Getting Down & Wordy

Today we're joined by Lowell Hobbs the lead singer of post-punk band Tongues of Fire to discuss the language of spiciness. We talk about the history of spicy food, the different kinds of spiciness, and how different languages have adapted words to describe the relatively recent introduction of capsaicin to their cultures.

For Eurovision, we talk about Australia's 2023 song "Promise" by Voyager.

Find Tongues of Fire on instagram @tongues.of.fire or their website https://tonguesofire.com/

You can of course generally find their music on most platforms including youtube and spotify. Check them out! They're great!

This week's ad is the podcast Supernatural Sisters. Find them here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supernatural-sisters/id1485420916

Find lots of other great podcasts at our podcast network podmoth.network

Michael Colby, from the podcast Jack Billings Presents: Haunted Apartment Complex, stops by to fanboy out with Russell over Yeah Yeah Yeahs . . while Hannah sits there awkwardly and probably thinks about Dungeons & Dragons or something. And we discuss the dialect-y origins of their band name.

Then we talk about all the things that we say that hark back to a simpler, flatter earth (like 'edge of the world'). Surprisingly, a flat earth is in a lot of ways a very new idea, and not something people believed for most of recorded history.

For Eurovision, we discuss Moldova's 2023 offering, Pasha Parfeni's "Soarele şi Luna", like we're at our own little three person burning man. And we learn some Moldovan idioms.

Find the Haunted Apartment Complex podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jack-billings-presents-haunted-apartment-complex/id1572711048

Today's ad is The Ugly Radio. You can find them here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ugly-radio/id1515895095

Find us, these podcasts, and many others at our podcast network at podmoth.network

We discuss the culture's complex and changing perceptions of Vanilla Ice, a rapper who there are lots of reasons to dislike, but maybe everyone's being a little too mean? His real story will suprise you. Will it make you like him more? Well.... No....

Then we talk about "gangway", a word which somehow we all intuitively know is kind of nautical and piratey, but where are we even encountering this word? In cartoons? In one extraordinarily popular rap song?

And's what's with "gang"? Where did this word come from?

Also other nautical idioms which we don't realize are nautical!

For Eurovision, we talk about Malta's 2023 offering "Dance (Our Own Party)" by The Busker. And we discuss some REALLY GOOD Maltese sayings, such at "the heat that farts".

This week's ad is for the podcast Saturdays are for the Ghouls. You can find them here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saturdays-are-for-the-ghouls/id1570983561

Find lots of other great podcasts on our network at podmoth.network

Today we excitedly interview Puppy Songs creator and musical genius Matt Hobbs, and together we all talk about how humans talk to pets, whether pets understand or not, and how pets communicate with us. We discuss pet voices. Child-parent relationships as models for interspecies relations - do they go in both directions? I mean like, does my cat think of me as her son? Should I give her a mother's day gift? How many words does the average dog know? Who is a good boy? Et cetera!

In Eurovision talk, we discuss Lithuania's "Stay" by Monika Linkyte. Turns out Matt Hobbs has a lot of deep and insightful things to say about this. Wow, it's really different when someone who actually knows something about music talks about a song!

You can find Matt Hobbs' awesome songs about his dogs and the dogs of others, and songs not about dogs at all, on just about every platform, including Tiktok, Spotify, and Youtube, by searching "puppy songs". Or you can go to his website: https://www.puppysongs.com/

Our ad this week is Cryptid Cocktail Party. Find them here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cryptidcocktail

And find lots of other great podcasts on our podcast network: https://podmoth.network/

In light of the release of the live action The Little Mermaid and in support of Pride Month, in this episode we're talking about Doctor Octopus's drag persona, Ursula. Just kidding, but she IS purported to be based on a drag queen. Is it a fun cool drag queen that we should all celebrate? Well... At least Divine had lots of pride about being a drag queen. Oh? He didn't at all? Well . . . huh. Anyways, we discuss the mysterious origins of this word "drag". We discuss Polari, the secret language of carnies, thieves, and homosexuals. We discuss the first drag queen who was an ex-slave living in Washington D.C.!

In Eurovision of course we have to talk about Croatia's Let 3.

This episode's ad is the podcast Brutal, Bizarre, and Boozy. You can find them anywhere you get podcasts or at this link:

https://open.spotify.com/show/44Z9VDxjEVGpbPBkYzQorh?si=0556a1a9b65048bd&nd=1

Find loads of other great podcasts at our podcast network Podmoth.network

Check out these clips from some of the podcasts on our network! You can find them by simply searching the name of the podcast on your podcast listening platform, or by going to podmoth.network

Today we talk about the number 1 most played karaoke song of all time (?) "Before He Cheats", and struggle to say something thoughtful about country music, a genre we know even less about than usual. We talk about the wild history of the expression "Souped Up", from safe crackers boiling dynamite to race horses taking the most cruel and disturbing drugs imaginable. Hannah tries and fails to teach Russell about consommes. And we talk about the history of soup in general. Also, supper vs. dinner!

In Eurovision we finally discuss Ukraine's 2023 offering, "Heart of Steel" by Tvorchi, a song which improves, a little, after repeated listens over the course of a year.

Today's ad is Speak of the Devil. You can find them here:

https://linktr.ee/speakofthedevil

Find loads of other great podcasts at our podcast network, podmoth.network

We talk about Karol G, who made a song that Hannah actually liked (a rare phenomenon) even while saying repeatedly that she doesn't have an ear for spanish, whatever that means! We discuss "affirmative language", words like "yes", and in Spanish "si". Some alternatives like aye, roger, yeppers, uh-huh, nodding.... Is nodding an instinctive action? Darwin thought so. We'll tell you all about it. And did you know that many languages do not have a word for yes?

In Eurovision we discuss our favorites and other thoughts on all the contestants ahead of the contest which will have already happened by now for you listeners.

This episode's ad is the Moustachio Podcastio. You can find them here or anywhere you get podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moustachioed-podcastio/id1516217740

Find lots of other great podcasts at our podcast network at podmoth.network

We talk the origins and evolution of "slime" from unassuming mucus to cool guy best friend. DnD oozes. Young Thug's singing voice. RICO. And in Eurovision, we talk about the big 5's songs - Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and UK.

This week's ad is Memento Mori. Find this podcast at https://mementomoripod.buzzsprout.com/

You can find tons of other great podcasts on our network at podmoth.network

Today we discuss Meghan Trainor's new song "Made You Look". That's right, Mrs. Spy Kid herself (she married a Spy Kid). Is the song kind of good or really bad? We also talk about "make" and other delexical verbs like take get do have go . . . Those verbs that get used to mean anything such that you can make a product, but you can also make a bed, make up with someone, make do, make a mistake, and on and on.

For Eurovision we talk about all the Scandinavian countries' entries this year.

Our featured ad on this episode is The Lost Signal podcast. You can find them here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-signal-podcast/id1465964518

Find lots of other great podcasts on our podcast network at podmoth.network

This is the first episode of our new format. We've decided to stop talking about music, and from now on we will talk about fruits and their etymology and history instead. Today we'll taste some varieties of apples, kumquats, goldberries, pineberries, horned melons, and starfruit.

As for Eurovision, we're going to talk about the documentary released about the 2020 Eurovision competition, which is called Eurovision: Story of Fire Saga.

This week's ad is for the podcast Jack Billings Presents: Haunted Apartment Complex. You can find them here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jack-billings-presents-haunted-apartment-complex/id1572711048

Find many other great podcasts at our podcast network at podmoth.network.

** AUDIO QUALITY ADVISORY ** There's some trouble with Russell's recording in this episode. He may be a little tough to hear.

Today we talk Taylor Swift's song Anti-Hero. We talk about anti-heros and the etymology of the word hero, and we discuss linguistic bleaching, the way that words fade in strength over time. In Eurovision, we talk about the Baltic countries' entries.

This episode's featured ad is the podcast Freaky Fridays. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freaky-fridays/id1553779633

You can find them and tons of other great podcasts at podmoth.network.

Today we talk about Waka Flocka Flame's hit song "Hard in da Paint". What does hard in the paint mean and where did it originate? For that matter where did the word paint come from? We discuss some other basketball idioms in every speech. Then we do a March Madness style tournment bracket of the last 16 Eurovision winners. We choose our winner. If you want to choose your winner, you can find our list here, but I really recommend watching them as videos so you can see the performances.

The Eurovision winners:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37oFqgOIxPgROzktxA1oKv?si=4fdea437aac54282

This episode's featured ad is Fuck My Work Life. You can find them here https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/f-k-my-work-life/id1555824690

We talk about Sam Smith (who Russell stupidly misgenders like a hundred times, sorry listeners!), Kim Petras, LGBT and transgender stuff of course, and the etymology of body shop and specificly the word body. We look at some songs about other kinds of shops and Hannah tries to guess if they're sexual or not. And for Eurovision we talk about some of the songs that have been chosen for 2023 thus far, including Albania and Israel. 

Our featured ad this week is Doe Identify Podcast. You can find them here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doe-identify-podcast/id1544009777

Find lots of other great podcasts on our network Podmoth.network

We talk "Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by The Fifth Dimension, and of course we talk about Aquarius the astrological sign, astrological ages, and the endless list of different astrological bodies which a sign can be 'in', i.e. moon sign, saturn sign, etc., and what each means. TRIGGER WARNING: we are a little derisive toward the whole idea of astrology at times, even though Hannah is an astrology enthusiast! 

In Eurovision news, we talk about Slovenia's entry for 2023, Joker Out. 

Our featured ad this week is from podcast Dead On, a true crime podcast. You can find Dead On here (or anywhere you get podcasts):

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dead-on-a-true-crime-podcast/id1538013005

Find other great podcasts like ours and Dead On at podmoth.network

We review our favorites and least favorites of the podcast episodes of 2022.

We talk 5 favorite songs from the podcast. 1 worst song covered. 3 favorite language facts learned. Favorite and least favorite Eurovision song. And predictions for the future of the English language in 2023.

Today's featured podcast is Anything Bones! Find them here or anywhere you get podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anything-bones/id1536352309

Find many other great podcasts at podmoth.network

**POOR AUDIO QUALITY ADVISORY** There are some problems with the audio in this episode, namely some voice quality loss and a background puppy. Listener beware.

Today we are joined by Andres from the Latin Jukebox podcast to talk about Bad Bunny and the history and impact of Spanish on American culture and the English language. We discuss Bad Bunny's activitism in LGBTQ rights and Puerto Rico advocacy. 

And in Eurovision we talk about the Spanish contenders for Eurovision 2023. 18 songs which you can listen to here: https://eurovisionworld.com/national/spain/benidorm-fest-2023

We make our predictions and choose our favorites.

Listen to Latin Jukebox anywhere you listen to podcasts. Here is the link to his apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latin-jukebox/id1533615587 

We talk about NSYNC, why pretzels are the ultimate Christmas snack, etymologically speaking, the merry marry mary merger, and of course why we say "Merry Christmas", spoiler - it's like saying have a drunken socialist christmas . . . We also talk about Lithuania's Eurovision offering Sentementai by Monika Liu.

We talk Migos, Takeoff's death, car words, the history of the bourgeoisie in France and communist theory, and the origin and rise of 'bougie' in African American culture through class struggles and civil rights. And we discuss Portugal's 2022 Eurovision offering "Saudade Saudade" by MARO.

We talk about the KPOP band Blackpink and the history and etymology of the color pink. And for Eurovision, we discuss Finland's The Rasmus.

Today we talk about Coolio and his hit song "Gangsta's Paradise", and the etymology and history of paradise as a word and concept. For Eurovision, we discuss Ukraine's 2022 winning song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra.

In honor of Halloween we decided to talk about the Swedish metal band Ghost and the etymology of metal, both as a word for the substance and as a word for the music. In Eurovision, we talk about Azerbaijan's 2022 song Fade to Black by Nadir Rustamli.

We talk about the Eiffel 65 song "Blue", the etymology of the word blue and some common idioms and expressions using the word blue. And for Eurovision, this week we discuss Switzerland's 2022 song "Boys Do Cry" by Marius Bear.

We talk about Lil Uzi Vert. Are they a Dr. Seuss character? Also the history of the purse and how it became pointlessly gendered. And from Eurovision, we discuss Tiktok phenomenon song "Snap" by Rosa Linn, and a little about the Armenian language.

Special guest Paisely from the podcast Learn German Through Music joins us to talk about Die Toten Hosen, the etymology of beer and alcohol, and Oktoberfest. And we discuss 2022 Eurovision German entry, "Rockstar" by Malik Harris.
Listen to Learn German Through Music on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JpaBUaBBb9JWk2djk533g?si=55b0eba0fa6b4a30

We talk about Rebecca Black's meteoric super hit song "Friday" and the history and etymology of the weekend. As for Eurovision, we discuss Sam Ryder's "Spaceman".

We talk about Beyonce's "Break My Soul", contractions, particularly "won't" and why it isn't "willn't". In Eurovision we talk about Moldova's "Trenuleţul" by Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers and the cedilla and the comma below in Romanian.

We talk about the etymology of the words nickname and pet name, why some nicknames don't look much like the name they're shortened from (like Robert -> Bob). Honorifics. Pet names through history. And for Eurovision we talk about Give That Wolf a Banana by Subwoolfer.

We talk about Lizzo and her use of the word "overstand" in a statement she made apologizing for using ableist language. We look at the history and meanings of overstand and also ableist language and words you may not have realized are ableist. For Eurovision, we do Slo Mo by Chanel and discuss a few of the differences between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin America.

We discuss the etymology of the word gremlin from its origins in fighter pilot culture to the Chris Columbus movie, which . . is it racist? I mean, besides the Asian culture racism. Are gremlins a racist caricature of African Americans? Then we talk about some other country's weirdly specific monsters. And we discuss our first Eurovision song of the 2022 contest - Romania's Llamame by Wrs, plus Romanian idioms! . . Which are quite possibly the best idioms, it turns out.

Other stuff . . . for some reason we talk about how gold is calcified Jesus pee. We explain the slang 'no cap' and half explain 'ops'. The origin of the word 'glitch' and 'bug'. As usual, we did a lot of research and incorporated like 10% of it into the episode very ineffectually.

We do say the F word a few times here so I'm marking it explicit, but it's otherwise really tame and nice. 

We talk about pop songs about abortion and the etymology and history surrounding the word abortion. Also we play a game we're calling Kinkshame Abort Cancel. And we talk about other healthcare procedures which would make good pop songs. This episode is bound to be offensive to many. Don't @ us. Sum 41's doctor said your mom should've had an abortion, and we support that.

We discuss "As It Was" by Harry Styles, verb tenses, and whether a language's treatment of time, among other things, has any influence on our perception of time, which is to say, linguistic relativity. Also, instead of Eurovision, we continue to talk about the American Song Contest.