny, and she joins us for this episode. Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 0:30 News: 6:25 Related or Not: 17:59 Interview with Valerie Fridland: 36:53 Words of the Week: 1:50:34 The Reads: 2:21:21 Outtakes: 2:26:14
132: WotY 2025, the Final Word (with Kelly Wright)
EWe're talking to Dr Kelly Wright, friend of the show and data czar for the American Dialect Society. They run the biggest and most prestigious Word of the Year event, and she was there when the 2025 WotY votes came in. She's talking us through all the words we missed. Plus we get to some listener feedback. Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 0:41 The ADS WotYs for 2025: 7:12 Related or Not: 1:00:51 Listener comments: 1:09:53 The Reads: 1:20:28 Outtakes: 1:27:01 Video version of this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXpfrXdWEW8
131: Words of the Week of the Year 2025 (live with friends)
EVideo for this episode: https://youtu.be/Mqf05kN-TaI It's Word of the Year season, and we're counting down our Words of the Week of the Year! In the time-honoured tradition, we gathered them all up from our 2025 shows, and let everyone vote. And we're going to give a mention to everyone else's words as well. We're joined by our friends and patrons, so come see them in chat! Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 1:31 Everyone else's words: 5:57 Related or Not: 34:34 Our Words of the Week of the Year: 51:35 Comments: 1:22:04 The Reads: 1:26:36 Outtakes: 1:30:50
130: Back to the FTR (with Séan Roberts, Cole Robertson, and Annemarie Verkerk)
EYou know the story. The language you speak doesn't determine your savings. If your language has a future tense, there's no impact on the way you see or describe the future. Language and perception are separate. Well, maybe it's time to revisit this. Séan Roberts and Cole Robertson are finding a cognitive connection, not with how our language makes us talk about the future, but with how our language lets us express uncertainty. Also, Annemarie Verkerk and Hedvig Skirgård team up to test out language universals. Which ones are getting knocked over? Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 0:36 News: 6:08 Chat with Annemarie Verkerk and Hedvig Skirgård: 23:06 Related or Not: 49:22 Interview with Séan Roberts and Cole Robertson: 1:10:38 Words of the Week: 2:18:09 Comments: 2:37:20 The Reads: 2:42:37 Outtakes: 2:50:05
129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)
EWe've asked linguists about how language began, but what would an evolutionary biologist tell you? Prof Madeleine Beekman says it's part of a complex web of body, brain, and community, and at the heart of it is (perhaps surprisingly) childcare. Madeleine is the author of The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why. Timestamps Cold open: 0:00 Intros: 0:42 News: 9:07 Related or Not: 30:02 Interview with Madeleine Beekman: 49:43 Words of the Week: 1:40:49 Comments: 2:01:30 The Reads: 2:08:07 Outtakes: 2:17:38