59: John McWhorter: F**k, s**t, c**t and the truly unspeakable

Leading linguistics professor at Columbia University John McWhorter talks about his brilliant book Nine Nasty Words, and the origin of swearing. Why are some words profane, and others not? How has it changed over time, and what will the unmentionable words of the future be? John McWhorter Links: Nine Nasty Words: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nine-Nasty-Words-English-Forever/dp/0593188799 https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter Andrew Gold Links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://patreon.com/andrewgold http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

What makes you a heretic? Journalist Andrew Gold believes that, in an age of group-think and tribes, we need heretics - those who use unconventional wisdom to speak out against their own groups, from cancelled comedians and radical feminists to cult defectors and vigilantes hunting deviants. Learn from my guests how to rebel, think differently and resist social contagion. From Triggernometry's Francis Foster and the world's most cancelled man Graham Linehan to Robbie Williams and gender critical atheist Richard Dawkins. These are the people living with the weight of their own community's disappointment on their shoulders.