Hi there, I'm Jason Gautz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who don't give a damn about grammar, style,

or syntax, and those who write aggrieved letters to publishing houses about split infinitives.

My guest today, Benjamin Dreyer, is neither.

As the copy chief of Random House, it is his unenviable task to steer the middle way between

linguistic pedantry and letting these writers get away with bloody murder. Scratch bloody, redundancy.

Before reading his hilarious and practical new book, Dreyer's English, I think I would have imagined

the copy chief of Random House as something like the Elegentier Arbiter of ancient Rome, a terrifying,

absolute authority on questions of grammatical law and taste, the kind of person who walks

around waving a sceptor at things to be preserved or destroyed.

As the book makes plain, however, there is no absolute

authority when it comes to either taste or correctness in the English language. Still, please

avoid impactful, utilize, and very unique, and use the Oxford comma, and you can do away

with just, really, and actually while you're at it. Welcome to think again, Benjamin.

Thank you very much. So if we do away with just really and actually while you're at it. Welcome to think again, Benjamin. Thank you very much.

So if we do away with just really and actually,

there can be no more BuzzFeed headlines.

I don't police how people speak.

You talk however you want.

I talk however I want.

And you will hear me say the word very probably 20 times

in the next 20 minutes.

...