The Good Words Podcast

The Good Words Podcast spends each episode with one word and gives it room. Titles such as 'EPHEMERAL', 'CHASM', 'SUPERLATIVE', 'OSTENTATIOUS (encore)' and 'QUAGMIRE (encore)' show the ambition. These are words with texture, not spelling-test filler. The opening ritual holds steady across these episodes. A knock-knock joke comes first, then a note about how many words the dictionary holds and how few of them most adults use, then Lynn Hickernell greets her audience as 'logophiles'. In one episode she introduces herself as Miss Lynn. The show also has fun with its own premise: in 'EPHEMERAL' she keeps the introduction short on purpose, to match the word. The core of an episode is often a story from her younger years. One recalls Penny, a friend from camp who sent one short reply and then went quiet, leaving her heartbroken and confused. Another puts her in drafting class, caught between a close friend's prank on a newer classmate and her own unwillingness to lie. There she pauses and asks listeners to think through what they would do before she goes on. She usually talks with experts for these segments. When the pandemic ruled that out in one episode, she passed along something she had learned from Dr. Chris Cook about why incidents like these stay in memory for years. The pandemic comes up elsewhere too. In 'CHASM', friends describe the hole left by a year without hugs, outdoor play, teachers and faraway family. Guests bring their own angles. One conversation weighs what book awards do for authors lost among hundreds of new releases, and whether past winners get an unfair head start. In 'OSTENTATIOUS (encore)', refreshed for Halloween, a historical costumer describes sewing since age six and dressing in styles as old as the 15th century. Endings lean toward performance. Closing pieces include a reflective poem about a crescent moon and wind chimes, a comic verse about bargaining over a boat crossing, a song about a Friday donut date, and a mournful old poem that happens to contain the word 'quagmire'. The show also belongs to a wider community. Hickernell describes herself as a podcast producer and a board member at Kids Listen, a nonprofit that advocates for children's podcasts, and one episode is a summer sampler of member shows such as 'Girl Tales', 'Unspookable' and 'Fina Mendoza Mysteries'. The credits thank contributors by first name, along with the Patreon supporters who keep the program free of advertising. The sign-off urges listeners to keep talking about what astonishes, amuses, infuriates and frightens them, and to tell the truth with kindness. That line connects good words to honesty as much as to vocabulary.