The Word Nerds

Games and Wordplay: Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd explore word games, games with words, and ways of playing with words.
Dave thanks Brad and Naoko for donations, and Naoko, Ralsen, Asa, Jason and Hossein for their emails. (1:59)
This show was inspired by a game published by Brad Chase, Orijinz. We play a couple of rounds. (Thanks, […]

Religious Words: Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd look deep within their souls–without proselytizing–as they talk about the connection between religious language and everyday language.
Religious words as they are re-appropriated into everyday life. Thanks to EJ for suggesting this topic, and letting us know about the technology evangelists. (1:58)
Howard Shepherd tells us about an interesting […]

Transitions: Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd try to move smoothly from one sub-topic to another as they talk about transitions, both in language and in life.
Emails and voice messages from Angy, Joel, MrGraphxFargo, Ken, and Ric (2:33)
Change in our lives, and the continuum of change and transition (5:51)
Music bumper from “Ockham’s Shaving Kit” by […]

Food and cooking metaphors: Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd explore the joys of cooking and eating by talking about food metaphors.
Dave points listeners to the Deutsch 4 Podcast. Dave recently met with Bob Wright of the Baseball History Podcast when Bob was in DC for a conference of food bank volunteers and workers. Today’s topic […]

Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd welcome the new year by talking about resolutions and promises.
Dave announces the repair of our feed problem and reads listener email regarding Eilzüge. (2:20)
Dave and Barbara talk about the nature and timing of New Year’s resolutions and promises. (4:32)
Music bumper from “The New Year,” by Love = Action (11:58)
How people […]

Dave Shepherd, Barbara Shepherd, and Howard Chang talk about their summer reading. (2:14)
Dave’s recent favorites:

The Word Nerds Discussion forum
Online fora related to magic
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Baseball as America, by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Dai Vernon: A Biography, by David Ben
The Secret Art of Magic, by Eric Evans and Nowlin Craver

Barbara’s […]

Dave and Barbara Shepherd explore the language of wine. Recently, along with Julie and Mark of Washington TravelCast, they toured some Virginia wineries. (Website photos by Dave)
How to talk about the qualities of wine (3:50)
Interviews: John Fitter of Piedmont Vineyards and Winery and Rick Tagg of Pearmund Cellars talk about how they describe wine. (4:33)
Music […]

Dave Shepherd welcomes his wife Barbara once again as a guest Word Nerd. Dave and Barbara, who met in drama school years ago, discuss their shared background as actors. (1:54)
The specialized vocabulary of the theatre (5:51)
Music bumper from “Overreacting” by Brad Sucks (15:05)
Acting and performance in everyday life: the roles we play (15:29)
Song: “All the […]