A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over · Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. Produced by Stefanie Levine.
Made from Scratch (Rebroadcast) - 8 September 2025
·54 min·4 clips
A traveler reveals 'abioko', an Italian word for post-meal drowsiness that English lacks a single term for.
As heard by us
A light, curious tour of idioms, measurements, and the cultural weight hidden in ordinary words.
The episode treats distance as a way into how languages sort the world, moving from a German cat's leap to a Greek cigarette-based measure of nearness, then on to an Australian bull's roar and Boston's SMOOT.
Why you'd press play
Press play if you like words that travel farther than their literal meanings.
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