Science

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

by Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård

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Latest episodes

148: On the Mark (with Florence Hazrat)

October 11, 2026 · 2 hr 19 min

Commas, em dashes, apostrophes, and interrobangs. We use them for timing, for grammar, and even for social purposes. But these little marks didn't just arise overnight. Dr Florence Hazrat fills us in on the history and meaning of these…
147: The Language Beat (with Michael Erard)

September 23, 2026 · 58 min

Michael Erard has been covering language in major publications for a good long while. What has he learned, and what can linguistic communication take from his work? Michael sits down for a chat with Daniel and Hedvig to talk about his new…
146: Beyond Words (with Karen Stollznow)

September 17, 2026 · 2 hr 2 min

How do children learn language, and why can't other animals? Why are false friends between languages always naughty? And how is public perception of language changing? Dr Karen Stollznow is taking us through a tour of psycholinguistics…
145: Face With Tears of Joy (live with Keith Houston and friends)

September 3, 2026 · 1 hr 34 min

Emoji, once regarded as some kind of frivolous nonsense, have become an important way we communicate online. But how did these little pictures come to our devices? What is the Unicode Consortium, and how did they get involved? And who is…
144: Sociophonetics Deep Dive (with Jennifer Nycz, Lauren Hall-Lew, and Kelly Wright)

August 22, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

Why don't we all sound the same? Are some accents easier to learn? And are there reasons for the differences in how people sound and sign, or is it just random? We use sound and sign to encode information about our age, place, gender…

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143: How to Kill a Language (with Sophia Smith Galer)

August 11, 2026 · 2 hr 17 min

How does it feel to be isolated from a language and a culture that could have been yours? There are many paths to language loss, but there are also many ways back. Language revitalisation is now happening for communities and individuals…
142: If This Be Magic (with Daniel Hahn)

July 28, 2026 · 2 hr 2 min

Translating Shakespeare takes a knowledge of language, culture, and poetry — both in English and in the target language. There are tradeoffs and pitfalls, but a skilled translator can bring Shakespeare closer to our age, not just to…
141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)

July 17, 2026 · 2 hr 24 min

Each letter in our Latin alphabet tells a story. But what about spaces? Or writing direction? Should we get rid of some letters, or could we even do with more? Here to answer all these questions is Dr Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U: A…
140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)

June 30, 2026 · 2 hr 2 min

We created software that could generate human-like text output quickly and easily. Now we're dealing with the societal upheaval it's caused. What are the risks and rewards, and what can we learn about language from these large language…
139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)

June 9, 2026 · 2 hr 47 min

Australian magpies are even cleverer birds than we thought. New research from Dr Stephanie Mason shows that they do two language-like things we used to think only humans could do: learn their calls socially, and combine their calls in a…
138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)

May 12, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min

Wherever Irish speakers in the world get together, you can have a "pop-up Gaeltacht"! And we're having one on this episode. We've got author and TG4 presenter Laura Pakenham taking us through the history and orthography of this great and…
137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)

May 1, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

What goes on in our minds when we construct an utterance? Linguists often use syntax trees to represent the structure of sentences, but are they psychologically real? Yngwie Nielsen and Dr Morten Christiansen have found evidence for…