Episode
Slurs and taboos with Professor John McWhorter
- Published
- Mar 11, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2599
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://audioboom.com/posts/8871878
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/words-unravelled-with-robwords-and-jess-zafarris-6871407/episodes/slurs-and-taboos-with-professor-john-mcwhorter/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/words-unravelled-with-robwords-and-jess-zafarris-6871407/slurs-and-taboos-with-professor-john-mcwhorter.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Rob and Jess are joined by the brilliant John McWhorter to discuss words you're not allowed to use. Professor McWhorter has written extensively about taboos, slurs and profanities and brings his unparalleled expertise on the English language. 🤬 Is "the R word" becoming even more taboo? 🤐 Are we "unaliving" our way to a new era of self-censorship? 🔄 Can a slur ever be truly "reclaimed"? These questions answered, and many more, in a fascinatingly frank episode of Words Unravelled. More about John: https://johnmcwhorter.org/ 📕 Nine Nasty Words: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624619/nine-nasty-words-by-john-mcwhorter/ 👕 OUR MERCH 👚 US SHOP: https://wordsunravelledshop.myspreadshop.com/ EU/UK SHOP: https://wordsunravelledshop.myspreadshop.net/ Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/6JYqGa_-UZE