In 2017, we traveled to Brooklyn to do a show at BAM, and our guest dropped out at the last minute. We called Stephen Colbert and he agreed to fill in *but only if we asked him the questions we had prepped for the original guest, without telling him who it was.* www.npr.org/programs/wai...

On the tube

like the devaluation of creative labor is the first thing, but it’s hard to underestimate how violating it is to have the work of your heart used without your consent by the worst people in existence

You can tell they have not spoken to normal people in years. Boasting about killing jobs and ruining the arts plays great at $400/plate luncheons with venture capitalists but not, as it turns out, to groups of recent grads about to enter the job market

when u tax the rich

Incredible organizing in Wisconsin. Check out this story.

📣 CALL FOR INTERVIEWS! If you know a recently retired sociolinguist who had a major influence on the field, consider interviewing them and publishing the transcript with the Journal of Sociolinguistics! To propose an interview, just email the EICs with your idea - contact details below 👇

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

watched this on repeat losing my shit for two nights now

Pierre Bourdieu once argued that the question of whether something is art isn't answered by the artist's intention or even the object itself. Instead, the quality of being "art" is conferred by a community — curators, dealers, auction houses, audiences, etc. 🧵

call the bluff

Omg our building got evacuated on Monday and closed down for the whole week. Faculty can only access offices w police escort, all our exams got moved (mine to the field house). Turns out this is why 😳 www.wilx.com/2026/04/29/m...

Did you know that if you’re a professional linguist there’s a law of nature that you will type it as “langauge” around 50% of the time (in all writing)?

The worry here is that Democrats will get swept back into power, but instead of using that mandate to undo the hideous damage Republicans have done, they'll take Starmer's idiotic appeasement approach to prove they can be conservative, too. America, you don't need Starmer. You need Mamdani.

M (3;7) asked who Cruella DeVille is. Me: hm. She’s a lady who wanted to kill a bunch of puppies so she could use their fur to make a coat. M: … … … … But that’s not very kind!

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

A note I found yesterday while walking in Portland.

The crazy thing about this dialogue is that any woman who is not a thin, conventionally attractive white woman, knows that this “inherent value” rhetoric is a lie. Under the kind of sexist patriarchal worldview this guy is espousing, the women who are afforded value are only a subset of women.

Today would be Coretta Scott King’s 99th birthday. CSK was a lifelong freedom fighter & more of an activist than MLK when they met. As a student she’d supported the Progressive Party’s 3rd party challenge for president opposing US militarism, racism & economic inequality. We need to know her.

“Why do you fight for trans rights?” To keep your kids alive.

If you’re against DEI, you’re a segregationist and I’m tired of folks, for the sake of politeness and naïveté, pretending the discussion is anything but that.

Your semi-regular reminder that the arguments against trans women's participation in sports are totally incoherent, unless you assume: 1) cis men will "transition" in order to cheat at sports (ludicrous), and/or 2) any woman physically above average should be excluded

I’ve taken 4 flights with my 3yo in the last 2 months. Each flight, she peeks in the cockpit and exclaims “Mama! Dere’s de pilots!” Each flight, the pilot offers to let her take a picture in their seat & she says no & I employ enormous willpower to not pressure her bc OMG IT WOULD BE SO CUTE

some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small

I would’ve died from cancer and been broke from the reconstruction without rules saying insurance had to cover it. Actually, I would’ve died from asthma as a child without insurance covering my $500/month inhalers. These dudes as the definition of ungrateful and short-sighted.

The richest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of stocks. The richest 1% alone own roughly half of all stocks. It's worth pointing out once again that the stock market is not the economy.

Trinidadian!

What the fuck kind of crab is Sebastian supposed to be

Is Ursula an octopus or a squid? Relatedly, is Sebastian a crab or a lobster?

To finish the fucking thing.

🌺 Spring!!! 🌼

I'm a little verklempt at how diversity enriches us in unexpected ways.

As far as I know there is literally no reason for this, it is just an incredibly lucky coincidence that we get to enjoy for free

Don't taco Tuesday this shit. Millions of people spent the day wondering if they would get vaporized, and no one in our government stood up to him. Nothing cutesy about it.

When the only clinic that offered abortions in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula closed, an urgent care decided to step in to fill the gap. Now, others are considering similar moves as brick-and-mortar clinics close in blue states. n.pr/4chq6J5

lol M (3;7) is code switching past tense between me and the baby: “Mama, my phone broke!” “Look [baby], my phone breaked!” 🐦 #linguistbabyphotos

Tax invisibility is a scourge in our politics > Public childcare isn't free, it's tax-funded. > People buying $34 burgers pay taxes. > Believe $34 burger eaters should pay more? wait until you hear about this idea "progressive taxation" Wow, problem solved, thanks taxes! 😀

Watching the tech industry unleash unpredictable software into production in the name of AI adoption, then spend twice as much time and money trying to limit the blast radius, proves humans should be investing in our own intelligence before allowing the machines to mimic us.

Well. just saw a video of Palestinian kids in a refugee camp playing The had a doll on a stretcher and were carrying it in a funeral procession. Idk if I want to vomit or cry.

HOO boy. That no language is better or more expressive than another. Dialect is not the absence of grammar or deficient. Language use is not correlated with intelligence. Language change is the norm, not a reason for panic.

Dell Hymes is a foundational scholar in linguistic anthropology who sexually harassed his students and colleagues at Penn for many years before he was finally removed. I don’t cite Hymes’ work in my research and I don’t teach it, and I’m very open about why I don’t.

Wikipedia now has higher standards than all universities

Post a gif of who you wanted to be as a kid

Rename everything named after Cesar Chavez for Dolores Huerta.

Someone captured my colleagues an I servicing the cameras during Kīlauea’s episode 42. We stopped to discuss what we were seeing, but because I talk with my hands it looks like I’m fixing to push someone in… Credit: Volcano Hideaways

The University of Essex Language & Linguistics dept was critical to my journey - part of the reason that I am in the field I am in and have the career I have now. If you can’t help be on the picket line, you can help by donating to the hardship fund (see links in Nina’s post below)

Getting stuck on what message to put in your Valentine's Day cards this year? You can always borrow one of these bangers from my kid (3;5): "Uncle S, do whatever you can to protect [baby]." "[cousin], I am very hopeful that you have a bed."

Shame on @nature.com for publishing this ableist trash, and shame on the authors for writing it: Short 🧵>>