About this episode
We've got a list of seven words we can't say on the radio, and a whole slew more we'd rather not say in polite company. On Today's Show: John McWhorter , Columbia University linguistics professor, host of the Lexicon Valley podcast at Slate and the author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever (Avery, 2021), joins to discuss his new book on profanity, where swear words come from and why they hold so much power.