The Vocal Fries
The monthly podcast about linguistic discrimination. Learn about how we judge other people's speech as a sneaky way to be racist, sexist, classist, etc. Carrie and Megan teach you how to stop being an accidental jerk. Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/vocalfriespod
Episodes
The Fries are 9!
Carrie and Megan talk with Erik Singer, dialect coach to the stars, to celebrate 9 years of the Fries!
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Kelly Gaumont, host of the podcast Canuck is a Slur, about his podcast, French Canadians in Alberta, and all things language in Canada.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Chad M Topaz, professor of complex systems at Williams College and cofounder of the QSIDE Institute, about his book Unlocking Justice: The Power of Data to Confront Inequity and Create Change.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry ...
Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Valerie Fridland about her newest book, Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Drs Lynnette Arnold and Anna I. Corwin about their new co-edited book (with Jennifer R Guzmán and Emily Avera), Language and Health in Action (ebook), along with two authors in the same volume, Drs Stephanie Keeney Parks and Abby Mack about their chapters "Autism Diagnostics as White Public Space in US Clinics" and "In the Spirit, in the Flesh: Performative Language, Embodiment, and Sustai...
Carrie and Megan talk with Kory Stamper, about her newest book, True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color from Azure to Zinc Pink. Out March 31, 2026!
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk about the Epstein emails and Chomsky's correspondence with him. Carrie swears more than usual.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk about the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Tim Brookes about his newest book, By Hand, about the importance of handwriting.
WOTY:
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk about Makaton, an artificial sign-based system, particularly Sara Novič's article about it.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk about random words that are scary or scary-adjacent.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
We have a few things to say about Pinker.
- Part of the War on Science
- The Language Instinct
- Pinker on Race Realism
- Co-authored paper on overregularization
- The Open Letter to the LSA
- The article that Carrie was interviewed for, but not named, about the Open Letter
- Our episode on dogwhistling
- The Harper's Letter
- Guardian on his appearance on Aporia
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @voca...
Carrie and Megan talk with Megan C. Reynolds, Dwell magazine editor, about her book, Like: A History of the World's Most Hated (and Misunderstood) Word.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Paulette van der Voet and Martina Terrazzano, PhD students at the University of Umea, about their class called “Linguistics and the Eurovision Song Contest”.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fr...
We talk with Dr Lorna Gibb about her newest book, Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages.
Steven Pinker:
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Drs Emily M. Bender, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington, and Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), about their new book, The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want, out May 13, 2025.
Carrie and Megan talk with Gabe Henry about his new book, Enough is enuf: Our failed attempts to make English eezier to spell.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Gerald Roche, Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Cultures at La Trobe University, about his new book, The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet, language oppression, solidarity, China and Tibet.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email...
Megan and Carrie talk with Massimiliano Canzanella about the Neapolitan language and how it is perceived in Italy.
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Carrie and Megan talk with Dr Adam Benkato, Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, about Arabic.
- codeswitching in incarceration
Contact us:
- Threads us @vocalfriespod
- Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
- Email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com
Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
There are celebrity interviews, and there are life-changing conversations. On Question Everything, you get both. Journalist Danielle Robay has a rare gift: she makes people feel safe + seen enough to tell the truth. Every week, she draws out the stories the world's most fascinating people rarely get to tell– the heartbreaks, the risks, the controversies, the beliefs they had to unlearn to become who they are and every now and then, their thoughts on the Bravoverse. You'll come for their story. You'll leave rethinking your own. -------- Danielle is also the creator of the bestselling QUESTION EVERYTHING card game series, which has sparked connection in thousands of living rooms around the world, and the co-executive producer and host of Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, alongside Reese Witherspoon. Dubbed "The Queen of Questions," she brings both heart and rigor to every conversation — a background in political science, a Gloria Steinem Fellowship, and a mentorship under Larry King, whose legacy of curiosity and connection she's carried forward across more than 8,000 hours of interviews with icons from Taylor Swift to Malala Yousafzai.