Now for the third installment of posts about linguistics podcasts: Very Bad Words.

Yes, it’s what you’re thinking. But it’s a podcast, not a broadcast, so they can get away with it without being bothered by the FCC. It’s the creation of one Matt Fidler.

Any relation to Bailey Fidler? Inquiring minds want to know.

Anyhow, I’m sure that the majority of my students (not all) would be comfortable with this subject matter — more so than I am. Certain episodes, however, might make even a lot of high school students uncomfortable. Is it a good thing to be taken out of one’s comfort zone? I believe it is, but in this age of trigger warnings and micro-aggressions we would have a lot of disagreement about this question.

When you look at the list of episode titles below, you’ll see what I mean. So, do listen to this fascinating podcast, but you’ve been warned.

Here is a verbatim list of the seven episodes of Very Bad Words presented so far:

1. Talkin’ Sh*t
2. Crossing the Line in Comedy
3. WTF FCC?
4. The C-Word
5. Swearing in Foreign Languages
6. The F-Word
7. The Sacred & The Profane

See what I mean?

Categories: Linguistics