Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.

This episode of Freakonomics Radio is about swearing and therefore it contains a lot

of swearing.

As is our custom, we have bleaked these swear words out.

So this episode contains a lot of bleeping.

If you don't want to hear those curse words even bleeped, now is a good time to find

a different episode of Freakonomics Radio to listen to.

Or maybe you want to hear the curse words without the bleeping, in which case you should

go to Freakonomics.com where you will find the unbleaped version of this episode.

As always, thanks for listening.

Lately, I've been using my phone a lot for dictation.

I will dictate emails, texts, and occasionally a note to myself, like when I think of a

question I want to ask in an interview for this show.

The other day, for instance, I dictated into my phone something like, talk about the

first time you did such and such, but the phone didn't render my dictation as talk about

it said about.

Since when did the voice recognition on my phone start using the F word?

It struck me that swearing, or whatever you want to call it, profanity, blasphemy, or

curses and slurs, expletives and vulgarities, it struck me there seems to be more of it

now than ever, and often in places you wouldn't expect.

So today, on Freakonomics Radio, is it true that there's more swearing than ever?

And if so, what does it mean?

...