Science Diction
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
New Show: Universe of Art
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Science Diction listeners! We’re back to tell you about a brand new show from Science Friday. Universe Of Art is a podcast about artists who use...
Saying Goodbye To Science Diction
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Science Diction listeners, It is with sadness that we announce the finale of the Science Diction podcast. Starting with a simple newsletter and a...
American Chestnut: Resurrecting A Forest Giant
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have a favor to ask! We want to know more about what you like, what you don’t, and who you are—it’ll help us make better episodes of Science ...
Vocal Fry: Why I’m Not Getting A Voice Coach
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, vocal fry lived a relatively quiet existence. It was known to linguists, speech pathologists and voice coaches, but everyday people didn’...
Juggernaut: Indian Temple Or Unstoppable Force?
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, a grad student in Kolkata named Ujaan Ghosh came across an old book by a Scottish missionary. And as Ghosh paged through the book, he noticed...
Jargon: We Love To Hate It
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Head on over to plainlanguage.gov, and you’ll find a helpful table, dedicated to simplifying and demystifying military jargon. On one side of the ta...
Algebra: From Broken Bones To Twitter Feuds
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When high schooler Gracie Cunningham posted a TikTok asking where algebra came from, she probably didn’t expect to become a viral sensation. There w...
Hurricane
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
CORRECTION: In this episode, we say that there were only two names left on the 2021 list of Atlantic hurricane names until we resume use of the Greek ...
Knock On Wood And Tsunami
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Journalists Kevin McLean and Shalina Chatlani join us for a round of Diction Dash, where Johanna tries - and usually fails - to guess the true meaning...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 3: What Is It Good For?
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Isabel Briggs Myers imagined that her homegrown personality test would change the world, she couldn’t have pictured this. Today, millions tak...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 2: Isabel
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At first, it seemed like Isabel Briggs Myers would have nothing to do with personality typology. That was her mother Katharine’s passion project, no...
The Rise Of The Myers-Briggs, Chapter 1: Katharine
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re one of the 2 million people who take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator every year, perhaps you thought Myers and Briggs are the two psycholo...
Honeymoon: A Bittersweet Beginning
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Honeymoon: It just seems like a word that would have a lovely story behind it, doesn’t it? When a listener named Eric emailed us from Centerville,...
It'll Never Fly: When Gene Names Are TOO Fun
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1910, a fruit fly geneticist named Thomas Hunt Morgan noticed something strange in one of his specimens. Out of his many, many fruit flies—all wi...
What Do You Call A Tiny Octopus That’s Cute As A Button?
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What pigment do we owe to the squid? And what do you name a teeny tiny octopus that’s cute as a button? In this episode of Diction Dash, we’re tal...
Language Evolves: It’s Literally Fine
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you read the title of this episode and cringed, you’re not alone. At Merriam-Webster, editors and lexicographers receive countless letters grousi...
Serendipity and Syzygy: Fortunate Accidents
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did a country's name end up inside the word, “serendipity"? And what’s a “syzygy"? And, more importantly, why does it have so many y’s? ...
Ambergris: How Constipation Becomes A Luxury Product
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, Science Diction received a letter from a listener named Ben. He wanted to know about ambergris, a strange substance that washes up on beac...
Orphans Delivered The World's First Vaccine
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved for emergency use last December, it felt like - at last! - our nightmare was nearly over. Then came re...
Diction Dash: You Asked, We Answer
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past year, you’ve sent us words you want us to cover on the show. And for months, we let those suggestions pile up into a list of nearly 20...
Introvert: The Invention Of A Type
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, introverts staged their comeback. For decades, they’d been told to get out of their shells and *smile*, while those showy, gregarious ext...
Mercury: How It Made Cats Dance
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1953, in the coastal town of Minamata in Japan, locals noticed some cats were acting strangely—twitching, spinning in circles, almost dancing. Th...
Alcohol: History's Favorite Mind-Bending Substance
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vervet monkeys steal it out of people's hands. Chimpanzees in Guinea are known to climb up palm trees and drink it. There’s even a theory that lovin...
Robot: Making A Mechanical Mind
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1920, a Czech writer was stumped. He’d written a play about a future where machines that looked like people do our bidding. They were the perfect...
Lunacy: Mind Control From The Sky
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On December 5th, 2012, a bill landed on President Barack Obama’s desk, meant to do one thing: remove the word “lunatic” from the federal code. T...
Mesmerize: The 18th Century Medical Craze Behind the Word
09 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 18th century, a doctor showed up in Paris practicing some very peculiar medicine. He would escort patients into dimly lit rooms, wave his ...
Science Diction Returns For Season 3
02 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science Diction is back with a new season all about mind control—what happens when we decide to create new minds and they refuse to be controlled, w...
How Do You Name A Hurricane?
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How did we wind up with a storm named Iota? Well, we ran out of hurricane names. Every year, the World Meteorological Organization puts out a list of ...
Hydrox: How A Cookie Got A Name So Bad
16 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The first Oreo rolled out of Chelsea Market in Manhattan in 1912, but despite the cookie’s popularity today, Oreos weren’t an immediate cookie sma...
How Did The ‘Cosmic Crisp’ Apple Get Its Name?
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This fall, there’s a new apple all around town. After 20 years of development, the Cosmic Crisp has landed. In this episode, we’re bringing you a ...
Restaurant: How It All Began
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1760s, a new kind of establishment started popping up in Paris, catering to the French and fancy. These places had tables, menus, and servers. ...
Umami: A Century Of Disbelief
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Salty, sweet, sour, bitter. Scientists once thought these were the only tastes, but in the early 20th century, a Japanese chemist dissected his favori...
Guest Episode: Communal Eating With ‘Gastropod’
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re sharing an episode from an excellent food podcast, Gastropod. This show is right up our alley—co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola ...
Rocky Road: Why It Sounds So Dang Delicious
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rocky Road is just a good name for an ice cream flavor. So good, in fact, that two ice cream institutions have dueling claims to Rocky Road’s invent...
Ketchup: A Fishy History
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At the turn of the 20th century, 12 young men sat in the basement of the Department of Agriculture, eating meals with a side of borax, salicylic acid...
Science Diction Digs Into Food
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the next few weeks, we'll investigate the science, language, and history of food.
Spanish Flu
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the fall of 1918, Philadelphia newspapers announced that a new virus had arrived in the city, the so-called “Spanish flu.” But the facts and sc...
Quarantine
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Quarantine has been on many of our minds lately. The phrases “shelter in place” and “self-quarantine” have filled up our news, social media, a...
Vaccine
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, smallpox seemed unbeatable. People had tried nearly everything to knock it out—from herbal remedies to tossing back 12 bottles of bee...
Meme
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Remember that summer when the internet was one Distracted Boyfriend after another—that flannel-shirted dude rubbernecking at a passing woman, while ...
Cobalt
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cobalt has been hoodwinking people since the day it was pried from the earth. Named after a pesky spirit from German folklore, trickery is embedded in...
Dinosaur
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At the turn of the 19th century, Britons would stroll along the Yorkshire Coast, stumbling across unfathomably big bones. These mysterious fossils wer...
Science Friday Presents: Science Diction
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the people who make Science Friday, we bring you Science Diction, a bite-sized podcast about words—and the science stories behind them. Host...