114. 2017 Mixtape #2 – Words, Values, Self, Other

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2017

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. In the second year of what’s becoming a tradition here on Think Again, this is a mixtape of some of Jason's favorite moments from the past year’s shows. Things that stuck with him because they were funny, or especially wise, or because of something extraordinary about the conversation that he can't quite put his finger on. This episode — 2017 Mixtape #2 — features lexicographer Kory Stamper, novelist and essayist Teju Cole, fiction writer George Saunders, philosopher Slavoj Zizek, geneticist Jennifer Doudna, and actor Timothy Spall. Among the many ideas that come up: language pet peeves, human rights, neighbors, cyborgs, the ethics of gene editing, stillness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, I'm Jason Gots and you're listening to Think Again a Big Think podcast.
0:08.0	Started back in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.
0:17.0	On the Think Again podcast, we revisit these ideas in new and unpredictable ways.
0:21.6	Our producers surprised me and my guests with short interview clips from Big Think's archives,
0:26.6	ideas that we didn't come here expecting to discuss.
0:29.6	In the second year of what's becoming a tradition here on Think Again, this is a mixtape of some
0:34.6	of my favorite moments from the past year's shows, things that
0:37.5	stuck with me because I thought they were funny or especially wise, or simply because
0:42.0	of the energy of the conversation.
0:43.9	I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do.
0:47.3	Corey Stamper is a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster.
0:50.7	On the show, she confirmed that the German word pumpernickel does indeed mean fart goblin,
0:56.0	taught me the also German word, sprak-geful, which means a feeling for words, or as I prefer, word nerdery,
1:03.0	and was kind enough to hear my confession of grammatical and syntactic pet peeves.
1:09.0	Now is confessional time, I want to talk about my inner prescriptivist. And, you know, like, I feel like I have a bit of, I don't know how to say this, but Sprak Gefuul. How do you say it? Oh, very good. Sprak Gefuels. Okay, Spraguefuel, which you talk about in the book, which is language sense or word sense and a feeling for language.
1:28.7	Yeah, I'm a lover of like a word nerd from way back.
1:32.4	But I feel like that does go hand in hand with a certain amount of peevishness.
1:37.6	Like, I'm not as peevish as my mom is on this stuff, and she's probably listening to this.
1:43.1	But like, I mean, hey, ma. You know, you got to admit to this but like I mean yeah hey ma you know you got
1:46.6	admit it mom I mean she she would you know in a in a grocery store she'd be annoyed by the 10
1:51.6	items or less etc. Right but I am not free of such such peaves either and I want to share a couple
1:57.1	of my key peeves with you to get your insight here. Unburden yourself. Yeah, yeah.
	...

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