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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 for his bungalow colony. It all sounds like a scene out of TheMarvelous Mrs. Maisel.
But in his day job, he is thinking about words, language, and—the not-so-controversial topic of pronouns. John is a true independent mind. He has been one of the most outspoken critics of liberal excess—his last book was called Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. But now? Now he’s taking a position that we suspect will provoke the other side.
In his new book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, John makes the provocative case that the English language evolves in ways that don’t always make sense. But, he says, that’s okay. And he takes it a step further—saying the wide adoption of they/them in the singular, instead of he/him or she/her, works.
What are the stakes of these little words? For example, as a society, are we disrespecting women (and men) when we fail to acknowledge, in our language, who has dealt with the challenges of womanhood or manhood and who has not?
And what are the consequences of letting children adopt they/them pronouns, especially if it pushes them toward medical transition? At the same time, how do we create a society that is kind and inclusive but also reflective of reality? And can we even have both?
The broader context of this language conversation is about what can and cannot be said. We talk about this broader context—the state of the woke left, but also the rise of the woke right.
Bari puts all of these questions to the premier linguist and culture expert John McWhorter on this episode of Honestly.
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We like to think of the Earth as a very stable place. While there might be seasonal variation in the weather, things don’t really change that much within our lifetimes.
However, if you take a longer perspective, a much longer perspective, things can change a lot.
In fact, there have been five times in the history of the Earth when life on Eath completely changed. When over half of the species on the planet completely disappeared.
Learn more about the Earth’s mass extinction events and what caused them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today I’m speaking with Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. We are discussing his latest book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy (Yale UP, 2025). The enmity between secular liberals and religious conservatives is a source of chaos in American democracy. Religious conservatives blame secular liberals for creating a decadent society without traditional norms. Secular liberals accuse religious conservatives of intolerance and hatred. Both sides want to do away with the other, when we actually need to try to understand each other. Jonathan’s book offers a powerful critique of our uncompromising ways.
Wednesday was ‘Liberation Day’ in Trump’s America. For everyone else, it was a day of sheer economic panic, as President Donald Trump unveiled heavy 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of countries, on top of a 10 percent blanket tariff on all imports. Trump billed it all as a fool-proof strategy to bring back American jobs that have moved overseas, and said specifically the levies would be a boon for unionized workers at domestic car companies. But Trump is no friend to unionized labor. He's spent the days since his inauguration slashing thousands of unionized government jobs. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, talks about how unions are fighting back.
And in headlines: Wisconsinites gave Elon Musk the middle finger by sending a liberal judge to their state Supreme Court, a federal judge dismissed corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and Amazon makes an eleventh-hour bid to buy TikTok.
Show Notes:
Learn more about the American Federation of Government Employees – www.afge.org/
We're talking about a major step in a massive global trade war. President Trump announced new tariffs on virtually the entire world.
Also, tornadoes tore through several states, and more severe weather is on the way.
Plus, a major American company is making an 11th-hour bid for TikTok, the Supreme Court made a decision about vape products in the U.S., and what’s recession pop? We’ll fill you in on the latest trend in music.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!
It was T-Day: Tariffs, Tesla, & Trump… We got an update on all of ‘em (and why it’ll cost you $3,600/year).
Tinder launched a Flirt-bot… Because AI’s most powerful use is training pickup lines (seriously).
Nintendo’s Switch 2 is its biggest launch in 8 years… and Mario Kart is getting social.
Plus, we found a Skier’s Arbitrage: It’s cheaper to fly to Japan for a weekend of shredding than staying here in the states…
$NTDOY $TSLA $SPY
Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… 📱iPhone: The Device Steve Jobs Didn’t Want to Build.
“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstocks sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.
During mid-April, 2025, I'm doing a southern book tour, with stops in San Antonio, Houston, Gainesville, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Oxford. Find out more at www.thememorypalace.us/events.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.
Music
La Copla from Atahualpa Yupanqui
Yes, Brick by Brick and Waende by Caeys
Space in Between by Federico Albanese
Kieke by Shida Shihabi
Notes
My favorite work on Mays is James Hirsch's glorious biography, Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. I also recommend John Klima's Willie's Boys, about the Black Baron's 1948 season.
If you're looking to get more context for the city during those years, I'd recommend Diane McWhorter's history, Carry Me Home.
Three years ago, Scaachi Koul went through a divorce, a process that she says was "disorienting." But divorce, the Slate writer says, also offered a framework for rethinking everything: her relationship with men, family, conflict, and herself. Her new book of essays Sucker Punch works through this personal evolution. In today's episode, Koul speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about one of the primary relationships in these essays: the writer's relationship with her mother. They also discuss Koul's shifting perspective on fights, her interest in speaking with the man who sexually assaulted her, and her loose interpretation of Hindu fables.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
