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Profanity used to be about someone swearing insincerely to God. Then the Reformation came along and made profanity about sex and the body. 

Today, our most unspeakable words are slurs against other groups at a time when BLM, #MeToo, and cancel culture are driving our cultural narrative.

We talk about the past, present, and future of profanity. 

GUEST:
John McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He’s a contributing editor to The Atlantic and host of Slate’s Lexicon Valley podcast. His new book is Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

<a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/lexicon-valley/2021/04/nine-nasty-words">Profanity</a>&nbsp;used to be about someone swearing insincerely to God. Then the Reformation came along and made profanity about sex and the body.&nbsp;
Today, our most&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html">unspeakable&nbsp;</a>words are slurs against other groups at a time when BLM, #MeToo, and cancel culture are driving our cultural narrative.
We talk about the past, present, and future of profanity.&nbsp;
GUEST:
<ul>
<li>John McWhorter&nbsp;teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He&rsquo;s a contributing editor to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-mcwhorter/">The Atlantic</a>&nbsp;and host of&nbsp;Slate&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/lexicon-valley/2021/04/nine-nasty-words">Lexicon Valley</a>&nbsp;podcast. His new book is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H1965LG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">Nine Nasty Words</a>: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever</li>
</ul>

The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

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