The Word Nerds

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 blog at No Thirst Software. (9:16)

Music bumper from “Faith” by Greg Federico. (14:32)

Secular shifts in meaning of some religious words (15:20)

Song: “Bad Religion” by Jimmie Bratcher (19:20)

Rude words of the week: “holy cow,” “holy Moses,” “holy smoke,” and “holy crap” (22:46)

Music bumper from “God Frequency Live” by Without Malice. (27:16)

Phrases from religion that are re-purposed in common speech (28:00)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 35:17

size: 32.3 Mb

rating: PG (Not very rude, really–although one of our Rude Words suggests another ruder word.)

 

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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 George Hrab. (14:24)

Ways of signaling change in language (15:12)

Song: “Lake Luck” by Wetbrain, featuring Ben Shepherd (23:20)

Rude word of the week: “waffle” (27:35)

Music bumper from “Baja Taxi” by Brain Buckit. (31:34)

Phrases and sayings about change (32:18)

Bumper and closing music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 40:03

size: 36.7 Mb

rating: G (Our Rude Word comes directly from the daily comic strips. Moreover, we’re trying to set a good example for our adult children.)

 

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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 came from a thread on the forum started by bnt. (1:53)

Food metaphors in everyday language (6:57)

Music bumper from “Beautiful Food” by Edan (17:14)

Cooking metaphors; people as food; American diner slang (17:53)

Song: “Food Chain” by Ric Seaberg (24:58)

Rude word of the week: “eat shit” (29:45)

Music bumper from “Finger Food” by the Shook-Russo Quartet (33:19)

Insights from a non-American (Thanks, bnt!) (34:01)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and IODA Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 38:41

size: 35.4 Mb

rating: R (This is probably the rudest Rude Word that Dave and Barbara have had so far.)

Download “Beautiful Food” (mp3)
from “Sprain Your Tapedeck”
by Edan
Lewis Recordings

• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster

Download “Finger Food” (mp3)
from “Shook-Russo Quartet Featuring Greg Gisbert”
by The Shook-Russo Quartet
Summit Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody

 

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Howard Shepherd and Dave Shepherd should, can, and must discuss modal verbs.

Howard gives a shoutout to Henrik Hansen and to the Danish language-related podcast Sproghjørnet. (2:17)

Howard and Dave give an overview of auxiliary verbs, of which modal verbs are a subset. (3:17)

Music bumper from “Just Looking,” by The Jerrys (9:32)

Modal verbs and grammatical mood (10:11)

Song: “You Can Never Hold Back Spring,” by Tom Waits (15:49)

Rude word of the week: “wannabe” (18:14)

Music bumper from “Melancolica” by Mauricio Cuburu (22:08)

Modal verbs in languages other than English (22:49)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 30:31
size: 28 Mb

rating: G (We managed to talk about this without being rude.)

 

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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 make resolutions (12:26)

Song: “I Hope This Year Is Better Than the Last,” by The Alice Project (18:38)

Rude word of the week: “wishy-washy” (21:08)

Music bumper from “Nada,” by Jaime Beauchamp (24:48)

Why people make resolutions; why the U.S. Congress makes resolutions instead of laws sometimes (25:28)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 32:59
size: 30.2 Mb

rating: PG (Our discussion is innocent; our featured song has humorous references to human foibles in the news.)

 

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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 summer reading:

• The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman
• Winter Wheat, by Mildred Walker
• The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Howard’s books of summer:

• Skipping Towards Gomorrah, by Dan Savage
• A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
• The Students Are Watching, by Theodore R. Sizer

Music bumper from “The Beach 1969″ by Paul (11:56)

The functions of summer reading (12:33)

Song: “Summer Rain,” by COMEG (19:42)

Rude word of the week: “pulp” (23:15)

Music bumper from “Perfect Summer” by COMEG (28:08)

Social networking through reading (28:46)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 35:51
size: 24.6 Mb

rating: PG-13 (We actually don’t make any rude references; however, Howard talks about the Dan Savage column “Savage Love,” which is really only appropriate for adults.)

Tags: language, books

 

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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 bumper from by “Baja Taxi” by Brain Buckit (12:36)

Why wines are called what they are: we speak again with John Fitter and Rick Tagg. (15:05)

Dave and Barbara have been wine fans all their adult lives. (19:04)

Song: “Box of Wine,” by The Clintons (20:37)

Rude word of the week: “wino” (24:29)

Music bumper from “Necessary Rain,” by Emile Westergard (27:52)

Wine throughout history and literature: we looked at an interesting website from the State Library of South Australia (28:25)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Photo: Meriwether Vineyards at Pearmund Cellars

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 35:54
size: 24.7 Mb

rating: R (Our featured song is very amusing, but it does drop the F-bomb in the last verse, and its punchline is a sexual theme.)

Tags: language, wine

 

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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 World’s a Stage,” by Away With the Fairys (19:15)

Rude word of the week: “chew the scenery” (23:27)

Promo for 7th Son, a podcast novel of suspense (28:04)

Music bumper from “Ockham’s Shaving Kit” by George Hrab (28:53)

Brushes we have had with famous actors. (For more wonderful stories of similar close encounters, check out episode #34 of Digital Flotsam.) (29:31)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 36:03
size: 24.8 Mb

rating: G (Although we used to be actors, we don’t talk about the seedy side of the theatre at all.)

Tags: language, theatre, barbara

 

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