Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård

Science

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/16d. Total Eps: 100

A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Site

RSS

Apple

Data updated on 04/07/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - Social Sciences
06/10/2026
#49
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Social Sciences
06/10/2026
#56
🇨🇦 Canada - Social Sciences
05/10/2026
#25
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Social Sciences
05/10/2026
#32
🇺🇸 USA - Social Sciences
05/10/2026
#72
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Social Sciences
04/10/2026
#55
🇺🇸 USA - Social Sciences
04/10/2026
#60
🇺🇸 USA - Social Sciences
03/10/2026
#47
🇺🇸 USA - Social Sciences
02/10/2026
#44
🇨🇦 Canada - Social Sciences
01/10/2026
#75

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

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http://becauselanguage.com/listen/
3 shares
https://shop.lonesharkgames.com/collections/letters-to-margaret
2 shares
http://becauselanguage.com/29-cultish/
2 shares

http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/
7 shares

https://youtu.be/GcV0218VJ2k
2 shares
https://youtu.be/C1l8Alk3Ptc?si=7pnGnuKcy9YY-mhR
2 shares
https://youtu.be/z1BmUixVNlY
1 share

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 32%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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104: Dogwhistles (with Elin McCready, Lizzy Hanks, Jesse Egbert, and Rikker Dockum)

Monday, August 26, 2024 • Duration 01:44:12

Can you hear them? Only if you're meant to. Political dogwhistles exploit lack of knowledge in one group to send a coded message to another group. But that's just the beginning. How are dogwhistles different from slurs? How do they licence behaviour? Do progressives dogwhistle? Dr Elin McCready is the author of Signaling Without Saying: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Dogwhistles.

We're also joined by Lizzy Hanks and Dr Jesse Egbert, who are working on the LANA-CASE corpus, a huge corpus of conversational English. It aims to bring representation to a diverse group of English speakers, and they're looking for contributors.

Dr Rikker Dockum is our special guest host.

Timestamps

Intros: 0:00
News: 3:01
Interview with Lizzy Hanks and Jesse Egbert: 16:47
Related or Not: 35:45
Interview with Elin McCready: 45:57
Words of the Week: 1:17:47
The Reads: 1:39:43

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103: Unequal Englishes (with Ruanni Tupas and Nicole Holliday)

Saturday, August 3, 2024 • Duration 02:20:59

There are lots of Englishes out there, but the way we approach varieties of English sets learners up to fail. How do we combat language ideologies out there in the world — and in our own minds? Dr Ruanni Tupas is the editor of an important new book: Investigating Unequal Englishes: Understanding, Researching and Analysing Inequalities of the Englishes of the World.

We're joined by our special guest host Dr Nicole Holliday, and we are tackling a torrent of words — political and not — that the current news cycle has thrown at us.

Timestamps

Intros: 0:44
Words of the Week (coconut, weird, brat): 12:41
Related or Not: 55:25
Interview with Ruanni Tupas: 36:36
More Words of the Week (International Blue Screen Day / Crowdstrike, rawdogging, fedupedness, combining form -nomenon, fridgerton): 1:53:43
Comments: 2:11:15
The Reads: 2:13:47

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102: Signed Language Mailbag (with Adam Schembri, Christy Filipich, and Mark Ellison)

Saturday, July 27, 2024 • Duration 02:45:21

What do signed languages have in common? How do oral languages influence signed languages? How do they influence each other? Here to answer these questions and many more, it's Dr Adam Schembri of the University of Birmingham.

You can watch our chat with Adam Schembri on video, with Christy Filipich doing Auslan interpretation.

That video is here:
https://youtu.be/GcV0218VJ2k

Also joining us as a special guest: Dr Mark Ellison.

Timestamps

Intros: 0:38
News: 3:33
Related or Not: 54:15
Interview with Adam Schembri: 1:05:31
Words of the Week: 2:08:27
Comments: 2:27:56
The Reads: 2:31:21
Listener comment: 2:39:33

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101: Talkin' Chomsky (with Katie Martin and Abduweli Ayup)

Monday, July 8, 2024 • Duration 02:27:14

Noam Chomsky is one of the world's foremost thinkers, and his impact on linguistics is incalculable. Yet many people are only familiar with his political activism. What are his linguistic ideas, and why have they been so tenacious?

To answer that question, Daniel had a delightful chat with generative syntactician and Chomsky fan Katie Martin.

We're honoured to have a chat with linguist and Uyghur language activist Abduweli Ayup, recipient of the 2024 Language Rights Defenders Award from the Global Coalition for Language Rights.

Timestamps

Intros: 0:41
News: 10:10
Interview with Abduweli Ayup: 37:36
Related or Not: 57:50
Interview with Katie Martin: 1:06:56
Words of the Week: 1:59:29
The Reads: 2:15:53
Outtakes: 2:22:21

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99: Gender in Germany (with Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán from Corner Späti)

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 • Duration 02:08:40

What's going on in Germany? How are people talking about gender in the German language, and how is freedom of expression being handled? We have a couple of German experts — linguist Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán of the podcast Corner Späti — to tell us why other languages were banned at protests in Berlin, and what right-wing activists get from involving language in their plans.

Timestamps

Intros: 0:34
News: 5:16
Related or Not: 26:29
Interview with Rob and Ciarán: 44:37
Words of the Week: 1:46:42
The Reads: 2:02:50
Outtakes: 2:06:23

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98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman)

Monday, May 20, 2024 • Duration 01:43:19

How much can we really know about the words we use? What are the facts behind some of the most tangled etymologies in English? And is our "Related or Not" game a good way of approaching word history?

We're talking to Dr Anatoly Liberman, perhaps the world's preëminent living etymologist and the author of Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology.

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97: The Dictionary of Fine Distinctions (with Eli Burnstein)

Sunday, April 28, 2024 • Duration 01:38:39

What's the difference between a KINK and a FETISH? Does it matter if you ASSUME or PRESUME? English is full of these close groups of words, and author Eli Burnstein has untangled many of them in his delightful book The Dictionary of Fine Distinctions. Eli joins us for this episode.

Timestamps
Intros: 0:42
News: 9:54
Related or Not: 24:11
Interview with Eli Burnstein: 37:33
Words of the Week: 1:10:13
The Reads: 1:33:45

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96: Language City (with Ross Perlin)

Friday, April 19, 2024 • Duration 01:45:29

New York City is home to a lot of languages! Sometimes a sizeable language community can live on just a couple of floors of an apartment building. Dr Ross Perlin is working to find and promote minority languages in NYC. He's the co-founder of the Endangered Language Alliance, and author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. Ross joins us for this episode.

Intro: 0:36
News: 8:13
Related or Not: 32:52
Interview with Ross Perlin: 43:12
Words of the Week: 1:24:13
The Reads: 1:39:54

Show notes: http://becauselanguage.com/96-language-city/
Support the show: http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/

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95: Why the Far-Right Demagogues Language (with Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse)

Monday, April 1, 2024 • Duration 01:44:12

Language authorities. Right-wing politicians. White supremacists and feminists. What do they have in common? They're all working together to fight gender-inclusive language. But why bring language into this fight? What extra does this give them?

Dr Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse join us to explain on this big episode.

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93: Stop! Grammar Time (live with Ellen Jovin and friends)

Saturday, March 2, 2024 • Duration 01:28:17

In honour of Grammar Day (4 March), we are joined live by special guest Ellen Jovin, who regularly dispenses grammar advice and wisdom from the Grammar Table. Now she's testing our grammatical mettle and answering our questions.

YouTube video of this episode:
https://youtu.be/C1l8Alk3Ptc?si=7pnGnuKcy9YY-mhR

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Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other9

Patreon1

YouTube3

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other9

Patreon1

YouTube3

Apple Podcasts

Spotify