Columbia University linguistics professor and bestselling author John McWhorter discusses some of the quirks of the English language and explains why one of Stephen’s favorite Southern words will always be considered slang. McWhorter’s book “Pronoun Trouble” is available now.  To learn more about listener data and our

Jonah Goldberg knows many a public intellectual, but linguist extraordinaire John McWhorter is one of his favorites. John returns to the show to discuss his new book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words. Topics include: grammars of the elite, the imposition of language rules, the they-shaped elephant

John McWhorter, Columbia University linguistics professor, host of the Lexicon Valley podcast, opinion writer at The New York Times, and the author of Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words (Avery, 2025), talks about his new book that digs into the cultural and linguistic history of pronoun usage in Eng

John McWhorter is one of the greatest living experts on the English language—and many others, too. He’s an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia, a columnist at The New York Times, and he’s an unsung Broadway aficionado. He once told us he could not do an interview because he was busy rehearsing a cabaret show

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New York Times columnist and linguist John McWhorter discusses the rise and fall of "woke," DEI and affirmative action, and his new book on the history of pronouns.