The Vocal Fries

Megan and Carrie talk to Dr. Dennis Baron, Emeritus Professor of English at  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about his newest book You …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Geneva Smitherman/Dr. G about her book My Soul Look Back In Wonder, narrative essays about her race, gender, class, and …

Example bonus episode from November 2022.

We talk WOTY22!

Full episode coming soon

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Megan and Carrie talk with Jonathan "radbwa faroush" Myers and Adrien  Guillory-Chatman, members of the first Wikitongues cohort, about Kouri-Vini, …

Carrie and Megan talk with Maureen Kosse, linguistics PhD student at University of Colorado Boulder, about her paper "Ted Cruz Cucks Again",  the …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr JPB Gerald, host of Unstandardized English, a podcast about language teaching, race, and whiteness,  about his new book

You asked for it and it finally happened: the You're Wrong About/Vocal Fries crossover event is here.

Carrie and Megan talk with Sarah Marshall about bimbos, vocal fry, the word "like" and many other things.

Want to edit …

Megan and Carrie talk with Kory Stamper, lexicographer extraordinaire, about the history and use of the word "bullsh*t".

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. John Rickford, emeritus professor at Stanford, about his memoir, Speaking my Soul: Race, Life and Language, growing up …

Megan and Carrie talk with Drs Andreea Calude and Laurie Bauer about their new textbook Mysteries of English Grammar: A Guide to Complexities of the …

Carrie and Megan talk with the Working Pentlatch Revitalization team (Mathew Andreatta, Jessie Recalma, Chief Michael Recalma, and Dr Su Urbanczyk) …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Hadas Kotek, a linguist at Apple, about two of her papers: Gender bias in linguistics textbooks: Has anything changed …

Carrie and Megan talk with two of the editors of Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language, Eufemia Fantetti, Professor of English at Humber …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Noah Nelson, trustee of FindingFive. FindingFive is a tech nonprofit that enables academic researchers to create and run online behavioral research studies in the cloud!  

This is a …

Renee and Natalia are back with a conversation about some of the books they love that fall into super niche genres. For example, Natalia has an entire bookshelf dedicated to books about bananas and Renee will never say …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Jessica Hernandez, a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific …

Megan and Carrie talk with Katie Craig about Myanmar/Burma, the languages spoken there and her organization Myanmar Indigenous Community Partners, which works with local communities to develop and celebrate these …

In this special (kind of bonus) episode, Dr Anna Marie Trester and Sophie Henry talk about Anna Marie's new book Employing Linguistics: Thinking and Talking about Careers for Linguists.

We're an indie podcast with …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Jessi Grieser about her new book, The Black Side of the River, DC, Tennessee and the way Black residents of Anacostia talk about their neighborhood and themselves.

Galician songs here and …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Enrico Torre about Galician and other languages spoken in Spain and why they matter.

We're an indie podcast with limited …

Carrie and Megan talk with Mara Wilson about her voice, her neurodivergence, and the IPA.

Transcript available here.

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Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Sylvia Sierra about her new book, Millennials Talking Media: Creating Intertextual Identities in Everyday Conversation, …

Carrie and Megan talk to Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King (among others), about his YA books set in Appalachia, why he doesn't use eye-dialect, and why representation matters.

Transcript available here

We're an …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Joyhanna Yoo Garza, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard, about K-Pop, semiotics, cultural …

Megan and Carrie talk with Natalyn Daniels, Clery Liaison at the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Rose Wilkerson, lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, about growing up on the Navajo Nation, …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Emily M. Bender, Professor of Linguistics at University of Washington, about her paper "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜", Google firing Drs. Timnit …

Megan and Carrie talk with the cohosts of Maintenance Phase, Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, about wellness, diet culture, fatness and how not to …

Carrie and Megan talk with Deion Broxton about his Baltimore accent, his career and speech therapy, and going viral.

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Megan and Carrie talk with Amanda Montell about her newest book Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, out June 15, 2021, how cults use language to …

Carrie and Megan talk with Erik Singer, dialect coach to the stars, about what dialect coaches do, how to become one, and his strategies for teaching different accents to actors.

Check out some of his Wired videos …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Elena Costello Tzintzun, a newly-minted PhD, about the importance of using heritage language learners as healthcare interpreters and healthcare accessibility.

Philly episode

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We're …

Carrie and Megan talk with Jaya Saxena, Staff Writer at Eater about her piece The Limits of the Lunchbox Moment and the way we talk about food and …

Megan and Carrie talk with Jamaal Muwwakkil, PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Santa Barbara about African American English and …

April Fools!  But it's the good kind of prank.  Today we're participating in Operation Switcheroo, where podcasts hosts share their feed with a …

Megan and Carrie talk with Drs Gaillynn Clements, Visiting Assistant Professor in Linguistics at Duke University, and Marnie Jo Petray, Associate Professor in TESOL at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, about …

Carrie and Megan talk with Ártemis López about queer and trans translation and interpretation, indirect and direct non-binary language and Spanish …

Megan and Carrie talk with Kory Stamper, lexicographer extraordinaire, about lexicography, her experience on the History of Swear Words, and her favourite swear word.

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Carrie and Megan discuss the nominations and winners of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 2020.

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Carrie and Megan discuss Yamiche Alcindor's "ungrammatical sentences" and Latinx/Latine supposedly ruining Dem's electoral chances.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Norma Mendoza-Denton Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, about her new edited book, Language in the Trump Era.

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Megan and Carrie talk with JPB Gerald, host of Unstandardized English, a podcast about language teaching, race, and whiteness, EdD student and adult …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Katherine D. Kinzler, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago, about her new book How You Say It: Why You …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Anne Charity Hudley, Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, about how to dismantle white supremacy in linguistics.

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It's the Fries' 3 year anniversary! Carrie and Megan respond to listener voicemails about linguistic discrimination. 

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Megan and Carrie discuss the letter to the LSA and then talk with Dr. Marie-Eve Monette, founder of Creating Puentes, about the importance of translation and interpretation services and her life as a French speaker …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Marianne Mason, newly minted Associate Professor of Spanish at James Madison University, about police interviews, the …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Linet Mera, co-founder of the Unconscious Bias Project, and Lucretia Iruela, consultant to the UBP, about unconscious …

Megan and Carrie talk with David Bowles, a Mexican-American author from south Texas who teaches at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley, about …

Carrie and Megan talk with Kendra Calhoun, graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, about anti-hegemonic racial humor on Vine.

Megan talks with Dr. Nelson Flores, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Jonathan Rosa, Associate Professor at Stanford, about the bilingual brain, semilingualism, and why people keep confusing …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Sharese King, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, about Rachel Jeantel and her treatment by the justice system and the media during the George Zimmerman trial.

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Carrie and Megan talk to Dr. Laurel MacKenzie, Assistant Professor at NYU, about all things names.

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Megan and Carrie chat with Dr Anna Marie Trester, founder of Career Linguist, about the importance of linguistics to the workplace. (Employers: you need us!)

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We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we …

Carrie and Megan talk with Daniel Bogre Udell, cofounder of Wikitongues, about language documentation and revitalization.

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Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Melissa Baese-Berk, Associate Professor at the University of Oregon, about native and non-native English and the different levels of effort required to understand each.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Gearoidin McEvoy, PhD Candidate in Minority Language Rights Law at Dublin City University and cohost of Motherfoclóir, about Irish and the law.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so …

Megan and Carrie talk to Ebony Joachim, at Living Languages, who runs professional development courses for Indigenous communities in Australia, about her work, language revitalization and documentation, and the …

Carrie and Megan talk to Dr Zachary Jaggers, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oregon, about differences in pronunciation of …

Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Andrew McKenzie, Associate Professor at the University of Kansas, about Kiowa (Cauijoga), language documentation and the importance of semantic documentation.

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Carrie and Megan talk to Dr. Ake Nicholas, Lecturer at Massey University,  about Cook Islands Maori, language documentation and the importance of …

Megan and Carrie talk to Alice Wong, the founder and Project Coordinator of the Disability Visibility Project, and Nina G, comedian, professional speaker, storyteller, writer and educator, about their disabilities and …

Carrie and Megan talk to Ben Zimmer about the rhetoric of "infestation" and "invasion" and the history of their use.

We're an indie podcast with …

Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Lisa Davidson, Professor of Linguistics at New York University, about the terms used by journalists to describe language and accents (and why they are so often problematic).

We're an indie …

Carrie and Megan talk to Dr Sadie Ryan, host of the Accentricity podcast, the podcast that examines the eccentricities of language and identity and how the way we talk connects to who we are.

We're an indie podcast with …

Megan and Carrie talk to Duane Daniels, actor, acting coach, director and producer, aka Principal Van Clemmons on Veronica Mars, about acting, singing and his new book You are Not Really Hamlet: And Everybody Knows It.

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Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Megan Strom, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, about the importance of interpretation services in the United States.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, …

Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Lal Zimman, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, about trans voices and vocal fry.

We're an …

Carrie and Megan talk to Dr Jeffrey Punske, Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and Dr Andrew McKenzie, Associate Professor at the University of Kansas, about their project on language …

Megan and Carrie talk with Amanda Montell about her new book wordslut: a feminist guide to taking back the english language.

We're an indie podcast …

Carrie and Megan talk with Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson, PhD student at the University of Arizona, about the language around reproductive rights, reproductive justice and abortion.

We're an indie podcast with limited …

Carrie and Megan talk with Keisha Wiel, PhD student at Temple University, about Papiamentu, a creole spoken in the Caribbean.

We're an indie podcast …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Jamie Thomas, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Swarthmore, about zombies, Swahili, and her book "Zombies Speak …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Hilaria Cruz, Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville in the Department of Comparative Humanities, about Chatino languages and Chatino conceptions of death.

We're an indie …

Carrie and Megan talk with Jane Solomon about her upcoming book The Dictionary of Difficult Words.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Tony McMahon from RMIT about all things bogan and Australia.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we could …

Carrie and Megan talk with Nicole Horseherder, Diné from Arizona, about Diné Bizaad (aka Navajo).

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we …

Megan and Carrie talk with Kelly Wright, PhD student at the University of Michigan, about housing discrimination via dialect discrimination.

We're an …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Nicole Holliday, Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Pomona College about Black English, …

Carrie interviews Megan about child language acquisition and why correcting kids' "mistakes" is not worth your time. 

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Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Jonathan Rosa, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Stanford University, about his forthcoming book …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Abby Bajuniemi about heritage languages and heritage language speakers.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Matthew Garley, Assistant Professor at CUNY, York College, about the use of Spanish and Spanglish in rap.

We're an …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Betsy Sneller, Postdoc at Georgetown University about all things Philadelphia English. 

We're an indie podcast with …

Carrie and Megan talk with Tracy O'Brien, literature PhD student at the University of Toronto, about all things Newfoundland. Yes b'y.

We're an indie …

Megan and Carrie answer your questions about jerk linguists, the alt right and vocal fry.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we could …

It's another Halloween episode! Megan and Carrie talk about bats, wolves and ... prairie dogs?

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Santiago Kalinowski, Director of the the Linguistics Department at the Argentinian Academy of Letters, about lenguaje inclusivo/inclusive language in Spanish.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Nathalie Dajko, Assistant Professor at Tulane University, about varieties of French in Louisiana and the history of …

Megan and Carrie talk with Lisa Sprowls, PhD student at Tulane University about New Orleans English(es), especially Yat and the Garden District …

Carrie and Megan talk with Lou Capetta of the Lou Capetta Show with Jay Burke about all things New Jersey, including the Sopranos, the Jersey Shore and water ice.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we …

Megan and Carrie discuss their first year of podcasting, what they've learned from the experience, and how vocal fry will haunt them forever.

We're an …

Carrie and Megan talk with Amanda and Lucy from the Wine and Crime podcast about all things Minnesota.

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Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Nelson Flores, newly minted Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, about the so-called 30 million word gap, why it is problematic, and how better …

In this special bonus episode, Carrie and Megan talk about Koko the gorilla, Love Island and donuts. 

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Bob Kennedy of the University of California, Santa Barbara about accents in song, including which accents are associated with which genres, appropriation of those accents, and r's.

We're an …

Carrie and Megan talk with Joan Palmiter Bajorek, PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, about the issues around learning a second language via …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Alexandra D'Arcy, Associate Professor at the University of Victoria, Director of the Sociolinguistics Research Lab and …

Carrie and Megan talk with Issa Wurie, cohost of the Young Free and Coupled podcast, about South London dialects and slang.

We're an indie podcast …

Megan and Carrie talk with Alexander Drechsel, Alexander Gansmeier and Jonathan Downie of the Troublesome Terps in this special crossover episode.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Ethan Kutlu, PhD student at the University of Florida about foreign accented speech (FAS), which foreign accents are …

Megan and Carrie discuss Time's/The Muse's list of "bad" words. HEAVY SIGH.

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Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Ersula Ore from Arizona State University about rhetoric, respectability politics, and her arrest near campus back in …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez from Southern Illinois University Carbondale about Basque and the discrimination Basque …

Carrie and Megan talk with Kirby Conrod, doctoral student at University of Washington, about trans language, including pronoun usage and singular …

Megan and Carrie talk with Selikem Gotah, Masters student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, about Ghanaian English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, and other languages of Ghana. Learn a little about the history of …

In this special episode of the Vocal Fries, Carrie and Megan chat with Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne of Lingthusiasm about Australian and …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Nicole Rosen, Canada Research Chair in Language Interactions at the University of Manitoba about Canadian French, …

Carrie and Megan talk with Dr. Paul Reed, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Alabama. They discuss …

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr. Carmen Fought about Chicano English, why it matters, and why it isn't the same as Spanglish. Carmen Fought is a …

Carrie and Megan chat with award-winning Chicano Poet Alberto Álvaro Ríos about living on the border between the US and Mexico and between English and Spanish.

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Megan and Carrie chat about superstitions, special numbers and the real meaning of 'witch hunt', all while (mis?)pronouncing triskaidekaphobia. It's the spookiest episode yet!

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Do Siri or Alexa have problems understanding you? Learn why, with Carrie and Megan. They talk to Dr. Rachael Tatman about Automatic Speech …

Megan and Carrie interview Dr. Peter Jacobs, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University, where he works on language revitalization. They talk about Rez English(es) (the varieties of English spoken on …

Carrie and Megan talk about prescriptive grammar, grammar peeving, and how most of the rules you were taught about English were made up by a few …

Megan and Carrie talk to Beth Troutman about what it's like to be a Southerner in politics and TV, discuss some Southern American English features, …

Have you ever wondered why swearing feels so good? Carrie and Megan explain what counts as swearing and why it's so fun to swear. They also discuss what types of words become profane over time and how swearing varies …

In this episode we discuss the dreaded vocal fry. We explain what vocal fry actually is, who uses it (cough everyone cough), and why we judge only women for using it. Carrie and Megan ask you to stop judging women for …